Really, because I’m more nostalgic for having hope for the future.
Well, then the Internet wasn’t a capitalist shithole. It was only a shithole.
I almost cried reading the explanation.
Fuck that, I’m nostalgic because there was an actual aesthetic with character. “Modern” flat UIs are boring and flat.
“Nostalgia” is not really reserved for great times, just different times. Is just reminiscing.
In addition, AIM was great at the time because it was the first “messenger”. It was instant without the clunky and slow interface of email that for some reason we continue using 30 years later. It’s not better in any way.
clunky and slow interface of email that for some reason we continue using 30 years later
Email is actually great, it’s the original fediverse - anyone can start a server and interoperate with everyone else. With a decent client it doesn’t need to be clunky either, although with 90% of people stuck in webmail I can understand why people think it sucks.
It’s not great at all. It’s messy and disorganized and confusing and people don’t use it properly. No client can fix that. If it was “the original fediverse” we wouldn’t need a new one.
I could only get AOL in my town back in 1995 or so. Back then you had to pay… by the hour? The minute? Something like that. And AOL wasn’t a 24 hour service, it would shut down each night and kick everyone off.
No, it’s because it wasn’t full of bots and shitty content created solely for the purpose of generating clicks. People created content to have fan and share their passion, not because they wanted to be a professional influencer.
everybody knows its the nostalgia for GEOCITIES AESTHETIC
-Under Construction-
For the majority of people the internet used to be a room, a place you went and accessed a device.
The device wasn’t mobile, we usually didn’t carry around the thick laptops of the time around.
At first using the device would disconnect the phone, and you couldn’t carry it around easily.
As times changed and it’s mobility shifted it became more and more commercially viable and then it was invaded by corporate interests.
Now it’s not just a room, it’s everywhere and it’s allows all sorts of powerful groups to exert influence over every single person that connects with it
Tbh the indieweb and fediverse have me feeling this way these days. I look forward to getting home and checking my forums and messages, just like I used to after school.
Do you have any recommendations for good forums?
Search your hobbies, there are tons that are still around and busy. Some that i like to visit are grassrootsmotorsports.com and hobby-machinest.com, but you can just search for “%hobby% forum” and you’ll probably find something decent.
This and the old internet was largely non-commercial compared to today. It was the “small” internet of passionate nerds, academics, and techies who needed an outlet for their passion. I remember being confused when I learned the “.com” was intended for commercial web sites only, because most personal websites people had were “.com”
The old internet was decidedly anti-commercial.
I remember very well people being revolted by online advertising and how it commercialized a free place.
They were right.
yeah once you found a niche community you had knowledgeable people that would at least reply by the weekend, and expert advice would be free just because some guy was happy a stranger liked the same things.
You just had to be confidently wrong enough to aggro the guy that actually knows his shit.
Maybe that strat was always around but I associate it more with the later 2.0 web
I have a 20 year old coworker I constantly ask probing questions about what it’s like never having not had the internet. It’s so weird.
I mean crushing boredom isn’t a thing anymore because of it, which is cool and I can acknowledge that. But there’s also something very dystopian about it and clearly it’s having pretty serious negative effects on society, politics in particular. So yeah…not really sure how to feel about it.
I just went camping and put the goddamn thing in a bag for 4 days and forgot about it. Friends and I only brought the internet up once during the trip to joke that we hoped when we got back into reception we’d find out he had died. It’s funny cuz I don’t even need to say who.
Crushing boredom is absolutely still a thing. I guess you could move it over into mind-numbing boredom if you really wanted to get pedantic. If anything, it actually makes boredom more likely. The internet has caused a severe amount of overstimulation in most people, and so now things that they used to take enjoyment in mean nothing to them.
I thought you meant the internet was a he
Hell yeah
The internet was much better before people figured out how to make money off of it.
It’s not figuring out but just waiting until there are more non-nerds moving in that new market and then start monetizing as the market reaches critical mass for their particular niche.
Smartphones ruined the internet.
When you needed to sit at a computer, use a keyboard, and spend a bit of time to write out thoughtful content, the quality of the discussion and community on the internet was so much higher. With smartphones, they had to dumb down the UI, consolidate content and reactions into likes and emojis, and generally just had to deal with smaller, more unsubstantive and rage-baity comments.
Plus, there’s just the undeniable fact that computer users are more tech-savvy than people who only know how to use a smartphone. Making the internet smartphone friendly opened the floodgates up to a sea of low-quality engagement.
Before smartphones, we would go outside, live our lives, then come home and see what happened on the internet that day. When the internet started following us around in our pockets on crippled devices that are designed for consumption and cheap-ass engagement, that’s really when the internet went to shit.
Smart phones ruined everything. It was fun when I was the only one, hyperbole. I had smart phones while my peers in grade school finally started getting hand me down flip phones. I was like this is great; playing Zelda on a gameboy emulator, or on the next phone that had the same specs as my first pc and playing Duke Nukem 3D. Being able to browse the internet.
Now it’s devolved to a chain collar on your neck as you’re expected to answer the phone all the time and even places of work require you to have a phone to use their cr’apps. Scan this QR code. Ram this up yass, oh wait. At this point I hate phones. I plan to switch to a garmin watch with phone capabilities. I mean 95% is just spam these days for me.
I put off getting a smartphone until like 2015. I was 21 and was one of the last of my friends not to have one. My argument against it was precisely that: “I don’t want to be online all day and I know that’s exactly what’s going to happen.”
I didn’t even buy my first smartphone. My sister gave it to me. It stayed in the box for six months. I so so did not fucking want it.
Work forced me into keeping a smart phone. The key fob I was using for MFA died and they were no longer replacing them so I had to use the app.
We could create forums that can only be logged on to using a desktop browser. Sure, some mobile users with basic tech savvy could install some spoofer that still let them access the site. But that’s still mission accomplished. You’re still requiring some technical competence.
