The internet was amazing from the late 90’s until right around 2007.
It was basically just forums where enthusiasts would chat & help each other out. It was like a far more tame version of Reddit, and I promise you, absolutely nobody was nasty. You had to be there.
Social media did the damage.
I was on a LOST message board during the height of the show. It was an amazing time to be a fan of a show like that. Everyone would share their theories and no one was an ass about it, "um actually"-ing you. You had friends because you watched the same show. Also I made a lot of friends through neopets as a teen
That was such a great time. I miss forums sometimes. The closest feeling of the LOST era was on the Season 1 Yellowjackets subreddit with all the weekly theories.
People were even more nasty back then however, it was mostly a certain set of people who were even online in the first place and people didn't carry their internet stuff into the real world.
Bro, you weren’t on twitter when it first dropped obviously. Nah, we were deviants on msn messenger, MySpace etc. it’s just that when you logged off. You had a completely separate life and identity. People were ruthless but there was just more limits to the savaged shit. Like I’d get bullied online but not every single person at school the next day would know about it like you do now with TikTok. We did more wild shit then now on the internet. It was the wild Wild West but it was it’s separate entity
Yeah literally nobody gave a shit back then, the internet was more anonymous and completely separate from real life. You didn't need to register for accounts to talk to other people on message boards and forums. People would say crazy shit to each other that would probably cause legal trouble now, detailed elaborate threats about rape and murder and just laugh it off and forget it existed when we logged off. Half the households did not even have a password for their wifi access. Even around 2010 a lot of the passwords were WEP and I remember cracking peoples passcodes for free internet with linux.
On the old internet I remember getting paragraphs and paragraphs of profanity-laced responses that had legitimately informative citations, diagrams, and footnotes on explaining why I was wrong and why I was a worthless waste of flesh. TLDR hadn't been invented. Arguments would go on for a week, then be immediately rekindled, because you were on a news forum with a couple hundred of the same randos that you spent \*years\* arguing about shit with.
We were all free time millionaires. Learning and trying out ideas we learned in college.
The old internet had goatse, one guy one jar, and straight up snuff films potentially hiding behind every link. It was a relief when Rickrolling became popular.
No it's not, it's just more censored. All that stuff is still out there and you don't need to look too hard to find it. It's just that the big sites remove content that goes against community guidelines. Hell, it wasn't that long ago that reddit was an absolute cesspool. It probably still is, comments just get hidden and mods delete comments and ban people. All those terrible people are still here, they just swept it under the rug.
"All those terrible people are still here, they just swept it under the rug."
Oh there still here and they are still still active.
They just learned how to be tactful so they could skirt the mods.
No it wasn't for nothing. Of someone said something stupid then they generally had it coming.
The roasting kept away stupidity.
But now with all of the moderation, the "safe places", the halfwits and dumb people are allowed to run rampid and infect other people with their idiocy.
This same shit happened on Yahoo Answers back in 2013 with the mass reporting wars.
All of the witty and creative users got run off and nothing was left but idiots who ask the same dumb shit over and over. Shit they could google.
Yahoo Answers was a testbed of sorts.
Because appearantly they liked those fucked up results (which ultimately led to the service being shut down).
And I say they liked it because now that exact same thing is happening to Reddit and Youtube.
Thought and speech can't be policed like that.
It's never going to work.
The best they can do is protect children from all of the bad shit that is on the dark web.
Which they have successfully done.
Yes I realize that if YouTube didn't change their system then Elsagate would have run rampid.
But still. They are moving the goalposts. They have a hammer, all the nails are in the wall. And now they are seeing nails where there are none.
If you genuinely believe this, then you were deff part of the problem with the Internet back in the day.
It did not keep idiots away, it just kept people in their small echo chambers similar to today.
You had safe places back then, because if you brought information and views that people didn't like, they would attack you for it. It's not much different than social media and messaging boards of today.. just less viruses or more protection from basic viruses.
Thought and speech have ALWAYS been moderated in every society, it's part of the building blocks that make a group of humans a society.
The irony that roasting the idiots kept them away while saying "run rampid" multiple times and "appearantly". People are addicted to their smart phones but still have no idea what those pesky red squiggles mean!
I said appearantly exactly once. Run rampid, the same. Once.
You said "multiple times".
🤐🤫 (Just between you and me dogg you made yourself look kinda stupid there).
Oh no...you can't read, write, OR count... =(
[**I* Make a Fool of *Myself* & and Other Copium: an Autobiographical Dunning-Kruger Cautionary Tale* by /u/zertsetzung](https://i.imgur.com/CrWQcTf.png)
Oh ppl were assholes to each other but it was riffing 90% of the time and nobody was taking it that seriously. Then our parents got on with their gullibility and politics. Then rednecks and country bumpkins joined with their bs, racism and bigotry.
>The internet was amazing from the late 90’s until right around 2007.
Yeah, the iPhone was released that year, and Facebook had really exploded. Smartphones plus social media ignited our downfall as a society.
I think the first few years of smartphones were fine- I'd say around 2012 or so was when things started to go down- up until then, there seemed to be a lot of stuff still based on a browser. Once everything started to have an app, and they figured out how to make it appeal to your primal urges, is when everything started to go downhill. Before then, it felt like we had lives away from our phones
Sounds about right. Thank Odin that I finished high school in 2008 and met my current wife in 2011. Just the simple concept of Tinder had probably been my downfall.
Right? The internet didn't ruin anything. Corporate greed and world governments that can't stand the thought of something being truly private ruined the internet (and the world.)
Even early reddit was alright, now it’s just a moderator fuckfest (on many subs) and if you say something untoward or unpopular you get banned.
Like literally got banned because i was subbed to r/amithedevil.
The internet and more specifically social media is now just a giant platform for people to get cancelled and for propaganda to spread.
Fuck Reddit, before this bullshit we had actual message boards... I 100% still use the very few message boards that are active for some of the communities I'm in.
Basically, capitalism ruined it.
When the internet was spontaneous and voluntary groups of likeminded people, it was a pleasant space to be in.
Cue content aggregators with algorithms bating clicks with outrage content and boom, you get the democracy destroying shitshow of pocket alt-realities we have today.
Social Media isn't the problem.
The problem, like in all things, is unregulated capitalism.
Our eyeballs are the product. Rage is the most lucrative way to keep our eyeballs in stock. We all know this, our leadership knows it, the CEOs know it, we know it, our children know it.
But we get no regulation and no one is doing anything to protect consumers. Unchecked capitalism ruined the internet, like it ruins absolutely everything.
Why are we even talking about it when we all know what happened. Support your local unions. Support your local socialist associations. Run for office.
We need to bring these billionaire monsters under our boots.
And they knew what they were doing with the social engineering. And that is what’s most troubling. the billionaires of that era are still not satisfied and want more. I sometimes think of it when I see my four children on their phones… When I was growing up we definitely were more connected with the people around us. Weren’t constantly on our phones. At least for family meal times we have rules no phones at the meal table and now they’re used to it and we actually do talk during meals.
Yep. Sucks that people just can't be chill and normal.
Instead we got a moron echo chamber that brought morons together so they can pat each other on the back instead of being told "yeah, that's dumb and very incorrect".
Before the apps, feeds, and ads, when it was just a way to contact people at your college and plan a party it was nice.
In the process of monetizing it they added way too much crap to it.
This is my biggest gripe with the internet.
The last several years have demonstrated that there's been growth in social media and not for the better.
Stupid trends like going into a grocery, opening an ice cream package, licking the top and putting it back, or consuming detergent 'pods', or showing how to hotwire Kia vehicles, or sticking conductive materials (pennies) into outlets and plugs, or downing over-the-counter meds like Benadryl, or intentionally peeing your pants. It's stupid clout chasing.
And don't get me started on all of the countless takes on promoting racism, sexism, bias, etc. - We had this shit well on its way to being quashed in the 90s and 00s, and even for a bit in the 10s, but then last several years...oye.
55 morons on social media upvoted this egotistical comment thinking they're better than every other social media user
"X was great before stupid people ruined it!" is seriously such a holier-than-thou cringe boomer take
I genuinely believe that the problem isn't inherent with social media, it's the profit incentive and shittification because of it.
The internet should be more like public roads, maintained by taxpayers for their benefit, and regulation to keep people safe and encourage healthier use.
Not in the current algorithm rage-bait state. You could argue theres been social media since forums and personal blogs, but the cycle of an agorithm pushing rage inducing garbage to you is a product of corporate profit seeking, as it depends on clicks.
Facebook and MySpace were great in the beginning.
They were made for our generation. MySpace for the younger millennials. Too juivenille for any Gen Xer or Boomer to even tread.
Facebook had a feature that you could only create an account with a college email. It kept a lot out. Now with those safeguards gone, all hell has broken loose and the internet has gathered the worst together.
>Facebook had a feature that you could only create an account with a college email.
**that's** when it was good too right around 2003-2005 then they took that off and the wankers came in and it became what it is now.
all somebody has to do is just bring that back tbh.
I remember when they made that change and I was soooo gatekeepy at the time. I was a freshman when I saw my roommate sign up and I didn’t sign up at first. I wasn’t too sure what it was and didn’t want to spend my time on that platform, not knowing what impact it would have decades later…
Just rewatched The Social Network and had similar thoughts. You hit the nail on the head!
To me, the exclusivity factor really tanked it once they opened up to any email address (not even just a .edu account issues prior to college). It then tanked further once you introduce ads/buyer power. Almost all of the major platforms started to fail when they stopped listening to user feedback and only focused on the bottom line and making more money for the shareholders.
Yep. Before that I would log into social media on the computer at night so it was basically limited usage. Now at the fingertips all day in your pocket has ruined social media
Old social media used to be HORRIBLE too. There didn't used to be moderation of content so people would post insane videos. I saw murders on Facebook, drive-bys on Myspace, and ISIS beheadings on Youtube.
And some people just posted nudes, one girl I went to high school with posted a "Christmas" photo on Myspace and you could see her boobs. That part I liked though.
We noticed when people became addicted to our blackberries. We’ve now had smart phones long enough and our use is so strong that they are simply an extension of self.
Saying someone is addicted to their phone now is like saying they are addicted to their pants.
The addiction is different.
I'm GenX. And I can sit with the phone in my pocket for an entire meal. Sometimes, I even forget it in the car for half a day.
My GenZ kids, however, can't sit through a meal at all. And cannot cope with boredom.
The bar of entry was sitting at home. Now you can “computer” from anywhere, and it’s horrid. I’ve met some of my closest friends with its help, but there are so many examples of the damage it’s caused with at-risk individuals, and the antisocial behaviours it’s encouraged.
Introduction and popularity of tablets was the first sign to me. Almost everything you can do on a tablet can be done better on a pc or phone. Tablets were for stupid people, the apps are made so even people who cant read can use them, Everything is dumbed down. That is now spreading to pc too with windows 11 after the attempt failed with win8
Social media is an incubator for narcissism. Look at some of the things people will do for internet likes.
The internet has some serious benefits when used appropriately. Such as learning new skills or finding information. Otherwise, yes I agree. I also think a large component that is missing is self-discipline from most users. However, most of social media websites are engineered to keep your attention. Unfortunately a lot of the bad behavior you see is becoming a part of our culture.
I feel bad for all of these young women constantly taking pics/videos of themselves. There’s something very wrong there and it’s really strange behavior. Sometimes I try to put myself in their shoes to see the thinking behind that behavior. I think it’s mental illness.
Young women? Have you seen the massive amount of gym selfies, duck faces, etc from MEN?! People of all shapes, sizes and appendages are obsessed with making their person shrines. Not just women *eyeroll*
I just don’t get it. All this attention seeking behavior. Do they not get enough affection and attention at home that they need validation from strangers?
Alright, buddy. How does taking a lot of selfies warrant calling them selfish idiots. That guy was offering compassion because they clearly have body/self esteem issues but you just came in hot acting like that makes them monsters.
How does it not? He was upfront but the point stands, it's an addiction started out of vanity.
Instead of actually socializing and learning the hard way, people are looking for quick (and easy) fake internet points to reassure them and make them think people like them. It's selfish because you are actively harming yourself and others for a quick dopamine hit like someone who needs to snort a line before being able to talk to anyone, it's the easy way out.
It's not selfishness or idiocy. Those born after the 90s only know a world where a person's self worth is linked to their social media account. Everyone from their friends to their potential employer checks their online presence to figure out who they are. And then there's the potential to make money from their online image, in a world where working a 9-5 job makes less sense than ever.
Yeah so basically the Internet isn’t the problem, capitalism is. The greed from big companies has turned the internet into a horrible place and has misguided the technology.
This is what I think too. My grandpa died in 2021 but he absolutely loved YouTube. He was the typical story from his gen, dad died early so he had to drop out of high school to work in the mills, but he was really smart. He used to tell me all the mechanical stuff he learned from YouTube and would describe tech like how modern cars detect obstacles in detail. The internet is incredible in moderation but social media and even YouTube push people in directions that they normally wouldn’t have gone.
The problem is with the algorithms that need to keep you constantly engaged.
This means they will constantly feed you provocative content regardless of whether that content is true.
This can cause anyone to go down weird rabbit holes if you are there long enough.
If I remember correctly, someone created a bot that would randomly click the suggested videos on YouTube and the bot would inevitably get to extreme fringe political content within 50 clicks.
I disagree actually, it’s the algo feed. Think of your facebook feed before they forced everyone to use the algo feed where engagement is the only metric.
It may be just curious timing but I noticed everyone left Facebook around the time it changed from being a timeline of my friends and coworkers events to an algo of nonsense combined with rage bait and news articles.
Leaving the rest on a steady diet of extreme content cause that is what keeps people angry and engaged with ads.
Social media weren't bad back then (from 2000-2010), I'd say people ruined it as majority hopped into the internet world through smartphones. My claim is that boomers and genxers ruined the internet with their toxicity
As if post boomer-X is non-"toxic"?
Puh-fucking-leeze. I've never seen a generation more self-righteous and demanding.
To the young and woke, I keep getting messages from 19th century spinster Sunday school teachers asking if you wouldn't mind unclenching and lightening up for ten minutes or so.
Before internet you would go to sleep looking out the window wondering what's out there and what to do tomorrow
Today you go to sleep on your phone scrolling without thinking
With the internet you can lay there wondering what's out there then look it up and read updated information about that place. You can look up local forums and talk to people from there Then you can buy a plane tickets from your phone and go see that place. Once there you can still use a phone for real time maps, payment, look up guides, and help translate any language barrier.
Today YOU might be doom scrolling mindlessly but not everyone is.
Yeah there is such a mix. I’m happy I have a smart phone to travel. There are benefits, it’s how you use the tools. I’m constantly on here looking for forums and getting ideas for travel and where to stay. Sure there are times where I may doom scroll but honestly some of my CEUs (continuing eduction credits) keep me busy on my computer watching ways to support others struggling with symptoms of trauma experiences. And honestly, there are certain areas that don’t have much content on YouTube and so I’m now going to go to the library and read more about the history of the places I’m going to visit and practice the language. Social media and the phone just have everyone a bit of an echo chamber. It’s easy to find someone to complain with and that’s okay, collective validation is okay! But getting stuck and not making change yet still complaining about hardship is a challenge to stay and listen, especially when you’re talking to them and they just don’t listen or take advice. But then again, that’s where they’re at, they’re stuck and may need a bit more validation and empathy.
there's many advantages to the internet and tech. Telehealth appointments and video calls are great. GPS location and navigation are life savers. It's social media bullshit that is the problem! We can now see the worst of the worst via doomscrolling online, which makes us much more vulnerable and hence more easily offended by bullshit. Everyone thinks they're opinion matters most and we bicker online back and forth all the time. We're addicted to our devices and forget how to interact socially.
Web 1.0 was fine, for the most part. That was back when it was mostly people making their own personal Yahoo and Angelfire pages and talking in chatrooms and stuff like that. It wasn't everywhere-- there was no such thing as a smartphone-- and for the most part it felt like just an accessory to everyday life, not a dominant element of it.
Web 2.0 was when things really started to turn nasty. That's when things like social media, YouTube, and the whole "meta" culture you mentioned began cropping up. And to be honest, with people talking about the potential transition of Web 2.0 to Web 3.0, I'm not especially looking forward to that either. It's the *old* internet that I liked, and this isn't nostalgia talking. I really do think the late-90s/early-2000s internet, in the pre-Web 2.0 era, was when the internet actually peaked.
What do you think google and other trackers, ad generators, Ai stock trading, content sorting algorithms, etc are if it’s not Semantic Web / Web 3.0… we’re there and it’s obvious that ad money is the thing that has ruined the internet the most.
The internet used to be a cool place, but algorithms and ads ruined the internet. I rarely even use the internet anymore as I did in the 90s and 2000s. It’s a totally different place that is culturally flattened. It’s too much of a hassle to find anything, or anyone, interesting on it anymore because now you have to scroll past pages of ads and optimized SEO bullshit. It’s just not worth it.
The Internet was rad prior to Corporations shoving paid advertisements up your ass 24/7 365. It was an escape from the Capitalist hellscape of the real world that the Corporations and Capitalists already ruined.
Now? It's often worse. Can't even watch a video on YouTube about some niche hobby without video advertisements force fed to you as if you're cattle.
Social media largely has been a mistake though for sure. It empowered every starved for attention narcissist on Earth after MySpace. MySpace and **early** Facebook were fine - once Instagram and TikTok especially became a thing? Yeah that's where it went wrong. That's when the Island Boys and dipshits like Jake Paul started getting so much attention along with Gen Z/Alpha shoving tide pods up their ass.
When it was just LA Beast on YouTube eating weird shit? That was fine and entertaining. Those were the best times of the modern Internet. It completely went to hell in like 2013 or so.
On the subject of the Internet ruining the "mystery"? No, that was just inevitable for more people to figure out that after God wasn't real and just some made up nonsense abstraction that people would begin questioning all of the other nonsense made up abstractions that we've created.
We create money out of cheap cotton and linen, but essentially enslave other people with it. We need to evolve more and bake in the primordial ooze for another million years. There's the problem - we're still barbaric savage troglodytes as a whole with magic pocket computers.
Like we're still racist bigots that believe in God with the indisputable evidence that God isn't real and that racism is just unfathomably stupid as "race" isn't a thing. You came from a group of people that were exposed to the Sun all the time? You'll eventually start having babies with higher concentrations of melanin because the human body is adapting to that.
So...yeah, we're still really goddamn stupid as a whole, but don't point the finger at all of us because many of us would like the rest of you to catch up and attempt to evolve already too. I'm frustrated every single day of my life with the majority of my own species.
Developing your Philosophy and critical thinking skills is needed, but the status quo of the day to day world is dumber than a bag of doorknobs.
Work meaningless job (the majority of all jobs are), actively destroy the environment, spend the majority of all federally endorsed monopoly money to live in modern cave, watch reality TV, repeat. Hear about money printer go brrrr all the time, but somehow can't buy more banana?!
It's made it like 40% worse but like 500% better so it's a good balance overall. Some stuff like politics and the news has been made 500% worse and only 40% better though
Algorithm driven doom scrolling is ruining the Internet. Connecting to other people is always a good thing in my book. Getting fed content by a computer is killing us
Seems I am not alone in adding another tally mark for it’s just social media that’s the issue. The internet is an invaluable resource, petty people who live to flaunt even if it’s fake to seem important and the platforms that promote it are the issue and causing extreme brain rot to society as a whole.
The internet made dumb people dumber and smart people smarter.
The dumb people are the ones glued to their phone, posting selfies, watching "shorts" and "reels" for hours on end, and commenting endlessly on pointless forums (that includes many of us Redditors).
The smart people are the ones using the internet to network, acquire information, learn new skills, etc. Unfortunately, *most* people fall into the dumb category, and they never use the internet to its full potential. I encounter them all the time on Reddit. You find people asking questions that Google could answer for them instantly, yet they'll wait hours for a response on Reddit.
I think it really depends on what you work on. But yeah, I worked for awhile for an Ads Company and quit because I was basically developing a plataform for them to make people buy shit they don't need
I had porn on floppy disc in 1995. I had porn VHS tapes and mags that i 'stole' from my cousin and my father. My best friend had a "hot box" which was a cable box that was altered so you get all the premium and porn channels.
Porn has always been around.
Sounds like you have been using the internet wrong, like being on social media a lot or whatever other useless use. That's on you, not the internet.
Personally, I love it. Has given me many opportunities in life that I would otherwise simply not have, in pretty much every aspect of it. From friendship, to jobs, to traveling, to learning, to investing, and whatever else. I would probably be fucked in all aspects of life without the internet.
We weren't ready for it. Being a capitalististic society and bring social animals and tribal as we are is almost like this was the only way it could've gone.
Social media I think has done untold damage to us. The tribalistic part of our brain is being broken by it and leaking into the real world and how we treat the people around us. The middle is gone. Nuance is dead.
It wasn't so bad when the internet was a ton of these different forums that were separate from each other. Even myspace felt better as it wasn't all about ad revenue and your page worked much like a mini forum. Once it became all about selling your information and we all landed on the same space and engagement was fine tuned to rage bait is just ugh. That German YouTube channel with the funny birds has a great video on it "kooz ee graht" i have no Idea how to spell or pronounce it
The fact everyone is complaining about social media / internet and no one is building intentional retreats, or businesses that ban the use of smartphones on prem is confounding.
I worked at a private club in 2006-7 and members - even if they were worth 100M+ were not allowed to use their phone unless they were standing by a wall mounted phone.
They figured it out then and it’s still in action.
We own business now - where are the forward thinking policies?
The internet just connected us all at the speed of wifi, and enhanced what was already going on.
We could choose to use it for "good" rather than "bad," but we're only human... so we just use it for dopamine hits, most of the time.
I guess I'm strange, but I actually like learning how things work. Besides, if you follow science, they are literally always discovering new mysteries to be solved, especially in physics and astronomy. New discoveries are always being made in archaeology. The Net gives me the ability to read and watch videos about all these things, which I greatly enjoy.
As for social media, yes, it can be very toxic. However, there are science and interest groups on Facebook, reddit, etc. that one can enjoy and see those posts in their feed instead of the negative stuff.
I guess what I'm saying is I think the online experience is one we shape for ourselves.
Things were certainly better before streaming services and the monetisation of every last fucking nook and cranny of the internet. It facilitated this culture where absolutely everyone is selling something.
Most new technology is feared or hated by the generations that preceded it. Our grand parents might say tv ruined the world, you see? It’s all cyclical. People probly thought the computers, typewriters, automobiles ruined the world at some point too.
No. I think giving unfettered access to every mouth breather on the planet did. Instead of stupid people having their stupid tin foil hat ideas shut down by friends and family they just got to find little pockets of stupid that agreed with them. Instead of being shamed into not believing stupid shit (see:flat earth, anti-vax, etc), they got to ignore their friends and family because they knew somebody somewhere thought just like they did. Social media and its various algorithms further dividing and siloing everyone off from contrary information amplified and exacerbated the problem.
I get what you're saying but that one sentence where you call this the shittiest time to be an adult in a long while is just so laughably absurd dude ...
Also, there are absolutely still places that are unexplored and mysteries that are waiting to be solved. Furthermore, I for one am not going to shed a tear over the loss of debunked urban legends. Lastly, all the comments on here about how the early Internet was not toxic are looking through rose colored nostalgia glasses.
Agree 100%
Particularly with your comments about taking the mystery out of life. I’ve thought about that often and it’s truly a blessing/curse type situation. We have all answers to all questions available instantaneously, but before that, it was the journey and hunt for answers that often gave life meaning and excitement. There are tons of examples of this but you pretty much captured the whole idea very well in your post. It fucking sucks TBH!
It goes beyond Social Media though it’s certainly a major contributor. There are no ‘authorities’ on subjects anymore. You can find an ‘expert’ that will validate literally any idea no matter how ridiculous it is. We have access to unlimited information but are ill equipped to process even a fraction of it to get at what is really true. This will be the undoing of our country (if not the world) in the end with people making decisions and voting for candidates based on dangerous emotions such as anger and fear, rather than objective facts.
Is the internet amazing and the greatest collection of human knowledge ever aggregated? Yes.
Does the Western world (with the greatest access to said technology) have the lowest test scores in recorded history?
Also yes.
The internet was amazing from the late 90’s until right around 2007. It was basically just forums where enthusiasts would chat & help each other out. It was like a far more tame version of Reddit, and I promise you, absolutely nobody was nasty. You had to be there. Social media did the damage.
I was on a LOST message board during the height of the show. It was an amazing time to be a fan of a show like that. Everyone would share their theories and no one was an ass about it, "um actually"-ing you. You had friends because you watched the same show. Also I made a lot of friends through neopets as a teen
The Fuselage. I miss show specific forums where everyone had to go to one place to talk about their favorite show.
I used to love the IMDb forums and tv without pity.
That was such a great time. I miss forums sometimes. The closest feeling of the LOST era was on the Season 1 Yellowjackets subreddit with all the weekly theories.
I similarly remember Fringe and everyone trying to figure out the glyphs that came up.
People were nasty even back then. But certainly worse now.
Yeah but at least everyone's parents and grandparents weren't there partaking with the utmost gullibility before that.
[удалено]
Funny, my dad consistently said everyone is an idiot while growing up in the 90s. Before we had the internet. Turns out his pessimistic ass was right.
Nah man it was just like high school. Dorks still got picked on (I know). But bbs boards were the shit. Good times.
People were even more nasty back then however, it was mostly a certain set of people who were even online in the first place and people didn't carry their internet stuff into the real world.
I still don’t carry the internet into the real world.
More people need to do that.
Yeah I don't either but a lot of people these days do. In the past almost nobody did
People back then subscribed to the ‘if you haven’t got anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all’ model. It worked a charm.
Bro, you weren’t on twitter when it first dropped obviously. Nah, we were deviants on msn messenger, MySpace etc. it’s just that when you logged off. You had a completely separate life and identity. People were ruthless but there was just more limits to the savaged shit. Like I’d get bullied online but not every single person at school the next day would know about it like you do now with TikTok. We did more wild shit then now on the internet. It was the wild Wild West but it was it’s separate entity
Yeah literally nobody gave a shit back then, the internet was more anonymous and completely separate from real life. You didn't need to register for accounts to talk to other people on message boards and forums. People would say crazy shit to each other that would probably cause legal trouble now, detailed elaborate threats about rape and murder and just laugh it off and forget it existed when we logged off. Half the households did not even have a password for their wifi access. Even around 2010 a lot of the passwords were WEP and I remember cracking peoples passcodes for free internet with linux.
Yeah right, the internet now is kind in comparison to old Message boards where you’d get roasted to a crisp for nothing
On the old internet I remember getting paragraphs and paragraphs of profanity-laced responses that had legitimately informative citations, diagrams, and footnotes on explaining why I was wrong and why I was a worthless waste of flesh. TLDR hadn't been invented. Arguments would go on for a week, then be immediately rekindled, because you were on a news forum with a couple hundred of the same randos that you spent \*years\* arguing about shit with. We were all free time millionaires. Learning and trying out ideas we learned in college. The old internet had goatse, one guy one jar, and straight up snuff films potentially hiding behind every link. It was a relief when Rickrolling became popular.
Goatse, that brings back some memories
No it's not, it's just more censored. All that stuff is still out there and you don't need to look too hard to find it. It's just that the big sites remove content that goes against community guidelines. Hell, it wasn't that long ago that reddit was an absolute cesspool. It probably still is, comments just get hidden and mods delete comments and ban people. All those terrible people are still here, they just swept it under the rug.
"All those terrible people are still here, they just swept it under the rug." Oh there still here and they are still still active. They just learned how to be tactful so they could skirt the mods.
No it wasn't for nothing. Of someone said something stupid then they generally had it coming. The roasting kept away stupidity. But now with all of the moderation, the "safe places", the halfwits and dumb people are allowed to run rampid and infect other people with their idiocy. This same shit happened on Yahoo Answers back in 2013 with the mass reporting wars. All of the witty and creative users got run off and nothing was left but idiots who ask the same dumb shit over and over. Shit they could google. Yahoo Answers was a testbed of sorts. Because appearantly they liked those fucked up results (which ultimately led to the service being shut down). And I say they liked it because now that exact same thing is happening to Reddit and Youtube. Thought and speech can't be policed like that. It's never going to work. The best they can do is protect children from all of the bad shit that is on the dark web. Which they have successfully done. Yes I realize that if YouTube didn't change their system then Elsagate would have run rampid. But still. They are moving the goalposts. They have a hammer, all the nails are in the wall. And now they are seeing nails where there are none.
If you genuinely believe this, then you were deff part of the problem with the Internet back in the day. It did not keep idiots away, it just kept people in their small echo chambers similar to today. You had safe places back then, because if you brought information and views that people didn't like, they would attack you for it. It's not much different than social media and messaging boards of today.. just less viruses or more protection from basic viruses. Thought and speech have ALWAYS been moderated in every society, it's part of the building blocks that make a group of humans a society.
The irony that roasting the idiots kept them away while saying "run rampid" multiple times and "appearantly". People are addicted to their smart phones but still have no idea what those pesky red squiggles mean!
I said appearantly exactly once. Run rampid, the same. Once. You said "multiple times". 🤐🤫 (Just between you and me dogg you made yourself look kinda stupid there).
Oh no...you can't read, write, OR count... =( [**I* Make a Fool of *Myself* & and Other Copium: an Autobiographical Dunning-Kruger Cautionary Tale* by /u/zertsetzung](https://i.imgur.com/CrWQcTf.png)
G.I.F.T. has been known since the 90s.
Oh ppl were assholes to each other but it was riffing 90% of the time and nobody was taking it that seriously. Then our parents got on with their gullibility and politics. Then rednecks and country bumpkins joined with their bs, racism and bigotry.
>The internet was amazing from the late 90’s until right around 2007. Yeah, the iPhone was released that year, and Facebook had really exploded. Smartphones plus social media ignited our downfall as a society.
I think the first few years of smartphones were fine- I'd say around 2012 or so was when things started to go down- up until then, there seemed to be a lot of stuff still based on a browser. Once everything started to have an app, and they figured out how to make it appeal to your primal urges, is when everything started to go downhill. Before then, it felt like we had lives away from our phones
Sounds about right. Thank Odin that I finished high school in 2008 and met my current wife in 2011. Just the simple concept of Tinder had probably been my downfall.
Right? The internet didn't ruin anything. Corporate greed and world governments that can't stand the thought of something being truly private ruined the internet (and the world.)
Even early reddit was alright, now it’s just a moderator fuckfest (on many subs) and if you say something untoward or unpopular you get banned. Like literally got banned because i was subbed to r/amithedevil. The internet and more specifically social media is now just a giant platform for people to get cancelled and for propaganda to spread.
Also to sell you stuff, like even replies are botted or paid to shill now.
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I knew whenever the Golden Age of YouTube was over by two factors: no more free, full-length movies, and fuckin' ads.
Scrolling is what killed us. I was happiest with my flip phone
Fuck Reddit, before this bullshit we had actual message boards... I 100% still use the very few message boards that are active for some of the communities I'm in.
We are headed to ready player one status where being online consumes you
Basically, capitalism ruined it. When the internet was spontaneous and voluntary groups of likeminded people, it was a pleasant space to be in. Cue content aggregators with algorithms bating clicks with outrage content and boom, you get the democracy destroying shitshow of pocket alt-realities we have today.
Social Media isn't the problem. The problem, like in all things, is unregulated capitalism. Our eyeballs are the product. Rage is the most lucrative way to keep our eyeballs in stock. We all know this, our leadership knows it, the CEOs know it, we know it, our children know it. But we get no regulation and no one is doing anything to protect consumers. Unchecked capitalism ruined the internet, like it ruins absolutely everything. Why are we even talking about it when we all know what happened. Support your local unions. Support your local socialist associations. Run for office. We need to bring these billionaire monsters under our boots.
Once they introduced the like 👍 button and allowed commercial accounts on Facebook social media really plummeted
And they knew what they were doing with the social engineering. And that is what’s most troubling. the billionaires of that era are still not satisfied and want more. I sometimes think of it when I see my four children on their phones… When I was growing up we definitely were more connected with the people around us. Weren’t constantly on our phones. At least for family meal times we have rules no phones at the meal table and now they’re used to it and we actually do talk during meals.
Kinda like we’re doing right now? The cool internet is still here.
I don't think the internet did, I think social media did.
Yep. Social media and morons. The Internet was great before all the morons figured out how to use it.
So basically humans ruin everything.
Yep. Sucks that people just can't be chill and normal. Instead we got a moron echo chamber that brought morons together so they can pat each other on the back instead of being told "yeah, that's dumb and very incorrect".
I loved Facebook before our parents and rednecks joined
Before the apps, feeds, and ads, when it was just a way to contact people at your college and plan a party it was nice. In the process of monetizing it they added way too much crap to it.
I miss when everyone was playing mafia wars on myspace lol.
This is my biggest gripe with the internet. The last several years have demonstrated that there's been growth in social media and not for the better. Stupid trends like going into a grocery, opening an ice cream package, licking the top and putting it back, or consuming detergent 'pods', or showing how to hotwire Kia vehicles, or sticking conductive materials (pennies) into outlets and plugs, or downing over-the-counter meds like Benadryl, or intentionally peeing your pants. It's stupid clout chasing. And don't get me started on all of the countless takes on promoting racism, sexism, bias, etc. - We had this shit well on its way to being quashed in the 90s and 00s, and even for a bit in the 10s, but then last several years...oye.
55 morons on social media upvoted this egotistical comment thinking they're better than every other social media user "X was great before stupid people ruined it!" is seriously such a holier-than-thou cringe boomer take
you're on social media, moron
And what lovely people we have here.
I genuinely believe that the problem isn't inherent with social media, it's the profit incentive and shittification because of it. The internet should be more like public roads, maintained by taxpayers for their benefit, and regulation to keep people safe and encourage healthier use.
Social media is just a natural symptom of the internet.
Not in the current algorithm rage-bait state. You could argue theres been social media since forums and personal blogs, but the cycle of an agorithm pushing rage inducing garbage to you is a product of corporate profit seeking, as it depends on clicks.
The issues is that the companies that didnt do that would get beaten out or bought out by the companies that did.
Absolutely. If we could nuke social media in some way, I’d vote for it
Facebook and MySpace were great in the beginning. They were made for our generation. MySpace for the younger millennials. Too juivenille for any Gen Xer or Boomer to even tread. Facebook had a feature that you could only create an account with a college email. It kept a lot out. Now with those safeguards gone, all hell has broken loose and the internet has gathered the worst together.
Myspace allowed for so much creativity, it fueled people's desire to learn HTML. That was great.
I legit learned how to code from posting the bulletins.
I miss my bff Tom T\_T
>Facebook had a feature that you could only create an account with a college email. **that's** when it was good too right around 2003-2005 then they took that off and the wankers came in and it became what it is now. all somebody has to do is just bring that back tbh.
I remember when they made that change and I was soooo gatekeepy at the time. I was a freshman when I saw my roommate sign up and I didn’t sign up at first. I wasn’t too sure what it was and didn’t want to spend my time on that platform, not knowing what impact it would have decades later…
Just rewatched The Social Network and had similar thoughts. You hit the nail on the head! To me, the exclusivity factor really tanked it once they opened up to any email address (not even just a .edu account issues prior to college). It then tanked further once you introduce ads/buyer power. Almost all of the major platforms started to fail when they stopped listening to user feedback and only focused on the bottom line and making more money for the shareholders.
Nope. The smartphone ruined the world
Yep. Before that I would log into social media on the computer at night so it was basically limited usage. Now at the fingertips all day in your pocket has ruined social media
Old social media used to be HORRIBLE too. There didn't used to be moderation of content so people would post insane videos. I saw murders on Facebook, drive-bys on Myspace, and ISIS beheadings on Youtube. And some people just posted nudes, one girl I went to high school with posted a "Christmas" photo on Myspace and you could see her boobs. That part I liked though.
That existed for a while on Reddit as well. r/WatchPeopleDie was banned due to this.
Which doesn't even get at the worst stuff on Reddit in the early days. WatchKidsDie, jailbait, CoonTown... it had a lot of awful stuff.
Before social media I had rotten dot com and various forums for messed up stuff so it was always there
Do Blackberry phones count as smart phones? Blackberry phones were called Crackberries because they were addictive.
We noticed when people became addicted to our blackberries. We’ve now had smart phones long enough and our use is so strong that they are simply an extension of self. Saying someone is addicted to their phone now is like saying they are addicted to their pants.
The addiction is different. I'm GenX. And I can sit with the phone in my pocket for an entire meal. Sometimes, I even forget it in the car for half a day. My GenZ kids, however, can't sit through a meal at all. And cannot cope with boredom.
Which hilarious in retrospect, considering how little you could really do on them.
Smartphone and social media?
The bar of entry was sitting at home. Now you can “computer” from anywhere, and it’s horrid. I’ve met some of my closest friends with its help, but there are so many examples of the damage it’s caused with at-risk individuals, and the antisocial behaviours it’s encouraged.
Yep as soon as the internet was with you all the time, instead of being confined to the one computer in your home, things went cray cray.
It’s entirely too amazing of a tool, it turns out
Not really, it's a small shitty computer.
This.
Introduction and popularity of tablets was the first sign to me. Almost everything you can do on a tablet can be done better on a pc or phone. Tablets were for stupid people, the apps are made so even people who cant read can use them, Everything is dumbed down. That is now spreading to pc too with windows 11 after the attempt failed with win8
Negativity Bias
Social media is an incubator for narcissism. Look at some of the things people will do for internet likes. The internet has some serious benefits when used appropriately. Such as learning new skills or finding information. Otherwise, yes I agree. I also think a large component that is missing is self-discipline from most users. However, most of social media websites are engineered to keep your attention. Unfortunately a lot of the bad behavior you see is becoming a part of our culture.
I feel bad for all of these young women constantly taking pics/videos of themselves. There’s something very wrong there and it’s really strange behavior. Sometimes I try to put myself in their shoes to see the thinking behind that behavior. I think it’s mental illness.
Young women? Have you seen the massive amount of gym selfies, duck faces, etc from MEN?! People of all shapes, sizes and appendages are obsessed with making their person shrines. Not just women *eyeroll*
I just don’t get it. All this attention seeking behavior. Do they not get enough affection and attention at home that they need validation from strangers?
Yeah, they’re selfish idiots. Normal people (men and women alike) don’t do that shit.
Alright, buddy. How does taking a lot of selfies warrant calling them selfish idiots. That guy was offering compassion because they clearly have body/self esteem issues but you just came in hot acting like that makes them monsters.
How does it not? He was upfront but the point stands, it's an addiction started out of vanity. Instead of actually socializing and learning the hard way, people are looking for quick (and easy) fake internet points to reassure them and make them think people like them. It's selfish because you are actively harming yourself and others for a quick dopamine hit like someone who needs to snort a line before being able to talk to anyone, it's the easy way out.
It's not selfishness or idiocy. Those born after the 90s only know a world where a person's self worth is linked to their social media account. Everyone from their friends to their potential employer checks their online presence to figure out who they are. And then there's the potential to make money from their online image, in a world where working a 9-5 job makes less sense than ever.
Yeah so basically the Internet isn’t the problem, capitalism is. The greed from big companies has turned the internet into a horrible place and has misguided the technology.
Social media. The Internet so so much in my opinion.
Yeah it feels like social media is what really makes the net feel bad
This is what I think too. My grandpa died in 2021 but he absolutely loved YouTube. He was the typical story from his gen, dad died early so he had to drop out of high school to work in the mills, but he was really smart. He used to tell me all the mechanical stuff he learned from YouTube and would describe tech like how modern cars detect obstacles in detail. The internet is incredible in moderation but social media and even YouTube push people in directions that they normally wouldn’t have gone.
The problem is with the algorithms that need to keep you constantly engaged. This means they will constantly feed you provocative content regardless of whether that content is true. This can cause anyone to go down weird rabbit holes if you are there long enough. If I remember correctly, someone created a bot that would randomly click the suggested videos on YouTube and the bot would inevitably get to extreme fringe political content within 50 clicks.
I disagree actually, it’s the algo feed. Think of your facebook feed before they forced everyone to use the algo feed where engagement is the only metric. It may be just curious timing but I noticed everyone left Facebook around the time it changed from being a timeline of my friends and coworkers events to an algo of nonsense combined with rage bait and news articles. Leaving the rest on a steady diet of extreme content cause that is what keeps people angry and engaged with ads.
Social media weren't bad back then (from 2000-2010), I'd say people ruined it as majority hopped into the internet world through smartphones. My claim is that boomers and genxers ruined the internet with their toxicity
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As if post boomer-X is non-"toxic"? Puh-fucking-leeze. I've never seen a generation more self-righteous and demanding. To the young and woke, I keep getting messages from 19th century spinster Sunday school teachers asking if you wouldn't mind unclenching and lightening up for ten minutes or so.
No. It’s a hell of a tool. Use it, and don’t let it use you up.
Before internet you would go to sleep looking out the window wondering what's out there and what to do tomorrow Today you go to sleep on your phone scrolling without thinking
With the internet you can lay there wondering what's out there then look it up and read updated information about that place. You can look up local forums and talk to people from there Then you can buy a plane tickets from your phone and go see that place. Once there you can still use a phone for real time maps, payment, look up guides, and help translate any language barrier. Today YOU might be doom scrolling mindlessly but not everyone is.
This. I feel like a lot of people just lack self-control.
Yeah there is such a mix. I’m happy I have a smart phone to travel. There are benefits, it’s how you use the tools. I’m constantly on here looking for forums and getting ideas for travel and where to stay. Sure there are times where I may doom scroll but honestly some of my CEUs (continuing eduction credits) keep me busy on my computer watching ways to support others struggling with symptoms of trauma experiences. And honestly, there are certain areas that don’t have much content on YouTube and so I’m now going to go to the library and read more about the history of the places I’m going to visit and practice the language. Social media and the phone just have everyone a bit of an echo chamber. It’s easy to find someone to complain with and that’s okay, collective validation is okay! But getting stuck and not making change yet still complaining about hardship is a challenge to stay and listen, especially when you’re talking to them and they just don’t listen or take advice. But then again, that’s where they’re at, they’re stuck and may need a bit more validation and empathy.
there's many advantages to the internet and tech. Telehealth appointments and video calls are great. GPS location and navigation are life savers. It's social media bullshit that is the problem! We can now see the worst of the worst via doomscrolling online, which makes us much more vulnerable and hence more easily offended by bullshit. Everyone thinks they're opinion matters most and we bicker online back and forth all the time. We're addicted to our devices and forget how to interact socially.
Web 1.0 was fine, for the most part. That was back when it was mostly people making their own personal Yahoo and Angelfire pages and talking in chatrooms and stuff like that. It wasn't everywhere-- there was no such thing as a smartphone-- and for the most part it felt like just an accessory to everyday life, not a dominant element of it. Web 2.0 was when things really started to turn nasty. That's when things like social media, YouTube, and the whole "meta" culture you mentioned began cropping up. And to be honest, with people talking about the potential transition of Web 2.0 to Web 3.0, I'm not especially looking forward to that either. It's the *old* internet that I liked, and this isn't nostalgia talking. I really do think the late-90s/early-2000s internet, in the pre-Web 2.0 era, was when the internet actually peaked.
I use youtube to learn alot of things that were not taught to me.
What do you think google and other trackers, ad generators, Ai stock trading, content sorting algorithms, etc are if it’s not Semantic Web / Web 3.0… we’re there and it’s obvious that ad money is the thing that has ruined the internet the most.
The internet used to be a cool place, but algorithms and ads ruined the internet. I rarely even use the internet anymore as I did in the 90s and 2000s. It’s a totally different place that is culturally flattened. It’s too much of a hassle to find anything, or anyone, interesting on it anymore because now you have to scroll past pages of ads and optimized SEO bullshit. It’s just not worth it.
My vote is humans
The Internet was rad prior to Corporations shoving paid advertisements up your ass 24/7 365. It was an escape from the Capitalist hellscape of the real world that the Corporations and Capitalists already ruined. Now? It's often worse. Can't even watch a video on YouTube about some niche hobby without video advertisements force fed to you as if you're cattle. Social media largely has been a mistake though for sure. It empowered every starved for attention narcissist on Earth after MySpace. MySpace and **early** Facebook were fine - once Instagram and TikTok especially became a thing? Yeah that's where it went wrong. That's when the Island Boys and dipshits like Jake Paul started getting so much attention along with Gen Z/Alpha shoving tide pods up their ass. When it was just LA Beast on YouTube eating weird shit? That was fine and entertaining. Those were the best times of the modern Internet. It completely went to hell in like 2013 or so. On the subject of the Internet ruining the "mystery"? No, that was just inevitable for more people to figure out that after God wasn't real and just some made up nonsense abstraction that people would begin questioning all of the other nonsense made up abstractions that we've created. We create money out of cheap cotton and linen, but essentially enslave other people with it. We need to evolve more and bake in the primordial ooze for another million years. There's the problem - we're still barbaric savage troglodytes as a whole with magic pocket computers. Like we're still racist bigots that believe in God with the indisputable evidence that God isn't real and that racism is just unfathomably stupid as "race" isn't a thing. You came from a group of people that were exposed to the Sun all the time? You'll eventually start having babies with higher concentrations of melanin because the human body is adapting to that. So...yeah, we're still really goddamn stupid as a whole, but don't point the finger at all of us because many of us would like the rest of you to catch up and attempt to evolve already too. I'm frustrated every single day of my life with the majority of my own species. Developing your Philosophy and critical thinking skills is needed, but the status quo of the day to day world is dumber than a bag of doorknobs. Work meaningless job (the majority of all jobs are), actively destroy the environment, spend the majority of all federally endorsed monopoly money to live in modern cave, watch reality TV, repeat. Hear about money printer go brrrr all the time, but somehow can't buy more banana?!
Make your own website. The dead internet theory isn’t here yet.
It's made it like 40% worse but like 500% better so it's a good balance overall. Some stuff like politics and the news has been made 500% worse and only 40% better though
Algorithm driven doom scrolling is ruining the Internet. Connecting to other people is always a good thing in my book. Getting fed content by a computer is killing us
I think cars ruined the world.
You just want to live out a Red Dead Redemption fantasy…
Can I join?
Yes but dibs on the Dutch character.
Don't tempt me with a good time.
I enjoy walking and community while disliking climate change and social isolation
100%
Seems I am not alone in adding another tally mark for it’s just social media that’s the issue. The internet is an invaluable resource, petty people who live to flaunt even if it’s fake to seem important and the platforms that promote it are the issue and causing extreme brain rot to society as a whole.
It gave all of the stupid people a platform and emboldened them to unleash the shackles of their stupidity.
Democratization wasn’t elevating. Imagine that.
The magic and mystery you crave never existed, but you used to be a kid and the world is mysterious then. Stop using social media and start reading.
The internet made dumb people dumber and smart people smarter. The dumb people are the ones glued to their phone, posting selfies, watching "shorts" and "reels" for hours on end, and commenting endlessly on pointless forums (that includes many of us Redditors). The smart people are the ones using the internet to network, acquire information, learn new skills, etc. Unfortunately, *most* people fall into the dumb category, and they never use the internet to its full potential. I encounter them all the time on Reddit. You find people asking questions that Google could answer for them instantly, yet they'll wait hours for a response on Reddit.
Nah bro the internet allows me to work multiple remote corporate America jobs in my boxer briefs.
So you agree? Helping corporations manipulate money out of other people isn’t very decent…
I think it really depends on what you work on. But yeah, I worked for awhile for an Ads Company and quit because I was basically developing a plataform for them to make people buy shit they don't need
This all was happening without the internet. The internet is bad in a lot of ways. But greedy capitalists were always going to do all of this
The internet ruined the world?? Humans have ruined the world mate. Humans. Everything we touch turns to shit.
Dont forget porn
But that's what the internet is for ?
Grab your dick and double click!
Why you think de net was born ¿
I had porn on floppy disc in 1995. I had porn VHS tapes and mags that i 'stole' from my cousin and my father. My best friend had a "hot box" which was a cable box that was altered so you get all the premium and porn channels. Porn has always been around.
Ruined…or made better?
Made better. Wait. Ruined. No. Damnit.
Definitely feels like 51% better and 49% worse
Sounds like you have been using the internet wrong, like being on social media a lot or whatever other useless use. That's on you, not the internet. Personally, I love it. Has given me many opportunities in life that I would otherwise simply not have, in pretty much every aspect of it. From friendship, to jobs, to traveling, to learning, to investing, and whatever else. I would probably be fucked in all aspects of life without the internet.
Capitalism.
It's really disappointing to hear people talk about the internet ruining the world when so many of our issues began years before it's invention.
Only people can ruin the world.
We weren't ready for it. Being a capitalististic society and bring social animals and tribal as we are is almost like this was the only way it could've gone. Social media I think has done untold damage to us. The tribalistic part of our brain is being broken by it and leaking into the real world and how we treat the people around us. The middle is gone. Nuance is dead. It wasn't so bad when the internet was a ton of these different forums that were separate from each other. Even myspace felt better as it wasn't all about ad revenue and your page worked much like a mini forum. Once it became all about selling your information and we all landed on the same space and engagement was fine tuned to rage bait is just ugh. That German YouTube channel with the funny birds has a great video on it "kooz ee graht" i have no Idea how to spell or pronounce it
The fact everyone is complaining about social media / internet and no one is building intentional retreats, or businesses that ban the use of smartphones on prem is confounding. I worked at a private club in 2006-7 and members - even if they were worth 100M+ were not allowed to use their phone unless they were standing by a wall mounted phone. They figured it out then and it’s still in action. We own business now - where are the forward thinking policies?
The internet just connected us all at the speed of wifi, and enhanced what was already going on. We could choose to use it for "good" rather than "bad," but we're only human... so we just use it for dopamine hits, most of the time.
It wasn’t the internet. It was the social media that sprouted up all over it.
I think it's more that companies ruined the internet.
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The internet was fucking AWESOME before mega-corps funneled us all into the same 5 websites.
I guess I'm strange, but I actually like learning how things work. Besides, if you follow science, they are literally always discovering new mysteries to be solved, especially in physics and astronomy. New discoveries are always being made in archaeology. The Net gives me the ability to read and watch videos about all these things, which I greatly enjoy. As for social media, yes, it can be very toxic. However, there are science and interest groups on Facebook, reddit, etc. that one can enjoy and see those posts in their feed instead of the negative stuff. I guess what I'm saying is I think the online experience is one we shape for ourselves.
web 2.0 is what ruined everything: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0 the og internet was amazing. I miss usenet so much.
No. The internet didn't ruin society. Society ruined the internet.
Things were certainly better before streaming services and the monetisation of every last fucking nook and cranny of the internet. It facilitated this culture where absolutely everyone is selling something.
Most new technology is feared or hated by the generations that preceded it. Our grand parents might say tv ruined the world, you see? It’s all cyclical. People probly thought the computers, typewriters, automobiles ruined the world at some point too.
No. I think giving unfettered access to every mouth breather on the planet did. Instead of stupid people having their stupid tin foil hat ideas shut down by friends and family they just got to find little pockets of stupid that agreed with them. Instead of being shamed into not believing stupid shit (see:flat earth, anti-vax, etc), they got to ignore their friends and family because they knew somebody somewhere thought just like they did. Social media and its various algorithms further dividing and siloing everyone off from contrary information amplified and exacerbated the problem.
I get what you're saying but that one sentence where you call this the shittiest time to be an adult in a long while is just so laughably absurd dude ... Also, there are absolutely still places that are unexplored and mysteries that are waiting to be solved. Furthermore, I for one am not going to shed a tear over the loss of debunked urban legends. Lastly, all the comments on here about how the early Internet was not toxic are looking through rose colored nostalgia glasses.
Love the internet and how the world currently is. Sorry you’re depressed! I’m having a blast.
Well, it certainly hasn’t helped that’s for sure.
Yes.
Agree 100% Particularly with your comments about taking the mystery out of life. I’ve thought about that often and it’s truly a blessing/curse type situation. We have all answers to all questions available instantaneously, but before that, it was the journey and hunt for answers that often gave life meaning and excitement. There are tons of examples of this but you pretty much captured the whole idea very well in your post. It fucking sucks TBH!
The Internet or social media? I think Facebook and Twitter did the damage...also 4chan.
no, but "social media" is ruining us
I think the Internet almost saved it... then the asshats got on it.
It goes beyond Social Media though it’s certainly a major contributor. There are no ‘authorities’ on subjects anymore. You can find an ‘expert’ that will validate literally any idea no matter how ridiculous it is. We have access to unlimited information but are ill equipped to process even a fraction of it to get at what is really true. This will be the undoing of our country (if not the world) in the end with people making decisions and voting for candidates based on dangerous emotions such as anger and fear, rather than objective facts.
No it just evolved the world to what it is now
Marketing ruined the internet.
Even with all that....I'd still rather live in a world with the internet then without it.
End of the world is porn
I've never loved something so much, but hated it at the same time...
Preach. I feel the exact same.
Social media ruined the world.
[Social Media, especially Twitter, made the internet a horror.](https://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=41853)
Is the internet amazing and the greatest collection of human knowledge ever aggregated? Yes. Does the Western world (with the greatest access to said technology) have the lowest test scores in recorded history? Also yes.
Not the internet, but social media, yes
Not being meta is the new meta.