Does anyone else miss the "old" internet?

[Zanreo]

In a lot of ways, yeah. I miss forums and personal websites being more common... While social media has its time and place (at least the concept), it kinda sucks how a lot of the internet experience is shoved into 7-8 giant sites. Sometimes, smaller communities are nice and even preferable! And things like forums moving to Discord... Not a good idea, I'd rather be able to just google my question rather than having to join a new server (and I'm saying this as an active Discord user)

 

One thing I certainly do not miss, on the other hand, is the "old internet culture" casual bigoted "jokes" and slurs all over the place, and things like that, but I'd argue that's not specifically an Internet Thing as much as just the culture at the time (I mean, just look at any "edgy" comedy from those times...) considering this more acceptable, and it just spread to the internet. At most, it maybe just got emphasized due to anonymity letting people get away with more, but it's not like it was an internet-specific thing!

Edited March 14 by Zanreo

[the1andonly654]

I do miss the time when ad blocking software didn't have to exist yet, or even when it existed but wasn't yet a neccecity to make the internet generally usable. 

Most of the content wasn't a click bait either. I definitely miss that. 

 

The kind of... Aura of novelty so to speak had its charm too, when the majority of people didn't have internet at home. 

 

 

 

[Countrydude1989]

Yes, i miss having forums like these to shitpost on. Now everyone uses reddit, discord, or some junk like that.

[x49ersblitzkreig]

I miss the old internet way too much. When DanTDM made those mod videos, the Bottleflip and Pokemon Go were the viral things. Now everything is a low attention span with no creativity.

[JohnCenaSong-]

Despite being seemingly way more popularly used nowadays than when I was younger I feel like the modern days of the Internet feels less alive than the 'old' Internet. Whether it's niche stuff or mainstream stuff, the numbers on views/engagements is considerably higher but... there like far less active participation going on from my experience.

 

That feeling of being less alive coupled with the trending online opinion sometimes being so widely unrepresentative of genuine public opinion at times does make you wonder whether the so-called 'dead Internet theory' conspiracy might have some potential lol.

[ChiefMichigan]

I'm not 30 yet and I'm a very young millennial to oldest Gen Z (Post-Millennial) if we're looking at a range for age cohorts.

To me, the internet peaked around 2007-2015. 2016 or so started a decline (but not a sharp out of nowhere decline).

Some people would laugh at my choice, believing the internet was already going to pot by the late 2000s or well before. 

But let's also keep in mind that there were outright criminal or at least degenerate things on the internet for a long time now.

While I still spend a ton of time on YouTube, it's not because it's some amazing site. It's because YouTube has a mountain of content that is either inaccessible or annoying to access elsewhere. YouTube peaked around 2007-2012. Already by 2008-2009 cracks were emerging with ads and takedowns. Ads and takedowns have a place, but they've been out of control on YouTube for a long time. 

One of the signs of YouTube in decline was removing customizable channel backgrounds and theming in 2012 it seems. It's such a simple and cool feature, but YouTube took the trend of what many of these big corporate sites have done for a while and catered to mobile users while making things worse for desktop users.

And Twitter (X), my gods. Do I need to explain the decline in the last 10 or so years? I can hardly think of anything that has gotten better on Twitter since around 2014 at the latest. At least YouTube has had some cool things here and there in the last 10+ years even as they have taken some steps back. 

I could make an even longer post, but I'm not going to right now.

 

 

[Prince-Varuni]

36 here, just made a status post about this actually.

 

Yes, I do miss it. It feels like forums and message boards were far more active between 1999-2010, although it may be I thought they were very active but I wasn't always online like I am now. Still feels like a lot of places have died out, like you see activity from 3 months ago or stuff from 2 years ago on the front page. Used to be everything was new for the next 5 pages of that board. Even Facebook and Twitter are kinda dead (To me), Reddit's a mess imo (Rarely any message board ever uses the downvote button and I see why. Was warned away from that site for years until I joined it last year, definitely questionable.)

I do feel old, but it's what I miss.

[Fing3rButt3r3]

I miss the old chat ways of gaming/internet, like chat rooms in mmos or just simply typing it all out. But nowadays discord makes it really easy to gather and do raids and stuff in voice chat.

[Prince-Varuni]

4 minutes ago, Fing3rButt3r3 said:

I miss the old chat ways of gaming/internet, like chat rooms in mmos or just simply typing it all out. But nowadays discord makes it really easy to gather and do raids and stuff in voice chat.

Ah yes, Discord took over so much, I played WoW and Shaiya a long time ago, took me a while to really get into Discord. I do miss the older days though.

[SaySykesRN]

To me the internet forever changed when Mr beast became big

 

I like Mr beast but it's true that he was the first real "tryhards" of YouTube and it raised the bar so high that people either were forgotten about or completely changed there content

 

I also feel like we ended up noticing slot more about people that we didn't see before, and funny has drastically changed, looks at vine compared to tiktoks, we don't get vine esq content anymore, no more black ops 2 funny moments, no gmod prop hunts, no seananners, all the good stuff has gone

 

So while I do miss the way it used to be, I think the expansion and changes aren't exactly the worst, but they could be better, if you don't try hard content creation, you're not trying hard enough now, which causes it to just be less funny, and all the games are the same, lethal company launched at such a critical moment for me because YouTube to me felt good again

 

But ever since it's just cod and shit like that

Edited March 29 by SaySykesRN

[HansPatat050]

1 hour ago, SaySykesRN said:

To me the internet forever changed when Mr beast became big

 

I like Mr beast but it's true that he was the first real "tryhards" of YouTube and it raised the bar so high that people either were forgotten about or completely changed there content

 

I also feel like we ended up noticing slot more about people that we didn't see before, and funny has drastically changed, looks at vine compared to tiktoks, we don't get vine esq content anymore, no more black ops 2 funny moments, no gmod prop hunts, no seananners, all the good stuff has gone

 

So while I do miss the way it used to be, I think the expansion and changes aren't exactly the worst, but they could be better, if you don't try hard content creation, you're not trying hard enough now, which causes it to just be less funny, and all the games are the same, lethal company launched at such a critical moment for me because YouTube to me felt good again

 

But ever since it's just cod and shit like that

 

Who?

 

To me, the biggest change is that most websites bombard us with information we didn't ask for. Tons of advertisements and continuous news headlines and 'overview' pages. Things which 'may interest you' and all sorts of clutter. 

 

And I am flabbergasted how many people take single tweets or posts as a source of truth, even in times of war where truth is the first casualty. 

[SaySykesRN]

34 minutes ago, HansPatat050 said:

 

Who?

 

To me, the biggest change is that most websites bombard us with information we didn't ask for. Tons of advertisements and continuous news headlines and 'overview' pages. Things which 'may interest you' and all sorts of clutter. 

 

And I am flabbergasted how many people take single tweets or posts as a source of truth, even in times of war where truth is the first casualty. 

I hope you're not saying who to Mr beast

[theSpirae]

I'll go one step further, or rather, backward. I miss the pre-Internet days. Discovering a new game from a random kid in town, then trying to split the files and copy them onto floppy disks, all in MS-DOS. Later, playing games like Daggerfall and similar ones where the only information available was from local gamers. We'd gather together, trying to figure out how to proceed, sharing tips and tricks. Countless LAN parties and sleepless nights with HoMM 3. Begging our parents to help us carry our PC to our friends' houses to stay there over the weekend.

 

Everything back then felt more precious, and we valued it more. We had very few games, most of them pirated because only a few rich kids could afford new games. The Internet brought an abundance of media, making everything easily accessible. I have close to 1000 games on Steam alone, and hundreds on PlayStation, etc. I'm receiving so many "free" games via Plus services that I have absolutely no way to keep up unless I dedicate my life to it.

 

This applies to movies, books, and music as well. I'm starting to think that having easy access to everything doesn't necessarily make everything better.

[HansPatat050]

26 minutes ago, SaySykesRN said:

I hope you're not saying who to Mr beast

 

I don't have social media and ignore any youtubers with captures with 'I did THIS and THIS happened!!!!'. So yes, no idea who that is.

[Hitman_Spinksy1]

30 minutes ago, theSpirae said:

I'll go one step further, or rather, backward. I miss the pre-Internet days. Discovering a new game from a random kid in town, then trying to split the files and copy them onto floppy disks, all in MS-DOS. Later, playing games like Daggerfall and similar ones where the only information available was from local gamers. We'd gather together, trying to figure out how to proceed, sharing tips and tricks. Countless LAN parties and sleepless nights with HoMM 3. Begging our parents to help us carry our PC to our friends' houses to stay there over the weekend.

 

Everything back then felt more precious, and we valued it more. We had very few games, most of them pirated because only a few rich kids could afford new games. The Internet brought an abundance of media, making everything easily accessible. I have close to 1000 games on Steam alone, and hundreds on PlayStation, etc. I'm receiving so many "free" games via Plus services that I have absolutely no way to keep up unless I dedicate my life to it.

 

This applies to movies, books, and music as well. I'm starting to think that having easy access to everything doesn't necessarily make everything better.

 

It definitely doesn't make things better. We as consumers spend way too much and buy too much unnecessary crap. I've bought games that I've not even touched. The Plus service tricks you into thinking you're getting free games but it's not so often I actually play said monthly games but I need my prescription to have access to them. I do however play some of the games in the extra/premium lineup but we use probably less than 1% of what we pay for.

 

Like you said with movies, books etc Most people have a TV streaming service like Netflix, HBO etc including myself. I rarely use it though and if I do it's for a certain series that I'm watching or to watch the odd film. This abundance they offer makes you feel like you're getting loads for your money when in reality over half of what is on offer has little interest to the consumer and with time available in real life becomes even less that we are forced to choose anyway. 

 

Nothing has much replayability like it did in the past because we're in a rush to move on to the next thing. I used to have to rewind VHS tapes to rewatch stuff and even with that effort, I still did but I can't remember the last time I watched a film that I had previously watched unless it was an all time favourite or nostalgic reasons. Same with games, when I'm done with a game then it's gone but in the past I'd play the same game multiple times because that was what was available. 

[GUDGER666]

Old internet was the best. Sites weren't riddled with ads, pop ups and spam. Could watch YouTube all day with 0 ads, I got a 20sec ad yesterday for a 6sec clip, joke. 

 

Also remember the majority of forums weren't full of attention seeking pricks. Social media was actually good as well and not full of bots and clickbait shite. 

 

99% of stuff online now should be Ctrl-A Shift Delete! 

Edited March 29 by GUDGER666

[heavyrockerfin]

Some great commentary here on the previous posts, which I do agree on. The subscription based service model has made consuming media feel more intimidating (for me at least). I don't always have the time to play games from the services or watch a film from my "List". But then some digital numbers and invisible money are snagged away from my account. I hear the previous writers reminiscing after the MSN Messenger and while I'm at the end of Gen Y I do remember fondly of the said platform. All the notifications, emoticons, layout stuck on my mind.

 

I have this yearning, a nostalgia for a time I never lived. In my mind's eye I can see clearly someone on their desktop computers in a dim light. Writing on the forums or playing some old game, pre 2005 at least. The rain drums against window and it feels I watch this from some ghostly perspective. I know there must be a word for it.

[ThatMuttGuy]

On 3/22/2024 at 1:51 PM, x49ersblitzkreig said:

I miss the old internet way too much. When DanTDM made those mod videos, the Bottleflip and Pokemon Go were the viral things. Now everything is a low attention span with no creativity.

 

That's not the "old internet" lol. When someone says "old internet" they're likely referring to like 2004-2010ish era. 

[DrBloodmoney]

5 hours ago, SaySykesRN said:

I hope you're not saying who to Mr beast

 

I’m saying that.

 

I’ve heard the name as a punchline before, in jokes folks have made about Youtubers, so I assume he’s one of them…

…but never seen any content with them in it, come across any videos, or had it fed to me via algorithm or anything 

 

[x49ersblitzkreig]

6 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

I’m saying that.

 

I’ve heard the name as a punchline before, in jokes folks have made about Youtubers, so I assume he’s one of them…

…but never seen any content with them in it, come across any videos, or had it fed to me via algorithm or anything 

 

Mr beast is a YouTuber who spends a lot of money doing either stupid things like smashing cars for the hell of it or doing good things like donating to homeless shelters and building wells in Africa.

[DrBloodmoney]

1 minute ago, x49ersblitzkreig said:

Mr beast is a YouTuber who spends a lot of money doing either stupid things like smashing cars for the hell of it or doing good things like donating to homeless shelters and building wells in Africa.

Sounds riveting 

[Xylobe]

It's so funny to see "old internet" being used to describe, like, 2016. What's even changed since then? TikTok replaced Vine?

 

Eternal September started 30 years ago. Get off my lawn!

[Hitman_Spinksy1]

They clearly never experienced Dial up and the awful sound combined with cost per minute and longer loading times than imaginable 

[Copanele]

I have been searching for an old game "Get the Bunny" for years. Only recently I managed to find it as an abandonware, downloaded it and played it and shed a tear.

 

So, based on that game alone, I do not miss the old internet 😂 it might have been cute, but I couldn't access it as easily as I can now, so it can stay in the past.

 

P.S. I did hear abour Mr Beast too but I NEVER saw any videos of his, never even got a recommendation with his videos.Really curious if I am out of the intended audience age range 😆

[Taliesin_2943]

I miss the old days when you could look at a random person's profile and if they shared interests and such it was perfectly normal to send them a message start a conversation and make a new friend

 

Now it's "stalker behavior" And basically if I havnt known you since womb I don't want to know you. 

 

And people now put stuff in profiles that they don't even care about so I could see someone who's played an entire lengthy series of games 100% and I'm like oh dang I live these games And message them and there just like I hate these games, or oh I had my friend do all of it I just want a 100% profile.... Stuff like that

 

The Internet has become 99.8% fake toxic or just terrified of the universe especially omg meeting new people!