If you had a time machine that could set the internet back to what it was like in a certain era, when would that be?
-
Original question by @[email protected]
The problem isn't the internet, the problem is Capitalism, that used internet to turn more suffering into money. The problem is, there was never that magical time when everything was great, it's a fallacious thinking. It also applies to the internet.
The only path to anything positive is progress, not trying to go back to imaginary times that never existed. -
The problem isn't the internet, the problem is Capitalism, that used internet to turn more suffering into money. The problem is, there was never that magical time when everything was great, it's a fallacious thinking. It also applies to the internet.
The only path to anything positive is progress, not trying to go back to imaginary times that never existed.This question didn't say anything at all about problems and I think you've overreacted.
-
I'm hoping that [email protected] will need to a rebirth of that sort lol
Yessssss. I want to run a node so bad. Soon, hopefully!
-
This question didn't say anything at all about problems and I think you've overreacted.
Either OP wanted it or not, this is the language of "getting back to the better times" crowd.
-
Someone clearly wasn't alive before the internet
I'm a millennial... The Internet had the promise of great things. Sharing the entirety of human knowledge with all, right?so much promise. But it's mostly used to share brain rot videos and misinformation. Like your one sentence quip that didn't provide anything beyond snark.
-
Original question by @[email protected]
20 years before the internet would suit me just fine.
-
20 years before the internet would suit me just fine.
It's a broad definition, but could mean 20 years before 1960-something, and that would put you right in a not that great time in Europe at least
-
All facebook users deserve to be slapped repeatedly to wake them up from the reality they've imposed on themselves.
I still remember when Facebook first caught on, and I learned that it was a site on which people posted their real names and pictures of themselves and their families and their lives, and all I could think was, "Why in the hell would anyone ever do that?"
I still don't know.
-
It's a broad definition, but could mean 20 years before 1960-something, and that would put you right in a not that great time in Europe at least
I’m a Canuck
-
Do you not see the irony there?
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Oh, I definitely see the irony, if you want to call it that. Pwning is far more fun when I control it and it's just for a laugh.
-
I still remember when Facebook first caught on, and I learned that it was a site on which people posted their real names and pictures of themselves and their families and their lives, and all I could think was, "Why in the hell would anyone ever do that?"
I still don't know.
And then it turned into a white supremacy app.
-
Exactly. And if we could stop the storm... Wouldn't that be great?
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Yes it would. Looking back I think the time machine wouldn't buy us more than those few years, though. The things that made it accessible, fun and (sometimes artificially, unnaturally) useful were the exact same things that made it easy to repurpose into the monstrosity it gradually became.
The Wild West period was scattered and had shitty accessibility. Companies like Google inevitably arrived to make the process of browsing smoother, but as of 2010 hadn't started being evil yet. The alternate timeline that doesn't suck probably would have involved email growing directly into a version of ActivityPub in the 90's, and website dominance being bypassed entirely. (Although ISP struggles would have taken on a whole new dimension)
-
Original question by @[email protected]
wrote on last edited by [email protected]1998-1999, before the internet was opened up for commerce. Or more accurately, back when Netscape was still a viable browser.
-
I would set it back to the early to mid-90s, when I first experienced it...
Am I one of those old fart trying to say it was better in the good old times? Yes, and no.
Back then the Internet was limited, it was hacked together and there was no professionally designed website with pretty animations, security was... not much, there was no mobile web and, as a matter of fact, no 'app' at all since smartphones were not yet a thing. There was not even script languages like Javascript or PHP to develop all those shit... amazing dynamic features we're now surrounded with. So, yeah, it was limited. But...
There also was also no social media, no monetizing, no tracking, no corporate mafia-like CEOs trying to took us hostage or to milk us to death, and hands in hands with their politicians friends, trying their worst at transforming our free societies into some fascist dystopia that if they succeed (and it looks like they could) will make look all the XX century monstrosities mere child-play.
There were already evil corporations and assholes politicians back then, sure, but for the most part the Internet was people, not businesses. And it was not populated by those armies of braindead, tantrum-obsessed and hysterical morons we now consider the normal 'user'.
Trolls were already a thing, obviously, but there were not millions of them waiting to be mobilized through social media like a good army of haters ready to go stampede into oblivion anything nice or daring anyone could be willing to do. It was ok to not be nice, to not be liked, and to take risks.
I mean, it was actual people with their qualities and flaws, people that were willing to share content they were interested in and to discuss it. People that were not expecting to make a fucking cent out of every single fart they would make online. Nor to gain any Likes...
So, yeah it was rougher, so much more limited and a lot less cool. It was also a lot less polite. But it was so much more free and less full of shit.
(end of that old fart rant, promise)
Take me back to when Netscape was the top Browser.
-
I'm a millennial... The Internet had the promise of great things. Sharing the entirety of human knowledge with all, right?so much promise. But it's mostly used to share brain rot videos and misinformation. Like your one sentence quip that didn't provide anything beyond snark.
It also provides all the knowledge of humanity for those who are willing to take it. Some chose to only watch brain rot, so they only see brain rot. And their rants don't provide even snark, they suck the life out of conversation with their misguided misanthropy
