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  3. Am I the only one who thinks social media has destroyed the spirit of the internet?

Am I the only one who thinks social media has destroyed the spirit of the internet?

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  • S [email protected]

    Thank you for sharing. It's painful to realize in hindsight that those websites were peak internet.

    They lack polish, but they were all a labour of love. No enshittification, no selling things, no corporate influence, no shit posting.

    Everything had a purpose, every post took effort, and it was all about sharing experiences or knowledge.

    I really miss that internet.

    EDIT: correcting gibberish 🤭

    H This user is from outside of this forum
    H This user is from outside of this forum
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    wrote last edited by
    #133

    Content > design

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    • realcalliopa@lemmy.worldR [email protected]

      The emergence of social media has destroyed all the small communities to standardize communication and information.

      It's a bit of a digital version of rural exodus. And since 2017/2018, I've noticed that everything that, in my opinion, represented the internet has disappeared.

      I've known Lemmy for a few hours and I feel like I'm back in the early spirit of the internet.

      S This user is from outside of this forum
      S This user is from outside of this forum
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      wrote last edited by
      #134

      Mostly because it brought boomers into the Internet and they the proceeded to infest the rest of it.

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      • S [email protected]

        Mostly because it brought boomers into the Internet and they the proceeded to infest the rest of it.

        Z This user is from outside of this forum
        Z This user is from outside of this forum
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        wrote last edited by
        #135

        Mostly because billionaires are using it for unfettered propaganda which everyone is vulnerable to not just older people

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        • F [email protected]

          We could go back to the old internet any time we wanted, but people have been supping on the convenience aspect of having everything bundled into easy-to-digest "apps" that they would have to deprogram themselves first and come to understand that finding shit on the old internet used to take work. Small wonder that people hear that X (formerly Twitter) is going to be the "everything app" and like the idea of that. I personally find it horrifying how many people are glued to social media, and meanwhile I've never had a Facebook account, never had Twitter, never had TikTok, and I'm still doing just fine.

          We let corporations get their sticky fingers on everything, so now everything has to be profitable or it isn't worth anybody's time. Even YouTube videos are now all about maximizing engagement, interaction, and viewer retention so that the uploader can collect a paycheck from Google. I don't give a fuck about whatever excuses they use to justify it, people still made great quality content before YouTube partnered with people for revenue sharing.

          If TOR wasn't so godawfully slow, I'd be using TOR and visiting .onion sites for everything. It perfectly recreates that "old internet" feeling of web design that has function over form and small communities built around niche topics.

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          wrote last edited by
          #136

          What would speed up Tor?

          W 1 Reply Last reply
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          • S [email protected]

            Mostly because it brought boomers into the Internet and they the proceeded to infest the rest of it.

            A This user is from outside of this forum
            A This user is from outside of this forum
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            wrote last edited by
            #137

            Listen young man... Boomers INVENTED the original internet!

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            • C [email protected]

              Whenever I get overwhelmed by the modern web, I go to http://wiby.me/ and click "surprise me..."

              It's a search engine that only spits out "real" webpages that were made by people like you and me. Very refreshing.

              P This user is from outside of this forum
              P This user is from outside of this forum
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              wrote last edited by
              #138

              https://neocities.org/ is great too

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              • realcalliopa@lemmy.worldR [email protected]

                The emergence of social media has destroyed all the small communities to standardize communication and information.

                It's a bit of a digital version of rural exodus. And since 2017/2018, I've noticed that everything that, in my opinion, represented the internet has disappeared.

                I've known Lemmy for a few hours and I feel like I'm back in the early spirit of the internet.

                spacecowboy@lemmy.caS This user is from outside of this forum
                spacecowboy@lemmy.caS This user is from outside of this forum
                [email protected]
                wrote last edited by [email protected]
                #139

                Yup. It discouraged people from being anonymous and made stupid website accounts be extremely valuable to people.

                So it's not about having a conversation with people it's about saying the right things so your account becomes more popular. You don't want to change your opinion on anything because people are following your account because they liked the thing you've said in the past. A stupid website account is a major part of your identity and your past opinions are also part of your identity.

                So something that might've been just some weird phase in a small part of your life becomes a calcified part of your identity. The stupid shit you said in the past is part of who you are forever.

                There's pressure to get out your opinion to get out your "hot take" before everyone else, so that you'll get all of the attention instead of someone else who got their hot take before you did. Hot takes are obviously going to be poorly thought out and people in a rush to get them out are easily manipulated. Then they get calcified and it results in people on willing to die on some dumb hill.

                Because of all of this, people got dumbed done to the point where social media is basically just prison rules now. Gotta join some gang to survive, the gangs are determined by ethno-religious identity and survival is all about making your gang stronger than the other gangs. It would be funny if this nonsense didn't leak into reality, but since a lot of people's social media identity is a major part of their real life identity, all of the internet nonsense impacts the real world.

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                • A [email protected]

                  What would speed up Tor?

                  W This user is from outside of this forum
                  W This user is from outside of this forum
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                  wrote last edited by
                  #140

                  It's slow by design, for better encryption. Faster fibreoptic cables maybe? A faster speed of light might help?

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                  • H [email protected]

                    Just out of curiosity, what would the Star Trek equivalent be outside of eurocentric experience?

                    W This user is from outside of this forum
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                    wrote last edited by
                    #141

                    Three Body Problem?

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                    • mitm0@lemmy.worldM [email protected]

                      What is UseNet ?

                      T This user is from outside of this forum
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                      wrote last edited by
                      #142

                      Internet history. An old protocol originally for discussion, nowadays also to sail the seven seas, if you know what I mean. It predates the web by more than a decade.

                      anunusualrelic@lemmy.worldA 1 Reply Last reply
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                      • A [email protected]

                        i still don't follow you,

                        how is it that you don't mean what your said. and assuming you meant what you said is wrong?

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                        wrote last edited by
                        #143

                        Oh oh this is the part of Magellan's Journey where he had problems I guess. Cuz that didn't make a lick of sense.

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                        • realcalliopa@lemmy.worldR [email protected]

                          The emergence of social media has destroyed all the small communities to standardize communication and information.

                          It's a bit of a digital version of rural exodus. And since 2017/2018, I've noticed that everything that, in my opinion, represented the internet has disappeared.

                          I've known Lemmy for a few hours and I feel like I'm back in the early spirit of the internet.

                          K This user is from outside of this forum
                          K This user is from outside of this forum
                          [email protected]
                          wrote last edited by
                          #144

                          You're not alone at all. The old Internet died the day Facebook became the dominant social media app and gave the corpo their first real foothold into the digital sphere since the Dot Com Bust. It's not a space for free expression and information sharing anymore. Now it's all fucking ads, slop, and grifting.

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                          • H [email protected]

                            I just gotta say, I felt that switch too around that time. 2016-2019ish. Something about how Instagram moved away from encouraging posts of your life to family//friends for pushing an influencer/celebrity sphere. People stopped sharing their lives, ordinary content wasn’t ranked as high. And then the other social platforms copied it

                            gladiusb@lemmy.worldG This user is from outside of this forum
                            gladiusb@lemmy.worldG This user is from outside of this forum
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                            wrote last edited by
                            #145

                            I think it's way earlier than that. Early Facebook was horrible. But everyone bought into it.

                            H 1 Reply Last reply
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                            • S This user is from outside of this forum
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                              wrote last edited by
                              #146

                              Exactly. The internet was always social, connecting people. Capitalism and greed have ruined the internet.

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                              • realcalliopa@lemmy.worldR [email protected]

                                The emergence of social media has destroyed all the small communities to standardize communication and information.

                                It's a bit of a digital version of rural exodus. And since 2017/2018, I've noticed that everything that, in my opinion, represented the internet has disappeared.

                                I've known Lemmy for a few hours and I feel like I'm back in the early spirit of the internet.

                                N This user is from outside of this forum
                                N This user is from outside of this forum
                                [email protected]
                                wrote last edited by
                                #147

                                I have been here for a few months and Lemmy is gonna disappoint you too, my friend.

                                grrgyle@slrpnk.netG 1 Reply Last reply
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                                • gladiusb@lemmy.worldG [email protected]

                                  I think it's way earlier than that. Early Facebook was horrible. But everyone bought into it.

                                  H This user is from outside of this forum
                                  H This user is from outside of this forum
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                                  wrote last edited by
                                  #148

                                  The early years of Facebook as a teenager were great for me! No advertisements, just friends and friends of friends posting updates about their thoughts, activities, and photos. Somewhere in my college years (2011-15) it definitely got worse but not to a degree I’d call ‘bad’. Not disagreeing or anything, just sharing!

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                                  • T [email protected]

                                    The small communities are still there, you just don't visit them because you are on social media (like lemmy). Forums are still there. IRC is still there. Hell, even BBS and Usenet is still there if you really want to go that way.

                                    S This user is from outside of this forum
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                                    wrote last edited by
                                    #149

                                    Yeah but honestly who uses Usenet anymore if not to download binaries.

                                    T 1 Reply Last reply
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                                    • T [email protected]

                                      Internet history. An old protocol originally for discussion, nowadays also to sail the seven seas, if you know what I mean. It predates the web by more than a decade.

                                      anunusualrelic@lemmy.worldA This user is from outside of this forum
                                      anunusualrelic@lemmy.worldA This user is from outside of this forum
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                                      wrote last edited by
                                      #150

                                      Also you could go to a niche technical forum and find some of the planet's bes specialists of the material. For computing, you'd often see the people that built everything (from software to hardware). It was truly a world forum at a level that things like Twitter never got close to.

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                                      • W [email protected]

                                        It's slow by design, for better encryption. Faster fibreoptic cables maybe? A faster speed of light might help?

                                        A This user is from outside of this forum
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                                        wrote last edited by
                                        #151

                                        I started a serious answer and then read the last part. Well played.

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                                        • realcalliopa@lemmy.worldR [email protected]

                                          The emergence of social media has destroyed all the small communities to standardize communication and information.

                                          It's a bit of a digital version of rural exodus. And since 2017/2018, I've noticed that everything that, in my opinion, represented the internet has disappeared.

                                          I've known Lemmy for a few hours and I feel like I'm back in the early spirit of the internet.

                                          L This user is from outside of this forum
                                          L This user is from outside of this forum
                                          [email protected]
                                          wrote last edited by
                                          #152

                                          Pretty much but don't let that stop you from posting in other place. I try to make habit of posting in game forums of games I'm playing in. Sometime they have decent off-topic section where you can talk about other stuff. Only normies stick to social medias, us nerds stick to real internet.

                                          grrgyle@slrpnk.netG 1 Reply Last reply
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