I'm a parent that grew up on the internet. Remember that many of us who grew up on ICQ and Geocities to Napster and the somethingawful forums and beyond are now approaching 40.
Today's parents and grandparents are 1993's internet kids. Some of us, anyway.
Because it’s run by companies and not people like before. Because the original internet community grew and they prefer being in family and outside.
I miss the days of NewGrounds, Miniclip, and Kongregate.
I miss Flash games on browsers. Limewire. YouTube before influencers.
I miss the joy of StumbleUpon back when the web was exciting and unique.
Whenever I think of the good old days of the internet (like 2000-2009) I think of using stumbleupon and finding the best and most random stuff.
It's still there but it is not the same. I spent waaay to many hours in weird places thanks to that stumble button. Still regularly go to KOL, which I found there.
Ah, fuck I miss the goons, too. I still log in every couple of years or so. It's sort of like walking down a street you used to live on. It's all still familiar, but nothing is really the same.
I have a CD somewhere that I burned a few miniclip games onto. Also the combo number 5, which did NOT age well. (And was kinda unacceptable when it was new)
"Why the internet isn't fun anymore" - proceeds to talk about Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.
Completely fails to mention any fediverse sites, or any of the millions of other sites out there.
If you're the author, the internet isn't fun anymore because you don't use it. You visit the corporate websites only. You either never learned how to use the internet, or you're not interested in actually trying.
Its like the person who never leaves their neighborhood and complains that life is boring.
Agreed but isn't it the experience most people on the Internet currently have?
AIM/MSN/Yahoo chatrooms. GeoCities. Neopets. Limewire, KaZaa, listening to Art Bell on the radio next to you while you search for the latest alien news and read ancient texts. Webrings. Message boards. NSA hadn't partnered with Microsoft for the first version of PRISM.
It was more decentralized, but even in the centralized parts there weren't yet entire industries dedicated to stealing every last bit of dopamine from you to sell to the highest bidder.
It was an amazing time. RIP 1985-2010
It was and it can still be, that's why we are here. It will never be the same, we lost some amazing opportunities but we still need that connection, we still want to learn and build together. I don't know what tomorrow will bring but at least as some of us want to try, this time being mindful of the corporate capture risk, we can do better and that's exciting!
Even worse when you realize it's the job of these journalists to tell people there's a whole world out there. The general public may not know about this, but if you're a journalist making these claims, they should know better
The internet I grew up with and loved couldn't survive having the whole population on it. It became about making money off the userbase, political manipulation, and addictive distractions. It's success killed it.
Ask the people that had you put a paywall on the article, writers and editors of New Yorker!
The internet is tons of fun
Spreed 42.zip, renamed in boobs.zip, in Facebook and you'll see how funny the internet can be.
Don't pretty much all modern .zip managers know to not open zip bombs anymore?
No, clicking on a zipfile make work a zip manager. But most AV identify the zip file as badware if it scan it. How many user scan downloaded files with an AV up to date, before open or use it? Or an atached file in the mail?
Well, 42.zip is pretty known and you can download it from GitHub, but there are still zip bombs made and in use, even to eliminate AV protections, because it put the AV in a infinite loop in the intent to scan it, if it is a ZOD which isn't in the definition base of the AV, blocking and overloading the system, because of this they are still dangerous.
How deliciously ironic that this is paywalled.
https://12ft.io/https://www.newyorker.com/culture/infinite-scroll/why-the-internet-isnt-fun-anymore
When they put up a 10 foot wall, use a 12 foot ladder
And when they add 3 feet of plastic, use archive.ph
It's not paywalled for me. Clear cookies for this domain or use an adblocker.
That doesn't mean it's not paywalled. Just that you have the knowledge and the means to climb over that wall. Not all people have.
Copy and paste it then
Lemmy comment has a character limit.
https://justpaste.it/fayka
Mystery solved.
Oh geez
Also parents taking over something fun.
I'm a parent that grew up on the internet. Remember that many of us who grew up on ICQ and Geocities to Napster and the somethingawful forums and beyond are now approaching 40.
Today's parents and grandparents are 1993's internet kids. Some of us, anyway.
Because it’s run by companies and not people like before. Because the original internet community grew and they prefer being in family and outside.
I miss the days of NewGrounds, Miniclip, and Kongregate.
I miss Flash games on browsers. Limewire. YouTube before influencers.
I miss the joy of StumbleUpon back when the web was exciting and unique.
Whenever I think of the good old days of the internet (like 2000-2009) I think of using stumbleupon and finding the best and most random stuff.
It's still there but it is not the same. I spent waaay to many hours in weird places thanks to that stumble button. Still regularly go to KOL, which I found there.
https://www.stumbleupon.com/ https://www.kingdomofloathing.com/login.php?loginid=dbbda548c821441e8833e660bcb4816b
Thankfully we can still enjoy the flash games online at least. http://www.flashgamearchive.com/
Thank you, but it wasn't the games themselves. It was the people I shared that time with.
I miss the SomethingAwful forums from 2004
Ah, fuck I miss the goons, too. I still log in every couple of years or so. It's sort of like walking down a street you used to live on. It's all still familiar, but nothing is really the same.
I have a CD somewhere that I burned a few miniclip games onto. Also the combo number 5, which did NOT age well. (And was kinda unacceptable when it was new)
"Why the internet isn't fun anymore" - proceeds to talk about Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.
Completely fails to mention any fediverse sites, or any of the millions of other sites out there.
If you're the author, the internet isn't fun anymore because you don't use it. You visit the corporate websites only. You either never learned how to use the internet, or you're not interested in actually trying.
Its like the person who never leaves their neighborhood and complains that life is boring.
Agreed but isn't it the experience most people on the Internet currently have?
AIM/MSN/Yahoo chatrooms. GeoCities. Neopets. Limewire, KaZaa, listening to Art Bell on the radio next to you while you search for the latest alien news and read ancient texts. Webrings. Message boards. NSA hadn't partnered with Microsoft for the first version of PRISM.
It was more decentralized, but even in the centralized parts there weren't yet entire industries dedicated to stealing every last bit of dopamine from you to sell to the highest bidder.
It was an amazing time. RIP 1985-2010
It was and it can still be, that's why we are here. It will never be the same, we lost some amazing opportunities but we still need that connection, we still want to learn and build together. I don't know what tomorrow will bring but at least as some of us want to try, this time being mindful of the corporate capture risk, we can do better and that's exciting!
Even worse when you realize it's the job of these journalists to tell people there's a whole world out there. The general public may not know about this, but if you're a journalist making these claims, they should know better
The internet I grew up with and loved couldn't survive having the whole population on it. It became about making money off the userbase, political manipulation, and addictive distractions. It's success killed it.
It was such a fun and fanciful place.
The unattainable is unknown at Zombo com!
I miss the solar death ray.
Ask the people that had you put a paywall on the article, writers and editors of New Yorker!
The internet is tons of fun
Spreed 42.zip, renamed in boobs.zip, in Facebook and you'll see how funny the internet can be.
Don't pretty much all modern .zip managers know to not open zip bombs anymore?
No, clicking on a zipfile make work a zip manager. But most AV identify the zip file as badware if it scan it. How many user scan downloaded files with an AV up to date, before open or use it? Or an atached file in the mail? Well, 42.zip is pretty known and you can download it from GitHub, but there are still zip bombs made and in use, even to eliminate AV protections, because it put the AV in a infinite loop in the intent to scan it, if it is a ZOD which isn't in the definition base of the AV, blocking and overloading the system, because of this they are still dangerous.