AIBU to feel sad about how the internet's turned out?

[GordonBlue]

It could have been a truly amazing information and cultural exchange hub but instead it's a sewn up monetized abomination where people shout at and con each other.

I was going through some old papers today and found web pages I'd printed in 1997, back when I still thought if you wanted to read something again you had to print it. They were from two different discussion groups. One was about Fibonacci number sequence in nature, the other was about a numerical interpretation of Shakespeare's sonnets.

I also remember the early days of file sharing, and the sheer joy of finding music including music you hadn't heard for years, where you could tap into everything and no one owned anything, there were no adverts, none of it was buttoned down.

I dunno, I just feel really sad that that's how things used to be on the internet and now it's all porn/ red pill /fake news/limited characters angry crap. AIBU to think we've fucked this thing up? Or am I an old lady shouting at clouds?

Gently, I do think that view of a bit 'old lady shouting at clouds'
I was around in the early days of the Internet and it was mostly getting groomed by adult men on MSN chatrooms or MySpace.. watching badger badger mushroom.. playing stupid games.. two girls one cup.. that car video where the face jumps out... waiting 15 hours for a song to download on limewire only to find it was labelled incorrectly and wasn't the right song.. stupid vines
How is any of that really better than now days?
In fact I personally think it's improved..

Facebook definitely tops MySpace. My god the music and bloody graphics! So annoying!
Messaging is safer.
There's more information available and it's available faster..
In fact I think that's the reason it seems sinister sometimes... simply because of the bigger reach you are more exposed to OTHER PEOPLE AND THIER THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS which is onvdreadful 🤣 but that's not really the Internet fault. There have always been idiots.. there's always been conspiracy nutcases.. aggressive nasty predatory men..
You can just see how many of them there are more easily now.

now it's all porn/ red pill /fake news/limited characters angry crap

No, it isn't.

When I was 16 in 1997 I had a sales job for a friend who was designing websites. Phoning companies up and persuading them that they need to have their company represented on the World Wide Web. It was a very hard sell, considering pretty much no one had a website then…people were very sceptical it was going to catch on/be worth spending money on.

To answer your question, I just ignore/move past the stuff I don’t want to see, but it’s kind of sad that life completely revolves around the internet these days, the effect that’s had on society as a whole, and yes I’m aware of the irony of the fact I’m writing that on the internet.

It was always porn though OP. I was sent my first unsolicited dick pic before the age of 13, in the mid-late 90s.

But there are still gems out there, I think it just takes a lot more effort to cultivate what you see online so the doomscrolling algorithm doesn’t fuck it all up. I stumbled across a great instagram account of a photo journalist the other day who has been photographing NYC’s last loft inhabitants - artists who moved into the great big industrial spaces as businesses moved out in the 50s and 60s and before the neighbourhoods were gentrified. Spent a happy hour browsing stories of people in their 90s who have inhabited these spaces for decades, fascinating stuff. Hopefully I’ll get to see a some similar pages now that I’ve shown some appreciation for the photographer’s work and appeased the algorithm gods.

the web, the world.

It's all so neanderthal and disappointing. One step forward, 6 steps back.

Humans are crap.

I was around in the early days of the Internet and it was mostly getting groomed by adult men on MSN chatrooms or MySpace

You were around during the earlier days of the extreme corporatisation of the internet, you mean.

Usenet, personal websites, email, IRC, all of these were much freer than talking to people on Facebook or Mumsnet or Twitter, for better or for worse. It used to feel very different. MSN chatrooms and MySpace are much more like the modern internet than they are like the kind of internet I think OP is talking about.

You can still use all those things, but the bulk of internet users won't ever come into contact with anything you say there.

But yes, they were full of porn and groomers and conspiracy theorists and perverts and with far less moderation.

I had the same thought. MySpace was about a decade after Eternal September. Not exactly early Internet.

Social media and its consequences have been a disaster for humanity in many ways.

Gently, I do think that view of a bit 'old lady shouting at clouds'
I was around in the early days of the Internet and it was mostly getting groomed by adult men on MSN chatrooms or MySpace..

Gently, MySpace wasn't around until 2003 - that is hardly the early days of the internet.

Like everything else in life the internet is what you make of it. All of those things and people existed back then just as they do now.

Spend time with people on the internet that wax poetic about differential equations or whatever else you are into and ignore the rest.

File sharing was illegal and people definitely owned the music! But yes it's definitely possible to be nostalgic for the early days of the internet (and by early days I also mean early 2000s, most people didn't use it regularly during the 90s).
The internet has done an amazing job connecting people. But it's also created a monster in terms of social media, oversharing and the chronically online. People who believe their 'comments section' is their real life. People who self diagnose with myriad conditions because of exposure to others who also self diagnose. Genuinely invented identity categories that somehow develop a reach into legislation. We need a course correction urgently.

I don't go back as far as the Eternal September, or BBSes, or the properly early days of the internet. But I do remember how it generally felt when we weren't doing almost everything inside a few companies' walled-off services. No single ISP or company owned the newsgroup you posted to. If you had a hobby or interest you might browse personal webpages with webrings linking you to other sites on the same topic hosted by completely different services. There were whole communities and conversations which couldn't be shut down by any one company. You wouldn't generally find yourself in a situation where to keep up with your offline club's fixtures and events and chat, or be in the loop with your friend or family conversations, you'd pretty much have to sign up to membership of a specific website or service (and accept its policies) — if it was online, it would probably be done by group email or mailing list.

In a lot of ways it wasn't nearly as good. It was slow, and sometimes hard to find what you wanted, and it could be unsafe, but it felt different to how it does now. More like a slightly scary anarchic frontier marketplace with little stallholders and less like a big climate-controlled mall. Though that shiny mall has plenty of interesting or dangerous areas hidden round corners, too. The older things haven't gone altogether, but if most people choose to step within the easier, slicker experience offered by Facebook or whoever, you lose out if you don't step inside too.

I dunno, I just feel really sad that that's how things used to be on the internet and now it's all porn/ red pill /fake news/limited characters angry crap. AIBU to think we've fucked this thing up? Or am I an old lady shouting at clouds?

you just need to be selective. Yes all that crap is out there, but you don't need to get sucked into it. Just like you can go into WH Smith and you know there are children's comics, Woman's Own, Cosmo and up there in the top shelf are the dodgy magazines. You choose what you want and leave the stuff you don't want.

I've never once come across porn in all the years I've used the internet. It doesn't come up on any searches I do and I don't click on anything that is remotely dodgy that would give any algorithm the chance to match me to something I don't want to see.

Of course I know it's all out there, not just on the Dark Web but spilling into the mainstream. I just make sure I filter it out. My YouTube feeds are yoga channels, gardening, software hints and tips etc.

no social media for the past 7 years or more, liberating (never been on Twitter, it's a time-sink) I can't stand what it does to people, no time for it so I don't subscribe. I do WhatsApp for work, and a few friends use it, but we behave properly or I'd just dereg myself 🤷‍♀️

I miss the intelligent people. In the actual early days, it was a meeting space for interesting ideas, and for intelligent people to engage in real discussion about specialist topics of interest.

But yes it's definitely possible to be nostalgic for the early days of the internet (and by early days I also mean early 2000s, most people didn't use it regularly during the 90s).

That is really not early days. And the reason it was so much better in some ways in the 90s was that most people didn't use it regularly, if at all.

I love the convenience of Internet shopping and Internet banking, getting quotes for things like insurance & booking activities. I don't have the time to spend queuing in traffic jams or shops, or ringing lots of companies for quotes & information. Although I do have to admit this convenience has contributed to job losses & banks etc being shut down.
I like the fact that it's easier to keep in touch with loved ones through the Internet.
I hate the addictiveness of it all though and that a lot of people would rather doom scroll than connect with the people sitting next to them.
There have always been perverts on it too. I used to go on chat rooms in the early days, around 2002, just to chat to normal people & not to engage in sexual chat. Freeerve chat is my biggest memory. And the amount of men who's opening line was "a/s/l" so they could start with the cybersex as they used to call it in those days was unbelievable 🤣

As others have said, it's what you make of it. A good ad blocker goes a long way, and I mostly stay away from Twitter, Facebook and other sites engineered to make people hate each other. As long as you can identify what the motive is behind things, there's still a lot of decent free content out there.

I'm glad that my age means I came all the way through from having no internet access at all, to having it at school, then dial-up at home, then broadband, then fibre etc. I do feel like I appreciate it more as it wasn't always there. I've experienced what life was like "before the internet" and it gives me greater perspective.

It's also pretty much the entire reason I have my partner, many of my friends, and a very successful career, so I feel like I owe a lot to the Internet.

You’ve nailed my early internet memories 😄 don’t forget magical Trevor!

now it's all porn/ red pill /fake news/limited characters angry crap

It's really not.

Link? That sounds great, @FrothyCothy.

I use it the way I want so I am perfectly happy with it, sure there is bad out there but only for people who chose it that way

The tricks that he does are ever so clever.

And hamster dance.

It’s whatever you search for. Maybe stop searching for porn?!!

I think you need to see it as a menu or a shopping mall.

I'm not about to start buying my clothes from Dior, so I don't go in. No point. No desire.

I don't like liver, so I don't buy it.

Much of the internet is fantastic! I think it has turned out really well for an entity whose existence was originally totally driven by porn

I miss the intelligent people. In the actual early days, it was a meeting space for interesting ideas, and for intelligent people to engage in real discussion about specialist topics of interest.

That's one of the snobbiest things I've read in a long time! "The internet has been ruined by people that aren't as bright as me!"

For what it's worth, there's still plenty of places to discuss 'specialist topics of interest'.

I think the moment you realise that all the governments and big tech owners used their powers not to crack down on porn and child groomers and traffickers, but to curtail likes and biological facts, and to record bad words and thoughts, is the moment that all hope for the internet dies.

The E-safety lady in Australia gets daily reports not on child abuse or trafficking. But on how many people, and who, across the world, mention her.

I watched one night as a person went on a violent rampage through somewhere in California. Masked up and in black. Half way through they realised the person was a certain type of person and each and every tweet, report, story just disappeared before my eyes. By morning, it didn't exist and was never reported.