To miss the early days of social media/internet?

[VaxMerstappen]

Bit of a lighthearted thread, but does anyone look back wistfully on the early days of social media and miss it?

Maybe it's my age showing, but I feel like early 2010s internet/social media was a much more respectful, gentle place? The time when more people would share photos of their tea and their pet cats, rather than arguing 24/7 over the same topics all the time, like Gaza and gender? When there were far fewer Andrew Tates or other unpleasant individuals sharing hate filled messages and boosting their profile from said messages? When there were no Bonnie Blues or their ilk going to increasingly depraved measures in an attempt to get attention?

I'm someone who was born in the 90s, and so I've kind of grown up with the internet and social media. So, maybe it is just the naivety of youth and rose tinted glasses, but surely I can't be alone in thinking that the internet and social media has become far more toxic in a relatively short time?

Or has it always been as bad as it is now?

I do feel like when you stumble across a thread from the early 2000s there's a noticeably more friendly and unguarded tone. But I wasnt there so can't say for sure.

I miss late 00s/early 10s internet a lot. Might just be me entering my “I remember when this was all fields” era though.

The so-called Man-O-Sphere existed back then tho so I don’t know if it was really any nicer.

No it was incredibly dull. I’m glad I don’t see what my friends are eating for tea anymore. None of it looked enticing.
And the interactions were slower back in the day because of dial up so internet speeds have a lot to answer for!
I don’t look at all the negative stuff you mention and scroll past it on here.
Engaging with toxic content, or not, is a choice.

Yes, it was much nicer early on.

No one felt the need to troll and abuse aimlessly.

But, if it gets too much, then there’s the option of logging out.

Definitely - sadly the worlds a harsher place in general and once the paid and unpaid trolls had the realisation it was a good place to set an agenda and create falsehoods to spread easily rather than just inform in a light hearted way and entertain, it became a harsher place too - it’s still good if you need actual information - but unless it’s something without an agenda ( say a restaurant or shop store opening time or ) it can be less useful

Facebook is a cesspit.
Nothing ever gets taken down.
It became too big.

In the mid '90s the internet was new (to most of us) and exciting. I think it's been downhill since the rise of social media.

It all went downhill when they retired 'Ask Jeeves'😀😀😀

I quite agree OP
throws sheep

Yes I do miss it. I was at university mid 00's and although we had the internet, everything was still in person, all lectures, we went to the library and we typed our assignments up on computers, printed them out and handed them in. We didn't really need to look things up, what was available anyway - not a lot in comparison to the library - on the 'Net.

Although we had mobile phones from the late 90's they really were for calls, and I had one mainly in case of emergency when driving. A couple of years later texting came out. But I still remember in our road there was a red telephone box and using it when our landline had a fault, well into the 00's.

I do remember the chat rooms of the mid to late 90's though into the 00's. They were weird places and some people would send you unsolicited images. I'm glad they got rid of those chat rooms.

So in summary, the internet of the 90's and 00's were used as a hobby and to enhance our lives, most things were still done "in person" and it didn't control most aspects of peoples' lives 24/7.

I miss the mid 2000s Internet so much it actually hurts. I spent my teenage years on ED forums (I guess what most people would think of as pro ana) but it was such a source of fun and comfort for me. Everything was so much less censored back then and I miss that. Even if the age verification shit was about the children (which it's obviously not) I'd still be against it. I had completely free reign of the Internet as my mum wasn't very tech savvy and I think that helped me more than it harmed me. Also everyone was much less aggressive back then and every square inch of every site wasn't plastered with ads.

Late 00s/early 10s internet was the perfect time. We had chat apps and Mumsnet and online news and all the convenience of the internet, but we weren’t on our phones all the time. I don’t think phone addiction was a thing yet. Smartphones and the internet at that time made life better.

Facebook is null and void now, as is x- I miss the hive of loveliness they were (twitter once wasn’t the hole it became!!)