The internet has so fundamentally changed too. It has changed from being a wild west of varied, diverse sites made by both individuals and corporations to a carefully curated and psychologically-engineered garden, accessible mainly through apps.
The internet feels less free overall. The world wide web made the internet accessible in a way that allowed the average person to explore a new world. But then start phones and app culture clamped that down, making everything a focus on what's trending or what the algorithm wants you to see.
Absolutely. I think that this site qualifies as old internet simply for not being mainstream and for not having an associated app.
But the old internet seems to be less populous than it used to be. A lot of online communities consolidated into larger sites, like Digg, Reddit and Tumblr. While all of those sites have issues, with Digg and Tumblr falling into obscurity and Reddit turning insane, I haven't seen evidence of a widespread exodus back to the old style of internet.
Even the right wing counterculture has fallen into this mentality. There was so much focus into making a right-wing Twitter clone. The same goes for YouTube, and even Reddit.
Go read David Stewart and Brian Neimeier's books on the subject. Anyone who wasn't at least tweenaged at the turn of the century has a vastly different outlook from even Gen X.
We're the last generation to experience the internet in a way that let you not be exposed to it at all times.
The internet has so fundamentally changed too. It has changed from being a wild west of varied, diverse sites made by both individuals and corporations to a carefully curated and psychologically-engineered garden, accessible mainly through apps.
The internet feels less free overall. The world wide web made the internet accessible in a way that allowed the average person to explore a new world. But then start phones and app culture clamped that down, making everything a focus on what's trending or what the algorithm wants you to see.
It feels more like AOL won every day...
Absolutely. I think that this site qualifies as old internet simply for not being mainstream and for not having an associated app.
But the old internet seems to be less populous than it used to be. A lot of online communities consolidated into larger sites, like Digg, Reddit and Tumblr. While all of those sites have issues, with Digg and Tumblr falling into obscurity and Reddit turning insane, I haven't seen evidence of a widespread exodus back to the old style of internet.
Even the right wing counterculture has fallen into this mentality. There was so much focus into making a right-wing Twitter clone. The same goes for YouTube, and even Reddit.
Ahem.
Go read David Stewart and Brian Neimeier's books on the subject. Anyone who wasn't at least tweenaged at the turn of the century has a vastly different outlook from even Gen X.