The open internet has been dying ever since centralized social media services overtook for phpBB forums. Recent developments with ActivityPub is the first time it seems to be making a comeback.
It’s not even an opinion, it’s just… how it is.
Doesn’t even seem like it was that long ago that I’d be sitting at my desktop, 5+ tabs open. One might be Fark, Stumbleupon, Digg, etc for general shits and giggles, maybe some news. The others were the independent forums I visited every day for my interests where I actually got to meet and befriend some people, regardless of location.
The anonymity of Reddit (which I was cool with) definitely was a shift in what “community” actually meant online.