Wanted to ask you about this article, how do you remember the early days of the internet (I was sadly too young at that time). Do you wish it back? And do you think it can ever be like that again? I would be very interested
I totally don’t miss all the flashing shit, and awful music on every site. Nor do I miss super long load times, but I do miss the more personal feeling. I also miss feeling like every click wasn’t someone trying to get me to give them my money, or steal my info. Don’t get me wrong, there were toxic parts of the internet back then, but I feel like its everywhere now.
Oh, and I’ll never miss that dial up sound, or dropping because someone picked the phone up. I also know popups and ads existed back then, but I feel like every site I go to now, I spend at least 45 seconds trying (often unsuccessfully) to close all the pop up and ads, just to attempt to read an article. Of course more pop up if you scroll to keep reading too.
Basically, I mostly agree with the article.
I didn’t really “participate” in the internet in the early days, those being the early 2000s for me. Most of my memories from back then are of flash games and animations, had a lot of fun with those over the years.
Most of all I think I just miss the pre-gamergate internet on the whole. Obviously there have always been bigots and assholes on the internet, but now they’ve really staked their claim and driven their hooks in deep. It sucks to watch everything I enjoy become part of the culture war and the most vocal parts of virtually every fan base that I would otherwise be a part of turn into raging pieces of shit.
Though I suppose the internet already had enough evil in it to harass a bunch of actors from the Star Wars prequels to the brink of suicide well before gamergate, so maybe shit was just always bad.
Less centralized than it is now. Miss that.
Less ads.
Otoh web design was very childish back then. Peak was Starfield background with bright color text with some animated gifs plastered all over.
I think I miss most is online gaming where voice chat wasn’t an option. Things were a tad more civilized when you had to type in what you wanted to say. Or just efficient. I actually learned to type fast cuz of this. Plus I can read the shorthand better than understand most people’s accents.
Ah, the early days of the internet where every click on a link felt like you discovered something new and exciting. I remember making my own ‘homepage’ (with stats counter, most of the visits were my own), the dial-up modem’s noises, browsing open ftp servers to find interesting warez and generally not worrying about viruses.
You were excited to get email because it was almost always from a human being who put meaning and intent into their message. It was like getting a handwritten letter compared to all the random terms of service update emails from a service you haven’t used in four years and emails from a service you didn’t sign up for because someone else thinks your email address is their email address and the outright spam in the filter.
Yes, agree and remember. I lived in very many different places in the late '90s. Often, the only method of communication was email. No landlines sometimes and certainly no cell phones.
I can’t remember the last time I got a personal email. I get some rather lovely ones from my colleagues, but a personal email is a letter, and nearly as extinct.
Now everything is stuck in corporate silos and largely out of reach.
I miss the somewhat more decentralized and anonymous nature of the early Internet and the Web. People were more likely to have their own Web site with their own shitty personal flare. Services were more infrastructure than ways to monetize the masses. Everyone was busy learning and trying out new things instead of just mindless content consumption or broadcasting their basic-assed opinion.
Things seemed more substantial. But also anonymity granted people the ability to not be judged by their failures. So trying things was less personally risky and easier to fade away in time.
Maybe I just got old. I would love to get back there, though.
I remember my Technology teacher in high school (1998-ish) showing me what websites I could go to for downloading full albums for free. He initially showed me a directory just filled with Pink Floyd tracks.
You can still find things in open directories, but it doesn’t have that same feel of being wild woolly and free.
I miss early social media like LiveJournal weirdly. 1999-2005-ish was wild times.
I also remember hosting DJ Dangermouse’s “Grey Album” which was a mix of The Beatles White Album with Jay-Z’s Black Album on my website as protest. The album was released for free, no money was made from it, yet Dangermouse was sued and banned from distributing it.
