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I Miss the Old Internet (2019)

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Re: I Miss the Old Internet (2019)

#31

Post by mrtksn »

markus_zhang wrote: post #17

I actually enjoy today's Internet much more. I'll lay out the reasons: 1) Easy access to many high quality contents. For example HN is a good platform for accessing new knowledge. Note that I say "access", not "learn". Reading HN sometimes give people the false impression that they are learning new knowledge, which usually is not the case. I treat HN as a platform to get a peek at certain new knowledge, but reading b…

> Easy access to many high quality contents.

On the contrary, I would argue that the content quality is drastically lower because of optimisation for revenue and much less purer motivations.

The video quality is really much much better though. Original video scene is great as the business side of the things is a solved problem. Yet again, it suffers from optimisation for advertisers as less and less things are kosher.

Oh and the movie scene is terrible IMHO as a whole, despite having some amazing movies. Netflix is also optimising and the most optimum content for the business of Netflix is often not that optimum for many people. Not many tall poppies came out of it.

It's funny how a pop singer made a song about our optimised happy lives: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um7pMggPnug

Re: I Miss the Old Internet (2019)

#33

Post by bruce343434 »

IgorPartola wrote: post #7
ferros wrote: post #4

In 20 years somebody will write an article about missing this ‘old’ internet from 2021. I wonder what they will miss.

Memes, Discord, the “old” Twitter, and either having ad supported sites (as opposed to everything being paid) or having premium sites (as opposed to everything being as supported.

they will miss not having to use a browsing agent that logs everything you do to your identity/passport and sends it out to the government to keep you in check

Re: I Miss the Old Internet (2019)

#34

Post by fabbari »

I miss text. It seems now that whenever I search for 'how to do X?' there is a lot of video results for sometimes very trivial things.

A 10 minutes video with the usual 'subscribe and hit the bell icon', a word from the sponsor, a long winded introduction and then "click on menu, then click on this item, then select the size".

Re: I Miss the Old Internet (2019)

#35

Post by okamiueru »

jumploops wrote: post #20

Admittedly, I miss the “old internet” too, however I have hope we can build it again. As I see it, there are two main issues to solve: 1) It’s no longer trivial to build a “home” page that fits one’s diverse interests. People are lured into frameworks which prescribe a certain level of structure. How do we make it easy for people to freely add content to their “pages” , in whatever form they envision? 2) The “early”…

Regarding 1. When you say "no longer trivial", I would point out that if it isn't now, then it surely never was?

Not using a framework (by which I assume you mean the likes of wordpress or squarespace) is still as much possible today as it ever was. And, the knowledge on how to do so is ever more accessible.

I can see your point that when provided with easy ways to do things, you are limited to design decisions and choices of those frameworks. However, I think the progress of open source has lowered the bar significantly for creating a completely custom platform.

Re: I Miss the Old Internet (2019)

#36

Post by donatj »

jumploops wrote: post #20

Admittedly, I miss the “old internet” too, however I have hope we can build it again. As I see it, there are two main issues to solve: 1) It’s no longer trivial to build a “home” page that fits one’s diverse interests. People are lured into frameworks which prescribe a certain level of structure. How do we make it easy for people to freely add content to their “pages” , in whatever form they envision? 2) The “early”…

I agree entirely with your second point. I feel like a lot of the creative energy that had gone into the old web now goes into YouTube and TikTok, for better or worse.

Re: I Miss the Old Internet (2019)

#37

Post by cik »

fabbari wrote: post #34

I miss text. It seems now that whenever I search for 'how to do X?' there is a lot of video results for sometimes very trivial things. A 10 minutes video with the usual 'subscribe and hit the bell icon', a word from the sponsor, a long winded introduction and then "click on menu, then click on this item, then select the size".

As someone who cannot process video, agreed this is genuinely insulting. To me, the majority of knowledge distillation is quickly becoming like cheap snacking - you get a bit, it leaves you wanting, but is ultimately bad for you.

Re: I Miss the Old Internet (2019)

#38

Post by api »

Has anyone tried Gemini?

https://gemini.circumlunar.space

I looked around a few days ago and I find it really neat. Its minimalism makes it unsuitable for all the trash that has ruined the modern web as a simple information store. It uses the principle of least capability to create an environment where mere information takes center stage. Not even supporting images means memes can't even take hold, let alone real-time adtech.

The only flaw is that it's still a client/server protocol, which means closed silos and more passive forms of adtech could still invade.

(The modern web is however an acceptable thin client for single page apps that interact with services. I look at HTML5+CSS+JS as the new VT100, a terminal protocol for talking to remote machines.)

The other part of the modern Internet that reminds me of the old Internet is small independent podcasts. I listen to a number of these, and the high information content and lack of bullshit is reminiscent of the web before Facebook and adtech. There's also an implicit principle of least capability in podcasts. It's possible to insert ads, sure, but it's also possible to skip them and it's hard to make it impossible to do that. The medium is non-interactive and almost non-scriptable. There is an effort right now to walled garden podcasts, and I urge everyone who cares to resist it by using podcast apps and aggregators that are not pushing this.

Re: I Miss the Old Internet (2019)

#39

Post by cm2187 »

It’s like nostalgia for old TV shows. You have found memories but then when you watch them again they were really crap. I also remember images rendering line by line, expensive phone bills, crashy browsers, popup storms, going through 15 pages of altavista results before finding something useful, etc

Re: I Miss the Old Internet (2019)

#40

Post by zubspace »

I just watched Inside [1], where Bo Burnham creates a wonderful, funny, sad and thought-provoking "Special" about our internet culture. Highly recommended.

This is one of my favourite songs now: [2]

It's a bit crazy when I think about how different our generations grow up and it makes me a bit sad that our children will have a completely different understanding of what the internet is. For me it was a place of wonder, freedom and self-expression. It's different today, but even I have problems explaining how it changed. But it definitely lost some if it's playfulness on the way.

[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14544192/

[2] https://youtu.be/k1BneeJTDcU

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