The internet used to be fun • Hacker News Board

Re: The internet used to be fun

#31

Post by rchaud » Mon, Feb 12, 2024, 3:58 PM UTC

xnx wrote: post #11

TikTok is where I find fun on the current internet. It's hilarious (Taylor Swift private jet memes), weird (grimace shake), surprising, emotionally moving (hopecore), educational (how to adjust a door closer), and always exposing me to things I've never seen (starting process for a diesel locomotive). It contains ads, but they're pretty easy to identify and very easy to skip.

TikTok is like a Potemkin village propping up the idea that the Internet is still just regular people faffing around.

The reality is that TT, like all social media, puts people on a hamster wheel of 'content creation'. Post about this, not that. Post using code words if [geopolitical event] is advertiser-unfriendly. Post something every single day so that the algorithm deigns to distribute your post to randomly selected buckets of users across the globe.

I skip the ads on Tiktok too, but at this point, even regular videos desperate for engagement are effectively ads. Taylor Swift memes, or memes related to [popular IP] are ads, just delivered by unpaid civilians.

Re: The internet used to be fun

#32

Post by 01HNNWZ0MV43FF » Mon, Feb 12, 2024, 4:00 PM UTC

doublerabbit wrote: post #8

strict9 wrote: post #7

The internet is still fun. I was on bulletin board systems pre-internet as a kid and spent too much time on the web in the late 90s. I've seen it evolve from java applets and flash to something better. Though I don't like social media much anymore and worry about the effect of screens on kids, I still love the internet and value what it makes possible. I don't buy into these arguments of things used to be better. It'…

> flash to something better Please enlighten me on something better. Nothing has enabled me to create in the same way of creativity and fun than Flash did; for me at least. It was so practical that my mother made her first website in Flash.

Doesn't Flash, the tool, export to JS now?

It was having Flash player, the browser plugin, that was an ongoing security and privacy problem for browsers.

Re: The internet used to be fun

#33

Post by rchaud » Mon, Feb 12, 2024, 4:00 PM UTC

strict9 wrote: post #22

Tommy430 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've seen it evolve from java applets and flash to something better. With the advances in technology I wish it had. However, we now have Material Design, oversized UIs, autoplaying videos when you are immediately on the site, anti-adblockers, "Please Subscribe" crap, the desktop being an afterthought (hamburger menus), etc.

I don't like those things either. But a counter argument is that uBlock origin, Pi-hole, and Reader mode in Firefox go a long way to blocking those things and creating a nice reading experience.

Ublock Origin has no effect on email modals or cookie popups. Those have to be manually zapped.

Re: The internet used to be fun

#34

Post by spacecadet » Mon, Feb 12, 2024, 4:01 PM UTC

rchaud wrote: post #31

xnx wrote: post #11

TikTok is where I find fun on the current internet. It's hilarious (Taylor Swift private jet memes), weird (grimace shake), surprising, emotionally moving (hopecore), educational (how to adjust a door closer), and always exposing me to things I've never seen (starting process for a diesel locomotive). It contains ads, but they're pretty easy to identify and very easy to skip.

TikTok is like a Potemkin village propping up the idea that the Internet is still just regular people faffing around. The reality is that TT, like all social media, puts people on a hamster wheel of 'content creation'. Post about this, not that. Post using code words if [geopolitical event] is advertiser-unfriendly. Post something every single day so that the algorithm deigns to distribute your post to randomly selec…

Knowing someone close to influencer marketing- even some are paid civilians...

Re: The internet used to be fun

#35

Post by rchaud » Mon, Feb 12, 2024, 4:02 PM UTC

01HNNWZ0MV43FF wrote: post #32

doublerabbit wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> flash to something better Please enlighten me on something better. Nothing has enabled me to create in the same way of creativity and fun than Flash did; for me at least. It was so practical that my mother made her first website in Flash.

Doesn't Flash, the tool, export to JS now? It was having Flash player, the browser plugin, that was an ongoing security and privacy problem for browsers.

Flash isn't even available anymore. It was discontinued in Dec 2020.

Re: The internet used to be fun

#36

Post by BirAdam » Mon, Feb 12, 2024, 4:04 PM UTC

strict9 wrote: post #7

The internet is still fun. I was on bulletin board systems pre-internet as a kid and spent too much time on the web in the late 90s. I've seen it evolve from java applets and flash to something better. Though I don't like social media much anymore and worry about the effect of screens on kids, I still love the internet and value what it makes possible. I don't buy into these arguments of things used to be better. It'…

EDIT: this was largely just to strengthen one of your points.

Every single time something becomes big, the hardcore early fans of that thing will complain about the change.

This used to happen with bands. Early die hard fans enjoyed having their own tribe or clique built around the band, and then when the band became too successful they'd say that the band "sold out" and that the newfound fans aren't really fans and so on.

This happened with Linux where many people say Linux isn't fun anymore, or they lament that everything changed. I was an early Linux user, but I find that Linux is better than ever and I'm thankful I don't need to configure X anymore.

People of the early internet were in their own little clique, and then the entire world jumped in and they lost "their place." They will always lament this change, and they will always say it used to be better.

Humans are tribal and they forms tribes around anything and everything. Anytime their tribe is displaced they will become resentful even if that displacement makes the thing their tribe formed around better in every possible way. For me, I never had a solid sense of "tribal belonging" and therefore never really cared about these things, but I do understand the impulse as I get very vivid and strong experiences of it at sporting events, concerts, and so on. I suppose the strongest sense of tribalism I feel consistently is that of being a contrarian by impulse, and I feel some kind of kindred spirit with other contrarians... so maybe take everything I've said here with a grain or pound of salt.

Re: The internet used to be fun

#37

Post by h4ch1 » Mon, Feb 12, 2024, 4:05 PM UTC

xnx wrote: post #11

TikTok is where I find fun on the current internet. It's hilarious (Taylor Swift private jet memes), weird (grimace shake), surprising, emotionally moving (hopecore), educational (how to adjust a door closer), and always exposing me to things I've never seen (starting process for a diesel locomotive). It contains ads, but they're pretty easy to identify and very easy to skip.

I never liked how addictive short form content like TikTok/Shorts/Reels are, the way they hijack your attention into an endless stream of information (a lot of time useless, but of course you can cater to your tastes) that you just stare at and swipe-swipe-swipe feels dystopian to say the least.

I personally did an experiment on myself after I had issues watching long lectures being addicted to Youtube shorts, went on a complete detox; uninstalled Instagram, only used NewPipe and my attention span skyrocketed within 2-3 weeks.

I cannot recommend enough for people to take a break from short form content like this.

Re: The internet used to be fun

#38

Post by readingnews » Mon, Feb 12, 2024, 4:06 PM UTC

InCityDreams wrote: post #23

8-10 regular sites, then mindless scrolling. Hundreds of bookmarks I'll never re-visit. I do miss forums.

>> Hundreds of bookmarks I'll never re-visit.

It is like the books on our shelves and the proverbial pictures in our parents shoeboxes. I recall when I was very very young, my parents would break out the shoeboxes at holiday gatherings (usually Christmas and Thanksgiving) and rummage through the pictures with family members. Other than those times, they were just boxes in the back of a closet.

Perhaps we should do that with our bookmarks... break them out once a year and see if there are any ones left keeping, and ones that just need to go to the back of the closet.

Re: The internet used to be fun

#39

Post by rchaud » Mon, Feb 12, 2024, 4:09 PM UTC

strict9 wrote: post #10

doublerabbit wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> flash to something better Please enlighten me on something better. Nothing has enabled me to create in the same way of creativity and fun than Flash did; for me at least. It was so practical that my mother made her first website in Flash.

Flash was a nice tool for creators and it enabled some interesting ways to present information. Flash gaming was a very interesting niche. But on the whole I think it made the web worse. Lots of sites had microscopic text that you couldn't enlarge, no bookmarking pages or maintaining state, no right click, never ending security holes, invisible to search, inaccessible to those with vision or hearing assistants. The l…

Plenty of websites have similar usability issues today. Most sites will refuse to load content without Javascript. I stopped keeping bookmarks because most pages I had went to 404 Not Found.

For all these disadvantages, Flash had something modern webdev can only dream of: permanence. A Flash file from 2004 will work almost perfectly in Ruffle, 20 years later; video, audio, images, animation. A dynamic webpage or dataviz (the only interactive things made today) won't load on anything that doesn't have a full NodeJS server on a Virtualbox VM and untold number of npm dependencies.

Flash was not the problem, it was how people used it. Same as today.

Re: The internet used to be fun

#40

Post by bbsz » Mon, Feb 12, 2024, 4:09 PM UTC

xnx wrote: post #11

TikTok is where I find fun on the current internet. It's hilarious (Taylor Swift private jet memes), weird (grimace shake), surprising, emotionally moving (hopecore), educational (how to adjust a door closer), and always exposing me to things I've never seen (starting process for a diesel locomotive). It contains ads, but they're pretty easy to identify and very easy to skip.

This wasn't a sarcasm? Honestly, I am undecided.

(I don't like TikTok and everything it stands for)