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I don't enjoy the Internet any more

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Re: I don't enjoy the Internet any more

#81

Post by maplethorpe »

> I hope that we’ll collectively decide that it’s rude to pass off LLM writing as your own, but I wouldn’t bet on it.

I think it could happen.

When everyone first started tagging each other's face and location, I immediately hated it. It felt like an incredible violation of privacy, and I couldn't understand why anyone would do it. Now, finally, the zeitgeist is starting to catch up, and it's common to hear even "normies" worry about who is snooping on their data.

This process took about 20 years. I suspect LLM etiquette will take roughly the same.

Re: I don't enjoy the Internet any more

#82

Post by hagbard_c »

hagbard_c wrote: post #78

That's like saying "I don't enjoy the roads any more" and the solution is the same: go "off the beaten tracks" to find solace. The internet is the thing which binds many networks together, both the commercial drivel-pushing "AI"-generated haunts of sleezebags, propagandists, the-current-thing activists, influencer-ridden shitholes and more as well as the odd interesting thing which piques your interest. 99.999% of st…

Hey, anonymous down-voter, why not tell us where you disagree instead of pressing that annoying get_this_thing_which_I_do_not_agree_with_greyed_off_the_page button? Inquiring minds want to know what triggered you, where you think my reasoning went wrong.

Re: I don't enjoy the Internet any more

#84

Post by krapp »

ColdStream wrote: post #41
sibeliuss wrote: post #34

This is how I feel completely, having also grown up online all the way from BBSs onwards. I literally don't even have websites to visit any more. I get on my computer, scan hacker news for a bit, check twitter for a few minutes, scan some world news site, and thats it. I still spend a lot of time programming (and thus a lot of time on the computer) but other than that, absolutely nothing appeals. Its a wasteland in m…

I have said it for a while, Hacker news is the last place that still feels like the old internet, but even then I'm not a huge fan of it. Some days I open it up to see just 30 stories about LLM's, something I have little to no interest in. While sites like Neocities are trying to keep the old web ideals alive, even there it can be difficult to find much of value.

The fediverse still has a sense of community to me, and there are alt-webs like geminispace. All of it is anti-capitalist and anti-AI which should at least delay their eventual consumption by the rot, although holding it back entirely is impossible.

As tired as I am seeing the constant stream of LLM stories (and even worse, vibe-coded projects) on HN i'm getting just as tired of the regular posts complaining about how much the internet sucks as well. HN never seemed to be very full of joy or whimsy to me (the culture seems to afraid of "being like Reddit") but lately it seems like nothing left but vitriol and bitterness. I feel like I need to limit my exposure to this place the way I do other social media platforms because it's just too toxic.

Ah well. It was fun while it lasted.

Re: I don't enjoy the Internet any more

#85

Post by sexy_seedbox »

sibeliuss wrote: post #34

This is how I feel completely, having also grown up online all the way from BBSs onwards. I literally don't even have websites to visit any more. I get on my computer, scan hacker news for a bit, check twitter for a few minutes, scan some world news site, and thats it. I still spend a lot of time programming (and thus a lot of time on the computer) but other than that, absolutely nothing appeals. Its a wasteland in m…

I just make AI videos nowadays and post on Reddit, rarely even browse HN.

Re: I don't enjoy the Internet any more

#86

Post by munksbeer »

CGamesPlay wrote: post #33
akersten wrote: post #4

I'm simultaneously hearing that the internet is more addicting than cigarettes to the point where multiple states are finding success levying gigantic fines on companies for having too good of a product, and also that the internet is boring and drab. Are we on two different internets? Is the author simply immune from the hypnosis of social media? Anyway, the real internet is and always has been/will be smaller forums…

> Are we on two different internets? Is the author simply immune from the hypnosis of social media? Yes; and either yes or the author is separating walled social network gardens from "the internet". The "real internet", as you say, is not the addictive algorithmic feeds. I believe that the "real internet" you're talking about is larger than it's ever been, but the signal-to-noise ratio of the whole internet has been…

I've been thinking about this for a while. I'm a new contributor, long time reader on hn. I also have an old reddit account. I have always thought hn as higher quality than reddit, but lately I'm becoming a victim of my own irritation. I can't help but click and read comments that grate me and I'm finding more an more here.

I don't want to make this into the very thing I'm trying to avoid, so my direct question is, if my interest is in building quality software with AI (in the current form, that is LLMs), where should I go to interact with like minded, friendly people? I've literally avoided reddit like the plague for the last couple of years, but perhaps I should return to certain subs there?

I'd just like to avoid a certain style of comment, remove the noise so to speak, and just trade helpful advice and opinions from people with similar goals. I can't do that here on hn, because it isn't that sort of forum. 99.9% of ask hn posts are going to get no traction.

Re: I don't enjoy the Internet any more

#88

Post by GPerson »

hhjinks wrote: post #59
GPerson wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Earlier today I saw that Tik Tok has 2 billion monthly active users and the average user uses it for 100 minutes a day. The app is so addictive that I feel it’s not right to say the user using it every day for 100 minutes at a time is enjoying themselves. To me this doesn’t look like an organic expression of the youth’s desire to explore and create in ways different from precious generations. 1/4th of the humans in t…

Every generation has its own vilified time waster. Can I truthfully say that time spent on TikTok is worse than the 4+ hours a day I spent playing Skyrim in 2011?

I’d bet it is. Playing Skyrim involves a least some thinking from the player. Have you ever succumbed to a scrolling binge? It’s honestly painful. You just sit there for many hours in a row not feeling fulfilled by anything.

A better comparison in my opinion is to television of the 80s-90s. Though I do think longer form content is better for you.

Re: I don't enjoy the Internet any more

#89

Post by xtracto »

munksbeer wrote: post #86
CGamesPlay wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Are we on two different internets? Is the author simply immune from the hypnosis of social media? Yes; and either yes or the author is separating walled social network gardens from "the internet". The "real internet", as you say, is not the addictive algorithmic feeds. I believe that the "real internet" you're talking about is larger than it's ever been, but the signal-to-noise ratio of the whole internet has been…

I've been thinking about this for a while. I'm a new contributor, long time reader on hn. I also have an old reddit account. I have always thought hn as higher quality than reddit, but lately I'm becoming a victim of my own irritation. I can't help but click and read comments that grate me and I'm finding more an more here. I don't want to make this into the very thing I'm trying to avoid, so my direct question is, i…

HN unfortunately is not a forum for anything "deep", most conversations are shallow and temporary "fast". The /./Fark/Digg format brought us that.

Discord "chat" format also doesnt work, it's too immediate for good, deep interaction to happen. Same as Slack. It's been the nature since IRC. (I've seen it even in really high Signal to Noise ratio communities like Rands tech leadership slack community).

Email lists kind of cut it wrt length and temporarily. But historically the browsing/discovery format hasn't been great.

NNTP also has a good format, OK discovery and plenty of good clients. And with AI, I think Spam shouldn't be an issue.

I just wish young people were more attracted to open formats/protocols instead of proprietary services for interaction.

Re: I don't enjoy the Internet any more

#90

Post by JKCalhoun »

Confessions of a Data Hoarder

I've been slurping parts of the internet that I think are interesting—the parts I would miss if the internet died.

So many electronics magazines and books (as PDFs) from worldradiohistory.com. Ditto for magazines and such from archive.org. TV series, music videos, concerts, films from YouTube…

I suppose if the internet did go away (or I left it) I'd discover more things that I would miss (drawing a blank right now though). I expect though I would also rediscover a lot of the things that I enjoyed before the internet.

(You see, I'm old enough that the internet was not a part of my life until my mid-to-late 20's. We had fun before the internet, BTW: I made and flew kites, model rockets, did a lot more artwork…)

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