i don’t think it has to be like this. make dumb or silly stuff, share it.
it feels like the folks who lament about the good ole days grew up, got a corporate job, and forgot how to have fun.
The fun has been optimized out of the Internet
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Re: The fun has been optimized out of the Internet
#32All fun is on discord now.
Re: The fun has been optimized out of the Internet
#33I agree, but it's been said by all... make homebrew software for an old Nintendo console pick up cross stitching or weaving make an independent film with a friend; use stuff from your kitchen as props find a borderline functional instrument at your local thrift store write a 1 page short story in pen it's not enough anymore to merely criticize this bad time we're having
I think the issue is that while you can (and perhaps should) do at least one such thing, it's going to be a pretty lonely pursuit, unless you have a pre-existing group of people to connect over this.
The Internet used to be really good at random, unscripted collaboration. But the winner-takes-all nature of modern social media means that if you do not optimize your presentation for maximum engagement, you will not even be noticed.
Even people who would've greatly enjoyed what you have to tell them will instead be fed a mix of generic engagement slop, sort-of relevant influencer videos, vaguely targeted ads and political propaganda.
Re: The fun has been optimized out of the Internet
#34> I’ve been mourning the old Internet over the past year or two... As a kid on the Web from the early 2000s through the mid-2010s, we knew we were living through something special. It's funny because I knew lots of people in the early 2000s who were mourning the loss of the "old Internet" then. Kind of like how everyone thinks the music they listened to as a teenager is the best and it's all been downhill since.
It’s not like music. The [internet is becoming more commercial and more sloppy over time. It makes sense that people will miss the time they experienced where it was less shitty.
This trend has been happening since at least the 80s.
Re: The fun has been optimized out of the Internet
#35I agree, but it's been said by all... make homebrew software for an old Nintendo console pick up cross stitching or weaving make an independent film with a friend; use stuff from your kitchen as props find a borderline functional instrument at your local thrift store write a 1 page short story in pen it's not enough anymore to merely criticize this bad time we're having
Even the fun things “on the internet” are mostly still possible, it’s just the bulk of things we do now are not fun and main companies aren’t quirky risk takers but the oil/train/steel barons of our day. In the past few years I’ve done serveral of the things on your list in earnest and they are all easier to do today (specifically technical things) than they were 25 years ago (except maybe writing with a pen). Edit t…
Don’t try to make money from it and you can still do fun things in life
Re: The fun has been optimized out of the Internet
#36[dead]
Re: The fun has been optimized out of the Internet
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's when you ask what exactly was better and then you can tell whether it's just typical nostalgia or if there are genuinely things to miss.
You could also just ask current young people how they feel about the internet and compare it to how young people described the internet in ~2005-2010. I guess my feeling is that no one really "likes" the internet in its currnet form. Gen X got to see the birth of the web, millenials got the birth of social media, Gen Z got tiktok and addictive recommendation algorithms, now Gen Alpha gets AI slop. Idk just seems like…
As Ia genz I can say that the internet help me learn english, programming and before that I got an advertisement freelance business that took me out of poverty. What got me into these were videos recommended by youtube or something.
Re: The fun has been optimized out of the Internet
#38A domain + compute has never been cheaper. That said, I think the signal-to-noise ratio on the modern internet makes discovery difficult.
i think discovery is the real thing all these “back in my day…” blog posts are about. they want the quirk delivered to them, but they’re fallen out of the zeitgeist and conclude that the old days are completely gone.
Re: The fun has been optimized out of the Internet
#39A domain + compute has never been cheaper. That said, I think the signal-to-noise ratio on the modern internet makes discovery difficult.
It's approaching near impossible. The amount of articles posted to hn that are near AI slop is so high it's almost not worth using anymore.
I mostly hang out in small online communities that essentially become tightly curated by people I am interested in interacting with.
Re: The fun has been optimized out of the Internet
#40Maybe on the surface this is true but you try to look for it you can have a lot more fun. Looking for communities that are harder to find but with common interests and you can find it but you have to work for it.