Opinions on new internet ? And new tech ?

[kornfan1799]

For me id say it lowkey sucksass man,too many ai generated stuffs on the internet i wonder what it caused the downhill, about new tech i feel its okay i mean not as interesting as it used to be back then, i feel new tech feels very boring so im more into old techy stuffs lol.
Soooo whats yall opinion on that? i would like to hear sum of yall takes nd stuffs :^)

[lakes]

my opinion on the new internet is that it depends on where you look. the mainstream stuff sucks ass now & maybe some of them even always sucked: youtube, twitter, spotify, etc. but you can still find neat obscure sites and forums if you know where to look for them, like this forum or neocities or some peertube websites. that's not even counting old services like irc or xmpp. granted, i've seen AI seep into niche forums unfortunately. but even then there are places that don't allow AI generated content like this one. i think the reason things seem so dire now is because we forgot we have a choice and have become dependent on these services. it also doesn't help that we sometimes have jobs where we're expected to use these services because "that's what everyone else is doing." i remember a job training course telling me i should sign up for linkedin to get a job and how uncomfortable that made me.

[Patachoo]

I have rather mixed feelings about internet nowadays : at the same time internet is now more accessible for everyone, we can access easily to a lot of differents medias and ressources in differents languages, and the fact you can be able to be connected with people around the world is something spectacular ! But at the same time, even if in the idea, social medias seem to be a cool idea, I feel like it "ruined" a lot of our behavior in modern society and our relations with people and environment around us. AND now since few years, we got generative AI absolutely everywhere, now even fiding legitimate contents on internet without being AI-generated is complicated (and the numbers of jobs and environmental resources it ruined, man that's depressing)
Internet was an marvelous creation, but can it be still considered as it now ? Like a lot of things in humanity's history, humans generally tend to make all their creations worse at one point or another ahah

[rnottelovesowls]

what lakes and patachoo said, but i want to add something else

mainstream internet services like youtube, facebook, google and amazon have been ruined for me. people’s over-reliance on these services have not only made internet browsing less fun, but talking to people less fun, too. i remember a time when my family was fun to talk to, play games with, etc. now all my cousins seem to want to do when they’re not working is scroll through discord and twitter, and i’m afraid my aunts and uncles have forgotten how to function without their smartphones and smartwatches. the urge to snap “put your phone down and talk with us!” is too hard to resist. gift-shopping for christmas and birthdays has also become less special due to amazon, because now we all know what we’re getting. what people have sacrificed in the name of “convenience”…

BUT, the non-mainstream websites are still pretty fun. dedicated niche forums, wikipedia, TV tropes, homestar runner, personal blogs, newgrounds, the SCP foundation, and coolmath games are still here and still the same sites we’ve known and loved, but even better now. i think it’s great that younger generations are realizing that the big tech corporations’ services are getting worse, and reject them to “go retro” so to speak. whether it’s through joining niche forums or returning to dumbphones, as long as more and more people learn to take back their autonomy and be their own person, not all hope is lost

[kornfan1799]

what lakes and patachoo said, but i want to add something else

mainstream internet services like youtube, facebook, google and amazon have been ruined for me. people’s over-reliance on these services have not only made internet browsing less fun, but talking to people less fun, too. i remember a time when my family was fun to talk to, play games with, etc. now all my cousins seem to want to do when they’re not working is scroll through discord and twitter, and i’m afraid my aunts and uncles have forgotten how to function without their smartphones and smartwatches. the urge to snap “put your phone down and talk with us!” is too hard to resist. gift-shopping for christmas and birthdays has also become less special due to amazon, because now we all know what we’re getting. what people have sacrificed in the name of “convenience”…

BUT, the non-mainstream websites are still pretty fun. dedicated niche forums, wikipedia, TV tropes, homestar runner, personal blogs, newgrounds, the SCP foundation, and coolmath games are still here and still the same sites we’ve known and loved, but even better now. i think it’s great that younger generations are realizing that the big tech corporations’ services are getting worse, and reject them to “go retro” so to speak. whether it’s through joining niche forums or returning to dumbphones, as long as more and more people learn to take back their autonomy and be their own person, not all hope is lost

idk how replying works cuz im kinda a dumbass but honestly i heavy agree with u vro ,ive got a boomer take but like even people are on their phone a lil too much nowadays dont get me wrong this might seem like a boomer take but i dont think the majority of people who use "modern internet" are actually enjoying the internet,i mean shittt its literally like if everyone was always connected , in seriousness tho i feel technology are controlling us from what it started being a tool to the point it became like this,i mean anything for money nowadays sighhh,anyways its still gud that non mainstream websites are alive may they live loooooooooooong !!!!!

[kornfan1799]

my opinion on the new internet is that it depends on where you look. the mainstream stuff sucks ass now & maybe some of them even always sucked: youtube, twitter, spotify, etc. but you can still find neat obscure sites and forums if you know where to look for them, like this forum or neocities or some peertube websites. that's not even counting old services like irc or xmpp. granted, i've seen AI seep into niche forums unfortunately. but even then there are places that don't allow AI generated content like this one. i think the reason things seem so dire now is because we forgot we have a choice and have become dependent on these services. it also doesn't help that we sometimes have jobs where we're expected to use these services because "that's what everyone else is doing." i remember a job training course telling me i should sign up for linkedin to get a job and how uncomfortable that made me.

man ive never agreed more to a message like this,tbh speaking of jobs (which i dont got one) and how theyre becoming somewhat digital id say,its scary because not only it affects careers or sum shit but everything is BECOMING digital its insane bro like cant even go outside without seeing 17267282 ads shoved into my face (billboards im talking about,lacking humanity and art) when it comes to shitty country with shitty economy , like dawg not everything needs to be digital wtf ,speaking of new internet its 50/50 it depends on the way how its used mostly for me i 'doomscroll' on wikipedia about computer networks because woahh theyre soo cool or i check on indie websites cuz fuck big companies lmao,honestly its weird how people (majority of them like i mentioned) misuse it to the point they lose a contact with the world like jeez....

[solinus]

mainstream bad, indie good, you know the drill.

I'm lucky enough to have an extended family where at least some know the value of actually talking and interacting with one another. I had a great thanksgiving. As for actions I've taken myself:

• General: Installed an extension reminding me how long I'm on the internet per day. Displays time at extension icon and a notification that appears every set interval. Removed most (except discord) social media from phone
• Twitter: Deleted my account. My brother scrolls there very often and everytime i peer into it, it's nothing but an abyss of ragebait and shitty opinions, with "dunks" on top of those which end up amplifying the ragebait and dont get me started on the comments section-
• Reddit: Nuked my feed, only use it to promote my designs (and on occasion shitposts), and only log in when needed. I also used leechblock to block anything resembling a feed (for example: the feed for r/subreddit would be blocked, but r/subreddit/comments/blahblah (a post link) wouldn't be blocked.
• Youtube: Used Unhook to remove the home page and recommendations sidebar.
• Discord: Limited my servers count to SIX. Split my activity into 2 accounts: one on the laptop for "online" friends and servers, the other on the mobile phone for IRL friends.

[lakes]

mainstream bad, indie good, you know the drill.

I'm lucky enough to have an extended family where at least some know the value of actually talking and interacting with one another. I had a great thanksgiving. As for actions I've taken myself:

• General: Installed an extension reminding me how long I'm on the internet per day. Displays time at extension icon and a notification that appears every set interval. Removed most (except discord) social media from phone
• Twitter: Deleted my account. My brother scrolls there very often and everytime i peer into it, it's nothing but an abyss of ragebait and shitty opinions, with "dunks" on top of those which end up amplifying the ragebait and dont get me started on the comments section-
• Reddit: Nuked my feed, only use it to promote my designs (and on occasion shitposts), and only log in when needed. I also used leechblock to block anything resembling a feed (for example: the feed for r/subreddit would be blocked, but r/subreddit/comments/blahblah (a post link) wouldn't be blocked.
• Youtube: Used Unhook to remove the home page and recommendations sidebar.
• Discord: Limited my servers count to SIX. Split my activity into 2 accounts: one on the laptop for "online" friends and servers, the other on the mobile phone for IRL friends.

that's another thing worth mentioning too. even though the internet has become more addictive, there's also more tools to limit your internet usage. i think a lot of people either don't know or are nervous they won't work because of fear of "missing out" or whatever.