• LovableSidekick@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    47 minutes ago

    Oh that’s right, in the Internet’s early days people thought it would do what they also thought television would do in its early days. But then the Internet did the same things television did - became an advertising platform and and dumbed down its addicted users. Maybe when the next communications breakthrough comes we’ll realize… lol nah of course we won’t.

  • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
    2·
    2 hours ago

    Yeah the internet was actually a tool developed by the US to spread propaganda and brain-wash people abroad democracy and freedom of expression (slight /s)

  • postmateDumbass@lemmy.world
    40·
    9 hours ago

    There was a window where the internet was a huge positive.

    That ended 10 to 15 years ago.

    Kinda coinciding with social media apps.

    • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
      51·
      2 hours ago

      Smartphones were a bad idea. Social Media got large swaths of the population addicted to screens, increasing insomnia and anxiety. Unhealthy fads like the “girls pushing each other into eating disorders” and the whole “men are all bad” mainly spread through social media. The benefits of communication and knowledge-gathering/-spreading could have also been achieved with stationary devices. It claims to “connect” people, but made them lonelier. The loneliness pandemic is real.

      The internet and commercial computer technology should have stopped developing before 2008. Since then, it’s just adding to the enshittification. The newest bloatware is AI and the claim that it could “replace human workers”. What’s next? When will be abandon commercial computing technology for free and open source alternatives?

    • ameancow@lemmy.worldEnglish
      13·
      4 hours ago

      It’s almost like corporations took over the internet, monetized it, and deployed every possible tool to convert it into an addicting advertising platform without any regulations or standards, driving up social contention, misinformation and propaganda because the more rage you can instill in the population the more “engagement” everything will get.

    • Num10ck@lemmy.worldEnglish
      23·
      9 hours ago

      thats when the MBAs took over from the nerds because there was way too much money, and somehow not enough.

      • underwire212@lemm.ee
        13·
        9 hours ago

        Remember the days when the CEO of tech/manufacturing was actually an engineer or PhD researcher. Not many companies have that nowadays.

        • Num10ck@lemmy.worldEnglish
          7·
          9 hours ago

          supposedly it goes in long cycles. during boom times, sales/marketing take over to squeeze out profits and market share. during bust times, development/engineering takes over to evolve the offerings. we just had a really long boom cycle and it appears to be finally busting.

  • Vespair@lemm.ee
    211·
    9 hours ago

    I mean, the internet went to shit when we all centralized around enormous corporate gatekeepers like Facebook and Twitter instead of the personal websites of yore, so I feel like that sentiment still tracks

    • TheKingBee@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      35 minutes ago

      Personal websites didn’t die because of social media, the simple fact is no one wants to run their own server… I run my own server and can tell you it’s a money sink much like a boat.

    • Spaniard@lemmy.worldEnglish
      13·
      8 hours ago

      Many things contributed to the downfall of internet.

      • Corporations: not much to say about it. All they want is more users and all they want is more money.

      • Ads: because everyone wants money. I am making a tutorial? I want people watching it to give me money. I am making a website? Money. I have free time I can watch some ads to earn money! Then corporations go in the middle: That guy is making tutorial I can put ads in it, give him a small fee and the rest for me!

      • Centralization: as you said, instead of millions of forums people just go to reddit.

      • Privacy: People not only don’t care about it, they are willingly giving it away for free, and the big corporations profit.

      The selfhosting movement is the light in the tunnel, but it’s really dangerous out there and good actions can bring bad people and they can absolutely ruin your setup.

    • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
      6·
      1 hour ago

      Yea, I remember when everyone thought putting your personal info on the internet would get you murdered. Then MySpace came out and everyone quickly forgot all that.

  • HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com
    181·
    12 hours ago

    The internet felt like the beginings for a star trek utopia. All the worlds knowledge for all to access. Never really thought about it being sectioned off and limited for anything of quality and then being loaded with crap to sift through. Never thought that it could be filled with propoganda and be used to control whole sections of the populace.

    • groet@feddit.orgEnglish
      6·
      9 hours ago

      In parts, yes. TV does not have the same ability to respond to your actions. It can’t change the program for you specifically to cater to your individual habits. It can’t create the same feedback loop that social media algorithms have that push people further and further into extremist views.

      • Sergio@slrpnk.netEnglish
        4·
        7 hours ago

        Fam, stop giving away startup ideas for free! You’re sitting on at least three winners there! /s kinda

  • Etterra@discuss.onlineEnglish
    262·
    17 hours ago

    It turned out that gatekeepers were the only ones keeping the hoard of idiots and rubes off the Internet. RIP quality free content.

    • multifariace@lemmy.world
      13·
      12 hours ago

      I find quality free content everywhere. I mean, maybe not this post, but most things I see are free from quality.

    • Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world
      20·
      12 hours ago

      It was slower, the graphics were basic, and we could get knocked offline by someone picking up a telephone. But damn, it really felt like reaching out and touching the world for the first time. It took so long for my mom to understand that yes, I can be chatting with friends online at 2am. She would always ask, “Why aren’t they asleep?” and I’d have to remind her that other time zones exist.

  • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
    98·
    23 hours ago

    My mom almost bought me a tamagachi in the 90s. I say almost because what she actually bought me was a cheap knock off.

    What I remember most about it was my friend showed me their tamagachi, and it’s born as an egg.

    Then I remember what mine was born as.

    Imagine seeing this pixel art gorilla, and then he sees a second pixel art gorilla wearing a skirt. Then you see the closeup of the male gorillas face, and he wiggles his eyebrows exitedly.

    The next thing you see is a pixel art of a sperm attacking an egg. In a knockoff tamagachi meant for children. I was 13, so I was old enough to know what I was seeing, but it definately had some real WTF vibes. Let’s put it this way. I’m 41. I remember nothing else about that tamagachi besides seeing pixel art gorilla sperm.

    That’s all. I just wanted more people to know about chinese knockoff tamagachi with gorilla sperm.

  • Chris@feddit.ukEnglish
    9·
    17 hours ago

    When I first started working I did some temp work. One of my bosses asked me to look after her niece’s Tamagotchi. I’d not had one so didn’t have a clue what I was doing. Anyway, I killed it within a day.