I’ve been exploring the fediverse and subbing and posting all over the damn place. Realizing lemmy can federate with kbin blew my mind. Not to mention the possibility of turning my old laptop into a personal server to host my own instance. Is this what it felt like to discover how the internet worked in the 90s?
It’s interesting, but not too long ago, I was musing with my friends how I missed the Old Internet (Internet of the late 1990s to late 2000s to be more specific). It was exciting and it felt like the digital word was your oyster - you could do anything and everything, and if you find a gold mine, you could meet interesting people who had a lot to share with common interests. Not much social media, not much algorithms that make your feed simply an echo chamber, and you really had to look sometimes what you were really looking for, and sometimes what you find might even surprise you.
Sigh, I feel awful that I took it for granted. I wish I had savored more of it. Nothing is going to be like that again.
Well that’s nostalgia right? This picture totally captures it and I swear I remember it on a magazine cover back in the day when Mortal Kombat 2 was coming out…
But I agree… The internet then could still be dangerous but it also felt so much more genuine? I was lucky enough to have dial up in the mid 90s, Google didn’t exist, webcrawler was there and it just seemed like everything was possible. Whitehouse.com (not gov) was porn and what a discovery that was!
Man I found a “3d” chat website where I met someone from “Australia” and my parents got pissed bc I was going to get long distance charges! I wrote a paper in 8th grade how you’d be able to buy things online and pick them up in a vending machine, and there’d be multiple computers in a whole house and got a D because it wasn’t based on facts!
Trying instill that wonder in my kids while being aware of contemporary concerns is such a conflict.
Yes, I agree with it being more genuine. Everyone was trying to figure out what the Internet meant and what you could do. It really felt like trekking into the unknown! I loved stumbling upon random websites, the flash games, the websites here and there, the blogs, the niche forums… I feel like the rise of social media and companies and the fact that companies figured out the people themselves were the product ruined a part of it somehow. I wish you good luck in incorporating that sense of adventure to your kids - I know it’s not easy with all the dangers online and outside. But the fact you’re trying to do that despite all is already so awesome.
I miss that old internet. I also miss old TV, especially late night. Where you would just channel surf and you had no idea what would pop up. Things were more adventurous back then. This does feel a little like it though!
Oh, man. Old TV was great, too. Now it’s just a plethora of commercials and scripted shows. I already got rid of cable, and rely on an old laptop connected to my TV for shows on that are on Youtube or Netflix. I don’t want to sound like an old lady raising her cane ranting about the good old days, but seriously, we had it great back then. It sometimes feels like the Internet launched us into an unknown and I feel so grateful I got to see the early days of it where people were still trying to figure it out and unleash their creativity, before it became… well, this. Now it’s just a monopoly of concepts and services, and companies where they want to herd us all to one direction that would get them money. I’m thankful for the convenience it brings of course, and I admit there are some I willingly pay for, just wish it felt more free and less commercialized.