The Internet, Nostalgia, and My Thoughts

The internet right now… is ass, but it hasn’t always been like this. We weren’t always in a digital hellscape where half of the info we find is either, A: Made by a bot. B: Made by a corporation. Or C: carefully organized, and monitored by corporations. We used to have a digital age where we flourished, despite its limitations at the time. So what happened, and why do some people seem to miss it so much?

History

A lot of the old net is lost, mainly due to a lack of archiving tools back then, BUT that does not mean we don’t have some sites archived. Thanks to the internet archive, some sites during the early twenties are saved. Not all, but some, and we’re able to witness what it was. Not to mention first hand accounts of the time. It was the Wild West. No hard set rules were made, so everyone was just doing their own thing. Some looked great, most… a bit messy, but still. There was a sense of that the net was rapidly developing, there was no trends, there was no right or wrong way of doing things. The freedom during the early days of the net was amazing.

Now

However, over time, the net started to get a bit more… corporatized? Facebook was the real start of this, as people started to go to a more centralized sites. Things like YouTube, and Facebook were where most people went to, mainly because people could create, and share.
But at some point, the sites got so big, they didn’t really need to follow consumer demands, because they’ve proved themselves to be of great use to other big corporations. Mainly through ads, and news.
Now we deal with the consequences of their actions. Actions made with little thought as to the effect it’ll have on society, and how we consume things.

Why

Ok, but why am I talking about this? Well to give a sense of what I miss, or what I feel like I missed out on. It feels like I came late to a party. The music is still playing, people are still playing games, and there is still punch… but there is a whole different vibe to it.

My experiences with nostalgia.

Nostalgia has been hitting me hard as of late. I can’t stop thinking about the past, and what could’ve been. I can’t help but think about what I DID miss. I messed with the net in its early to mid days. Around the 2010s. I watched pewdiepie, jacksepticeye, and markiplier. Found andkon games, a website that had hosted several different flash games, like shitheads, raze, 2112 cooperation (that game has a special place in my heart) Mario and Sonic ripoffs (also has a special place in my heart) and The Game Game. Things didn’t look so… bland, and exploring the net was still a fun activity to do! Sure, somethings were a bit more difficult to find, I won’t lie, that was a little annoying, but I think that’s a small price to pay.

IT WAS BETTER

In fact, I FIRMLY believe that 2010-2015 were the best years of the net. Surfing the web was like an adventure, going from message boards to other links, and stumbling across something that peeks your interest, while at the same time, having platforms like YouTube and Facebook to centralize things, where people could share their creations. The centralized sites wasn’t a fucking nation that tries its best to lock you in with shiny colors, like jingling keys infront of a toddler. It was more like a hub, a familiar place to come back to after surfing the web. Not to mention those hubs actually had STYLE, and their own feel. It’s like the web designers WANTED people to get a feel for what their service did. There were far more games that pushed the boundaries, bringing cool experimental ideas, like 2112 cooperations dynamic reload animations. You could just. Make. And Share! The best thing we have to that now is still Newgrounds, but also itch.io, but it’s not the same. You can’t just enter a website, and start playing a game anymore. Getting people to play your games is tedious now, with one of the more recent big hits that reminds me of those games being Friday Night Funkin. Imagine how much more there could be WITH that kind of web flexibility. And of course, by far, the BEST THING to come from that time… was interactive ads… I know. Sounds crazy. Batshit insane even, but compared to the ads now days, there’s no competition. they’re so effective, I still remember an ad from world of war ships, where you could click other ships to destroy them. You wanna know what’s the first thing I installed when I got my own laptop?? WORLD OF WARSHIPS. NO. COMPETITION.
The net during that time had plenty of independent sites that people could go to, and find. There were still centralized hubs for people to share to the masses. Those hubs felt nice and cozy. The sheer amount of self expression and game ideas was immense thanks to flash. You could play games IN THE BROWSER. And finally, the ads were bearable, and entertaining even.
Thats why 2010-2015 World Wide Web was its peak. If it seems like I’m angry while writing this, it’s cause I am. A friend of mine jokes that I “live in the past” well I’d LOVE to. Maybe it’s my rose tinted glasses, maybe it’s because I’m jaded to all the shit the web has now. I don’t know.
I miss that time, cause compared to now.
IT WAS BETTER.
I miss being able to surf the web and find some truly wacky stuff
I miss having a place where I could rest and find new people.
I miss those places feeling unique in its own way
I miss that people could express themselves, and share unique ideas.
I miss being able to play those unique ideas ASAP
I miss when ads had quality.
I miss when the internet still had respect for its consumers.

So how do I deal with this?

Well I don’t really like most social media platforms. I see Facebook as a morgue where bots try to interact with living corpses. I don’t really care about instagram. TikTok brain rots you. Snapchat feels kinda gross to use, personally. The only site that I enjoy hanging out on is really just YouTube… I think that’s a good thing. I think not being on a kazillion different sites helps make the brain far more rested, and more bearable. I also make stuff that I enjoy, like the Into the Radius series (next part is coming I swear), and making my silly site.
I’m never gonna be able to go back, and that’s ok. What matters now is making the most with what I have. I just wanted to air out my grievances, and clear my head out for a more solid understanding of what I want

Thank you for reading.