Today's internet is way worse than the old internet.
this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2026
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I feel the opposite. I’m “C-64 dial up BBS” years old. I’m far, far more concerned with the internet today. It’s become destructive on so many levels. The corporatocracy takeover, the enstupidification, AI, troll farms, bots, outright lies, echo chambers willfully and ignorantly forming realities outside of objective truth…
The modern internet is an awful conflagration that everyone is trying to manipulate and control while throwing more fuel on it in an attempt to profit from it.
Goatse is nothing compared the dumpster fire that’s happening.
I’m not fine with it at all.
I’m that many years old too… 1970 represent!
I liked it better when it was just random people coming together to talk about whatever random shit you were into. It felt so much more inclusive. Like no matter how weird your hobby was, somebody out there was into it as well… or sharing very funny stories like the creation of overly engineered toasters. Or putting a camera on a coffee pot to check if there was fresh coffee. Or the stories of the BOFH.
Now it’s too controlled, monetized, enshittified, homogenized, etc. It’s not about people connecting anymore or creating content that people actually want and learn from. With all the AI generated bullshit, it’s likely not even created by people anymore. At least with goatse, tub girl, or lemon party you knew that was actual people… not sure if that’s better or worse actually. But somebody created it for others to “enjoy”… well experience might be a better word here. But you get the idea. It was people coming together because they wanted to. They enjoyed it. Now it’s all scams, rage-bait, and algorithms created to drive engagement. It’s almost like it isn’t fun anymore.
But there are places that still remind me of the old internet. Lemmy for example. It’s not exactly the same but it shares its DNA.
It certainly was more egalitarian. Geocities or MySpace were kinda examples. Anyone could make their own space, often for free.
Most content today is crap, and the rest is someone stealing or reacting to that crap, ad nauseam. Though TBF if anyone remembers the early days of youtube or other platforms it was full of stupid stuff too, but it was “lookit me, lol!” for likes rather than ad-riddled garbage that somehow people expect to be taken seriously for.
Goatse or 2g1c was our clickbait, and nobody tried to sell you anything or make it any more than it was. It was garbage and we knew it.
Agreed. Been on FIDO, been on BITNET before I went on the internet - way before the web. Way before the eternal September. People today cannot even start to imagine how the net was back then. Forget "six degrees", maximum distance was maybe three. You basically knew everyone, or you knew someone who did.
Old internet:
- Lots of fun places to visit
- "So, first I visit thisite, then click that other link, then click the 3rd link on the right from the bottom up"
- Oh fuck, no, don't go in THERE
- Hey, another toolbar for my IE toolbar collection!
- Wait, what was that site again?
- Ugh, why won't this image load?
- No mom, I'm not keeping the phone line busy!
- One login for this forum, another for that forum, another for that other forum...
- Wow, email sure is neat! Instant messaging with anyone in the world!
- weird noises when the mouse hovers certain elements
- BOOBIES!
Current internet:
- tiktok, instagram, google, facebook, amazon
- ANIMATED BOOBIES!
I'm proud to not use any of those current products. Except for google because of google login.
Can I ask what you use instead of youtube?
Well shit. I guess I don't use their search engine.
I'd rather accidentally stumple onto pain olympics or lemon party than accidentally stumble into a black mirror episode
I remember when I got my first 4800baud modem upgrade from my 2400baud modem. So I could connect to my friend's house who had a sick BBS server.
Anyone remember when CompuServe had these chatrooms or channels that were basically collaboration websites before Geocities blew up? I liked those.
I'm really confused what this could be referring to.
Because the folks who've been around the longest and remember the early days of the Internet are currently in utter dismay over how their fun international sandbox has become a Black Mirror-esque horror show, while everyone else seems to just shrug and obediently upload their face scans so they can watch AI videos of uncanny-valley cats playing cruel pranks on facsimiles of political figures in-between unskippable ads for applying to be an ICE agent under promises that it'll be like COD but in your own backyard with living, breathing brown people.
Spot fucking on. The people who’ve watched it grow then wither are the most bitter because we saw what it could have become
I'll never forget John C. Dvorak's 2006 article from PC Mag, where he argued that we were living in the Golden Age of the Internet, and to enjoy it while it lasts, before it ends up overcommercialized like what happened to radio. I only half believed it at the time, but I see now that he was 100% spot on with that prediction. (Snippet here; can't find a scan of the entire article.)
Snippet here; can’t find a scan of the entire article.
I went digging and found it, it's split across two pages (which was the style at the time) here and here.
here is the full text to save you a click:
The Golden Age of the Internet
06.21.06
By John C. Dvorak
How many people realize that we're living in a golden age, the Golden Age of the Internet? It won't last; golden ages never do. Some of it will remain, but there's evidence that much of it is headed for the trash heap of history.
[ADVERTISEMENT]
Radio days. The golden age of radio lasted from about 1930 to 1950. It was nothing like radio today. Money was thrown at it. Thousands of great dramas and variety shows were made. Huge news organizations were built. Today, radio consists of rightwingers ranting about liberals, psychologists analyzing moaners-and-groaners, and mediocre music from CDs. We do get all-news stations with erroneous traffic reports, and public broadcasting stations with thoughtful shows on fascinating topics like the art of Gebel Barkel from the first millennium BC.
Every new technology that widely affects society has a golden age, and we give things a lot of slack. Porn on the Net symbolizes this leeway. But so do podcasting, blogging, free video servers, chat rooms, P2P, free e-mail, and other flourishing services.
A proprietary, closed Net is coming. A golden age ends either when something new comes along (as with radio's golden age, killed by the advent of TV), the government gets involved, or entropy sets in—usually a mix of these elements. In the case of the Internet, we are already seeing a combination of government, carrier, and business interactions that will eventually turn the Net into a restricted and somewhat proprietary network, with much of its content restricted or blocked. Only a diligent few will actually have access to the restricted data, and in some parts of the world even trying to view the restricted information on the Net will be a crime.
It's already a crime to post intellectual discussions about copy-protection schemes that are protected by the DMCA. If the American public tolerates that sort of onerous restriction, then it will tolerate anything.
Continue reading... (page 2)
Filtering and blacklists now common. Most U.S. government agencies now use filtering mechanisms to keep their own computers from accessing blacklisted Web sites. Third parties maintain these blacklists, and they put whatever they want on the lists. For example, my blog was blacklisted for a while, with no explanation.
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Most companies go much further and carefully monitor all network traffic. They can then pinpoint the use of streaming media and other verboten uses of corporate computers and simply block such usages and blacklist the sites involved.
Even e-mail is lost in the shuffle. The New York Times has a system in place that prevents certain press releases from getting to the reporters.
Blame spam and porn. Spam, porn, and other forms of questionable content are the reasons for filtering and blacklisting. But increasingly, content that mentions birth control or evolution is blocked. Nazi memorabilia sales and hate sites are also banned. It is folly to think that any government, no matter how progressive, won't be tempted to choke off certain content of which it does not approve.
This sort of intervention becomes ever easier with the consolidation of the Internet. It's all headed to AT&T; and Comcast. AT&T; has already sold the public down the river by turning over phone records to the government without blinking an eye. Ask it to filter Google results? No problemo!
Is there anything the public can do about this? Yes—enjoy the Golden Age, while you can.
Discuss this article in the forums.
More articles from John Dvorak:
- The Conroe Effect
- Net Neutrality Has a Spokesperson
- Understanding Digg and Its Utopian Idealism
- The Golden Age of the Internet
- Dvorak Reveals Old Formula, Panic Ensues
- more
See John get cranky about technology in his new Cranky Geeks IPTV Show.
I've been looking for this article again for nearly two decades. Obviously my Google fu isn't as good as it used to be.
Thank you.
(E: That take on Nazi memorabilia, yikes. Don't remember that bit lol. Oh how naïve we used to be...)
I'm also clueless and don't understand what the OP is talking about - who is having a mental breakdown and why? And aren't the millennials who are the only tech and internet literate generation exactly the people having a mental breakdown over the way the internet is going? I'm so confused, I need more context.
I've been on since BBS's , I was just starting to understand it a little then it expanded to browsers, then there was the FTP's to share pirated software, ICQ to meet people from all over the world it was good.
Then it went to shit, the only good thing is that torrents have been keeping my media free.
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KennyLauderdale! I follow him on Youtube and Bluesky, he's made some excellent videos about anime and other Japanese shows!
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Saddam Hussein's hanging. BME pain olympics. A midget in a ET suit having sex with a giant spider. Meatspin. All these things will be lost, like tears in the rain.
Time to fry.
Gadafi getting knife fucked and killed in that crowd was a big one too.
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I find it interesting because the BME Pain Olympics was mostly done with plasticine and the like for shock value
I create performance art with my dick which isn't gore (I'm not going to hurt my dick!) and I'm often accused of using AI
People are simultaneously skeptical and also ridiculously credulous, depending on what they want to believe
Reads username: FistingEnthusiast
I guess that checks out
The early Internet had a few simple rules:
- Never feed a troll
- Never trust anything written online
- Never tell anyone your real name or address
- There are no girls online (i.e. people are not who they claim to be)
- Online is not IRL
And most people knew these rules. The proliferation of the Internet has brought a lot of people who don't understand these rules in to the fold and it has made the Internet a worse place. "Normies" seemingly think the Internet world works like your normal social interactions - it does not. The anonymity of the Internet brings out the worst in people. We really need to bring back the rules of the early Internet for the safety of everyone.
Feel free to comment more rules if you remember any.
As much as I miss the early Internet though, I genuinely do wish I'd had more protection from the seedier sites. I am not better off for having seen the gore and shock sites.
I'm 40, and I'm not even sure if I learned these rules in school. I definitely didn't learn from my parents. But somehow, I managed to not get scammed, radicalized (I think), or diddled by predators.
I dunno how millennials did it, but many of us managed to stay tech/media literate. The Canadian house hippo probably played an important role.
Never tell anyone your real name or address
more importantly, if you do know the real identity of another participant, don't reveal it
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I'm an elder Gen Z furry. These rules are ingrained in me so hard it took genuine effort to stop defaulting to assuming everyone online is a "he" to avoid accidental misgendering ("they" works just as well).
I wasn't here for the very earliest parts of the web, but I was just in time to watch it die and remember that it used to be a better place. Still, I often reference the Rules of the Internet today and it sucks seeing how many people just don't get it.
But I think it's harder to for normies because they mostly cling to the corporate internet, believing it to be their safe haven, when it is, in fact, poison that actively promotes breaking the original rules (especially "don't feed the trolls") that kept people safe for the sake of engagement.
Feel free to comment more rules if you remember any.
If it exists there's porn of it.
Nowadays people are too afraid to write "fuck" even on lemmy.
NGL, I saw the gore and shock as well - stileproject, rotten, marsonline, ogrish, bestgore... and even WPD on Reddit in the early days and it really did give me an appreciation for safety first! in almost everything I have done since.
The biggest rule was proof/cites linking to legitimate sources, (not conspiracy sites or your friend "Sally" on facebook) or it didn't happen.
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Man, I’ve been on the “internet” since before it had pictures or videos or sound . When each “website” was a different phone number, and if more than a few people were visiting it, you had to wait and call back later. Just to read in green (or amber) text on a black screen, someone’s comments on some old post, and weeks & weeks of comment threads.
It was amazing.
Am I upset about the state of the internet today? Not really. It’s evolving, getting worse in some ways, better in others. I’m still interested to see what it grows into. I have my own hopes as to what it will become, but I’m sure I’ll be surprised at the direction it takes.
Am I upset about the state of the internet today? Not really.
You somehow witnessed corporate interests encircle and subvert the internet's wonderful idyllic culture into the torment nexus of capitalist control and propaganda and you're not upset?
We also have witnessed humans rebel against that and create a new decentralized internet that we are currently using
Idk i have faith in weird and creative people who refuse to follow rules
Idk i have faith in weird and creative people who refuse to follow rules
Ramen, let us be blessed by his noodley appendages.
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You also never clicked an advert or used your real name.
Please tell me that people aren't clicking ads...
Enough are doing it that it's still profitable. Last estimates I saw were 10% who saw an ad clicked one, and 10% of those who clicked bought what they saw
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Budd Dwyer
“…the AOL days…”
That funny feeling when AOL users consider themselves the experienced, wisened ones.
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If you aren't horrified by what's happening to Iran right now then you're an empathy deficient and that comes with a separate set of problems.
I'm 40, and absolutely remember the old internet. But the news traumatizes me so consistently lately I find myself crying every day.
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me at 11, hanging out in public chat rooms with Neonazis, pedos, and scientologists debating the Hubble deep field without knowing what any of those things are but just happy to be included.
Public chatrooms were everywhere too. It was just the default, anywhere you went. AOL, yahoo games, random websites for no reason.
Even as late as Starcraft 2 (so 2010-), you'd open the game and immediately be dropped into a giant public chatroom on the home screen with everyone else currently playing.
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