this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2025
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I’ve been online since 1995. I weep for what we lost. The web should have stayed a nerd domain. We’d have been better off as a society.
Absolutely. The biggest individual loss for me was the usenet. That was the first time google showed its true, evil and ugly face - by introducing tons of people who had no idea what the usenet was via google groups.
The second blow was when people no longer required any technical knowledge whatsoever to "go online", because ISPs sold internet access complete with a router that took care of the connection.
The third blow was when every idiot and their mom who have no idea how to operate a computer or a keyboard got access to the internet via mobile devices with touchscreens and an app for everything.
Eventually, the absolute enshittification of centralized social media (ongoing).
And now - AI slop.
Exactly. Back in 1995, my dad could never get online. Heck, he couldn’t even remotely figure out a PC. We tried to teach him some basics like ‘click with the left mouse button to open something’, but he was downright scared of the thing. He never, ever touched it.
But ‘thanks’ to the iPad, he’s e-mailing, on Facebook, on YouTube, TikTok etc. Which also has the unfortunate effect of subjecting him to boomer brainrot. He’s now more actively misinformed than he used to be because of that fucking iPad.
We’ve made the web accessible to people who shouldn’t be on it. Because it’s hurting them and hurting society as a whole.
Did we do that though? Or was it some hardware / software developers with no backbone to stand up to greedy corporations who wanted to make it accessible? Other than that - yes, sadly I agree.