How deliciously ironic that this is paywalled.
https://12ft.io/https://www.newyorker.com/culture/infinite-scroll/why-the-internet-isnt-fun-anymore
When they put up a 10 foot wall, use a 12 foot ladder
It’s not paywalled for me. Clear cookies for this domain or use an adblocker.
That doesn’t mean it’s not paywalled. Just that you have the knowledge and the means to climb over that wall. Not all people have.
Mystery solved.
Because it’s run by companies and not people like before. Because the original internet community grew and they prefer being in family and outside.
Also parents taking over something fun.
I miss the days of NewGrounds, Miniclip, and Kongregate.
I miss Flash games on browsers. Limewire. YouTube before influencers.
I miss the joy of StumbleUpon back when the web was exciting and unique.
Whenever I think of the good old days of the internet (like 2000-2009) I think of using stumbleupon and finding the best and most random stuff.
It’s still there but it is not the same. I spent waaay to many hours in weird places thanks to that stumble button. Still regularly go to KOL, which I found there.
https://www.stumbleupon.com/ https://www.kingdomofloathing.com/login.php?loginid=dbbda548c821441e8833e660bcb4816b
Thankfully we can still enjoy the flash games online at least. http://www.flashgamearchive.com/
Thank you, but it wasn’t the games themselves. It was the people I shared that time with.
I think that’s when the Internet started going to shit. When people started using it for shameless self-promotion. I miss MySpace, and GeoCities.
The internet I grew up with and loved couldn’t survive having the whole population on it. It became about making money off the userbase, political manipulation, and addictive distractions. It’s success killed it.
It was such a fun and fanciful place.
The unattainable is unknown at Zombo com!
“Why the internet isn’t fun anymore” - proceeds to talk about Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.
Completely fails to mention any fediverse sites, or any of the millions of other sites out there.
If you’re the author, the internet isn’t fun anymore because you don’t use it. You visit the corporate websites only. You either never learned how to use the internet, or you’re not interested in actually trying.
Its like the person who never leaves their neighborhood and complains that life is boring.
Even worse when you realize it’s the job of these journalists to tell people there’s a whole world out there. The general public may not know about this, but if you’re a journalist making these claims, they should know better