The internet has always been my salvation.
As a socially underdeveloped kid, I’d spend my lunch hours in the high school library on those public desktop computers, reading fandom sites about my favorite video games. Computers always made sense to me. I even owe my entire career to them.
But the internet today feels wrong. Whatever the fuck kind of psychological warfare is happening right now with this Epstein stuff is too much for my mind to handle. I can’t do it anymore.
I will love. I will vote. I will support my community and continue to oppose this fucking nightmarish system we all find ourselves in. But I need to sign off.
Imagine the door closing sound effect when logging out of AIM.
No, not “off” the internet.
Off the big corporate-driven soulless sites, maybe. Smaller discussion groups/forums, dedicated services, etc. still works. It’s less tedious, less eating your brain.
Basically, going back to internet before central planetary services that feed on everyone being miserable.
No. I might use it less often, but it’s also a more healthy relationship instead of what tech bros wanted.
Not at all. Look at this beautiful corner we have made here.
I’ll tell you right now: many of those old corners of the internet… Are still there. A lot aren’t, but a lot still are. Seek them out, it’s worth it.
what do you mean? like, not urls to your vorners, but I’d like to hear your version of the old imternet you say is still there? you mean small blogs? custom made homelages?
Yeah. There are forums and webpages and ftp sites and bizzaro corners that make me laugh and realize that the old internet that we all miss… Is the authenticity of the human spirit, and not only is that alive and well with an appetite, but vintage and legacy sites are still around.
If you’re missing that era, think back to what you were doing with the internet back then, and try to find places like that now.
One of the reasons now feels so wrong is because of the optics; the few big websites that are everywhere and have us addicted to their platforms and pacing are not authentic, and are focused on growth and now extracting value to please stakeholders, which results in a lot of censorship and normatization and sterilization. But once you search out your places and talk to the people there, I guarantee there’s people with the same drives for not only escaping the traps, but also those common interests. Which is why I can only say that it’s really worth it to search out the places you need to be.
Think back to how you found the places you used to love and gave you a sense of freedom and authenticity. Who made those places? What else were you doing in your life?
I literally just talked to a stranger on a platform earlier today about this that I ran into. They were still there, still doing the same thing that they were doing in the early 2000s. Obviously, they’re 20 years older and live in reality. But, their and my common interest aligned and purpose came from it.
Another reason I think now feels so wrong is because of shame. There’s a LOT of shame in current internet culture and real life. People calling things cringe, etc. This results in a huge lack of both originality in expression and thought. Imagine if you walked up to a busker and said something like “bro, you’re fucking cringe and chopped”. Like what an insanely toxic way to stomp out the fun and color of not only that person, but yourself and anybody witnessing that. Let people be fucking weird and embarrassing and gross and predictable and whatever. We’re all human, everybody has their own experiences. Less shame, more weirdness.
Obviously, there are other huge, depressing forces at work. But regardless of those forces at play and if they end up completely ruining everything or not, this is our life, this is your life, this is your only shot at enjoying all the things being alive has to offer…
GO FIND YOUR PEOPLE! THEY ARE OUT THERE!
The Internet is a very, very large and deep and complex place, with all kinds of history and cultures and subcultures and movements and niches, out in the open, hidden, and not so hidden. It’s not just for porn. It’s not just for consuming. And if you don’t like something about it, you can make something new :o
you inspired me to check out ytmnd. fucking front page has an epstein contest.
i’m not entirely sure if i was on a tour of an active particle accelerator if i wouldn’t take a dive just to try to get us all on a different universe. godsdamned weasels
It’s unavoidable, isn’t it?
I checked my RSS feeds once today and read that SpaceX is developing their own particle accelerator.
- No need for you to jump in, pretty sure the incoming black hole will take care of it.
- No RSS for me tomorrow.
Man, I loved YTMND back in the day. I can’t for the life of me remember how I first heard about it
the guy who introduced me to ytmnd tried and failed spectacularly to form an antigovernment militia (everyone he recruited was atf. he was such a doofus). my undergraduate experience introduced me to some interesting people who went on to commit the stupidest felonies.
Sounds like some wild folks.
After pondering it for about ten minutes I’m pretty sure I was introduced to YTMND by someone posting https://darthno.ytmnd.com/ in response to something in a forum I was on. I’ve had that URL memorized ever since and use it every now and then for similar dramatic responses of my own
i mean, every drama department is full of characters
I believe that life on the internet will reside in private, invite only communities. Public spaces will only get worse and worse.
I’ve had to put .htaccess passwords on a bunch of my pages just to try and keep the spambots and AI scrapers at bay. This world, man
Lemmy is a salvation spot for me, been an internet denizen since before I was a teen, it has been sad to see it slide into popularity contest/mass consumerism garbage. But I enjoy my Minecraft videos I’ve been watching for over a decade and getting to chat about homelab/Linux stuff as an alternative.
Its not like the real world (in the us at least) is doing any better lmao
I keep a book on my person at all times now. Instead of mindlessly grabbing my phone (internet propaganda portal), I’ll grab the book instead. Been doing it about six months now, I like it a lot. I still havnt finished a book, I jump from one to the other very often, but I’m reading much more.
Its okay to sign off. I had a panic attack two weeks ago, and basically had to sign off for a time. I’m still keeping distance from the internet though. Renewing my love of reading has been a serious positive though.
That’s great! I’ve also been reading more than usual, finished 14 books so far this year. I read at the dog park, at the store, when my wife is driving etc, instead of checking my phone. My notifications are turned off except from my family. It’s helped my mental health considerably.
I love me a paperback book that can fit in a pocket
Man I feel you. There are so many things I want to read, so it’s hard to stay focused on one thing sometimes. I have like five or six books right now in various stages of completion next to my couch. I probably need to get some ADHD meds.
Yup, I’ve gotten much more into the smolweb, niche websites and the dark web, where some parts still feel like a place I can breathe.
This is the way to do it
I’ve given up on the super-corporate side of the Internet.
99% of my Internet use is Mastodon and Lemmy, both of which don’t really represent “the Internet”. I sail the high seas occasionally to help meet my other needs.
Yes, multiplayer gaming is toxic as hell. If I’m doing that, I have chat turned off, but mostly I’ve managed to finagle the Internet into my own personal, cozy little Hobbiton derivative, so it doesn’t feel quite so toxic to me as it might to the population at large.
Just don’t read news. News push negative narrative because it creates strong emotional reactions and people engaged. Problem is even here on Lemmy, people share and discuss these toxic news instead of writing their own view of it that is more modest and objective.
AI is the thing thats close to pushing me off. I’ve loved it less and less every day since it turned into a popularity contest, but it still had a lot of great stuff. Now its not even people pretending to be something they’re not, its a computer program pretending to be somebody pretending to be somebody theyre not in the vain hopes that you’ll LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE.
I’m not talented or special-skilled or super-interested enough in anything to warrant joining any niche forums. This right here is the last of my Internet I think. Once Lemmy is overrun by thots and bots I might be done.
I bet you have some cool talents even if they don’t drive you to forums
Set up your own website if you haven’t already, the indie web/smallnet/etc movement lately has been really cool to see and has made the internet fun again for me. Neocities is a great place to start if you need simple hosting, completely free and without ads
My most recent lil obsession/project has been to see how doable getting the start of a community mesh network going would be. I want the internet to live up to its decentralised promise but that means actually decentralising it.
I’ve been seeing a lot about this stuff and I really want to get into it, seems really cool
Wasn’t there just a thing with search engines de-indexing neocities and the like so no one could find them from search engines?
Search engines are the achilles heel of the internet. The enshitification bottleneck. We need ways to access information around these large for profit companies, as they no longer are doing an honest, honorable job, but maximizing profit in a plutocracy governed by dictators and corrupt soon to fall to fascism liberal democracies.
as far as i know, it was a bug with bing
How are people finding these types or sites? I love the idea of it but I don’t understand how any of it gets discovered.
how did anyone find zombo.com back in the day
I think everyone’s friend just told them about it one day.
Here’s one place https://neocities.org/browse
I just tell people to go visit https://soulism.net/ as often as I get the chance
this search engine finds smaller unique sites, lots of them happen to be neocities sites. Just refresh the page and see whats out there: https://old-search.marginalia.nu/search?query=browse%3Arandom
Neat, but this only makes me miss StumbleUpon. It was so freaking good for discovering niche websites. I have no idea why it shut down.
Oh StumbleUpon…thou shalt be remembered
I’m ready to give up on most things.
Already have. Continued existence is mainly just for the benefit of the spouse who actually has things worse than I.
Inertia is really the only thing keeping me alive at this point…
The Internet as a whole isn’t the problem. Specific sites are. Steer clear from those sites, and you’ll be just fine. Take notice of which sites and services result in negative emotions, and find alternatives to those places.
spoiler
All the popular sites will be on that list. Anything made by one of the big companies is permanently contaminated. If it involves Meta, Xitter, Reddit in any way, you’re better off without it. Also, many popular news are built on the idea of spreading fear and anxiety. Avoid those sites too.
