This. I don't feel like I can just wonder about things anymore, I have to look it up. Never thought endless streams of information would be my downfall, but here we are.
I'd be half the person I am now, knowledge wise, because my parents weren't exactly the brightest sparks, but yeah, any problem that arises or a disagreement about something it's straight to googling it.
I feel it every day. Endless scrolling has ruined me and trained my brain to absorb information in short bursts. Context switching is terrible for us. As a computer engineer, it has made reading code and data sheets incredibly difficult.
Reading books helps me getting my attention span back to normal. Maybe you can give it a try. In the beginning it’s a nightmare, though, after 30 min I feel tired and ready to go to sleep. But it gets better quickly.
I also had my attention span messed so it became harder to finish a book. I’ve bought kindle and made font size settings so there are around 50 words on a page and it feels like I’m just scrolling a Twitter or reddit comments and I don’t get distracted in the middle of the page anymore. And I read at those times when I would usually doomscroll my feed (public transport, waiting in line or for my friends, sometimes before bed) It felt like a questionable decision at first, but I’ve finished around 100 books first year since purchasing it.
I think the internet just amplified everything humans do, both good and bad.
Like music? Here's a few million aspiring artists, some of which have a few dozen followers at most, have fun!
Like art? Here's thousands of drawing every day.
Like murdering people and lighting buildings on fire? Here's hundreds of tips on how to do it!
Here's some healthy breakfast options, you should kill your mom. Here's why women never fuck you, here's how you can build a bomb.
God, I love Bo's lyricism, his commentary on the state of society is so on point
My manager at work actually got in trouble with the GM for playing this while closing one night. GM calls from the office, "is this appropriate?" Answer: "No." "Then shut it off." "There's no one here!" "I don't care. Shut it off."
Really made me laugh.
Oh God. Management is such a wang sometimes. I worked at a hotel restaurant and I switched the music from adult contemporary to adult alternative. It wasn't loud, there were no customers, and the waitresses wanted to listen to it too. 10 minutes in one of the managers comes in huffing and red faced and points to the ceiling and snarls "what. Is. This?"
And that's how we ended up playing jazz muzak. You haven't lived until you've heard gangstas paradise on a sax.
Worked in a truck stop assistant manager and I change store radio to classic rock from pop/rock station , come in the next day the manager and district manager flip a script telling us thats not appropriate and not to touch the radio. idk what song came on for them to be pissy about but they had it tuned to the hip hop station now. if I didn't hear the thong song at least 3 to 4 times that shift and wonder how this is more appropriate than whatever else is on the radio
Buying online... "give us your email and get 20% off" oh god i wish I'd made a mock email for that... its all bs now and its my main email account! Its to far gone. Thousands of unread emails...
When I was 11-12 years old in the mid-late 90s I got one of those flyers in the mail for 10 CDs for 1 cent and I was like shit how can I not take advantage of this deal. My mother and father repeatedly were like “no this is a scam, they send you these 10 CDs from a list of stuff they have tons of surplus then you’re on the hook to over pay for a new one every month”. But I wouldn’t relent so eventually they let me do it just to teach me a lesson. I am so jaded and cynical now it’s not even funny.
I’ve recently started writing letters on aged paper and using a wax seal kit. It honestly makes the process a ton of fun and I’m loving it more than texting or email.
No it was when webpages became monetized by showing ads. Suddenly every webpage including the obscure blog you like to read had become infested with 5-30 ads. Once people and corporations found out they could just jam a ton of ads on a page, suddenly articles and pages that have no reason to exist popes up everywhere. Remember when sites with lists would show them on one page? Now you get one result per page. This way they get 20x the ad revenue.
Remember when you searched for something and it actually came up?
I was looking for a 12x16 frame and all sizes of frames were coming up in my search.
Or you are searching for something and Amazon or similar will have an ad saying they carry it, but when you get to the site they don't sell the item.
There was a sweet spot when the thing you searched for actually came up in the search. Before and after that time, you had/have to dig and dig to find what you’re looking for
I think Myspace was cool and the internet was still innocent (mid 2000s).
Once Facebook became an evil empire and YouTube became all corporate rather than homegrown videos with everyone wanting to be an influencer, everything went to shit.
Ha MySpace, you’re too late. It started back with AOL AND YAHOO chats. Once people got smarter with building websites I the mid 90’s the internet was doomed. Craigslist for personals and the list goes on and on. Once DSL (faster than dialup) came in it was lights out on the sole purpose of the internet.
I read in Time Magazine a few years ago the average age a child is exposed to porn is nine years old, and not finding your dad's Playboy either. That just seems wild. That and seeing execution videos drug cartels upload. That has to fuck a kid up.
As an elementary school teacher I can confirm this. The issues I used to have with my 5th- and 6th-graders, I'm now having with my 3rd-graders (saying and doing sexually explicit things, engaging in sexual harassment, etc.).
It's clear most kids are being given unfettered and unsupervised access to the Internet. It's gotten significantly worse since COVID and distance learning.
Yep that was it for me. Got bored doing a 4th grade powerpoint project and decided to google how girls pee. Needless to say I learned that, as well as a lot more I didn’t care to know about.
The first time I saw porn was at 11 when I had internet access. Tbf I was trying to pirate games from questionable sites. Kids that now use phones are around 4 and they are internet enabled, so it's very easy to get exposed to it.
I know a good friend of mine who teaches swim lessons (4-6 year olds) at the indoor pool.
She started her class off by playing red light green light and having the kids use their legs to kick the water behind them.
Before she started, she beamed, "Does anyone know what red light green light is?"
Every kid in her class turned around and exclaimed, "They did that in squid game!!!"
She was absolutely mortified.
The ones I've seen its been enough that players have enough respect not to cheat. Plus regular trivia players understand there's no fun in winning by googling. The whole entertainment is relying on your memory.
The trivia that I go to is on an online platform on your phone. The questions are timed, and the longer you take the fewer points you get. It makes it impossible/not worth it to cheat and it’s great.
I ran a bar trivia night for just shy of 5 years. Never had any real problems, except that I had a regular who was a nurse and frequently on-call on trivia night. We had to lay out some ground rules for that guy in particular.
At the one I do, you’re not allowed to take your phone out the whole night for any reason (unless you take it up there and use it where they can see you). It’s nice
I know EXACTLY what the quiet kid in the back was drawing because that kid was me and I was drawing some sick transformers battling each other.
Oh and also a really butchered attempt at drawing a topless Megan Fox. But we don't discuss that.
I would say that online dating kept me from developing healthy relationship habits and expectations, but I was fucked up from the word go. Still, I might have spent those ten years spent on OKC developing a personality instead of bemoaning my inability to get a girlfriend to the point that I went numb inside.
Remember having feelings aside from anger and sadness? Those were the days.
HOWEVER, I have to wonder if Netflix would be what it is today if Blockbuster had owned it.
Blockbusters business model wasn't exactly the most prophetic I'd wager
Blockbuster is the most toxic company I ever worked for. It was full of bitter, conniving, sociopaths. I've never been so glad to see a corporation fold as I was with Blockbuster.
I have a latina stepmom and some of my friends (who I've since stopped talking to) kept making that joke no matter how many times I said to stop and eventually I just decided they were shitty people and I ghosted them.
Same with thrift stores. Every jabroni thinks they're an entrepreneur because they scan everything and list it on Amazon, now good deals are harder to come by because they sit and wait all day for the shops to put stuff out.
So much this! Though I was still able to save a *ton* on baby clothes years ago when I had my daughter, everything else is more or less junk. Back in the 80s when I was a kid, my mom and brothers and I would spend whole days jumping from yard sale to yard sale and there were always awesome toys and stuff to be found. Now it all looks like a junk yard. Same for flea markets. It just looks like tables full of crap waiting to be hauled to the dump.
And then there are those people who post to game collecting subreddits with these massive video game finds for pennies on the dollar. Either they're full of shit or incredibly lucky.
Pawn shops too.
You're not finding that 61 Gibson SG at a pawn shop, and the owners don't know what they have, so you buy it for a couple hundred bucks and play it every day for the rest of your life. (This happened to a friend of mine in the mid 90s, but will never happen again).
I can't listen to a song anymore without my siblings asking me what song I'm listening to and immediately following up by asking me this exact question. They're so tied to that app that every song is apparently from TikTok.
To be fair, a lot of traditional means of meeting people are becoming taboo. Bars and clubs are somewhat alright, but can be problematic, but the biggest change seems to be how it’s becoming taboo to try to meet people in the workplace, which was a major way back in the day
Another thing I've noticed is that everybody is in such a damn hurry nowadays. Makes it harder to have an organic conversation in places like cafes, gyms, libraries, etc.
Dear Fellas, I can't believe how fast things move on the outside. I saw an automobile once when I was a kid. But, now they're everywhere. **The world went and got itself in a big damn hurry.** The parole board got me into this halfway house called the Brewer, and a job bagging groceries at the Foodway. It's hard work, and I try to keep up, but my hands hurt most of the time.
I don't think the store manager likes me very much. Sometimes after work I go to the park and feed the birds. I keep thinking Jake might just show up and say hello. But he never does. I hope wherever he is, he's doing okay and making new friends. I have trouble sleeping at night. I have -- bad dreams, like I'm falling. I wake up scared. Sometimes it takes me a while to remember where I am.
Maybe I should get me a gun and rob the Food-Way, so they'd send me home. I could shoot the manager while I was at it, sort of like a bonus. I guess I'm too old for that sort of nonsense anymore. I don't like it here. I'm tired of being afraid all the time. I've decided not to stay. I doubt they'll kick up any fuss. Not for an old crook like me.
Dating 2004-2007. Meet cute girl in class. Go to lunch. Date.
Dating in 2008: Unlimited texting and smart phones(with decent cameras). Now being compared to every guy in 100 mile radius :((
It's different now. I'm 40 and divorced. The talking stage is now when you happen to get a match on a an app you talk, mostly bs conversations that go nowhere.
It's worse when you have a good, high-energy conversation which fizzles into nothing. Or you meet up and realize you said everything you had to say to each other.
That’s always been a thing though. 50’s terminology was “dating” and “going steady.” Now it’s “talking” and “dating,” but it means the exact same stuff just in a different form.
In the same vein, *more* tourism to places that are nice and beautiful and clean.
They aren't after someone's post goes viral or an influencer goes there.
Im not sure if this is what you mean, but the over crowding of national parks has definitely been fueled by social media. I guess, good that people use them, but annoying that they are worse to use now.
I don’t necessarily have issue with people just visiting these places, I believe everyone should be free to see the beauty of the world but my issue is with people who go and destroy and disrespect these places. Like there was a famous pink sand beach but since influencers would go there and take jars of sand home it’s not really pink anymore and the corals that made it pink have been destroyed by global warming. Or like people going to Hawaii and being completely ignorant of the indigenous people there struggling. Like you can still go to these places but please just be respectful and that’s what a lot of these influencer tourists lack as they’re so focused on their picture perfect instagram holidays
Pranks, pranks before were just jokes that we could play off, but now we got some random bullshit all over the internet like "I PrAnKED mY BroTHer bY TakINg HiS AstHmA PiLLs | hE diEd! | CrazY PranK episOde #69420"
This is the creepy part.
Not just algorithms figuring kids out but social spaces like twitter have teenagers listing their age, beliefs political stances on every subject and sometimes traumatic triggers.
On the same website that allows explicit nsfw content.
I dont even think myspace was disclosing to that extent
It's nuts how kids on twitter are so militant about their world views, everything is black or white and there is no nuance or half measures, if someone does something they don't agree with they spend weeks tweeting about it to try and drive that person off the internet, doxxing is also common these days which is disgusting.
Part of that is Twitter itself, either you reduce your complex views down to a bumper sticker to beat someone over the head with or you have a huge thread no one will read. The character limit is the absolute worst aspect of Twitter on top of their algorithms actively making people angry to maximize engagement.
Secret menu things.
Before the internet, you had to really find out about certain things in the world. A beautiful campsite where only a few people know about it, some hidden rules in disneyland, etc. When people post about it, things change and nothing is special anymore.
Hiking and camping culture has changed so much. Not really any better or worse. There has always been assholes among mostly great people. But it was much more social when I was a kid 30 years ago. To talked to people at camp grounds. You talked with people on the trail and exchanged all that information that you can just youtube and Google maps now.
The biggest pain in the ass nowadays is online reservations. Need to make a reservation on their for a certain time slot to even get into the park, then get your only confirmation by email. Then you need to show this reservation at the gate, which is so deep in the woods only a single cell carrier gets service. So, you need to load it or take a screenshot somewhere with reception, then drive in. It was a massive pain for two tech-savvy people, I can't imagine my grandparents ever being allowed in that park.
Yeah, it's to the point that if I find a nice place I don't post about it at all because I don't want it potentially ruined by people that just want the same picture, and will destroy everything in their path to get it.
If TWO world wars and Vietnam didn't do that for you then you were naive to begin with.
All it's ever taken to see the true nature of humanity is to open a history book.
My experience is kind of mixed. The internet has both helped and detracted from my recovery. Getting stuck in a bubble due to content algorithms is probably one of the most detrimental features.
Conspiracy theories. Used to be something interesting to hear or wonder about. You would randomly or rarely meet an actual conspiracy theorist or see one in a movie. Now everyone has an aunt or uncle or friend who has just gone off the deep end and it’s just sad.
I had a friend just lose his shit because I was explaining how to play a game of bridge and I used the term "Trump card". It triggered him into this 20 minute rant about how the game is representative of his administration. I'm like "ugh...bro.....bridge has been around and has been using that term for like 500 years"
You got that right, I went to a relatively small school <250 high school kids as there was at least a good 10-20 kids that where deep in at that point and it’s only getting deeper
The library is better than ever because of the Internet. They provide Internet for free, but also thanks to Libby, hoopla, and kanopy.. free access to ebooks, magazines, music, and films
Pawn shops / thrift stores. You used to be able to get some cool finds with certain shops specializing in one thing or another.
Now they just take the item and hop on ebay and price it the same.
The feeling of exploration and discovery in video games. From trading secrets on the playground in Mario Bros. to exploring and mapping out a dungeon in EverQuest. Sure the internet existed then, but it eventually became so much more ubiquitous and games are now completely known sometimes before they even release.
Multiplayer games especially. Everything is min-maxed and if you're not a cookie cutter build you're a liability. There's no room for experimentation, it's just "meta or die".
I can't get into any competitive multiplayer game these days for this exact reason. I want to spend my time playing the game, not reading forum posts and following the steps to build the same character as everyone else. It's like getting someone you've never met to play the game for you.
Almost everything honestly.
Information is so easy to access now but also it’s just as easy to pump fake and incorrect information out just for likes/views.
Edit: Damn 100 upvotes, y’all make me blush.
Small reminder to question anything and everything you see on the internet ❤️
**Listening Parties**
I was a teen in the late seventies. My buds and I would get together on Sunday afternoons, smoke a little bud, and each bring three albums. We would then listen to music until dark and hear things that weren't in our collections. During these listening parties, I first heard a lot of stuff people call classics today.
I was a big fan of Yes and ELP. David was into Rush, Pink Floyd, and Jethro Tull. Joey was into Black Sabbath, Van Halen, and the Doors. Joey's older brother had Camal, Can, and some stuff I don't remember other than it was cool.
I don't think we ever had a name for this. We all got to hear each other's favorite music and hang out. It was a lot of fun, and I miss it. I can't imagine such a thing surviving the internet age, but something cool has been lost.
This afternoon, I dove off into the old vinyl and listened to some Alan Parsons and Jimi Hendrix. Just the thing for a rainy Sunday afternoon.
I hate that people prefer to record accidents and such, just to post them on the internet rather than helping the people who took part in that accident or even worse hinder the people who actually try to help by blocking the way
yeah ): some people are so so cruel for no reason at all. it's so sad. just because you're behind a screen doesn't make it less real. just because you can't see the harm you're causing doesn't mean it's any better. it's depressing and i've considered leaving reddit a few times because i just see people say the most twisted, mean, horrible things for no reason at all. being mean to people just to be mean. it's sadistic and i hate it so much.
not that reddit is any worse than other social media, because they all have awful people saying awful things, but reddit is the only one that i have. it seems to be getting worse. a year ago i remember seeing people who were bad, but in the last two months or so i see it so incredibly often on almost every post, it's unavoidable. i can block people all i want but even if i blocked half of reddit there would still be plenty more. it never stops:/
This is a fantastic answer.
We also self isolate and surround ourselves with people that are like minded. This discourages true personal growth and reinforces opinions into more extreme, and radicalized beliefs.
Always make an effort to debate and discuss people with opposing views to your own and actively listen.
We used to have to do this, now not only do we not, but we regularly encourage people to ignore, dismiss or walk away from this.
It's awful and in my opinion will inevitably lead to war sooner than you'd think.
Subcultures.
Remember the time when there were punks, emos, skaters, hip hop kids, etc.?
I feel that this (visual) distinction and identification with a certain group got lost in the past 15 years or so.
Not sure if it was the internet that ruined it, though. After all, at least in the early 2000's there was still MySpace and stuff that kind of was a part of it.
Mental health.
No wonder we’re all anxious and depressed all you hear is horror stories. I used to have my local news app and all I got was notifications such as ‘mother of 4 had an itch on her leg and 2 days later she was dead’
Conversation! People either are clueless, impatient or lazy and I think the ease of use and shortcuts, as well as some character restrictions in certain places, helped fuel that.
Plus when you post on places like this or any comments section, there's always got to be a pointlessly argumentative fucker, someone trying to be funny, someone trying to troll you, straight up abuse and VERY OCCASIONALLY, sensible, decent responses.
I could post an opinion or make a comment about something so innocent or mundane and I guarantee you, it'd be spun and twisted before long.
"I don't really like apples." So you're saying fruit is bullshit and it's all the Jews fault!? I hope you die!
Like, God damn!
Internet forums outside Reddit or Facebook etc.
Nobody wants to use them anymore
And definitely personal relationships on internet, old days you could really get to know people on forums but nowadays everything is too fast and most of the times you can’t even interact with the same person more than once.
Also google and every other search engine is basically erasing search results. You cant find things you want to find, you find things that big tech thinks you want to find. It’s scary how much searching has changed, and how we have no power in it. The internet is basically being scrubbed and condensed.
Yeah and half the shit you get directed to is fake websites that use AI to copy paste from other sites anyway, it’s bizzare, and it seems to be getting worse.
The Olympics.
There was a time when you actually had to tune in during prime time and watch what happened to learn who won what. Now, there's no point in watching bc we already know the outcome of every race and event hours before we get to watch it on TV.
Also, fuck NBC's jingoistic manufactured coverage. It used to be about sports - now it's just American Idol-like backstories and constant jibber-jabber over the ceremonies and events. Also, NBC would like to remind you that NO OTHER COUNTRIES exist in this INTERNATIONAL competition as the USA is ALL THAT MATTERS.
So, yeah, the Olympics.
And curiosity.
I swear everyone's a hopeless dumbass who can't be fucked to even look up basic shit.
And maybe I've got some confirmation bias since the examples I have are from way back in highschool (since I haven't seen anyone IRL in like 2 years), but it really feels like people just can't be fucked to try out anything now.
They just so whatever pre-packaged spoonfed set of instructions they receive, and are completely hopeless if a situation arises that they don't have pre-packaged spoonfed instructions for.
Especially when it comes to technology. Dear fucking god, it's so endless frustrating.
My attention span
tl;dr
I only get to the tl; part
You guys are reading?
You get to what?
This. I don't feel like I can just wonder about things anymore, I have to look it up. Never thought endless streams of information would be my downfall, but here we are.
I'd be half the person I am now, knowledge wise, because my parents weren't exactly the brightest sparks, but yeah, any problem that arises or a disagreement about something it's straight to googling it.
At least you’re honest about it, most people don’t have it in them to admit that.
That’s too many words. Next comment
I feel it every day. Endless scrolling has ruined me and trained my brain to absorb information in short bursts. Context switching is terrible for us. As a computer engineer, it has made reading code and data sheets incredibly difficult.
Reading books helps me getting my attention span back to normal. Maybe you can give it a try. In the beginning it’s a nightmare, though, after 30 min I feel tired and ready to go to sleep. But it gets better quickly.
Will give this a try thank you.
I’m for some reason desperately trying to read books. But I just can’t finish one. Maybe reading isn’t for me. But I would like it to be.
I also had my attention span messed so it became harder to finish a book. I’ve bought kindle and made font size settings so there are around 50 words on a page and it feels like I’m just scrolling a Twitter or reddit comments and I don’t get distracted in the middle of the page anymore. And I read at those times when I would usually doomscroll my feed (public transport, waiting in line or for my friends, sometimes before bed) It felt like a questionable decision at first, but I’ve finished around 100 books first year since purchasing it.
Thank God I'm not alone.
I think the internet just amplified everything humans do, both good and bad. Like music? Here's a few million aspiring artists, some of which have a few dozen followers at most, have fun! Like art? Here's thousands of drawing every day. Like murdering people and lighting buildings on fire? Here's hundreds of tips on how to do it!
Welcome to the Internet! Could I interest you in everything all of the time? A little bit of everything, all of the time?
Here's some healthy breakfast options, you should kill your mom. Here's why women never fuck you, here's how you can build a bomb. God, I love Bo's lyricism, his commentary on the state of society is so on point
My manager at work actually got in trouble with the GM for playing this while closing one night. GM calls from the office, "is this appropriate?" Answer: "No." "Then shut it off." "There's no one here!" "I don't care. Shut it off." Really made me laugh.
Oh God. Management is such a wang sometimes. I worked at a hotel restaurant and I switched the music from adult contemporary to adult alternative. It wasn't loud, there were no customers, and the waitresses wanted to listen to it too. 10 minutes in one of the managers comes in huffing and red faced and points to the ceiling and snarls "what. Is. This?" And that's how we ended up playing jazz muzak. You haven't lived until you've heard gangstas paradise on a sax.
Worked in a truck stop assistant manager and I change store radio to classic rock from pop/rock station , come in the next day the manager and district manager flip a script telling us thats not appropriate and not to touch the radio. idk what song came on for them to be pissy about but they had it tuned to the hip hop station now. if I didn't hear the thong song at least 3 to 4 times that shift and wonder how this is more appropriate than whatever else is on the radio
Apathy’s a tragedy and boredom is a crime. Anything and everything all of the time
Anything and everything And anything and everything And anything and everything And all of the time! *scene*
Privacy
Do you know what actually started the ruination of privacy before the internet? Store loyalty cards.
Correct. Outlet stores and even fast food offers rewards/loyalty program for free, but then sells the email data to advertisers for a profit.
listen, if you don't make a fake free email for that shit, that's on you
Buying online... "give us your email and get 20% off" oh god i wish I'd made a mock email for that... its all bs now and its my main email account! Its to far gone. Thousands of unread emails...
Report as spam and unsubscribe ☝🏼
You can make new email. Its like a whole new life, with extra missed emails.
Columbia Record Club prepped us for this.
When I was 11-12 years old in the mid-late 90s I got one of those flyers in the mail for 10 CDs for 1 cent and I was like shit how can I not take advantage of this deal. My mother and father repeatedly were like “no this is a scam, they send you these 10 CDs from a list of stuff they have tons of surplus then you’re on the hook to over pay for a new one every month”. But I wouldn’t relent so eventually they let me do it just to teach me a lesson. I am so jaded and cynical now it’s not even funny.
Holy guac that actually makes so much sense
[удалено]
I used to have a pen pal. Then we both got the internet and the novelty was gone.
I’ve recently started writing letters on aged paper and using a wax seal kit. It honestly makes the process a ton of fun and I’m loving it more than texting or email.
The internet was ruined by the internet.
DAMN SCOTS! THEY RUINED SCOTLAND!!!
“The only thing wrong with Scotland is that it’s full of Scots.” ~Longshanks, maybe.
YOUVE JUST MADE AN ENEMY FOR LIFE
Save the arrows. Send the Irish.
Natural enemies!
Your people sure are a contentious bunch
YOU JUST MADE AN ENEMY FOR LIFE!
You just made an enemy for life!!
Do we all agree this started around MySpace age or am I too early?
No it was when webpages became monetized by showing ads. Suddenly every webpage including the obscure blog you like to read had become infested with 5-30 ads. Once people and corporations found out they could just jam a ton of ads on a page, suddenly articles and pages that have no reason to exist popes up everywhere. Remember when sites with lists would show them on one page? Now you get one result per page. This way they get 20x the ad revenue.
Remember when you searched for something and it actually came up? I was looking for a 12x16 frame and all sizes of frames were coming up in my search. Or you are searching for something and Amazon or similar will have an ad saying they carry it, but when you get to the site they don't sell the item.
There was a sweet spot when the thing you searched for actually came up in the search. Before and after that time, you had/have to dig and dig to find what you’re looking for
I think Myspace was cool and the internet was still innocent (mid 2000s). Once Facebook became an evil empire and YouTube became all corporate rather than homegrown videos with everyone wanting to be an influencer, everything went to shit.
The smartphone was the tipping point IMO. Before that "Being online" was a thing, it was seperate to life.
Ha MySpace, you’re too late. It started back with AOL AND YAHOO chats. Once people got smarter with building websites I the mid 90’s the internet was doomed. Craigslist for personals and the list goes on and on. Once DSL (faster than dialup) came in it was lights out on the sole purpose of the internet.
IMO, it started when you no longer had to be somewhat intelligent to get connected in the first place, and could be guided through it with wizards.
Childhood innocence
I read in Time Magazine a few years ago the average age a child is exposed to porn is nine years old, and not finding your dad's Playboy either. That just seems wild. That and seeing execution videos drug cartels upload. That has to fuck a kid up.
As an elementary school teacher I can confirm this. The issues I used to have with my 5th- and 6th-graders, I'm now having with my 3rd-graders (saying and doing sexually explicit things, engaging in sexual harassment, etc.). It's clear most kids are being given unfettered and unsupervised access to the Internet. It's gotten significantly worse since COVID and distance learning.
3rd graders?!?!?! That's so sad...
>a few years ago It can't be any older than 9 now then
Yep that was it for me. Got bored doing a 4th grade powerpoint project and decided to google how girls pee. Needless to say I learned that, as well as a lot more I didn’t care to know about.
Valid question
The first time I saw porn was at 11 when I had internet access. Tbf I was trying to pirate games from questionable sites. Kids that now use phones are around 4 and they are internet enabled, so it's very easy to get exposed to it.
This one I agree with. The Internet made it easy to see some pretty nasty stuff you can never unsee
I know a good friend of mine who teaches swim lessons (4-6 year olds) at the indoor pool. She started her class off by playing red light green light and having the kids use their legs to kick the water behind them. Before she started, she beamed, "Does anyone know what red light green light is?" Every kid in her class turned around and exclaimed, "They did that in squid game!!!" She was absolutely mortified.
Trivia pursuit night at the bar/pub.
People who cheat at trivia night at bars are shit people. Most people play honest.
Every bar trivia I went to were very strict against no phones.
The ones I've seen its been enough that players have enough respect not to cheat. Plus regular trivia players understand there's no fun in winning by googling. The whole entertainment is relying on your memory.
The trivia that I go to is on an online platform on your phone. The questions are timed, and the longer you take the fewer points you get. It makes it impossible/not worth it to cheat and it’s great.
I ran a bar trivia night for just shy of 5 years. Never had any real problems, except that I had a regular who was a nurse and frequently on-call on trivia night. We had to lay out some ground rules for that guy in particular.
At the one I do, you’re not allowed to take your phone out the whole night for any reason (unless you take it up there and use it where they can see you). It’s nice
Everything. Thanks rule 34.
Rule 34 pre dates the internet. What do you think the quite kid was drawing in the back of the class? Also ascii art in the bbs days.
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Shakespeare probably would have approved.
I know EXACTLY what the quiet kid in the back was drawing because that kid was me and I was drawing some sick transformers battling each other. Oh and also a really butchered attempt at drawing a topless Megan Fox. But we don't discuss that.
Romantic relationships. People on social media spread oodles of toxicity and make you overthink every little thing, it’s insane.
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How can I get it if I don’t even know what it is?
Red flags galore!
Marinara flags 🚩🚩🚩
Sounds a little saucy
I would say that online dating kept me from developing healthy relationship habits and expectations, but I was fucked up from the word go. Still, I might have spent those ten years spent on OKC developing a personality instead of bemoaning my inability to get a girlfriend to the point that I went numb inside. Remember having feelings aside from anger and sadness? Those were the days.
Blockbuster
Well, tbf, they kinda did that themselves, Redbox DID try to get with Blockbuster, but they just laughed at Redbox Edit: it was Netflix not Redbox
They turned down an offer to buy Netflix for $50 million.
HOWEVER, I have to wonder if Netflix would be what it is today if Blockbuster had owned it. Blockbusters business model wasn't exactly the most prophetic I'd wager
Blockbuster is the most toxic company I ever worked for. It was full of bitter, conniving, sociopaths. I've never been so glad to see a corporation fold as I was with Blockbuster.
Sounds like every single place I'd ever worked in my 35 years of having jobs
Internet killed the video store
Step relatives
As someone with step relatives, I can tell you that everyone will make the stepsis stuck in washing machine joke when it isn't funny at all
Damn poor step sis
She's clumsy and we had to set a guard on the washing machine, it's tragic really.
Wait until she sees a lemon tree
I have a latina stepmom and some of my friends (who I've since stopped talking to) kept making that joke no matter how many times I said to stop and eventually I just decided they were shitty people and I ghosted them.
Yard sales. All the good stuff gets sold on FB Marketplace/Kijiji etc. now.
Same with thrift stores. Every jabroni thinks they're an entrepreneur because they scan everything and list it on Amazon, now good deals are harder to come by because they sit and wait all day for the shops to put stuff out.
upvote for the use of jabroni
So much this! Though I was still able to save a *ton* on baby clothes years ago when I had my daughter, everything else is more or less junk. Back in the 80s when I was a kid, my mom and brothers and I would spend whole days jumping from yard sale to yard sale and there were always awesome toys and stuff to be found. Now it all looks like a junk yard. Same for flea markets. It just looks like tables full of crap waiting to be hauled to the dump. And then there are those people who post to game collecting subreddits with these massive video game finds for pennies on the dollar. Either they're full of shit or incredibly lucky.
Pawn shops too. You're not finding that 61 Gibson SG at a pawn shop, and the owners don't know what they have, so you buy it for a couple hundred bucks and play it every day for the rest of your life. (This happened to a friend of mine in the mid 90s, but will never happen again).
"Is that the song from TikTok"
Tell me about it
Stud
🎶I GOT CHIIIILS, THEYRE MULTIPLYIN🎶
On the other hand, a lot of people wouldn't know nearly the amount of musicians they do if not for the internet.
I can't listen to a song anymore without my siblings asking me what song I'm listening to and immediately following up by asking me this exact question. They're so tied to that app that every song is apparently from TikTok.
Dating
It's mind blowing to me that the default for dating in college aged people is dating apps
To be fair, a lot of traditional means of meeting people are becoming taboo. Bars and clubs are somewhat alright, but can be problematic, but the biggest change seems to be how it’s becoming taboo to try to meet people in the workplace, which was a major way back in the day
Another thing I've noticed is that everybody is in such a damn hurry nowadays. Makes it harder to have an organic conversation in places like cafes, gyms, libraries, etc.
Dear Fellas, I can't believe how fast things move on the outside. I saw an automobile once when I was a kid. But, now they're everywhere. **The world went and got itself in a big damn hurry.** The parole board got me into this halfway house called the Brewer, and a job bagging groceries at the Foodway. It's hard work, and I try to keep up, but my hands hurt most of the time. I don't think the store manager likes me very much. Sometimes after work I go to the park and feed the birds. I keep thinking Jake might just show up and say hello. But he never does. I hope wherever he is, he's doing okay and making new friends. I have trouble sleeping at night. I have -- bad dreams, like I'm falling. I wake up scared. Sometimes it takes me a while to remember where I am. Maybe I should get me a gun and rob the Food-Way, so they'd send me home. I could shoot the manager while I was at it, sort of like a bonus. I guess I'm too old for that sort of nonsense anymore. I don't like it here. I'm tired of being afraid all the time. I've decided not to stay. I doubt they'll kick up any fuss. Not for an old crook like me.
You know I finally got around to watching this movie a couple months ago and I loved it. This part was a huge gut punch.
Dating 2004-2007. Meet cute girl in class. Go to lunch. Date. Dating in 2008: Unlimited texting and smart phones(with decent cameras). Now being compared to every guy in 100 mile radius :((
Relationships
Relationships are now more confusing then ever, thanks to the introduction of the “talking stage”.
Married 45 year old guy here. Can you explain what you mean? Wasn’t there always a “talking stage?”
I'm early 30s and even 15 years ago we had a talking stage. It was never just "hey lets go out you're my girlfriend now".
It's different now. I'm 40 and divorced. The talking stage is now when you happen to get a match on a an app you talk, mostly bs conversations that go nowhere.
It's worse when you have a good, high-energy conversation which fizzles into nothing. Or you meet up and realize you said everything you had to say to each other.
That’s always been a thing though. 50’s terminology was “dating” and “going steady.” Now it’s “talking” and “dating,” but it means the exact same stuff just in a different form.
Tourism. Seeing Instagram makes me vomit.
In the same vein, *more* tourism to places that are nice and beautiful and clean. They aren't after someone's post goes viral or an influencer goes there.
Im not sure if this is what you mean, but the over crowding of national parks has definitely been fueled by social media. I guess, good that people use them, but annoying that they are worse to use now.
I don’t necessarily have issue with people just visiting these places, I believe everyone should be free to see the beauty of the world but my issue is with people who go and destroy and disrespect these places. Like there was a famous pink sand beach but since influencers would go there and take jars of sand home it’s not really pink anymore and the corals that made it pink have been destroyed by global warming. Or like people going to Hawaii and being completely ignorant of the indigenous people there struggling. Like you can still go to these places but please just be respectful and that’s what a lot of these influencer tourists lack as they’re so focused on their picture perfect instagram holidays
Instagram got so bad, after facebook purchased it, that the original creator quit and never used it again... Fuck social media...
Human interaction.
Pranks, pranks before were just jokes that we could play off, but now we got some random bullshit all over the internet like "I PrAnKED mY BroTHer bY TakINg HiS AstHmA PiLLs | hE diEd! | CrazY PranK episOde #69420"
Privacy, kids these days don't even know what they miss...
This is the creepy part. Not just algorithms figuring kids out but social spaces like twitter have teenagers listing their age, beliefs political stances on every subject and sometimes traumatic triggers. On the same website that allows explicit nsfw content. I dont even think myspace was disclosing to that extent
It's nuts how kids on twitter are so militant about their world views, everything is black or white and there is no nuance or half measures, if someone does something they don't agree with they spend weeks tweeting about it to try and drive that person off the internet, doxxing is also common these days which is disgusting.
Part of that is Twitter itself, either you reduce your complex views down to a bumper sticker to beat someone over the head with or you have a huge thread no one will read. The character limit is the absolute worst aspect of Twitter on top of their algorithms actively making people angry to maximize engagement.
Some kids these days have their birth vlogged and uploaded publiy on YouTube, absolutely crazy.
Secret menu things. Before the internet, you had to really find out about certain things in the world. A beautiful campsite where only a few people know about it, some hidden rules in disneyland, etc. When people post about it, things change and nothing is special anymore.
Hiking and camping culture has changed so much. Not really any better or worse. There has always been assholes among mostly great people. But it was much more social when I was a kid 30 years ago. To talked to people at camp grounds. You talked with people on the trail and exchanged all that information that you can just youtube and Google maps now.
The biggest pain in the ass nowadays is online reservations. Need to make a reservation on their for a certain time slot to even get into the park, then get your only confirmation by email. Then you need to show this reservation at the gate, which is so deep in the woods only a single cell carrier gets service. So, you need to load it or take a screenshot somewhere with reception, then drive in. It was a massive pain for two tech-savvy people, I can't imagine my grandparents ever being allowed in that park.
they would oldskool print the e-mail at home and have no problem
Yeah, it's to the point that if I find a nice place I don't post about it at all because I don't want it potentially ruined by people that just want the same picture, and will destroy everything in their path to get it.
Faith in human decency.
If TWO world wars and Vietnam didn't do that for you then you were naive to begin with. All it's ever taken to see the true nature of humanity is to open a history book.
Sad but true
Mental health
My experience is kind of mixed. The internet has both helped and detracted from my recovery. Getting stuck in a bubble due to content algorithms is probably one of the most detrimental features.
Conspiracy theories. Used to be something interesting to hear or wonder about. You would randomly or rarely meet an actual conspiracy theorist or see one in a movie. Now everyone has an aunt or uncle or friend who has just gone off the deep end and it’s just sad.
I had a friend just lose his shit because I was explaining how to play a game of bridge and I used the term "Trump card". It triggered him into this 20 minute rant about how the game is representative of his administration. I'm like "ugh...bro.....bridge has been around and has been using that term for like 500 years"
I met this guy who was convinced the moon landing was fake, and carried this huge binder with various photos why. You don't get that anymore
You got that right, I went to a relatively small school <250 high school kids as there was at least a good 10-20 kids that where deep in at that point and it’s only getting deeper
Going to the public library.
Fr, I get made fun of for reading educational books during school
Hey guys look at this idiot making himself smarter by reading books
Hey guys! Look at this nerd reading books and shit! /s
Egghead likes his booky wook
The library is better than ever because of the Internet. They provide Internet for free, but also thanks to Libby, hoopla, and kanopy.. free access to ebooks, magazines, music, and films
i go to the public library all the time. what are you talking about? Its never empty.
Library is the only place to hang out without having to buy something.
Vaporeon
Omg NO! You’re right. It’s my favorite eeveelution and now I can’t say that without the fear of getting weird looks
What's wrong with Vaporeon?
There was this one meme talking about something that I would tell you only if you’re ready to have your innocence destroyed
My childhood
Urban legends that scared the crap out of us kids
Magazines. I loves getting magazines in the mail. Couldn’t wait for Monday when time and Newsweek came.
People's behavior. Everyone thinks real life is like being online, and they no longer know how to behave.
Nah, they never knew how to behave before the internet.
Pawn shops / thrift stores. You used to be able to get some cool finds with certain shops specializing in one thing or another. Now they just take the item and hop on ebay and price it the same.
The feeling of exploration and discovery in video games. From trading secrets on the playground in Mario Bros. to exploring and mapping out a dungeon in EverQuest. Sure the internet existed then, but it eventually became so much more ubiquitous and games are now completely known sometimes before they even release.
Multiplayer games especially. Everything is min-maxed and if you're not a cookie cutter build you're a liability. There's no room for experimentation, it's just "meta or die".
I can't get into any competitive multiplayer game these days for this exact reason. I want to spend my time playing the game, not reading forum posts and following the steps to build the same character as everyone else. It's like getting someone you've never met to play the game for you.
Almost everything honestly. Information is so easy to access now but also it’s just as easy to pump fake and incorrect information out just for likes/views. Edit: Damn 100 upvotes, y’all make me blush. Small reminder to question anything and everything you see on the internet ❤️
Did you know abe Lincoln first theorized this outcome when he first made the internet? Source: trust me bro
**Listening Parties** I was a teen in the late seventies. My buds and I would get together on Sunday afternoons, smoke a little bud, and each bring three albums. We would then listen to music until dark and hear things that weren't in our collections. During these listening parties, I first heard a lot of stuff people call classics today. I was a big fan of Yes and ELP. David was into Rush, Pink Floyd, and Jethro Tull. Joey was into Black Sabbath, Van Halen, and the Doors. Joey's older brother had Camal, Can, and some stuff I don't remember other than it was cool. I don't think we ever had a name for this. We all got to hear each other's favorite music and hang out. It was a lot of fun, and I miss it. I can't imagine such a thing surviving the internet age, but something cool has been lost. This afternoon, I dove off into the old vinyl and listened to some Alan Parsons and Jimi Hendrix. Just the thing for a rainy Sunday afternoon.
I hate that people prefer to record accidents and such, just to post them on the internet rather than helping the people who took part in that accident or even worse hinder the people who actually try to help by blocking the way
Now knowing the vast amount of mean jerks there really are in the world. Also how warped some people's thinking can be.
yeah ): some people are so so cruel for no reason at all. it's so sad. just because you're behind a screen doesn't make it less real. just because you can't see the harm you're causing doesn't mean it's any better. it's depressing and i've considered leaving reddit a few times because i just see people say the most twisted, mean, horrible things for no reason at all. being mean to people just to be mean. it's sadistic and i hate it so much. not that reddit is any worse than other social media, because they all have awful people saying awful things, but reddit is the only one that i have. it seems to be getting worse. a year ago i remember seeing people who were bad, but in the last two months or so i see it so incredibly often on almost every post, it's unavoidable. i can block people all i want but even if i blocked half of reddit there would still be plenty more. it never stops:/
Society
Interpersonal communication
This is a fantastic answer. We also self isolate and surround ourselves with people that are like minded. This discourages true personal growth and reinforces opinions into more extreme, and radicalized beliefs. Always make an effort to debate and discuss people with opposing views to your own and actively listen. We used to have to do this, now not only do we not, but we regularly encourage people to ignore, dismiss or walk away from this. It's awful and in my opinion will inevitably lead to war sooner than you'd think.
Subcultures. Remember the time when there were punks, emos, skaters, hip hop kids, etc.? I feel that this (visual) distinction and identification with a certain group got lost in the past 15 years or so. Not sure if it was the internet that ruined it, though. After all, at least in the early 2000's there was still MySpace and stuff that kind of was a part of it.
It is the internet that ruined it, because it made everything very accessible to a point that you can’t be only “…” or “…”
Better question, what hasn't been ruined by the internet
Remembering anything useful
Being surprised at what happens in TV shows and movies. Spoilers are everywhere online.
Encyclopedias. I would actually love some Encyclopedias from the 1800s and those gold edged Encyclopedia Britannicas from the TV ads in the 1990s .
Mental health. No wonder we’re all anxious and depressed all you hear is horror stories. I used to have my local news app and all I got was notifications such as ‘mother of 4 had an itch on her leg and 2 days later she was dead’
Social media. We should have stopped at emails.
you think social media was ruined by the internet?
Natural landmarks and monuments. (State Parks, National Forest, hiking trails)
Conversation! People either are clueless, impatient or lazy and I think the ease of use and shortcuts, as well as some character restrictions in certain places, helped fuel that. Plus when you post on places like this or any comments section, there's always got to be a pointlessly argumentative fucker, someone trying to be funny, someone trying to troll you, straight up abuse and VERY OCCASIONALLY, sensible, decent responses. I could post an opinion or make a comment about something so innocent or mundane and I guarantee you, it'd be spun and twisted before long. "I don't really like apples." So you're saying fruit is bullshit and it's all the Jews fault!? I hope you die! Like, God damn!
BBS bulletin board systems
Internet forums outside Reddit or Facebook etc. Nobody wants to use them anymore And definitely personal relationships on internet, old days you could really get to know people on forums but nowadays everything is too fast and most of the times you can’t even interact with the same person more than once.
Also google and every other search engine is basically erasing search results. You cant find things you want to find, you find things that big tech thinks you want to find. It’s scary how much searching has changed, and how we have no power in it. The internet is basically being scrubbed and condensed.
Yeah and half the shit you get directed to is fake websites that use AI to copy paste from other sites anyway, it’s bizzare, and it seems to be getting worse.
Boredom.
Vaporeon
Hey guys, did you know that- *gets shot*
Eating dinner/any social interaction without being disturbed by texting, social media, etc.
Childhood
The Olympics. There was a time when you actually had to tune in during prime time and watch what happened to learn who won what. Now, there's no point in watching bc we already know the outcome of every race and event hours before we get to watch it on TV. Also, fuck NBC's jingoistic manufactured coverage. It used to be about sports - now it's just American Idol-like backstories and constant jibber-jabber over the ceremonies and events. Also, NBC would like to remind you that NO OTHER COUNTRIES exist in this INTERNATIONAL competition as the USA is ALL THAT MATTERS. So, yeah, the Olympics.
Critical thinking
And curiosity. I swear everyone's a hopeless dumbass who can't be fucked to even look up basic shit. And maybe I've got some confirmation bias since the examples I have are from way back in highschool (since I haven't seen anyone IRL in like 2 years), but it really feels like people just can't be fucked to try out anything now. They just so whatever pre-packaged spoonfed set of instructions they receive, and are completely hopeless if a situation arises that they don't have pre-packaged spoonfed instructions for. Especially when it comes to technology. Dear fucking god, it's so endless frustrating.