i have depression
i haven't finished reading every last HTML page on marxists.org yet
Hexbear is the last fun place on the internet
I dunno what we are in now but the old web was better. 1.0 sucked. 2.0 was good though. You had all these nich communities bubbling with energy and ideas. Now it is just reddit and psyops and comodification.
Hexbears should help expand our creativity on the web, by taking inspiration from NeoCities (successor to GeoCities). Not everything has to be sterile and bland and boring. I'd even like to be able to customize our profile pages more than just things like the banner and profile picture. I mean, just look at how much life can be breathed into a site with so much flexibility. Look at all the colors and non-standard layouts. What the web as lost is personality, which we should be taking back. We're on FOSS sites here in the Fediverse. We can do better, and we shouldn't be too afraid to take risks by deviating from what's accepted as "normal" these days.
We had way better tools for self-expression on older formats like early YouTube, MySpace, etc etc. We don't have to stay the course of sterile, standardized, corporatized web formats.
The original point of using the web was making things beautiful and tinkering around with different designs. It was to tell a story with the layout. That was part of the content itself, not just what we say and do online.
Edit: https://yesterweb.org/ (on NeoCities) has plenty of good and interesting information on this general topic of a worse present web (a manifesto, if you will)
I thought I just had depression but no, the internet really does suck now
The only cool thing about the internet are niche hobby sites. Everything else is an SEO skinner box hellscape. I'm sort of glad honestly, it's helped to cure me from reddit scrolling and actually go do stuff like work on projects or go ride my bike.
I think some niche youtube channels are fun, but it certainly is becoming a bore. If I had to guess, it probably is from everything being localized to a handful of websites and those are in turn optimized by an algorithm for profit instead of something enjoyable. The internet has been turned into what is addictive instead of fun.
My personal theory is that we are so detached from joy that many find "reaction videos" a source of amusement because we can't feel excitement ourselves anymore, so people vicariously enjoy something "new" by watching someone else be very excited and happy about it.
I only really partake in interacting with people I don't know on Hexbear, and anything else I leave exclusive to people I know in real life.
Its a fantastic reservoir of knowledge at your fingertips, but a terrible and inhuman way to interact with other humans. Much nuance and body language is not seen, and people essentially develop the same kind of anonymous rage they feel when driving a car except it is in front of a computer screen.
It’s turned to shit over the last 10 yrs, exponentially worse in the last 5. You cannot Google businesses any more such that finding home repair is an endurance trial.
You cannot google most things without hitting a top 24, 11, or 32 list. Product, business, topic, doesn’t matter.
And when you do get a result it’s the same handful of places. Product? Amazon, Walmart, Wayfair. Topic? Spruce, Reddit, Wiki. Business? Yellow Pages, Angi, Yelp and the business will not actually be anywhere near you but a national chain with an 800#.
All the interesting bits and random have been culled by paid ads and Google algorithms.
i literally only have fun here or reading manga/fanfic online. gamification/algo-focused content really sucks the soul out of posting, but tell me something that hasn't been said a million times at this point, i guess
I used to spend an embarrassing amount of time each day following up on deranged Evangelical twitter users. Posted some of the worst takes to the dunk tank and would generally get worked up about things.
But I would never create an account because I’m not giving Twitter my phone number (that thing that easily identifies you to everyone and most people never change, which is why every website wants it).
So when Musk decided to not let people view twitter without an account, that part of my day just dried up. I wouldn’t say I’m happier but I really don’t miss it. Between that and the new algorithm here I’d like to think I’m spending less time online. I probably am, but I also find I do this exact thing a lot more (just open my browser and not knowing where I want to go, but I know I want to go somewhere)
I've found myself looking at porn more than I used to just because there's sometimes still some whimsy to be found
That just means more time to read theory!
Eh sometimes creative stuff happens on the internet, but it's all so monetized or becomes full of inscrutable drama before it can get cool.
I'm not gonna say the internet used to be more democratic or open, because when I first started using it every website was run by some white male computer dork from Bellevue, Washington who wanted to share his love of pictograms or declarative programming languages.
But there was a wacky amount of variety you could stumble into. No one was trying to make money because there was money to be made. No one was trying to build a huge audience because there wasn't one. Everything was niche and that was cool.
I mean I've basically hoarded a shit ton of older media from 2000 and before. I'll sometimes expose myself to modern media and realize I made the right choice to stay under my rock.
trump no longer tweeting was the spiritual death of the internet
True dat. Even the handful of niche subreddits i go to are pretty miserable, and beyond that is a vast and desolate silence.
I'm a freak but I love looking at Google streetview pictures. If I have nothing to do at work I can spend hours looking at different places.
WRONG. i go to hexy bear for my funs
I didn't hear a peep from this guy when they banned my nsfw tumblr. But now he's going to complain that the internet is boring and stale.
I felt this constantly since social media
I guess I'm easily entertained. I feel like there's tons of shit on the internet. my latest thing is learning crafting techniques for making my own house decorations/art. there is an insane wealth of knowledge among everyone from MFAs to like crafty homemakers with cheap ways to stain, manipulate/shape, and transfer images to a variety of materials.
I'm currently eyes peeled for a transparent plastic globe I can tent with modge podge and food coloring to make my own pendant light fixture. but for now I'm painting a weird elephant I found at a shop for cheap, and then I'm gonna black wash it or maybe even dry brush it with metallics to make it look old and valuable.
The only places left to engage with people are so tightly controlled and stuffed out the asshole with ads that it's a completely miserable experience
I dunno what we are in now but the old web was better. 1.0 sucked. 2.0 was good though. You had all these nich communities bubbling with energy and ideas. Now it is just reddit and psyops and comodification.
Part of it might just be because that was the dawn of an era. Like when I was a kid the Iternet wasn't a thing. Then it became a hobby, now it is a part of life and capitlaism is working on making it as miserable as possible to use.
SAME. IT SUCKS. Like I refresh pages hoping something fun somehow pops up but like....
I feel better after cutting off vidya games a couple years ago (caused too much stress/frustration) and deleting my reddit account a few months ago. I have an escapist personality. Those things — and others — are poor coping mechanisms that only make me feel worse when various social debts build up while I was “out”.
My lesson is, take the opportunity to literally touch grass or maybe join a club. We’re probably better off with minimal internet usage.
There are fun places but I avoid them because they are made to be addicting and I am very susceptible
Hexbear and FFXIV are the meat of my internet usage. I have a huge media stockpile of stuff I've never watched/played/listened/read so it's not a huge deal yet.
I do this thing where I block social media apps after 40ish minutes of use. And sometimes I do a social media "cleanse" where I just delete all the apps off my phone and...it bricks the phone and my computer. I don't play games on my apple devices, so other than youtubing constantly, or learning something, there's not a lot to do on the web. Maybe you could say Kanopy, or watching netflix but that's not like...doing things. You are just passively consuming.
The internet may be shit but at least I still have my three extremely specific niche forums that I hang out at and a tumblr art circle dedicated to making pictures of video game characters gay kissing with tongue
Good faith is dead.
Outrage is fuel.
Hell is full.
It has been a steep slide downwards for 15 years at least, but Covid and Trump pumped a lot of life into Twitter and Facebook. Now that both are over, everyone is going back outside and my Facebook cycling group has an old man complaining about rainbow flags
I'm surprised all of you feel this way, sure you're not all just growing up?
TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, illegal anime streams, illegal tv show streams, illegal movie streams, illegal PDFs of books, any type of music you can think of, looking at any type of art you can think of, reading people's blogs, listening to podcasts, watching sports, etc. etc.
I recommend listening to the Joe Rogan Experience if anybody is getting bored of the internet. And try DMT while watching it
Guy's never heard of Youtube
There's an infinite amount of channels doing videos on every imaginable hyperspecific niche interest now, you will never run out
Just sit down and let the algorithm smooth your brain.
What's this? A guy comparing how the design and anatomy of the various species in the Oddworld franchise has changed across games in 25+ years? Well I know how I'm spending my next half hour
Abe's face has more wrinkles in New N' Tasty than in Abe's Oddysee??? The Slig masks were changed between Exoddus and Munch's Oddysee????
eh, there's still some fun to be had
though most of it is on discord and telegram now
and places like this existI think it's a bit of column A and also perhaps the highly engaging yet-sterile entertainment of 'the internet' doesn't have the same hit after ~25 years? spitballing
Be that as it may im too hopelessly addicted to screens to do anything about it
Nah im in a call with the homies watching ceotaku. Having a pretty good time
was when he got grillpilled. Internet got so bad I took up golf this year.