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Early internet nostalgia (europe.pub)
submitted 3 weeks ago by to c/whitepeopletwitter@sh.itjust.works
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[–] 31 points 3 weeks ago* (6 children)

Smartphones ruined the internet.

When you needed to sit at a computer, use a keyboard, and spend a bit of time to write out thoughtful content, the quality of the discussion and community on the internet was so much higher. With smartphones, they had to dumb down the UI, consolidate content and reactions into likes and emojis, and generally just had to deal with smaller, more unsubstantive and rage-baity comments.

Plus, there's just the undeniable fact that computer users are more tech-savvy than people who only know how to use a smartphone. Making the internet smartphone friendly opened the floodgates up to a sea of low-quality engagement.

Before smartphones, we would go outside, live our lives, then come home and see what happened on the internet that day. When the internet started following us around in our pockets on crippled devices that are designed for consumption and cheap-ass engagement, that's really when the internet went to shit.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 child)

    I put off getting a smartphone until like 2015. I was 21 and was one of the last of my friends not to have one. My argument against it was precisely that: "I don't want to be online all day and I know that's exactly what's going to happen."

    I didn't even buy my first smartphone. My sister gave it to me. It stayed in the box for six months. I so so did not fucking want it.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 weeks ago

    Smart phones ruined everything. It was fun when I was the only one, hyperbole. I had smart phones while my peers in grade school finally started getting hand me down flip phones. I was like this is great; playing Zelda on a gameboy emulator, or on the next phone that had the same specs as my first pc and playing Duke Nukem 3D. Being able to browse the internet.

    Now it's devolved to a chain collar on your neck as you're expected to answer the phone all the time and even places of work require you to have a phone to use their cr'apps. Scan this QR code. Ram this up yass, oh wait. At this point I hate phones. I plan to switch to a garmin watch with phone capabilities. I mean 95% is just spam these days for me.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 child)

    We could create forums that can only be logged on to using a desktop browser. Sure, some mobile users with basic tech savvy could install some spoofer that still let them access the site. But that's still mission accomplished. You're still requiring some technical competence.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 weeks ago

    Lemmy is like that to some extent. The fact that users have to pick an instance is, for a lot of people, too much overload and drives them away. But I see it as a filter. You have to have some absolute minimum baseline level of understanding and proficiency of the platform you're using. That's why the massive number of people on Facebook, etc. are oblivious to how they're being exploited by the platform, because they don't understand what it is or how it works.

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