I mean those weird and gory YouTube videos and stuff with the blackest humor and seas of blood and a real living soul.
I even re-watched some videos, some from archives, some from open access, and it was magical, a little strange of course, but damn alive. Doctor, I want to go back to the past. And the most important thing is that there was no AI.
Does anyone still remember the times of the 2000s and 2010s?
Edit: Oh yeah, can you also send links to some videos or art or even music that you liked before.
The thing I remember most about the early internet was staking out your own weird little corners. There wasn’t much of any “everything” site yet, so you’d find the things that appealed to you and settle there.
A lot of my early tastes in indie and experimental music were formed by the Music message board on GameFAQs. I was already going there for the walkthroughs and found my way to some of the under-populated, miscellaneous boards.
You experienced meeting people with names (even if just pseudonyms) and ideas that weren’t just blended into an algorithmic slurry.
It’s why I like Lemmy, I can feel a bit of that here. Still, I have a hard time surrendering things like Twitter and moved instantly to Bluesky where I continue the trend …
I still love that on Lemmy I can post in one thread and recognize someone I interacted with later on another thread. It feels smaller in a good way, like there’s persistence and character instead of commoditized identities.
Now you got me nostalgic for pre-internet days of BBSs and local chat boards. I used to belong to one where we would meet once a month in a Cafe. It was almost like a secret society where you knew everyone.
That’s not too far off from some of my younger years too. Narrower social networks with higher quality connections. God I miss that.