I’m not trying to be nostalgic for no reason, but lately it feels like every part of the internet is just ads, arguments, and people trying to go viral. I miss when you could just log in somewhere, talk about your day, meet strangers, and have weird, fun conversations without worrying about likes, followers, or “content.”
Is there anything like that still around? Or am I just getting older and out of touch with how people use the internet now?
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Places like Discord are that now, or find old school forums, they’re still around.
You can always start your own community. Including here at reddit.
I feel like that’s not super difficult to find
Nostalgia aside, the 2000s internet definitely felt more fun and more honest.
Reddit. Right here. You’re in a place that’s like that.
That still exists just it’s not as prominent
You’re not weird at all, a lot of us feel the same way. The internet used to be about connection, curiosity, and just vibing with strangers over shared interests. Now it feels like most people online aren’t really talking, they’re performing. Once everyone realized you could turn attention into money, everything shifted. Conversations became content, opinions became branding, and every post feels like it’s trying to sell you something, even if it’s just a version of the person posting it.There are still little corners of the internet where people are just people but yeah, they’re harder to find now. You’re not out of touch, the internet just grew up and sold out a little.
Check out the fediverse subreddit and join one that looks good to you (they all mostly connect with one another so you don’t have to worry about an instance being dead). I’m on wafrn which is tumblr-like but there are instances that feel like Instagram or Twitter or whatever you feel comfy on. I have pointless little conversations with people on there all the time, and because it’s a little weird to understand, people there seem to be more intelligent on average/not bad faith trolls. A lot of them are computer science nerds and artists but many of them have a lot of other stuff to talk about too
and maybe spacehey. Haven’t tried spacehey but it’s an attempt to bring back old myspace.
I miss Homestar Runner as actual Flash cartoons.
We all end up with children on our lawn, eventually.
Discord is as close as you’re going to get to that. Find a community server about something you like, then just go chat with people.
Yeah, I miss ~2008 Facebook in particular. I remember I’d go away for a weekend or whatever and when I got back I’d scroll Facebook and get legitimately “caught up.” Like I’d actually just scroll a bit and be able to see EVERYthing from everyone on my list while I’d been away. Now I can’t even do that minute to minute, there’s so much clutter.
honestly, go play wow and you’ll find that in a guild discord.
IRC FTW
#BringBackYouTubeDislikeButton
I have a crush on Obama
Also i lost my 401k
Epic fail
Sad redditor is sad 🙁
Rawr, that means I love you in dinosaur
I can has 2008 bac ?
Very wow! Much nostalgia!
Arr! See you at talk like a Pirate day!
Reddit doesn’t do it for you? I find that it fills that void
I want the internet of 1908.
I mean to be fair… you can absolutely do that on Reddit, you just gotta find the right sub!
You’re gonna find those things and be fulfilled outside of the internet. The internet has given us an artificial substitute for everything human beings experience. And we are continuing to find out that none of the internet alternatives can ever measure up to the real thing. When you have a conversation in real life, your brain experiences a huge number of neurotrasmitters (e.g. dopamine, adrenaline, oxytocin, etc.) whereas an internet chat board will probably only give you dopamine.
Weird coincidence – the post under this one on my feed was about an incident from 2008…
The Something Awful Forums are still going
I looked some things up on Youtube. I came across some videos 6+ 10+ even 12 years ago. The information was very informative, no gotcha, no one trying to sell you their “brand”, it was amazing. It made me miss what Youtube and the internet was like so long ago. You never know what you have until it’s lost.
Places like that tend to be labeled “hate groups” because “lack of censorship” ≠ “they must be saying the worst of the worst” to some people.
I remember chatting online way back in 1999. It was waayyy different then.
No. I miss busy HTML chats with personalized posts from the 90s. That was peak internet for me, when it was pure and emotional.
that’s called discord with millennials
and then WoW guilds
also some vrchat friendgroups and tower unite friendgroups.
I always tell my girlfriend I could probably win a political race just by campaigning on making things more like pre 2010 again. Not like a conservative ideology, but rather stuff like no more tele scammers, fix insurance, make the internet/social media fun again.
I bet you could win a race not even saying anything remotely “political” as the gen pop might define it and still garner more than enough votes to win.
smaller discord communities are like this kinda
Oh, you’re completely right. The internet back then was amazing. There were no pay walls or ads. Everything was still fresh, and it was exciting to have internet inside jokes. No one gave a crap about being “professional” online. Before influencers.
that’s just discord man.
until they go public, anyway.
It’s not weird. It’s actually kind of brave to admit that you miss when things were simpler. We all adapted to the current internet, but that doesn’t mean we like it. You’re just asking for a space that feels human again. That’s not nostalgia, it’s a need.
Nah, you’re not crazy. The internet changed. What used to be about weird little blogs and late-night convos turned into influencer culture and engagement metrics. Missing that older version just means you value real connection, and that’s not outdated, it’s rare
You could maybe start a new subreddit for it
You might have luck at LiveJournal (yes, it’s still around!) I only use it for personal journaling, but it seems like it has the potential to become what you’re looking for
it ain’t that glam, protect the image – don’t look it up
I can has cheeseburger?
I mean, I think everything after Livejournal was a mistake, so I get it.
Felt the same . Reposting my old photos as memes now (2014 in Facebook)
Let’s roll it back to 1988 with CompuServe dial up at 300bps.
Play muds. Many still exist. I’m an active nember of Alter Aeon, for example.
Check out r/MUD. Obviously its games, so topics will generally be around whatever game you’re playing, but theres usually no politics or ads lol. Since its MMOs, any politics will largely be in world politics, specially if you play on an rp enforced mud.
Make the internet great again
I miss early 2000’s internet it was slow but so much better than today, I miss all those old Java games, the Facebook ones, also using limewire, started using firefox, those were the good old times
And party like its 1999