I am so happy I got to experience the internet in all its
glory. It was new and exciting.
Only people that wanted to be there, were there.
You just created your page, your friends created their pages, and when
you wanted to see what a friend was up to, you actively had to go see
what they were doing. You only got
the information you went looking for, or by that friend that directly brought it
to you if they chose to visit and leave a post for you.
It was one
of the greatest times in my life. And I wasn't what you would call a popular kid, you know? (Plenty of cryptic messages on the bulletin board, though) But it was a great
place to have lots of conversation. It was more light hearted and way less curated. Stupid, but more authentic.
I really miss how fun it was just to interact with people, as compared to now where some of those same people are so
deep into dumb shit. I'm not sure if it was better, but no one was using their mobile phone all the time. I
could only access the internet after I went home and got on the
computer, and I was normally doing
other things at the same time...
I would often hop on, click a few friends profiles to see if there was
anything new
(not everybody would be texting all the time in ‘06) and go add random
people that seemed cool.
Read my email, downloading pictures I took from a digital camera, checking out independent, cool sites over the internet while MSN buzzed with nudges and some CD played on iTunes. Then hop off when there was nothing to see or I had
nothing new to say there.
You could have a personal page and it relly felt like someone could create a door to a digital room... It was cool. It felt more intimate and you could often get an idea about what someone was like by their page, instead of seeing a ton of heavily edited pictures of the
person.
Compare that to
today where your experience is cluttered with every single thought that popped
into someone’s head or total strangers being able to jump you based off one thing
you did or said. I just notice how it made it easier to give the wrong people a powerful voice. If social media had remained more like it used to be, I think we wouldn’t be nearly as divided in society as we are now.
And it wasn't a monetized concept yet, where everyone was pushing some
subscription to a product... Today’s most popular forms of social media
are all about what makes a profit. Now there are
algorithms constantly trying to deliver
ads, increase your interactions with a service, or whatever goal they
have. Content creation and consumption, as
opposed to actually inter-acting on the inter-net.
And NOWHERE near as predatory and
echo-chambery as it is now. We weren't dictated by
corporate algorithms and nobody was
angry. There were no likes or clout. You just talked to friends and had
fun. I think that's a good
description about how the internet itself
has changed.
Listening: "Reinventing Your Exit"
by Underoath