The internet in it’s heyday, when it was a genuinely thrilling place to find information, and quite a lot of weirdness, and before it was swamped by corporate interests.
I remember starting out with gopher and a paper print out of ‘The big dummies guide to the internet’ which was a directory of almost every gopher and ftp site (pre web) along with a description of what you’d find there. Then the web came along and things got really good for a while. Once big corporations got involved it all went down hill.
I would limit it to the “web” in it’s heyday. The internet as a whole is more wild than ever. And there’s a chance that the fediverse could be just as thrilling in 10 years as the web was 20 years ago (and could be swamped by corporate interests).
I don’t think the internet is getting less thrilling and weird, if anything it’s downright scary at this point, it’s just really easy to enter a walled garden, never leave, and never find the interesting stuff.
The nightmare PS2 dirty disc screen, and mainstream multiplayer games without anticheat rootkits
Edit: mainstream
A peaceful childhood.
Rushing to the boombox when you hear your new favorite song, to record it to cassette
Getting static shocked by the TV screen.
The French revolution.
Looking at France recently, wouldn’t be so sure about that one…
Are the French ever not revolting against something?
“Smoking” chewing gum cigarettes.
Exploring the internet by going through a physical “100 coolest websites for kids” book.
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Privacy
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Peace & Quiet
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Winter
the feeling of not being spied on 24-7
Someone recently told me this anecdote:
I overheard on the train home two middle aged ladies talking about their kids mobilephones.
One was saying how they dragged their teen and their mobile phone to the iphone store so they could setup the location tracker and “quiet mode” (parent phone can completly disable the teens phone), and how their child was upset but they are glad it was done.
The other lady was asking how she to can do the same.
My question is: are 2020’s kids even gonna be upset?
Lead poisoning. I know, I know, there are a ton of other hazards we’re exposing ourselves to. We will have our reckoning with things like plastic, but at least lead is something we’re aware of and dealing with.
Along those same lines, ozone layer destroying products.
CONNECT 41333/ARQ/V90
Bugs hitting the front windshield in extraordinary numbers.
Working in coal mines. Well, actually, nevermind…
Regular police officers not wearing full body armor and tactical gear.
