It kills me when people say "the internet isn't fun anymore"

[Bakartridge]

Sorta copying this from my blogs but when I hear/read people say that, all I hear is "I don't use anything other than social media or youtube or discord and don't bother trying to actually find fun stuff on the internet". Go use Cloudhiker (or other similar sites that help you find interesting stuff) or browse the Wayback Machine, or hell, just Google (or use DDG or whatever) stuff you're interested in. Feels like people don't know how to just like... look for interesting things anymore.

[John]

Feels like people don't know how to just like... look for interesting things anymore.

I mean ... they probably don't? I certainly had forgotten. When, about a year ago, I realised that I missed 'the old internet' and found the web revival movement, I really didn't know how I was supposed to find interesting stuff any more. Google usually isn't very helpful and when the only 'communities' you're part of are facebook or instagram there's virtually no intersection with the 'small web', and more intimate, smaller communities, like this one, seem strange and inaccessible? At least that's what it was like for me. I had to re-learn surfing the web.

[haumeaGeth]

I mean ... they probably don't? I certainly had forgotten.

To add on to this, there's also an entire generation of fresh adults that never grew up with a web that encouraged surfing, or even with personal computers at all. It's not just that people have forgotten how to go spelunking - many of them were never introduced to the concept at all.

I feel it's a little unfair to say people "don't bother" to do something they don't even know is an option. That's why it's important for us to share the joys of the indie web as much as we're able. With all my friends, I've had to explain the entire concept and how the ecosystem works, and it's always a delight to hear the awe in their voices as they discover nifty sites and web apps they had no idea existed. Even if it's not something they immediately dive into, they end up feeling a lot better just knowing it's out there.

Rather than responding to ignorance with scorn, I think it's always better to respond to it with excitement, because it means getting to share something new

[mortaki]

Most of the internet ISN'T fun anymore though. Most of the internet IS some form of social media. If it's not, it's some blog or website that claims to be doing one thing but is actually trying to sell you another. Even sites that used to be fun are being flattened into boring feeds or dying entirely.

A lot of people don't even know the Wayback Machine exists. And algorithms have made it so most people don't have to go looking for things. Of course, they don't know how. They haven't been put in circumstances that forced them to learn.

You have to remember that we are weeds growing in the concrete. We've found fun things and places on the internet DESPITE it's full intention of getting rid of any such thing. The boring, frustrating, soul-sucking nature of the internet is not a bug, but a feature. The inability for the layman to find their way out of it is ALSO a feature.

I know a lot of people my age grew up after the wild west era of the internet. Things like forums and customizable profile pages were very niche. There was a bigger emphasis on consuming rather than creating. It was "who do you watch/follow" rather than "what are your hobbies". Not to mention kids are often locked out of niche communities so they default to what's widely available and grow up into similarly confined adults.

[windit]

I agree with all of these responses! The thought 'the internet isn't fun anymore' was what prompted me to start searching for different ways to engage with it, and honestly it took me quite a long time to stumble upon the indie web. Naming what's wrong with your current experience is the first step.

With all my friends, I've had to explain the entire concept and how the ecosystem works, and it's always a delight to hear the awe in their voices as they discover nifty sites and web apps they had no idea existed.

< Love this.  I recently tried to explain to a friend that I've been spending a lot of time 'surfing the web', for the first time since the early 2000s, and it's a behaviour that's been so lost (i.e. that social networks and dead-ends are built to stop us engaging in that way. Scrolling replaced surfing). But yeah, the indie web is hard to find while you're still walled in by The Big Bad Three service providers, so you gotta talk to people about it.

I've loved stumbling upon zines people have made about the indie web and might make and distribute some of my own this year xx

[MrsMoe]

I absolutely agree that there's still a good amount of fun things on the internet, but I think it absolutely doesn't help that searching for new things or even just looking things up is being purposely trained out of the general population. Modern social media has been training people to heavily depend on algorithms and to have all the things they want funneled directly into their mouths, which is why looking for better alternatives isn't even a thought that crosses their mind. Hell, there's people who refuse to watch things or engage in art that wasn't directly shown to them through their TikTok fees. The enshittification of the internet all relies heavily on people being too lazy to look for other things and so far, it's been massively successful 

[littlelum]

The enshittification of the internet all relies heavily on people being too lazy to look for other things and so far, it's been massively successful

This. I too, am guilty of this at times. Often, I just boot up the internet to see if there's any new updates to the places I am already part of, without any intent of putting in any effort. I think a lot of people treat the internet like they treat Netflix: they just turn it on and hope something good comes up in the algorithm. Like any hobby, the internet is something that gets better when you put effort into using it. The problem is that most people use the internet as a way to turn their brain off than rather than turn in on.

[cyberfun1 (dizz)]

@mortaki
how are you going to make the internet fun if you're just sad about all the not fun stuff on it? you're like the exact antithesis to baka's point

[grubbyfox]

I get what they mean, tho. Because the internet is largely a few massive corpo slop platforms that make you feel miserable after you're addicted enough.

But as with anything, it's what you make of it. They dont think internet is fun anymore because they dont know how to have fun, where to go, what to do. And when you're addicted to easy, passive-making slop, it's hard to do anything but look at the indieweb and go "wow that looks so much fun" and then just scroll past it. because they're addicted and too passive because of it.

[mortaki]

@cyberfun1 (dizz)
I'm not sure what you mean by that? My point was that a vast majority of the mainstream internet isn't fun and it's been designed to NOT teach people how to find fun stuff. People, of course, have an obilgation to try anyway if they want to get anywhere, but a lot of people simply don't know there's anything out there to find. Ignorance isn't an excuse, but you also have to remember that this level of ignorance isn't natural either.

People are allowed to be sad about something when they don't know a solution exists. I, personally, don't feel the internet isn't fun as I'm not really on social media to begin with. But I can sympathise. That's the reason I don't have it, after all. I don't think being upset with people about their feelings is really helpful either. Rather, I'd like to show them what else is out there so they at least have a direction to go in when they do decide to go looking.

That's moreso the point I was making. Sure, finding fun stuff requires effort, but it also takes knowledge that it exists. Some people don't have that.

[Yoylecake420]

This. I too, am guilty of this at times. Often, I just boot up the internet to see if there's any new updates to the places I am already part of, without any intent of putting in any effort. I think a lot of people treat the internet like they treat Netflix: they just turn it on and hope something good comes up in the algorithm. Like any hobby, the internet is something that gets better when you put effort into using it. The problem is that most people use the internet as a way to turn their brain off than rather than turn in on.

I have had such issues of browsing the Internet as of lately, despite me knowing about the IndieWeb. This may have something to do with my laziness and mental state, and I promised myself that I would spend more time on the Indie Web, but as of now I feel like I have failed. And yes, I believe that the reason why a lot of people say that the Internet isn't fun is because they're talking about the core web, which has basically been taken over by the corpos and slop, and people have basically become doomerist miserable beings with nothing left to do because they don't know better. I am not saying to completely withdraw from the Internet, but to at least find a way to browse the Internet with a bit of effort while not being miserable all the time. I saw a video on Youtube  about enjoying older content on YouTube

[rolypolyphonic]

Besides what everyone else has mentioned, I believe a fundamental factor in why so many people are so bored of the Web is that they're on it all the time. Before smartphones made Internet access a 24/7 thing, a lot of people only went on the Internet for an hour or so at a home desktop computer. Some people had to share the computer across families, and other people who couldn't afford their own computer either simply did not get on the web much or had to go somewhere it was accessible (in our country, Internet café used to be a lucrative business for this reason).

Even if you find a lot of arguably novel/interesting things, they blend together and start feeling oversaturated. Neocities for example as the home of indie websites would be boring for me to surf through if I did it all the time because even though individual websites arguably have more 'flair' and 'individuality' than the average corporate social media account, there's only so much 'Hi welcome to my website, I'm a guy on the web and I like computers/anime/art/etc.' that you can engage with in such short succession before it starts to get tedious.

[littlelum]

Even if you find a lot of arguably novel/interesting things, they blend together and start feeling oversaturated. Neocities for example as the home of indie websites would be boring for me to surf through if I did it all the time because even though individual websites arguably have more 'flair' and 'individuality' than the average corporate social media account, there's only so much 'Hi welcome to my website, I'm a guy on the web and I like computers/anime/art/etc.' that you can engage with in such short succession before it starts to get tedious.

This makes me think that having variety on the internet is just as important. I like to bounce between places, Melonland when I want to engage in discussion, YouTube for videos, the Mario Kart Players Page if I want to get competitive, etc. This is like those people who claim that gaming isn't fun anymore. If you're just playing the same game since you were little, of course you will get bored and burnt out. And since so much of the core web can feel homogenous these days, the indie web is now necessary to keep the variety out there.

Another thing is the feeling of having to keep up with new things. It's one thing to constantly check in because you're excited about something, but checking in just in case you miss something will get really disappointing over time. This has happened to me even in the indie web as well. This one is a hard habit to break, but it's necessary to do so.

[cyberfun1 (dizz)]

@cyberfun1 (dizz)
People are allowed to be sad about something when they don't know a solution exists. I, personally, don't feel the internet isn't fun as I'm not really on social media to begin with. But I can sympathise. That's the reason I don't have it, after all. I don't think being upset with people about their feelings is really helpful either. Rather, I'd like to show them what else is out there so they at least have a direction to go in when they do decide to go looking.

That's moreso the point I was making. Sure, finding fun stuff requires effort, but it also takes knowledge that it exists. Some people don't have that.

But why not just use links? Thats the whole point of the world wide web! Ne everything needs to be available on a search engine. I've been curating a list of links on my website, and I like to post links for stuff I think people will find useful! That's how you get people to know that something exists is by seeing it.