I'm few years older than you but I had a similar experience. However, I'm not sure the "old internet" is gone so much as it's moved a few doors down. There st

I'm few years older than you but I had a similar experience. However, I'm not sure the "old internet" is gone so much as it's moved a few doors down. There still are communities: Some on Facebook groups, more on Twitter or Tumblr, but increasingly found on Discord. Find a Discord related to some topic (a game, a fandom, a hobby, a city), and you'll find that casual chatting, meeting new people, people arranging to meet up, etc. "Where do these people hang out these days? If they just want to have a nice chat, unrelated to work, about the stuff that interests them?" Discord, a Facebook group, maybe a Twitter group chat. Seriously. There's more people doing what you miss today than at any time in the past, but they're not doing it in the same places. That being said...keep in mind it's much easier to make friends in your teens and early 20s than in later life. I struggle a lot to make connections, not because the opportunity isn't available, but just because I'm a lot more closed off than I used to be. Some of your nostalgia is for the internet of yesteryear, but some of it is for the you of yesteryear, and that's not going to be recoverable by installing a new chat client.