You can never go back. The place you remember now exists only in memories, and it's doubtful it ever existed quite how you recall it. I moved around a lot betw

You can never go back. The place you remember now exists only in memories, and it's doubtful it ever existed quite how you recall it. I moved around a lot between 18 and 30 - About 30 different properties, 15 different towns, five major cities, a few countries. Something I learned over that time is when you return to a location you once lived in, it never matches up to whatever memories you have. People have moved on (a particularly stark lesson in university towns, which churn ~30% every single year), businesses have shuttered, public spaces have been redeveloped. Even the road/path networks have changed. So it's not possible to turn those fond memories back into a current experience. Of the things that DO match, a significant number of them will be negative elements that your memory had kinda hidden away. We tend to frame memories of our environment as fixed, with a sense of timelessness that doesn't match how those spaces evolve over time. The same thing applies to Internets. There's a BB I posted heavily on in the late nineties that's still active and largely unchanged. But having recently started posting there again, it's just not an enjoyable experience. All the personalities are in a different phase of life (as am I), the central theme topic has aged badly, and the level of activity is low enough that there's rarely any point checking in daily. Worst of all, as someone that gets flighty at the first whiff of stagnation, going back to something so far in my past brings up a strong negative reaction. Even though it's just a bloody forum. I guess all of this is obvious and not hugely insightful, but it leads me to the conclusion that it's not worth pining for the Internets that was, because the reality of returning to that would not be as awesome as our memories suggest. If anyone wants a taste of that today, stuff like TOR, freenet, and I2P echo a lot of the Web 1.0 feeling and community.