5 ms·

Also would comport with the explanation that the Internet just gets worse and worse. Will be interesting to see if kids who grew up with TikTok et al. will, as

Also would comport with the explanation that the Internet just gets worse and worse. Will be interesting to see if kids who grew up with TikTok et al. will, as adults, view it as affectionately as we view our childhood form of the Internet. I do think there's something to be said of an overall trend toward more consumption, less production.

lazide 3y ago
Anyone who thinks the internet ‘just get’s worse’ never had a full Usenet feed in the 90’s. shudder
- ethanbond 3y ago
  I don't mean "just gets worse" as in it gets worse on every dimension :)
- Mtinie 3y ago
  / alt.binaries.* enters the chat
  - lazide 3y ago
    At one point I was doing support calls for a small regional ISP, and a customer called in about some alt.binaries. group with bestiality in the name. Apparently the feed was behind or something, and he was personally offended. I learned a lot of things that day, none of them good.
    - Mtinie 3y ago
      That was a definite trial by fire period of accessing the internet. I imagine there exist similar areas today but I’m experienced enough to know I don’t need to go in search of them.
- dragonwriter 3y ago
  Honestly, 1994-1996ish web was in some ways worse -- yes, there was horrible stuff on Usenet, but you could avoid the worst of the text stuff pretty easily, and to be assaulted by any media other than text you had to expend at least a little effort. In the early web, you were just a poorly chosen search term and click away from some truly awful media.
  - lazide 3y ago
    We don’t talk about 2 girls 1 cup anymore. Or goatse. Ugh, man those were a rough time.
    - doublerabbit 3y ago
      Mudfall, bluewaffle ...
blagie 3y ago
It's free market dynamics. There is a constant push towards things which are more addictive and make more ad click dollars. That's the opposite of better. Better is made with soul, and often for free. Google has come full circle. Early Google succeeded in part because of nonintrusive ad words, scamming over banner ads. Now, Youtube.
- godelski 3y ago
  I'm not sure a market is free in the sense people mean by that term when the market is dominated by network effects. A free market in that sense requires competition and the ability to upset existing players. As an example, you can't upset Google search, and even having a 80B company with an LLM integrated into a 2.5T company is having a hard time displacing them. If that's still a free market then I'm pretty sure we could claim the USSR was a free market and just that Stalin's Communism LLC dominated.
xmprt 3y ago
> there's something to be said of an overall trend toward more consumption, less production I think this couldn't be further from the truth. You could argue that the production has been heavily centralized, but I think today more than ever we see kids in their early teens making videos on YouTube/TikTok, etc. It's different from other people's childhoods where you'd make geocities website or customize your myspace page or write blogs but it's still production nonetheless.
- ethanbond 3y ago
  I think TikTok is a substantial aberration on this trigger trend. It’s been great (as a non-user) seeing legitimately funny and creative stuff coming from that platform. It’ll be interesting to see if it stays that way or it does go the way (at least IMO) of YouTube and Instagram: quite commercialized. Note: All of this based on impressions/vibes, would be keen to hear any stats if people around have ‘em on hand!
  - dragonwriter 3y ago
    TikTok is extremely commercialized; even a lot of the "good" content is extremely carefully crafted part of the acquisition funnel for commercial activities. I'm not knocking people liking it -- its like people liking SuperBowl ads; just because something is the very much marketing content doesn't mean its not fun and entertaining. But, the idea that becoming "quite commercialized" is a potential way it might go downhill in the future seems to miss that it is very much already there.
    - ethanbond 3y ago
      I've never used TikTok but definitely not surprised to hear this. I've certainly seen some interesting things escape the app, but yeah quite a shame to hear it's already over that hump already (or started over it)!
      - fragmede 3y ago
        Given the investment involved (installing and using an app), I'd recommend trying yourself and drawing your own conclusions, rather than treating one person's experience as gospel
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

lazide 3y ago

Anyone who thinks the internet ‘just get’s worse’ never had a full Usenet feed in the 90’s. shudder

ethanbond 3y ago
I don't mean "just gets worse" as in it gets worse on every dimension :)
Mtinie 3y ago
/ alt.binaries.* enters the chat
- lazide 3y ago
  At one point I was doing support calls for a small regional ISP, and a customer called in about some alt.binaries. group with bestiality in the name. Apparently the feed was behind or something, and he was personally offended. I learned a lot of things that day, none of them good.
  - Mtinie 3y ago
    That was a definite trial by fire period of accessing the internet. I imagine there exist similar areas today but I’m experienced enough to know I don’t need to go in search of them.
dragonwriter 3y ago
Honestly, 1994-1996ish web was in some ways worse -- yes, there was horrible stuff on Usenet, but you could avoid the worst of the text stuff pretty easily, and to be assaulted by any media other than text you had to expend at least a little effort. In the early web, you were just a poorly chosen search term and click away from some truly awful media.
- lazide 3y ago
  We don’t talk about 2 girls 1 cup anymore. Or goatse. Ugh, man those were a rough time.
  - doublerabbit 3y ago
    Mudfall, bluewaffle ...

blagie 3y ago

It's free market dynamics. There is a constant push towards things which are more addictive and make more ad click dollars. That's the opposite of better. Better is made with soul, and often for free. Google has come full circle. Early Google succeeded in part because of nonintrusive ad words, scamming over banner ads. Now, Youtube.

godelski 3y ago
I'm not sure a market is free in the sense people mean by that term when the market is dominated by network effects. A free market in that sense requires competition and the ability to upset existing players. As an example, you can't upset Google search, and even having a 80B company with an LLM integrated into a 2.5T company is having a hard time displacing them. If that's still a free market then I'm pretty sure we could claim the USSR was a free market and just that Stalin's Communism LLC dominated.

xmprt 3y ago

> there's something to be said of an overall trend toward more consumption, less production I think this couldn't be further from the truth. You could argue that the production has been heavily centralized, but I think today more than ever we see kids in their early teens making videos on YouTube/TikTok, etc. It's different from other people's childhoods where you'd make geocities website or customize your myspace page or write blogs but it's still production nonetheless.

ethanbond 3y ago
I think TikTok is a substantial aberration on this trigger trend. It’s been great (as a non-user) seeing legitimately funny and creative stuff coming from that platform. It’ll be interesting to see if it stays that way or it does go the way (at least IMO) of YouTube and Instagram: quite commercialized. Note: All of this based on impressions/vibes, would be keen to hear any stats if people around have ‘em on hand!
- dragonwriter 3y ago
  TikTok is extremely commercialized; even a lot of the "good" content is extremely carefully crafted part of the acquisition funnel for commercial activities. I'm not knocking people liking it -- its like people liking SuperBowl ads; just because something is the very much marketing content doesn't mean its not fun and entertaining. But, the idea that becoming "quite commercialized" is a potential way it might go downhill in the future seems to miss that it is very much already there.
  - ethanbond 3y ago
    I've never used TikTok but definitely not surprised to hear this. I've certainly seen some interesting things escape the app, but yeah quite a shame to hear it's already over that hump already (or started over it)!
    - fragmede 3y ago
      Given the investment involved (installing and using an app), I'd recommend trying yourself and drawing your own conclusions, rather than treating one person's experience as gospel

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]