3 ms·
It’s so weird to me that the first users of the internet were so okay looking for, and making friends. I remember sitting with my brother with the ICQ client a
by spaceman_2020 3y ago
It’s so weird to me that the first users of the internet were so okay looking for, and making friends.
I remember sitting with my brother with the ICQ client and randomly talking to people and even making friends with them.
The internet now is so much more guarded. Everyone pretending to be something. If you do make friends, its usually incidental, not intentional.
But early internet, we were all sold on the idea that yeah, the internet is for making friends.
- giobox 3y agoI’ve thought about this before, and I’m not sure it is weird, I think it largely makes sense. The early days of the internet was essentially a self-selecting group of individuals, the chances for finding like minded folks were that much higher. Just the excitement at being online at all is no longer an interesting experience to anyone - it was back then to much of this much smaller group. A shared exciting experience attracting likeminded people. Now the entire planet is almost online, the distinction between a human and someone who uses the internet largely doesn’t exist anymore- it’s no longer a subset and has all the vagaries of real life, with its good, bad and in-between actors. Another example of this is that in the early 90s we didn’t care about identity fraud online nearly as much - today it’s a much bigger problem that many people have experienced. Given that, is it any surprise people are now perhaps as guarded as they are in the “real world”? Back then the line between the offline world and the online one was much clearer, today it’s more and more a core feature of humanity’s daily existence, good and bad. My thoughts anyway.