The internet is better in a lot of ways because normal people came in, it became a lot less hostile, but in turn those hostile places became even more hostile and filled with enraged nerds. I should know I’m a recovering nerd and I’ve been online since 1999.
I remember going on chatrooms on (mirc?) back in I don’t know how long ago (late 90’s?) and pretending to be a big adultman who drives a car and has a workjob
I view people who complain about Eternal September in the same vein as I view Chinese conservatives who complained about the simplified Chinese alphabet “debasing literacy” by opening it up to the “unwashed masses”
It was more time-consuming, more expensive, and required more technical knowledge to access which meant that wealthy white techbros were 90% of the entire userbase instead of an obnoxiously loud minority with outsized influence
The internet is better in a lot of ways because normal people came in, it became a lot less hostile, but in turn those hostile places became even more hostile and filled with enraged nerds. I should know I’m a recovering nerd and I’ve been online since 1999.
I remember going on chatrooms on (mirc?) back in I don’t know how long ago (late 90’s?) and pretending to be a big adultman who drives a car and has a workjob
I used to do that but on aol, only I was like a total spaz as a tween and I’d get flamed for being a kid.
eternal september was good is a helluva take
I view people who complain about Eternal September in the same vein as I view Chinese conservatives who complained about the simplified Chinese alphabet “debasing literacy” by opening it up to the “unwashed masses”
maybe they foresaw tabloids and dan brown
'99 is around the time I first got catfished on yahoo chatrooms. Haven’t trusted the Internet since
oof sorry to hear that.
The 90s internet was somehow even more incel-ish than today’s.
The big difference is that it was so dominated by these types that they were one of the predominate in-groups online. In my opinion, at least
HOW?
TELL ME
It was more time-consuming, more expensive, and required more technical knowledge to access which meant that wealthy white techbros were 90% of the entire userbase instead of an obnoxiously loud minority with outsized influence
There is still hope for those afflicted with nerdism