Anyone feel the internet is getting boring nowadays?

[CM30]

Seriously, it feels like it's boring to use the internet and social media sites now. Like everything I used to care about reading/watching/etc is much harder to come by, and everything feels as soulless as all get out.

YouTube just has nothing interesting to me, Twitter and Reddit are boring to browse, and even most old school sites seem to be lacking the 'fun' aspect they used to have a decade or so ago.

Anyone else feel this way as well? Or am I just getting old and nostalgic over a time that didn't exist?

 

[Baker Man]

yeah, i know what you mean. even this site is kinda dead rn

 

[CM30]

yeah, i know what you mean. even this site is kinda dead rn

I mean, it's been quiet for a while. But hey, for an old school forum it's probably on the more active side.

And it's not like Reddit or Discord is doing so hot at the moment either lol.

 

[Terrormisu]

Seriously, it feels like it's boring to use the internet and social media sites now. Like everything I used to care about reading/watching/etc is much harder to come by, and everything feels as soulless as all get out.

YouTube just has nothing interesting to me, Twitter and Reddit are boring to browse, and even most old school sites seem to be lacking the 'fun' aspect they used to have a decade or so ago.

Anyone else feel this way as well? Or am I just getting old and nostalgic over a time that didn't exist?

no, you're definitely right. Really it's been a slope that's been falling since 2016 or so. obviously there's the "centralization" but there's also the death of flash, tools getting harder and harder to use etc. The Internet is no longer a place you can just never take seriously but it's become (sadly) serious business to most people and it shows, you can't really get away with what you used to be able to.

I mean, it's been quiet for a while. But hey, for an old school forum it's probably on the more active side.

And it's not like Reddit or Discord is doing so hot at the moment either lol.

yeah Discord and Reddit have been bleeding numbers for awhile now. they're kind of in a weird ambiguous place, alive but totally desolate. I feel the same with YouTube, not much going on there these days either.

also i don't really think this site is dead, the site just kinda comes and goes in waves like most other things on the internet. For a few months we're totally dead, then alive as ever, then dead again.

 

[CM30]

no, you're definitely right. Really it's been a slope that's been falling since 2016 or so. obviously there's the "centralization" but there's also the death of flash, tools getting harder and harder to use etc. The Internet is no longer a place you can just never take seriously but it's become (sadly) serious business to most people and it shows, you can't really get away with what you used to be able to.


yeah Discord and Reddit have been bleeding numbers for awhile now. they're kind of in a weird ambiguous place, alive but totally desolate. I feel the same with YouTube, not much going on there these days either.

also i don't really think this site is dead, the site just kinda comes and goes in waves like most other things on the internet. For a few months we're totally dead, then alive as ever, then dead again.

Yeah activity comes in waves. That's how most small and midsize communities are to be honest; a new person or group discovers it every few weeks/months, it gets super active as they get involved, and then it quietens down until next time.

And there's so little going on where Discord, Reddit, YouTube etc are concerned. I'm bored with them as a result. My recommendations for the latter literally have nothing of interest.

 

[Glowsquid]

Recently read an article about the internet shifting to direct messaging and other forms of personal communications. It seembed to be based on vibes rather than any hard data but it tracks with my own experience.

If you think it sucks now, wait until the complete saturation of AI slop makes it that much harder to find good content or trust anything you see.

 

[Baker Man]

If you think it sucks now, wait until the complete saturation of AI slop makes it that much harder to find good content or trust anything you see.

Not too many people knew Mr Chedda was AI generated, so we're already close

 

[Magma]

Hard to say from the perspective of us old farts.

Personally I just hate what the internet has become and I've been drifting away from it. I've become increasingly disinterested with gaming and also hate what the whole "gaming subculture" (can you even call it that nowadays?) has turned into. My main interest is music nowadays.

For the few content creators I still follow they're of the variety who clearly make content primarily for fun rather than having it as their main source of income so there's more authenticity to it rather than stuff made to get clicks by exploiting an algorithm.

 

[CM30]

Recently read an article about the internet shifting to direct messaging and other forms of personal communications. It seembed to be based on vibes rather than any hard data but it tracks with my own experience.

If you think it sucks now, wait until the complete saturation of AI slop makes it that much harder to find good content or trust anything you see.

Honestly I see it. Stuff like Discord seems to be the norm there, rather than open web forums and communities. Which sucks for finding stuff online, or discovering new communities and people.

And oh god AI is just gonna make things worse. SEO is already bad enough with non AI based automation.

 

[CM30]

Hard to say from the perspective of us old farts.

Personally I just hate what the internet has become and I've been drifting away from it. I've become increasingly disinterested with gaming and also hate what the whole "gaming subculture" (can you even call it that nowadays?) has turned into. My main interest is music nowadays.

For the few content creators I still follow they're of the variety who clearly make content primarily for fun rather than having it as their main source of income so there's more authenticity to it rather than stuff made to get clicks by exploiting an algorithm.

I definitely try to watch people who make content for the fun of it rather than money, though it feels like it's getting harder to do. The 'grind' mindset has become overwhelmingly common, and everyone seems to be in everything for the money and power now.

My opinion on the gaming subculture is perhaps less negative personally (the Wario fanbase seems pretty chill, and most of the groups I'm in seem non toxic), but I definitely feel like it's less fun to be a part of now. Maybe it's just a generational thing though; I don't have the same experiences, humour or interests as the thousands or millions of kids and teens that make up these communities now, so it's hard to really hold a discussion with folks there now. Meanwhile the older folks are also people I don't have much in common with either, especially given how many of them seem to have drifted away from online communities and discussions altogether...

 

[Glowsquid]

And oh god AI is just gonna make things worse. SEO is already bad enough with non AI based automation.

Google search has been ruined for months. If I google about any slightly niche topic, the results start looking like this after the first few entries (below is what I get for punching "F-Zero GP Legend NPD sales"). Not to mention image search is completely polluted by Ai image generation.

It's a mess but I do think there are the seeds for something better eventually. With the obvious fragility of Big Social Media being made evident and the overwhelming amount of crap being spewed on the tubes, there'll eventually be a mass desire for curation - not in the "pretentious monocle critic tell you what the French cinematic canon is", but in having specialized spaces where you can trust you're talking to real people that have real experience with the subject matter.

 

[Magma]

Honestly I see it. Stuff like Discord seems to be the norm there, rather than open web forums and communities. Which sucks for finding stuff online, or discovering new communities and people.

And oh god AI is just gonna make things worse. SEO is already bad enough with non AI based automation.

Is it the norm? Maybe for us people with niche interests but I don't see stuff like TikTok and Instagram losing steam any time soon.

 

[CM30]

Google search has been ruined for months. If I google about any slightly niche topic, the results start looking like this after the first few entries (below is what I get for punching "F-Zero GP Legend NPD sales"). Not to mention image search is completely polluted by Ai image generation.

View attachment 16095

It's a mess but I do think there are the seeds for something better eventually. With the obvious fragility of Big Social Media being made evident and the overwhelming amount of crap being spewed on the tubes, there'll eventually be a mass desire for curation - not in the "pretentious monocle critic tell you what the French cinematic canon is", but in having specialized spaces where you can trust you're talking to real people that have real experience with the subject matter.

It's been terrible for months for sure (or even years). But the worry is that AI will make it even worse, since it makes it easier and easier to generate crap en masse. But Google fails miserably at finding good sites and resources.

Curation is definitely gonna be important going forward though. I see directories making a comeback in future, just because human curation is harder to game than an automated system.

Is it the norm? Maybe for us people with niche interests but I don't see stuff like TikTok and Instagram losing steam any time soon.

It definitely seems to be the norm in the gaming world, though I'm not exactly a big user on TikTok or Instagram.

 

[Bubba]

The internet is boring because the definition of fun gets stale. Communities tend to be small and tightly knit. YouTube channel accounts and comments can be interesting to scroll through. Content doesn't improve. Old content gets buried or removed. Facebook content is slop and people I know are reciting the same types of posts, that don't matter when you see these people every day.

The best of YouTube is the little things. The best of the internet and Discord is the little things. There's always something going on. New advancements in the retro game market console modding. Everyone on the internet is playing a new game/Pokemon hack, making an indie game, and looking through lost media. Some fun content creators are smaller. Some animators make shorts all the time. Tutorials on anything productive.

If it's less about the seeing and more about the doing, the content is fun. If it's for validation, it's not always for the doing.