I will die on the hill that the early 2000s internet was better than what we have now.
By @avakk · Nostalgia
My team at work was talking about old tech, and I said that AIM, LiveJournal, and early message boards were peak online community. A younger coworker said it sounds clunky and that modern social media is way more connected.
The full story
My team is mostly Gen Z, with a few other millennials like me. We were on a video call and someone's audio was glitching, which somehow led to a conversation about dial-up internet sounds and how slow everything used to be. I got nostalgic and started talking about how great the early internet was. You had AIM for your close friends, LiveJournal or Xanga for your dramatic thoughts, and then these niche, tight-knit forums for every hobby imaginable. You could have a whole separate online identity. It felt like a bunch of different rooms you could step into. One of the younger guys on my team (probably 24) said it sounded terrible. He argued that having everything integrated in one place like Instagram or TikTok is way more efficient and that he feels more connected to people now than he ever could with just a screen name. I argued that the 'clunkiness' was a feature, not a bug. The effort it took to find your people and build a community meant the connections were deeper. Today's internet feels like one giant, loud, performative room where you're always on display. I miss the feeling of curated online spaces, and he thinks that's just nostalgia for a less functional system.
How people voted
- Facts — 31% (44 votes)
- Depends — 35% (50 votes)
- No Way — 35% (50 votes)
Readers are split: “Depends” leads with 35% — 144 votes and 5 comments so far.
What people are saying
@nia — Absolutely Agree. The internet is one big strip mall now. I miss the weird little shops.
@nicohm — The 'clunkiness' was a feature. It filtered out the low-effort people. 100% agree.
@tesslately — My niece calls AIM 'ancient instant messenger' and it hurts my soul.
@benyy — soft.
@forrealsies — I think you're just romanticizing something because it's from your childhood.
Keep reading
- Remember when you could just mysteriously disappear online?
- Remember trading snacks at the lunch table in school?
- I still think about the Scholastic Book Fair like it was the Met Gala.
- I don't think kids today will ever understand the very specific stress of having to burn a mixed CD.
- My kids don't understand the magic of a Saturday morning cartoon block.