Could be both.
Whenever I look at archives of memes or random screenshots from my old computers I remember how great the internet was. It’s filled with politics and advertising now.
The internet itself offers immense value across nearly all facets of life. The three websites that everyone uses do not.
There’s definitely value here, but sometimes it’s hard to justify because of the negatives that come with it.
I’m not sure if it’s always been like this (it probably has), or if I’ve just become more aware of it, but holy shit, people are mean and cynical. It really poisons my mind to spend time around these kinds of attitudes, and I can only imagine how contagious it must be especially for younger users, spreading this ‘mind virus’ to more and more people. I can’t imagine people talking to each other in real life the way they often do in places like this.
What I find even more toxic than direct attacks on other users, though, is the constant ambient cynicism. There are certain topics where I can guarantee that at least 50% of the comments are snide remarks dunking on AI, Twitter, Tesla, Musk, etc. These comments add zero value to the discussion. They’re written solely to signal alliance to like-minded people and fish for upvotes.
I just want a place where I can hang out with civilized adults and have meaningful discussions about substantive topics, instead of being surrounded by angry, hateful, cynical kids who seem more interested in pointing out the flaws in everything and tearing things down rather than discussing solutions.
I bounce back and forth, depending on my mood (obviously) and whether or not I have any sort of creative projects to work on or anything that’s keeping me mentally busy (whether it’s a game, a series, a book, a design, research, just something that I feel interested in or passionate about). If I have nothing that’s really driving me, that’s when I feel at my lowest or I’m just mindlessly consuming crap and the days all just sort of blend together, I’m just going through the motions and the world feels dead, or I feel dead, whichever. When I’m in the midst of a creative project though, I get laser focused on that and forget all about everything else and I have purpose. Sometimes though, I’m just meh, like not really driven, but not really depressed.
The Internet that I grew up with though is definitely gone, alot of it feels shallow now, like I don’t go on tangents upon tangents anymore and it doesn’t have the same sense of exploration that it used to. Like I used to find a random page, which had links to other random pages, which had links to other pages, and I would just follow this breadcrumb trail from one place to another. Now you’ve got shitty social media aggregating links and it just doesn’t feel the same. The closest I’ll get to that is going through Wikipedia if I happen to be researching or looking something up, occasionally you just find other topics that get really interesting. The history of Wargames is the latest thing that’s been holding my interest.
