this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2025
607 points (99.5% liked)

Technology

73232 readers
4312 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 16 points 2 days ago (4 children)

What kind of revisionist bullshit is this?

Like, it's almost always safe to write off anyone using "normies" but do you think 2002 was like in movies/TV?

"The net" wasn't some secret thing, kids had been using it in school for over a decade.

I can't tell if you weren't born then or already 50 years old...

But wherever you're getting your opinions on 2002 internet, it wasn't first hand

[–] AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world 22 points 2 days ago (2 children)

As a 50-something, I can see the case for putting the “golden age” of the internet between the birth of Wikipedia in 2001 and Facebook in 2006.

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 13 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I’d expand it a bit further. Maybe 1999 to 2009. While Facebook did exist towards the end there, everyone’s grandmother wasn’t on it yet and they weren’t entirely intrusive and walled gardened. Forums still existed. Search engines still returned good results.
But it was the beginning of what would come. After 2009 it went downhill fast.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 1 points 1 day ago

About the same time reddit starting making inroads and googles collusion

[–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 days ago

You're totally right

Pre-Facebook as the endpoint, sure. But mid- to late-90s was pretty cool, too.

[–] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Punch the Monkey, Shake the Tree, Bonzi Buddy, flash animation, sites that only worked in IE, etc, etc.

You're right, anyone who thinks 2002 was some golden age of the internet clearly wasn't there.

[–] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago

It’s just nostalgia applied to the internet. Some people call it Eternal September. Everyone prefers what the internet was when they first discovered it and hate what it’s become since then. I remember the internet from 1996 most fondly. Many prefer it from the 80s or earlier 90s. This is no different from other media: music, TV, movies.

Of course this is separate from the real issue which is the consolidation and silo-ification of the modern web.

[–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

As what was said below, it was kind of a golden age. It was usable by normal people but still pretty novel to most. And it was a while before corporations ruined it. I lived through it so I can confirm it was better in most ways, besides speeds. I should say, 05 would be a better choice.