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What happened to internet culture?
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2026
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With the evergrowing flow of users, normality became the expectation. The internet bar club disappeard to become real life 2.0, and in real life, you are supposed to use money, and inner jokes don't work. We went from "you shouldn't post personal information to the internet" to "If you don't put your real life profile on the internet, you are a weirdo who tries to escape real life". The new world has been claimed by the old.
Though, in an easier way than in real life, you can become a cyberhermit. Leave social media, and even though there are a lot less people out of here, if you find active forums or chatrooms, you'll find some everlasting internet culture.
It was never really gone, just got hidden by money and large scale hypersocializers.
Pleroma is a fediverse service where there are way less people than here, but it is more "childish" (make me think of very early 2ch-4chan). You have also misskey, though they mostly speak japanese there. For anon culture, you have still IRC, and some little open chatrooms through the fediweb. Though it's hard to find similar places to early 4ch that aren't nazi paradises.
Good luck out there!
@TheGuyTM3 @Nebraska_Huskers Do you think that too much of the real world is mirrored to the internet and it is a problem? If so what do you think would be an ideal way for a typical user to interact with the internet?
@TwirlyTaco@aus.social Good question.
Yes, I believe that the real world is too much tied to the use of internet for everything. Earlier in the millenia, you wouldn't use the web as much as today. A few dozens websites and you were "done with the internet for today". Now, it's almost the norm to see people being online for more than 3 hours a day.
The abundance of content and the consequent rush for fame on social media enhanced the doom scrolling phenomenon. Social media, getting money from selling advertisments, are becoming giant and normalized among youth. And the cycle continues.
Also, with social media, people started putting their life online, until it became the norm. Anonymity became less accepted, until it was portrayed as an "incel thing" and confined to the edges of the web. (Although, i think meeting new people from all horizons online is more beneficial to one's culture than chatting with you friends living 5km away.)
Yeah, I think the proper way to use internet is to use it with a goal in mind. "Why do I want to get online today? Do I want to learn new things, meet new people, have a fruitful debate with someone, or am I simply doing it because I'm bored and wants to entertain myself?"
It should just be a tool. A tool with endless potential, to use responsibly.
Yep. Finding the small scattered imageboards which ban or reject politics and combat spam is difficult, but rewarding. And they tend to be special-interest focused sites, like erischan or lainchan, so they're not all going to be interesting to everyone. trashch /comfy/ is a possible counter-example.