We had rules that we pretty much all agreed on because we knew things would go badly if we didn't.

• Don't feed the trolls
• Don't talk about internet memes in real life
• Stay anonymous, there's a bunch of freaks on the internet! Also, you're one of them.
• On the internet no one knows if you're a dog

There was a whole self-deprecating nature to it. We knew posting on the internet wasn't really a positive activity. It was just a guilty pleasure. We knew it was all nonsense and nothing posted on the internet should be taken seriously.

I remember when it first started cropping up where people were saying internet meme type things in public. Someone said "The internet is leaking, this won't end well."

Didn't realize how prophetic this was. Now not only do people feed the trolls, the trolls get paid really well through monetization. People have T-shirts with dumb internet memes, and awkwardly say them out loud thinking it's cool. It's so cringey.

People shitpost under their own name and get super upset about being "cancelled". Maybe you shoulda done that anonymously, dumbass?

Identity is the most important thing to people on the internet now. Your identity matters more than your ideas now. It was better when we assumed everyone was a dog mashing on a keyboard and you had to explain out your ideas rather than ending discussion with sentiments around "you just can't understand my experiences" rather than making an effort to explain them so others can understand.

When it went from "we're all losers trying to explain things to each other as best we can" to "we're all wannabe celebrities that don't have time to explain anything to the losers who aren't good enough to understand our experiences" it all went to shit.