People used to show actual personalities on MySpace. You could tell a slut from a goth from a super uptight religious person from a gamer, etc. If you knew HTML, multimedia, etc you could have a profile that was cooler than anyone elses! It was like everyone's little webpage, so fun, so wholesome.
You could also just meet random people. Search topic, filter by age, some people were down to chat, some weren't, but it was always fun.
Then Facebook came, first with the exclusivity, "college students only" then "college students and graduates" only, then EVERYONE....but it changed the internet for the worse. Web 2.0 began and the magic of the internet ended. Personality was replaced by white and blue sterility. My online "identity" was worthless now, replaced by First and Last name invasions of privacy that I was not willing to partake in.
With this social media went from something that could help a loner or someone struggling to something very condemning and filled with peer pressure. "You don't have enough friends" "No one liked your picture" "You're not attractive enough"
Web 1.0 was magical, I have some stories if anyone ever wanted to hear them. I spent my youth on USENET, IRC, then AOL/ICQ, then MySpace and other forum/message boards. The amount of not just chat and banter, but research, brainstorming, and creativity happening on the internet back then was nothing short of life changing
People used to show actual personalities on MySpace. You could tell a slut from a goth from a super uptight religious person from a gamer, etc. If you knew HTML, multimedia, etc you could have a profile that was cooler than anyone elses! It was like everyone's little webpage, so fun, so wholesome.
You could also just meet random people. Search topic, filter by age, some people were down to chat, some weren't, but it was always fun.
Then Facebook came, first with the exclusivity, "college students only" then "college students and graduates" only, then EVERYONE....but it changed the internet for the worse. Web 2.0 began and the magic of the internet ended. Personality was replaced by white and blue sterility. My online "identity" was worthless now, replaced by First and Last name invasions of privacy that I was not willing to partake in.
With this social media went from something that could help a loner or someone struggling to something very condemning and filled with peer pressure. "You don't have enough friends" "No one liked your picture" "You're not attractive enough"
Web 1.0 was magical, I have some stories if anyone ever wanted to hear them. I spent my youth on USENET, IRC, then AOL/ICQ, then MySpace and other forum/message boards. The amount of not just chat and banter, but research, brainstorming, and creativity happening on the internet back then was nothing short of life changing