this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2025

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647

Am I the only one who thinks social media has destroyed the spirit of the internet? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

206 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The emergence of social media has destroyed all the small communities to standardize communication and information.

It's a bit of a digital version of rural exodus. And since 2017/2018, I've noticed that everything that, in my opinion, represented the internet has disappeared.

I've known Lemmy for a few hours and I feel like I'm back in the early spirit of the internet.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

"Social media" is a really vague term. I think there are broadly 3 categories:

Web2.0 social media: facebook, twitter, discord, reddit
Forums: Old school web fora, (mastodon & lemmy?)
Debateable social media: IRC, email chains/threads

Only the first category is relatively new and has captured the attention of the general public outside of nerds. The other two are either decentralised or are niche centralised sites. IMO it seems like the web 2.0 stuff is most problematic but not sure if it's the hyper-centralisation or their general popularity that is the issue.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago

The spirit of the internet was dead long before that.

It definitely desecrated the corpse, though.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 days ago

It has destroyed society.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I miss the days of everyone trying to have their own websites. It provided much more variety and unique experiences. Even if the quality wasn't as... great? But the Tripod, Geocities, Angelfire type sites in the world really let people be creative and build their own sites. I miss those days.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago

It's not like they can't. There are plenty of options available for people to make sites that are easier and much more capable than groceries or angelfire. People don't use them.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago

Social media is fine if handled well. Like there were no problems with myspace or early facebook. The problem with social media is when it becomes more based on algorithm than communication. Mass communication isn't the problem, it's the algorithm

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

"I’ve known Lemmy for a few hours and I feel like I’m back in the early spirit of the internet."

Different system, same issues.
People are people.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago

It's all about the money honey....

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

The problem with centralized social media is it replaced all aspects of free speach and public opinion with algorithms that keep you hooked while all your personal information is being sold and given away. It doesn't have to be that way. Learn about free software, what it means, it's history, and it's impact on the world today. Learn about the fediverse. Most importantly, don't expect things to change if you don't. https://www.fsf.org/about/what-is-free-software

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I am sure most people on lemmy are already familiar of FSF and Libre Software, I suspect most of them are linux users.

Its the majority of the non tech and lurker folks who have come to other social media who mindlessly consume content without any interaction that has converted the Internet to the cable TV which it was trying to replace as the primary form of entertainment.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

They might know about free software's corporate term "open source", but surprisingly, most lemmy users are actually unaware of free software as they often confuse it with the corporate whitewash of open source. As for your claim, yes, I also do believe most lemmy users already use GNU+Linux, but it's also important to go further than that by actually understanding the importance of software freedom to not only use free software, but also contribute to it in addition to teaching. Most people just stop at using another os and some free software, but it's important to go down the more radical path by replacing all non-free software, using a fully free distribution like parabola, using a fully free bios like GNU Boot, and using ryf hardware.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 days ago

Thanks to Lemmy and Linux I’ve been enjoying the internet in much the same way for some time now.

I even use a desktop PC on a daily basis and it just feels right.

Well, it’s desktop PC but I have the main monitor on an arm so that it can hover over my lap while on the couch. I’m a middle aged dad and my family likes to hang out in the same room together, so it is much more practically usable for me as a couchtop.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Not really, no. Social Medias can and will exist at any scale, some more or less harmful than others. For example, even Lemmy is filled with people spreading propaganda for foreign dictatorships.

We should take the good with the bad and takes steps to protect our own rights and privacy while helping others do the same. Just as people did during the dawn of the internet, when scams we easily recognize today were unknown dangers before.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago

All technology becomes degraded over time. Enshittification is real.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

YUP! This is exactly why I'm so passionate about it. Awfulness still happens, but it feels organic like the original days of the web.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

Welcome. :)

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I do agree, but indirectly, cause social media isn't inherently bad; It has been manipulated and exploited by oligarchs into weapons for information scraping and data theft. Zuck... Musk... Don't let them slink away into the shadow and blame the tech. There was a time when social media was mostly enriching and had a potential for community building, and they took that from us to profit massively. The internet is dying, and it's those psychotic freaks that have done it.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Yes. It is dying because it was murdered.

There's a bloody facebook wrapped in palantir sitting on the table.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

Some of my best memories online are in golden era Tumblr, which was a pretty big social media. So I don't think social media, per se, is the issue.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

The feeling you're talking about pretty much always happens when you find a small community. Like when you move to a small town and life just somehow feels more personal. Those are still around, they just aren't well known (but they never really were). I mean it's like there are a lot of very large cities today but small towns are still there too.

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