In 2010 I felt at home on Reddit. I felt like a had an entire world to lose myself in. But now Reddit is hollow and glazed over with mindless political dogma and petty drama. Maybe I’m just getting older too and not really impressed by internet videos.
I remember r/no sleep being this incredible wellspring of enthusiasm and creativity. I remember people raving about Dr who. Can you imagine Dr who being on half the front page now? Reddit was such an important part of my life back then. I feel so lonely without that community. But for years Reddit was dead and I found a new home on HN. Sadly the same thing has happened here. I remember one day a while ago someone submitted a videogamedunkey video and it was sustained on the front page… on HN. That was the day that it truly sank in for me. And in the pst year I have felt so lonely because the internet is just dead…the average person on the sidewalk and the average person on the internet are now literally the same.
The internet isn’t novel anymore. Reddit hive mind isn’t novel anymore. I think the difference between then and now is that people used to upvote, submit and comment with true passion because everything was new and novel and people felt like it was worth the time and energy to take part in something exciting and new. But now it’s all very tired and people are sobered up. Only low effort interaction survives. The pathways of engagement have been well beaten and so everything seems to be the same. No comment is original. These forums have the same deterministic malaise as the rest of the world.
What can be done about this? I would say the only answer is to withdraw into your work and reading because nobody of quality really takes part in Internet forums anymore.