Yeah, this is the part I miss too. Not really the downloading, more the weird little rituals around finding stuff and talking about it. What do you think a modern version of that would look like without just becoming another feed?
We are seemingly unable to create something like that from scratch; these communities get born when good enough platform quality + hype/fashion + network effect all 'click' together once in a few decades. The problem is: every single time such community-based platform ever appeared, we've started tweaking the _platform_ and have (unintentionally?) destroyed the community in the process.
Today we are so advanced in managing technology, but so backwards in helping communities grow. People really need to stop treating communities as "user bases". Instagram or Reddit are not bringing any value on their own. Their value is driven by communities. Paradoxically, every other platform feature they introduce chips away at the community.
(Side rant: It is almost like platforms intentionally try to convert social side of user experience into something akin to 'television'. 10 years back I was mostly reading Instagram posts of my friends and looking at the photos they made, today I mostly see 'content creators' in the feed, and all the meaningful interaction with friends was reduced to seeing their 'likes' floating around the screen, plus forwarding more content to them.)