The best is over: The fun has been optimized out of the Internet
4 hours ago
- #Algorithmic optimization
- #Internet nostalgia
- #Digital culture
- The author hears 'I Don’t Wanna Wait' and reflects on the Internet's decline, linking it to O-Zone's 'Dragostea Din Tei'.
- Gary Brolsma's 'Numa Numa' video is remembered as a pure, joyful, and spontaneous early meme, contrasting with today's algorithm-driven TikTok.
- The author mourns the old Internet of the early 2000s to mid-2010s, which was amateur, creative, and not focused on content creation.
- Platforms like Newgrounds, YouTube, and early Facebook are cited as examples of a fun, unpolished, and transgressive online culture.
- The Internet now feels hyper-optimized, commercialized, and algorithmically dead-eyed, with AI slop following years of machine-like behavior.
- The belief that each new Internet innovation would be better has faded, with the author concluding 'the best is over.'