Arne The Viking:
I think the problem being described here reaches far beyond this website. Over the past two decades, digital technology has fundamentally reshaped how we relate to one another online. Facebook is the archetypal example. It began as a reliable way to stay connected with friends, near and far. Now it often feels oddly hollow, with little in the way of genuine conversation beyond one or two stalwart voices in most people’s feeds.
I’m no social scientist, just an observer, but it does feel as though the surge of Web 2.0 hit its high water mark more than a decade ago and has been receding evebyr since. Much of that shift seems tied to the pull of profit, as the priorities of a handful of platforms have come to shape the tone and structure of online interaction itself.
This. Twenty years ago this site was mostly about people trying to make connections and also had a group focused around plus sized modeling. I don't think "online feeding" was as much of a thing as buying content was since we didn't have the tools for live streaming or door dashing as we do now and sending money to strangers on the internet was far more risky. So there was always a business side, but in the wild west days of the internet, many people were trying to connect with like-minded individuals they couldn't find IRL.
Nowadays? Lots of people expect relationships to be transactional. Folks don't have hobbies, we have side hustles. Friendships have been replaced with follows. Communities are fragmented into echo chambers and filter bubbles. Quality of life is unafordable but we can pay $60 to have a stranger deliver some lukewarm hamburgers. We can talk to anyone anywhere yet we trust nobody, suspect everyone, and are more alone than ever.
This is exactly how big tech wants it too. We're no longer people on the internet, we are products for Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc. to mine for data. The early days of the internet were like the open range period, and just like that it changed forever when everything was fenced in.
I can't hate people for doing what they do here. Life is rough, money is hard to.come by, and I don't have any solutions to offer. Just kinda sad to see tech that brought the world together flipped to turn us all into isolated consumer drones.
