Why 2007 was the worst year for the internet - An analysis of why the internet has declined since 2007

[Dangerousasmilk]

You guys are just as normie. "I WAS THERE!" Give me a break...

A website dedicated to making fun of z list celebrities. This website is even more uncooler than 4chan.

 

[Terrorist]

Every year since (at least) 1950 has been a net negative for western civilization, so really I can't get too upset about '07 and whatever happened there. Just par for the course I guess.

 

[MarvinTheParanoidAndroid]

It's no longer freeing to be on the internet. The internet in general is no longer a place for opportunities but is now just the doubt dealing machine. The malicious & lunatic behavior (Cancel culture, SJWism, critical race theory, ect.) we're demanded to accept is absolutely abnormal and those who endorse it browbeat others into tolerating or enabling it because they know it's wrong, and that form of behavioral control has begun to convince people that this is just the way things are and it's begun to bleed over into day-to-day life outside the internet. Social media has given the shittiest people the means to socially engineer society to their liking. It's not really fun to be on the internet anymore unless you're just getting high on schadenfreude because everyone is a cunt now. I've also noticed that as time marches forward, not only does the general intelligence of the internet go down but the hostility goes up in kind.

I think that the biggest problem with the internet is the advent of social media, because it gives a platform to victimhood for sociopaths and self-aggrandizing for narcissists. The internet is no longer about boundless potential and new frontiers but about clout at any cost. Although the internet wasn't a nice place in the 2000's by any stretch, you didn't really have MovieBobs who would spew a genocidal stream of consciousness day-in and day-out. Regardless of smart phones, if Social Media were not a thing, the internet would've remained as a niche landscape that only attracted enthusiasts and not the douchebags we're faced with today.

The internet has gone from rabbit hole to honeypot. No more ideas, only identities.

 

[Chaos Theorist]

You guys are just as normie. "I WAS THERE!" Give me a break...

A website dedicated to making fun of z list celebrities. This website is even more uncooler than 4chan.

Hey dont be unfair to Linehan at least he won a BAFTA

 

[Ginger Piglet]

It's no longer freeing to be on the internet. The internet in general is no longer a place for opportunities but is now just the doubt dealing machine. The malicious & lunatic behavior (Cancel culture, SJWism, critical race theory, ect.) we're demanded to accept is absolutely abnormal and those who endorse it browbeat others into tolerating or enabling it because they know it's wrong, and that form of behavioral control has begun to convince people that this is just the way things are and it's begun to bleed over into day-to-day life outside the internet. Social media has given the shittiest people the means to socially engineer society to their liking. It's not really fun to be on the internet anymore unless you're just getting high on schadenfreude because everyone is a cunt now. I've also noticed that as time marches forward, not only does the general intelligence of the internet go down but the hostility goes up in kind.

I think that the biggest problem with the internet is the advent of social media, because it gives a platform to victimhood for sociopaths and self-aggrandizing for narcissists. The internet is no longer about boundless potential and new frontiers but about clout at any cost. Although the internet wasn't a nice place in the 2000's by any stretch, you didn't really have MovieBobs who would spew a genocidal stream of consciousness day-in and day-out. Regardless of smart phones, if Social Media were not a thing, the internet would've remained as a niche landscape that only attracted enthusiasts and not the douchebags we're faced with today.

The internet has gone from rabbit hole to honeypot. No more ideas, only identities.

Also effort.

Up the thread I mentioned my spergy Geocities webshite. Granted, if you look in the Reocities archives most sites were pretty spergtastic. But occasionally there were amusing or funny things. And on the wider web as well. I remember finding a page called "Sex in the Romance" in which some person analysed the spicy bits in a heap of bodice rippers and then used them to generate a sexy sex scene of their own, which was truly hilarious. "This was the first time that Sally had ever brazenly bared her bounteous beauties before a beau" was a quote from that. You would never stumble on something like that nowadays.

But I digress.

The great thing about Geocities and Angelfire and Tripod was that they were not normie friendly and this was a feature, not a bug. To actually have an online presence required effort. You needed to learn the HTML tags and play around with formatting and suchlike. This required effort and therefore only those people who had something worth saying therefore would put in the time and energy to assemble a page. The mass of burbling idiots and terrible narcissists that makes up social media nowadays wouldn't be able to. And That's a Good Thing (tm), because it would mean that the signal to noise ratio was kept to a manageable level. Yeah, there were shit pages but you could just ignore those. Or laugh at them (Time Cube, Jesus-is-savior, Whale.to, and other Web 1.0 lolcows spring to mind here.)

What is needed to save the internets from itself is a form of social media which is for effort posts only, frankly.

 

[SojuDrnkr]

Smartphones ruined the internet.
Back in the mid-2000s phones didn't have GPS, and we had to print out directions from MapQuest. Idk about you, but MapQuest never told me to "turn right" on a fucking WRONG WAY, and then have some British fembot cunt say "Redirecting route".

Time on the internet was limited to when you were home. I hate going to a bar and seeing every other asshole on their phone just scrolling, looking at jack-shit.

Those are the 2 examples I can think of at the moment, but I'd like to see if anyone can change my mind on that.

 

[Headshotmaster138]

Let's not forget when nerd culture was becoming mainstream after shows like the Big Bang Theory hit with normies ruining that culture. Also, gaming was changing into a dudebro fest with games like COD4 changing the landscape into a FPS hellhole. Prior to the Ps3 era, we had games with much more variety that catered to its audience. Now, gaming is trying to cater to everybody while shitting on the original audience in favor of woke points.

 

[Donker]

Chanology started in 2008, but I remember 4chan really going mainstream around 07. I'm of the opinion that Chanology is what sent imageboards into their death spiral.

As someone who has used 4chan since literally week one. Completely agree. I think 4chan actually peaked around 05/06-ish. Code Gayass watching on /a/ and Otakon were probably my favorite moments on the site. 4chan back then still felt more akin to an "online weeb convention", was filled to the brim with original content and /b/ was actually a board you actually used for general discussion. 05/06 is also the era for the best classic 4chan moments like Tom Green, Hal Turner, Habbo Hotel raids, CGayass, Otakon, Cracky.

07 was when 4chan started hitting mass appeal and I distinctly remember in 08 going "4chan has become unusable, it's over now" and I'm still there in 2021 but fuck there was absolutely a "mood shift" on the site after 07 when hitting mass appeal and it just got worse and worse, fucking /New/Pol/ and Anontalk made it hit rock bottom. Oh another thing, Anime all becoming moe/waifu shit, also fucked /a/, which was by far the best board on the site. That one 4chan and it's community had no control over, anime legitimately just became worse and now you have an entire anime fandom generation there raised on K-On, Kyoani and terrible Isekai.

I can't really add much more to what has already been said about the rest of the internet. Mobilification and Social Media to me has turned most of the net into such a fucking sterile corporate shithole.

 

[Merry]

The literacy rate thing horrifies me. It took literal hundreds of years to build literacy to levels above 90% and now that's sliding into the dirt because we only need the Proles to be able to read propaganda.

 

[Ginger Piglet]

The literacy rate thing horrifies me. It took literal hundreds of years to build literacy to levels above 90% and now that's sliding into the dirt because we only need the Proles to be able to read propaganda.

Educational standards in general are going down the toilet. Grade inflation is real and has been real for 25+ years. Worse, the education blob seems to actively applaud it.

Here in bongland there was the rolling out of much vaunted new style school exams that were said to be rigorous and difficult. And despite carping from teachers it got into place, leading to much doomsaying about "our brilliant kids" being deprived of qualifications. Sounds like an unpleasant but necessary thing. Right?

Well, there was further carping about how HAAAAAAARD the exam papers were and it was UNFAIR. Suck it down, said the Government, in a rare fit of spine possession.

Lol nope. The education blob had the last laugh. They managed to persuade examiners to "normalise" grade boundaries to the point at which one maths exam had a pass mark of 14%.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

The time in America after 2007 to the New Normal® was a blur to me.

First there was Occupy, "euphoric" fedora'd Libertarian neckbeards, "Rapture will totally happen in October", and of course, the December 21st doomsday scare.

Early "woke" started spreading like cancer on the Internet, as social media took off. The GamerGate shitshow circus also happened, an omen of the insanity to come.

Trump was elected, "woke" went mainstream and even crazier. Big Tech started heavy censorship and "social engineering".

Then the coof was treated like "airborne ebola-AIDS", "woke" was ramped up to 11, the election was stolen, and the USA is closer than before to another civil war. The elite are really pushing to turn the world to a cybernetic hive of soy bugmen.

That first part with Occupy seems recent to me, as if it was last year or so...

 

[Maurice Caine]

Oh another thing, Anime all becoming moe/waifu shit, also fucked /a/, which was by far the best board on the site. That one 4chan and it's community had no control over, anime legitimately just became worse and now you have an entire anime fandom generation there raised on K-On, Kyoani and terrible Isekai.

You're just old and don't get it, gramps. Times change.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

weeaboo

Ironically, the stereotypical weeaboos - poserish Japan fanboys or fangirls - are very much Western, despite their efforts to pass themselves off as being Japanese.

 

[The Last Stand]

Also, gaming was changing into a dudebro fest with games like COD4 changing the landscape into a FPS hellhole. Prior to the Ps3 era, we had games with much more variety that catered to its audience. Now, gaming is trying to cater to everybody while shitting on the original audience in favor of woke points.

I remember around the seventh generation, games tried to showcase graphics over gameplay. Be more cinematic, drab and serious at the expense of variety.

 

[Headshotmaster138]

I remember around the seventh generation, games tried to showcase graphics over gameplay. Be more cinematic, drab and serious at the expense of variety.

Pretty much dude. I can't think of any game from the seventh generation that had a massive impact and revolutionize the gaming space. We had Gta3, Devil May Cry, Metal Gear Solid 2, Resident Evil 4, and Silent Hill 2. What did the seventh gen had? COD4 and Minecraft?

 

[The Last Stand]

Pretty much dude. I can't think of any game from the seventh generation that had a massive impact and revolutionize the gaming space. We had Gta3, Devil May Cry, Metal Gear Solid 2, Resident Evil 4, and Silent Hill 2. What did the seventh gen had? COD4 and Minecraft?

They basically redefine existing franchises. The newer franchises were mainly focused on graphics and spectacle. That's not necessarily a bad thing.

 

[Headshotmaster138]

They basically redefine existing franchises. The newer franchises were mainly focused on graphics and spectacle. That's not necessarily a bad thing.

I don't have a problem with graphics, but if you have a game that has nice visuals but don't have gameplay to back it up. Then, I won't buy your product.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3Nvx8zhq2A

 

[ToroidalBoat]

around the seventh generation, games tried to showcase graphics over gameplay

Sounds like a crappier version of the "multimedia" craze of the mid '90s, between the "16-bit era" and the "early 3D era" with PS1 and N64. This was back when CD-ROM was a big thing. Every new game had to have at least one low resolution video clip, plenty of "real sounds" (not just beeping or MIDIs), and photos or pre-rendered 3D graphics.

But games then could easily still be good.

 

[Ginger Piglet]

The time in America after 2007 to the New Normal® was a blur to me.

First there was Occupy, "euphoric" fedora'd Libertarian neckbeards, "Rapture will totally happen in October", and of course, the December 21st doomsday scare.

Early "woke" started spreading like cancer on the Internet, as social media took off. The GamerGate shitshow circus also happened, an omen of the insanity to come.

Trump was elected, "woke" went mainstream and even crazier. Big Tech started heavy censorship and "social engineering".

Then the coof was treated like "airborne ebola-AIDS", "woke" was ramped up to 11, the election was stolen, and the USA is closer than before to another civil war. The elite are really pushing to turn the world to a cybernetic hive of soy bugmen.

That first part with Occupy seems recent to me, as if it was last year or so...

Never let a crisis go to waste. I'm convinced that the coof and lockdown as a result of same is being used as a dry run for net zero. But that's crazy talk. It's not as if the elites would ever advocate for "climate lockdown" and banning consumption of red meat and travel, would they?

Oh. Fuck.

 

[Syaoran Li]

Pretty much dude. I can't think of any game from the seventh generation that had a massive impact and revolutionize the gaming space. We had Gta3, Devil May Cry, Metal Gear Solid 2, Resident Evil 4, and Silent Hill 2. What did the seventh gen had? COD4 and Minecraft?

I dunno, there are a few gems from the Seventh Generation.

Fallout: New Vegas and the original Red Dead Redemption are both masterpieces in my opinion. While GTA IV was one of the weakest GTA games in terms of gameplay, it had the best story of any entry in the franchise.