When the internet first arrived, it was gorgeous.
The first time this mind set was revealed to me was in Goa, India in the late 70s. For the price of a mile walk up a beach one could attend full moon parties where electric bands entertained and free liquid LSD was administered from a dropper. Sound good? Damn straight.
Yet there they were, the older freaks who had been in Goa since the late 60s. Back then if you were a commonwealth citizen no visa was required to stay in India.
Those older freaks were always quick to say, "Hey you should have been here in the 60s. This place is nothing like it was back in the day. My guess is that my generation of Goa Freaks are now living in the new beach condos from profits sending hash back to the west saying, "Hey you should have been here in the late 70s. This place is nothing like it was back in the day."
That is not to mean that you are mistaken in your observations yet have you tried the Dark Web? It is not all drugs and criminals, however they do exist. What you will not find is corporate ads or algo directed search engines. In fact any search engine is flakey at best. Instead it takes exploration like you spoke of in the WWW's beginnings.
The same cry is heard about how the internet can be pulled down by the powers that shouldn't be through their control of Dynamic Name Servers or their ability of banning sites. They overlook the fact that anyone can run a DNS and anyone can choose to use it in their system settings. They weren't around in my heady days prior to the World Wide Web. Back then my hobby project Bulletin Board Service (BBS) boasted that its network (Citadel) could get emails from the east to west coast of Canada in 2 short days, which was faster than Canada Post at the time. This all done through antiquated land lines over 300 baud modems. Its still an option if the shit really flies with censorship. Although an option my point is not to suggest that it was better than present tech. But it did make one feel empowered and created community the likes of which you may see fading in the present corporate hold on the WWW.
My point? Tech changes and we must be ready to adapt and change with it. Just because Bill Gates dumbed down most computer users to follow the path that the Powers That Shouldn't Be lay out for us doesn't mean we can't explore the tech to work the way we want. That is something that HIVE Devs demonstrate daily.
Hive may have it's flaws, but the view of the hills here is pretty nice. It's not dead yet.
Nor will it ever be, because centralization is going to loose every time to decentralization in this world in which we are now living.
Mate, everything was better in the 70s 😂😂 Truth.
Like us surfers talking about how the waves were better in the '90s. Wait.. every thing was better in the 90s too...
... Then the Internet got bigger.
I'll come back to this... It's my bday and my hubs is just about to drop me a coffee .. naked.
Happy Happy Birthday!!!🥳🥳🥳
Thankyou! We are on way to coast for a coffee and almond croissant.
I know what you mean about being reluctant to decry modern tech in favour for a mournful lament for the good old days. I used to be an advocate for how tech could be used in the classroom, for example, using blogs and podcasts to encourage students voices. However, I'm now more a Luddite in that I can't help screaming about how tech is replacing the human - creativity, individuality - in favour of the corporate. Yes, we can overthrow if we all rally together (Australia currently trying to ban social media for kids under 14) but Godzilla is pretty unstoppable.
So, yes, Hive. It's the only place I can feel a modicum of joy and reminisce about 'the good old days' and be part of something that still feels like it's trying to be meaningful and for the people, despite its flaws.