I don't enjoy the Internet any more

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Many long-time internet users say the modern web feels joyless, dominated by addictive social platforms, AI-generated “slop,” surveillance, and advertising, with meaningful communication and small creative communities drowned out by noise. Commenters connect this shift to smartphones, algorithmic feeds, and social media’s attention economy, contrasting today’s short-form tribalism with earlier eras of forums, blogs, and hobby sites. Some argue the “real internet” still exists in smaller, harder-to-find spaces (RSS, forums, Gemini, Mastodon, personal homepages) and suggest that reclaiming it will require deliberate limits on consumption and a move toward decentralized, non-commercial tools.

Addiction, Boredom, and the Attention Economy

  • Many describe the modern internet as both addictive and boring: people scroll out of compulsion, not enjoyment.
  • Comparisons to cigarettes and slot machines are common: “engagement” is framed as a euphemism for engineered addiction.
  • This is not seen as contradictory: addiction often persists after genuine pleasure is gone.

Short-Form Content and Intellectual Quality

  • Strong criticism of learning via snippets and short videos: viewed as fueling tribalism, groupthink, and laziness.
  • Some defend brevity as a legitimate art form, but concede most current short content is uncrafted “slop.”
  • Others note many topics simply cannot be explained well in a few minutes and that studies suggest short-form is poor for education.

Nostalgia vs Structural Change

  • Some attribute dissatisfaction to aging and nostalgia: the youth simply enjoy a different internet.
  • Others argue it’s not just nostalgia: scale, commercialization, and bots have transformed the medium.
  • The “Eternal September” pattern is invoked: mass onboarding repeatedly dilutes previous norms.

Social Media, Smartphones, and Enshittification

  • Social media is widely blamed as a failed or failing experiment and a race to the bottom.
  • Smartphones and constant connectivity are seen by some as the real turning point, making the medium ever-present and more extractive.
  • Greed, ad tech, surveillance, and recommendation algorithms are cited as core drivers of decline.

AI/LLMs: Tool, Inevitable Force, or Threat

  • Mixed feelings: some find AI fascinating and economically inevitable; others see it as accelerating slop, misinformation, and deskilling.
  • There’s frustration with obligatory “I’m excited about AI” caveats in otherwise critical takes.
  • Concern about AI-written content being passed off as human and about AI being used uncritically in education, science, and media.
  • A backlash against casual AI use is defended as proportionate, not overcorrection.

Where the “Real Internet” Went

  • Many argue the “real internet” survives in small, topic-focused communities: forums, mailing lists, fediverse, Gemini, smolnets, niche IRC/Discords.
  • Discovery is harder due to noise and commercial dominance; effort to find good spaces can be exhausting.
  • Some say the internet is still great for deep, expert content; others feel they’ve “run out of websites worth visiting.”

Coping Strategies and Alternatives

  • Suggested responses include:
    • Quitting or heavily restricting social media, YouTube, and smartphones.
    • Using blockers, DNS blackholes, RSS, and ad-blockers to avoid algorithmic feeds.
    • Returning to or building forums, Discourse instances, personal homepages, and anti-advertising protocols.
    • Hoarding offline copies of valued content in case things get worse.
  • A minority insists the internet itself is fine and that the web and social platforms are the real problem, which could be redesigned without ads or central control.