Consume Product

For me, it’s almost always 2001 as the year that everything went to mostly shit IMHO. I always like to say the internet was the best before HSI became a thing in the average home. I’m thinking those years are matching up close to yours, because I can remember one of my middle class friends getting it either right before 09/11, or right after, and it wasn’t long after that when searches and things started getting faggy, and many people I knew had HSI. I think message boards were still pretty decent at least until 2003. The next nail in the coffin was around 2007 when the smart phone and mainstream social media became a thing.

I was just lucky enough to be a legal adult before the kikes would put the final nail in, and destroy the country, and anything decent that was once left in it forever. Anyone who wasn’t at least 15 likely won’t understand everything that was stolen from us. Pre 09/11 American wasn’t perfect by any means, but it was so much better in almost every way. Sometimes I envy the kids who weren’t old enough at the time to understand, and remember how great it was, and what could have been. 😔

It was a better internet before Wikipedia, no doubt. Now everything is centralized. And there's more ads than ever. Remember stuff like "click the monkey and win $50!"? These days you get 2 or 3 video ads running all over the page. Browsing without an adblocker is unthinkable.

Maybe it's just because I was too young for that time, but I feel like pre-2005 was more like the Wild West of the Internet. Its Golden Age was immediately after, maybe 2005-2010. At this point, websites were basically as technologically sophisticated as they are now but ads weren't cancer yet, censorship wasn't standard, and people were generally more relaxed with their interactions, ie you could call someone a faggot without creating an angry mob.

Suboptimal, but much better than most situations.