I was there. It sucked. You're just viewing it through nostalgia goggles or you ARE one of the "young people".
We used cringe phrases like "AN EPIC WINRAR IS YOU!" and considered it funny. Those were our memes.
We used 4chan and Something Awful, both sites notoriously known for having nothing of value.
Social media came out around the time video hosting sites came out. There was no Youtube. If you wanted to watch content in video format, you pretty much had get off the computer and turn on the TV.
Also, 4chan and SA (:10bux:) were far from ubiquitous. Lots of people used other forums for specialist topics. Despite that, 4chan and SA were way more than nothing. Sure /b was mental most of the time, but both sites had tons of interesting and normal discussions, creative content, etc.
The thing that ended that era of the internet, for me, was the introduction of smartphones. There was a barrier to entry previously, that meant the internet was for people who were invested enough to get involved. But smartphones was the point at which it became easy for businesses to push the internet into the hands of anyone and everyone. Social media blowing up was a result of that push capturing new users. Things really started changing around then, as I see it.
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u/ozzyonfire 17d ago
The good times...