:date: 2025-09-23 15:16

.. Tags for the index
.. index:: internet

.. .. seealso:: :ref:

.. Reference for linking into the menues.
.. _2025-id_like_it_back_please:

I'd like it back, please
========================

In the 90's when the internet came around, I was sitting in the office of my father. He had a shared room at my
grandmothers which he used with his brother to work from.

This room was bigger on the inside than it was on the outside. My father had his PC in there. And connected to it was an
ISDN modem. It was with that modem that I learned to take my first steps outside. When I dialed out it always felt like
I was one of the first on the internet. Within my family, I certainly was. While my father and my uncle were mainly
using the internet for banking, their job and some e-mailing, I was making my first experience in chat rooms, later in
forums. I had nights talking to strangers on the internet, just talking and having fun.

I discovered IRC and bulletin boards. I installed ICQ, I wrote my first HTML and uploaded it to the FTP server of the
local newspaper (because they allowed it). I used RSS to keep up to date with several websites. I met people with their
own FTP server, got copies of movies and audio files.

I wrote websites in HTML, JavaScript and PHP from scratch. DreamWeaver made that even easier (the version before 2005).
I played with Flash development and put some small snippets out there.

I bought my own domain, my own email and put my website there. I wrote Perl programs to parse websites and provide RSS
to me.

Long story short: There were so many ways into the internet, so many things to play with.

Today, I something lean back in front my PC and wonder: What is left? All I seem to use is 9gag, local news, RSS and a
bit of YouTube. And podcasts. No
chats, no interaction. I feel alone on the internet. Most I see and read are either commercials or political posts
(especially on 9gag). Repetitive, not relevant, not entertaining in the long run.

The videos I download from YouTube (and that's the only way I use YT), I barely can watch all. When I delete them after
a while without watching them, life it still fine - although I feel a bit that i missed out.

But all these methods of using have no interaction any more. The internet is there only for me, it seems. As source of
information, shallow entertainment, but the only thing on the other side are machines.

Except for the podcasts, there still is some life. But these authors have never heard of me, of course.

So I am alone on the internet it seems.

I really would like to have the old internet back. When there were people, interaction, mistakes and fun. Where there
were endless ways of interacting with it.