<story><title>The Day the Good Internet Died</title><url>https://www.theringer.com/2021/7/21/22586870/google-reader-ode-end-of-the-good-internet</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>dangrossman</author><text>Some things I miss:&lt;p&gt;- A webring at the bottom of every website&lt;p&gt;- Websites having &amp;quot;awards&amp;quot; pages, full of random little picture awards given out by other random websites&lt;p&gt;- Hand-curated directories of everything imagineable&lt;p&gt;- When internet ads were just static 468x60 banners placed on individual sites by individual advertisers&lt;p&gt;- &amp;quot;Guided tours&amp;quot; in AOL chat rooms, where a host guided everyone in a live chat on a split-screen tour of their favorite websites&lt;p&gt;- MUDs&lt;p&gt;- Stumbleupon&amp;#x27;s stumble toolbar</text></comment>
<story><title>The Day the Good Internet Died</title><url>https://www.theringer.com/2021/7/21/22586870/google-reader-ode-end-of-the-good-internet</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>Syonyk</author><text>The 2012-2013 timeframe matches my general timeline for things as well, though mine is a bit hazier as it&amp;#x27;s a transition timeframe, not an event.&lt;p&gt;The 2012 era was when we really started to see the weaponization of attention take off.  Smartphones weren&amp;#x27;t &lt;i&gt;that&lt;/i&gt; terrible (Crackberry jokes aside) pre-2012, at least in terms of being attention vampires.  In app purchases had become a thing a year or two before, and people were figuring out how to make it work - with 2012 being around the time they figured it out.&lt;p&gt;The variable reward &amp;quot;drive your users crazy&amp;quot; stuff hit around then, and with it, the wave of &amp;quot;algorithmic feeds&amp;quot; - not just chronologically ordered stuff.&lt;p&gt;Facebook moved to a more heavily algorithmic feed in 2011, mobile apps stared more actively driving their users crazy, etc.&lt;p&gt;So that timeframe was when the internet went from &amp;quot;Everyone sees the same thing on the same site, and you easily hit the end of new content if you care&amp;quot; to &amp;quot;It&amp;#x27;s a slot machine, and it&amp;#x27;s in your pocket, and there&amp;#x27;s a notification to get you back into the slot machine.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;And it&amp;#x27;s just been downhill from there. :(</text></comment>