High-profile lawsuits against Google and Amazon have revealed Silicon Valley’s vise grip on our lives.

We Finally Have Proof That the Internet Is Worse::High-profile lawsuits against Google and Amazon have revealed Silicon Valley’s vise grip on our lives.

  • MrBungle@lemmy.caEnglish
    57·
    1 year ago

    I hear you. When I was a teen, Internet was: A handful of focused websites or your buddies geocities / angelfire site.
    Chatting in crazy chat rooms on IRC, and having your close friends on ICQ.
    Using a dial up modem to play doom, Warcraft 2, red alert, duke nukem, quake, StarCraft, total annihilation… etc.

    Those were fun times. Felt like the bleeding edge of tech… hiding out and having fun in places people haven’t even heard of.

    • AshyrEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      Once upon a time, I had a 6-digit ICQ number.

      • aesthelete@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        1 year ago

        Have a 7-digit one and just found out it still works.

        I had one contact left on it called “brokenprincess” and it says she was last seen “a long time ago”.

        Creepy shit. Just in time for Halloween.

      • MrBungle@lemmy.caEnglish
        3·
        1 year ago

        That’s some OG shit there! I still remember my number. It was an 8 digit haha

        • AshyrEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          Yeah, I’d give anything to remember the number. I’d make all my friends get accounts, just to flex.

    • EngineerGaming@feddit.nlEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      I discovered IRC in the 2020s already (I am Gen Z so wasn’t even online before mid-2010s), and from what I’ve seen in the descriptions of the “old internet”, looks like some servers I am in preserved the spirit) Some people in the rooms also have their own cozy websites, including me)

      • MrBungle@lemmy.caEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Right on, I rejoined IRC during the COVID shutdowns. It’s just nice to be chatting somewhere where a company isn’t flooding me with advertisements and/or harvesting my data (that I can tell at least).