Regarding 2000s Nostalgia

It seems like much is said about nostalgia these days, especially how toxic it is. Gen Z'ers and Millennials tend to be the most nostalgic generation possible, arguments arise claiming the cause is the 2020 Pandemic, the financial crisis in the West and other many great myriad of problems that keep popping up once in a while. However, I would argue this nostalgia stems from somewhere else to some.

All the above mentioned are not false, but incomplete... There is another little detail... Nostalgia, especially the 2000s when it comes to internet culture and certain subcultures might come from the fact that this period was much more decentralized than it ever will be today, the intermingling of digital and real life was still not a thing, squeezing vastly different groups in the same internet centralized platforms owned by massive corporations (as this is a perfect recipe for conflict) was also never heard of before.

The dominance in the 2000s was of independent personal sites, blogs, as well as niche forums and smaller platforms, even the larger ones such as Orkut and MySpace were not the juggernauts that X (Twitter), Instagram, Facebook and others are today. The focus seemed to come somewhat of creativity and freedom rather than convenience. It also had those problems, one can't argue that not everyone has the time to make a overly creative profile or personal site and that the streamlining helped to include way more people into the digital world. You gain convenience and lose the vast freedom of the past internet, you lose convenience and you gain the vast dangerous freedom it once had. The old internet used to be much more dangerous in some of its aspects for being a massive wild west on the web, it was easier to wander around and fall into some dangerous trap, not that today its any safer. It's a two-edged spear that analyzing deeper, only shows that rose-colored glasses can blur our sight only with the positive while forgetting of how things actually were.

This is a mere personal post, but in conclusion: the nostalgia felt by many to the old internet of the 2000s comes from legitimate advantages, worries and desires that were particular of that era. The sense of wonder, the niches, creativity, personality and freedom it possessed. The disapproving of corporatization of platforms, centralization of content and the intermixing of real and digital lives into one in the same. It is a legitimate nostalgia, albeit it should be exercised with caution not to be deceived by our own fond memories.

Much else could be added to the topic, like the massive changes in culture, music, even cinema, art, politics and how society at large is completely alien to what it was back then... But that would make a whole book.

What can be done? One might ask. Merely try not being overtaken by the digital life and keep using niche sites like many do, not everyone will do it, things will not go back to the way they were... But hey, at least some of it still survives.