What Happened to the Internet We Grew Up With?

Every Discord server? It's either completely dead or full of cliqued-up mods who treat you like a “rando” if you try to join the conversation. You say “hey” and they hit you with a dry “hi” and then go back to posting inside jokes and talking about trauma dumps in their 5-person admin friend group like you aren’t even there. It’s like trying to walk into a party where everyone already left or locked themselves in the upstairs bathroom to whisper about you.

And then there’s Spacehey — cool concept, I’ll give it that. Real MySpace energy. But once you’re actually on there? Half the profiles are either impossible to read because they’re writing in some cryptic number-letter hybrid language (and I get it, internet aesthetic, but please), or they’re endlessly looping convos about labels and sexuality. No hate to the LGBTQ+ community at all, seriously, but where are the actual conversations about music, anime, obscure games, that weird Flash site you used to waste hours on? Where’s the soul, the nerdy chaos, the fun?

You get what I’m saying? The internet used to feel like a messy bedroom full of posters, CDs, weird chat logs, and energy drinks. Now it feels like a sterilized Tumblr collage with no context. Everyone’s too busy curating an aesthetic or trying to out-trauma each other to just... talk. Like actually talk.

There was a time when 4chan (yes, that 4chan) felt like a haven for anime fans, awkward teens, and chaotic good energy. Sure, it was edgy. Yeah, it was full of trolls. But there was culture. There was an unspoken camaraderie. You could post about your favorite obscure manga and get 10 replies from people who got it. Or you’d join an AMV contest thread and suddenly it’s 3 AM and you’re watching a Naruto fight scene edited to Linkin Park with 240p VHS filters, and it’s the best thing you’ve seen all week.

Nowadays, everything’s locked behind paywalls, “mutuals only,” or ego. You can’t join a fandom without feeling like you’re walking on eggshells. You can’t say you liked something as a kid without someone telling you why it's “problematic.” You can’t even shitpost without some mod deleting your message because it’s not in the right channel with the right trigger warning.

I miss forums. I miss pixel gifs and autoplay music on profiles. I miss signing guestbooks and using “XD” unironically. I miss when you could meet people online who didn’t treat you like a follower count, but like a friend. When “online” wasn’t a performance, it was a refuge.

I guess this is just me yelling into the void, but if you feel this too… hey. You’re not alone. Maybe we’ll build something new that brings that feeling back. Or maybe we’re just old ghosts haunting the places we used to live in.

Either way: stay weird, stay kind, and never stop posting cringe. Cringe is dead. Long live cringe.