You're not alone. I've been on the web since around 1997, something like that. I remember it as a fun distraction, but also as a place that had recognizable handles, behind which sat a real person somewhere else in the world.
Unrestrained SEO and the failure of search engines (or, in Google's case, complicity veering towards enthusiastic support) to do anything about that was the first thing that, for me, took a lot of the fun out of the web.
Cheap botting, engagement farming, walled gardens, social media, and now AI has left me in a state of active avoidance. I don't feel good when I use the web. Like, any of it, at all.
Casual cruelty has always been a problem of online interaction, but at one time it was also balanced out by familiarity, friendliness sometimes, creativity ... but those things have gotten a lot harder to find.
The most engaging online interaction I've had recently has been some local community groups on Signal, and even that is best in small and infrequent doses.
Unrestrained SEO and the failure of search engines (or, in Google's case, complicity veering towards enthusiastic support) to do anything about that was the first thing that, for me, took a lot of the fun out of the web.
Cheap botting, engagement farming, walled gardens, social media, and now AI has left me in a state of active avoidance. I don't feel good when I use the web. Like, any of it, at all.
Casual cruelty has always been a problem of online interaction, but at one time it was also balanced out by familiarity, friendliness sometimes, creativity ... but those things have gotten a lot harder to find.
The most engaging online interaction I've had recently has been some local community groups on Signal, and even that is best in small and infrequent doses.