These days all I do on the internet is click back and forth between Facebook, YouTube, Quora and Reddit. Sometimes its enough to keep me occupied but I can't seem to shake the feeling that I miss the "internet".
Being a completely anonymous troll in Yahoo messenger chat rooms. Downloading just about anything through p2p software like Kazaa and Limewire. Being entertained by Macromedia Flash web animations. Making own (cringe) websites and hosting them for free on angelfire.com. Posting Mortal Kombat fanart on fan forums. Making new friends on social networks. Ending up on random pages and discovering a lot of crazy and/or NSFW stuff. In those days, new possibilities were always around the corner.
Yes. Made friends on social networks. There was this one website (forgot the name) I was on before I joined Hi5. My friends were all complete strangers, mostly from Malaysia and Brazil. Today, friends I add on Fb are all people I know in person. I could still make new friends but I just don't do it. After Orkut came out, I had settled in the safety of people I know in person. My browsing habits also started to change. I was no longer surfing or "interneting". Maybe I was getting bored with discovering stuff. I also stopped watching the Discovery channel around that time.
Also by then, Internet had grown crazy big. There was so much to see, I didn't know what to look at. Internet had become the same experience as eating out. No matter how large the menu, if I go to Zamzam, I always order the Shawarma or Shawwai. It was not just me. The confusion from too much stuff on the internet was real. And that's when things like stumbleupon.com came out. It showed some random and interesting page every-time you clicked the "stumble" button. Lazy surfing.
Today, nothing I stumble upon really gets me interested. The discovery of internet is complete as far as I am concerned. Internet has become the utility that it was meant to be. I am looking at stumbleupon.com right now and it seems you have to be signed in to use it. Well no thanks, just checking.
I still do surf. Sort of. Mostly within YouTube and then there is the occasional Wikipedia and some online shopping. Other than that, I have really forgotten how to surf. Or the reason to surf has gone away. Everything I "need to know" will reach me through Fb or Whatsapp. But still, when I remember the old 56kbps modem and then I look at today's 2mbps broadband connection, I can't help but think I am not using it enough.
I think surfing in the Y2K period had more to do with exploring new possibilities than finding substance.
Yes. Made friends on social networks. There was this one website (forgot the name) I was on before I joined Hi5. My friends were all complete strangers, mostly from Malaysia and Brazil. Today, friends I add on Fb are all people I know in person. I could still make new friends but I just don't do it. After Orkut came out, I had settled in the safety of people I know in person. My browsing habits also started to change. I was no longer surfing or "interneting". Maybe I was getting bored with discovering stuff. I also stopped watching the Discovery channel around that time.
Also by then, Internet had grown crazy big. There was so much to see, I didn't know what to look at. Internet had become the same experience as eating out. No matter how large the menu, if I go to Zamzam, I always order the Shawarma or Shawwai. It was not just me. The confusion from too much stuff on the internet was real. And that's when things like stumbleupon.com came out. It showed some random and interesting page every-time you clicked the "stumble" button. Lazy surfing.
Today, nothing I stumble upon really gets me interested. The discovery of internet is complete as far as I am concerned. Internet has become the utility that it was meant to be. I am looking at stumbleupon.com right now and it seems you have to be signed in to use it. Well no thanks, just checking.
I still do surf. Sort of. Mostly within YouTube and then there is the occasional Wikipedia and some online shopping. Other than that, I have really forgotten how to surf. Or the reason to surf has gone away. Everything I "need to know" will reach me through Fb or Whatsapp. But still, when I remember the old 56kbps modem and then I look at today's 2mbps broadband connection, I can't help but think I am not using it enough.
