The old internet felt like a neighborhood. Now it's a mall.

I think back to 2005. Forums were quiet spaces. You could lurk for months before anyone even noticed. Now every click is a data point being sold. Does anyone else miss being invisible online?

3 comments

3 Comments

clairem4727d ago

Oh man, james_kim you're right. The spam was always there. I remember getting those "free iPod" links in my inbox back in 05. But it felt different. Like junk mail you could just toss without it tracking your whole life. The real change is how invisible we used to be. You could be on a forum for two years and nobody knew your name, your job, your location. Now every site fingerprints your browser the second you load it. That feeling of just watching without being watched? Gone. Completely.

james_kim29d ago

Were forums really that quiet though? I remember getting spam DMs and people trying to sell me stuff even back in 2005. The invisible part was nice, but the data selling was always there, just less obvious about it.

leo61228d ago

Had a buddy who got his identity stolen from a forum back in 06, took him months to sort it out.