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cbf1232 t1_j6km739 wrote

Sorry, I gotta disagree. Maybe what you say is true if you limit it to "social media" instead of "The internet".

"The Internet" is so much more than just social media.

There are tons of websites dedicated to specific hobbies that have active communities. There are thousands of open-source and commercial software projects distributed online. Computer gaming, videoconferencing, online banking, niche online shopping stores that are way better than Amazon/Walmart/etc., remote access to computers for work, large-scale data transfer, a dozen or more streaming video services, online board gaming by subscription, the list goes on and on...

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BirdjaminFranklin t1_j6kyff4 wrote

How are you supposed to find those random sites?

BTW, I miss webrings.

The internet was a lot more interesting when you had to create your communities.

It's not unlike what occurred to WoW.

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piepants2001 t1_j6l3pzf wrote

It doesn't help that search engines are garbage nowadays.

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Hanako_Seishin t1_j6l6lnq wrote

Or maybe they got so good we've forgotten the second page of Google exists

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ProbablyABore t1_j6kn0bk wrote

Yeah, I had to take a double take. I visit more than 10 individual websites every day.

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WhiskyAtNoon t1_j6l1rhi wrote

Xvideos, xhamster, xnxx, hub, blacked, motherless, youjizz, red tube, pornzog and Linkedin

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Glitchsbrew t1_j6kywqo wrote

Maybe OP forgot what porn is. Pretty sure it makes up about 69% of the internet.

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dandroid126 t1_j6l3ij6 wrote

The internet is really really great.

^(For porn)

I got a fast connection so I didn't have to wait.

^(For porn)

There's always some new site.

^(For porn)

I browse all day and night.

^(For porn)

It's like I'm surfing at the speed of light.

#Foooooor poooooorn!

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k0n3h34d4457 t1_j6l2j8t wrote

i think this shower thought would be more accurately stated as “the average person’s perception of the internet has boiled down to essentially 5 sites all sharing screenshots of each other”, which is certainly the case.

it makes sense because it’s easier for people to look at things online when they’re presented in centralized feeds with relatively simple to setup accounts. it kinda goes against how the internet was intended to be used though unfortunately and doesn’t allow for much in the way of user freedom.

hopefully enough people will hop onto activitypub-based platforms like mastodon in the near future.

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princhester t1_j6l4hst wrote

I know you weren't aiming for a complete list but an important set of websites you haven't mentioned are the mainstream and other media websites that generate much of the content that then goes around and around on social media.

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