## [t3_psk37b](https://www.reddit.com/r/nosurf/comments/psk37b/i_miss_the_camaraderie_of_the_old_internet/)
My family first got a computer in 2007 when I was a twelve year old and I remember how different it was. It was so easy to make friends, and people were a lot more social and normal. You could easily find someone to have a chinwag with on RuneScape, YouTube or any of the dozens of forums. I can still remember most of my old RuneScape buddies and sometimes I wonder what they've done with their lives. There were also games like Tribal Wars where you could basically roleplay as a lord or something and be a part of a big community oriented clan. Without the social aspect, I highly doubt these games would've been as fun. Maybe because all of my generation hadn't grown up with smartphones and the high power internet we've had for years.

I went on Old School RuneScape when it came out in 2013 and there were some other nostalgia players. I could tell before they even told me just because they could talk normally. Eventually most of us logged out because the novelty wore off. Having checked in a few times over the years since, it's like everyone has been progressively lobotomised. The average player is asocial or they just talk utter shit. Clan chats are just full of people talking about sex, pornography, Trump/Biden, etc.

The same goes for much of the rest of the internet, especially YouTube. I miss the old channels and the ability to message and become friends with people. Now, comments sections read like a horde of bots commenting similarly structured responses and the videos are hardly just people uploading fun; it's all about the dollar. It's as though the human soul has been exorcised from the internet "community".

I have nobody to rant to about this and nothing really constructive to post, I just miss how things were. It's quite hypocritical to be have posted this on Reddit of all places, seeing as it's one of the swords that cut down the good old forums. However, I digress. It's bittersweet to have grown up in the last generation before the internet boom.

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submitted to [r/Stop spending life on the net.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Stop spending life on the net.) by [u/I_Like_Vitamins](https://www.reddit.com/user/I_Like_Vitamins)