As someone who started surf the web at approximately mid to late 1996, I still recall a bit of the first ten years of the Internet, which were significantly more peaceful; no “smartphones”, no “the system against the user” crap, etc.
“Click bait”, “Call to action”, “Social Media”, automatic playing of audio and or video, overadvertisement, revenue from advertisements on tragedies etc. have ruined the internet — where do we go from there?
So you’ve forgotten popups?
It’s not new. It’s the inevitable commercialization and competition of anything that gets popular.
Where do you go from here? uh. Ask Elon Musk?
Yes, I forgot popups, gaming platforms which suddenly don’t let the customer pay for a 10 USD game with a non local credit card, JavaScript against the user, infinite vertical scrolling, etc.
At some point in our lives, we decide that Everything Good started just about the time we ourselves became aware of it and engaged with it, and is now ruined. It’s the same story, whether applied to music, cars, programming, hanging out with friends or life on the internet. This must be where the phrase “the good old days” came from.
I personally think otherwise; that sometimes good systems can decay or become corrupted, that if no prevention mechanisms are taken, things will become something just broadly immoral or destructive, disrupting society as a whole.
I think that there is a broad agreement that social media is causing harm for people of all or most age groups (I don’t have exact statistics but this is what I get from talks on the subject).
I started Internet browsing sometime and 1983. There were many fewer places to go, because I was in the AOL walled garden. At the very beginning, most of those sites available were owned by AOL and the majority of the others were vetted by AOL.
I think everything was just past the fun times when I started participating in it. 
Hello,
While I may have started using the internet earlier than you, I appreciate your perspective and would like to share my thoughts on this.
Advertising undeniably has a significant impact on the internet, as it serves as the primary revenue stream for countless websites and businesses globally. It drives innovation and progress, enabling the development of free services and platforms that many of us rely on daily.
However, for those seeking an internet experience free from intrusive ads, I recommend exploring Web 3.0 technologies. Although there’s growing discussion about Web 4.0, my focus is on the practical benefits of Web 3.0. This version emphasizes decentralization, user control, and shared benefits.
For example, browsers like Brave align with Web 3.0 principles. Brave blocks intrusive ads on websites while allowing users to earn cryptocurrency simply by using the browser. This approach not only reduces the annoyance of ads but also incentivizes users to engage with the technology.
While it’s possible to reduce or eliminate ads through such methods, it’s also important to recognize that advertising fuels much of the progress and innovation we see on the internet today. Striking a balance between avoiding intrusive ads and supporting creators and businesses is key.
If you’d like to learn more about Web 3.0 tools or explore specific solutions tailored to your needs, feel free to ask!
You don’t have to get lost in all the rubbish on the Web. As well as using an ad blocker (in my case via Brave), I also have a JS killer that tames sites with a lot of junk on them. (In a lot of cases, disabling JS also enables reading content that is otherwise behind a paywall, as does clearing your viewing history in some cases).
Yes, many people rely on intrusive ads, popups etc. to make their living online, but I don’t have any sympathy, as it’s a gross way to make a living. It would be unthinkable if you walked into a physical shop and the staff kept blocking your way with ads etc.
I would be happy if the Internet settled down a bit and people just went back to having personal websites and stores just sold products or services online without all the noise.
And as for antisocial media … well, you can just ignore it if it gets too much. Rather than doom scroll, it’s better just to create bookmarks to accounts you like to follow and visit them directly. That’s what I tend to do.
I try to avoid sites with too much junk on the pages. If there is something I do want to read on such a site, I find “Reader mode” can help to remove the clutter and distractions. I make a point of never clicking click-bait and don’t really bother with social media, except for work.
Well, that depends on what you define as “ruining the internet”. It is true that looking for a piece of information on Google these days feels like pulling teeth due to all of the issues you’ve described. But that is only one of the facets of the web experience.
And there are already good solutions to many of the issues you’ve described. If you use Firefox with uBlock Origin and start asking GPT for information, you’ll avoid 90% of those issues.
Remember: none of this is new. Before clickbait, we had inflammatory newspaper headlines. And eye-catching copywriting for ads. A lot of the annoying web practices we see today were copied 1:1 from the print world.
This just crossed my radar:
Might be something for you?