The Internet Used to Be a Place

This was wonderful to watch, and it put a name to that particular sort of dread I get after being online for a while. Very interesting and informative.

“The things that make us feel most human are the least compatible with profit.” I’ve been saying this for years and it’s why I’ve dedicated my life to trying to make those welcoming spaces on the internet. But it’s hard when I’m one person risking my entire life on trying to make the world better. I wish joy wasn’t incompatible with security. 💔

I LOVE THIS VIDEO GAHHGHGHGHHH. It's interesting to know that a game was made based on the whole geocities topic. My mom had one in the 90s where she used to show off her cakes and various pastries she baked.

Yeah, I miss the old internet. And the old games and the chat rooms and AIM and the crazy colours... You said it, too. It used to be confined to a room. Now we take it with us everywhere. It's a part of our learning and our kids growing up in ways it wasn't for us.

I don't care how old and stubborn this makes me sound, but I miss the 90s internet, this thing we have now is a hollow, parasitic husk by comparison despite being faster and "more convenient." I'd turn back the clock with zero hesitation.
There are some silver linings, though, such as this here video, I really appreciate your impassioned but relaxed vibe and the coziness of the presentation. Thank you. ❤

Thanks for putting the feeling of not being able to 'log out' anymore into words.
I think the internet isn't quite for me anymore these days.

Thank you so much for making this video. I really miss the old internet, not because of nostalgia, but because it's was used to be a hobby.Nowadays, it feels like everything on the internet is selling you something. Everything has to be profitable.

The prose in this video are so so nice. Very well written.

The internet went from being a tool you use to enhance your material life to becoming what you use your material life to serve. As a 32 year old who grew up in the Bay Area (had social media in 6th grade) I do remember when xanga and MySpace were just ways to arrange IRL things.
And then the Top 8. People gamifying who it was, trying to become friends with someone famous to put them on theirs, get upset when they weren’t on other people’s, etc. it was the first instance I saw of social media being incredibly antisocial and it turns out that would become the norm, and using social media intermittently to support your material world is the extreme minority

I'm loving this. I am loving this a lot!
So much nostalgia, great storytelling, really feel that thing about doors and fields.
(The family computer room, that's where I grew up! 😊)

oh my god justin bieber's mom this was the best video ever thank you so much. i never got to experience the old internet (born in 2005) and i always wondered where we went wrong. this was comprehensive and SO well done!!!

This made me cry for some reason lol
I was born in the 00's so I never experienced the internet in the 90's , but I still related to what you said. The internet used to be a tool I used to play games or watch anime. Being online was never an activity in itself. When smartphones became more popular, I remember thinking how weird it was that some people were using their phones while being in a social context. I thought that could never be me.
And then my doorway disappeared and I don't remember how I got here :')

I've got a habit of sticking videos on in the background and half paying attention to them while I do other stuff, but I was completely sucked into this one from the first minute and unable to look away til it ended. That feeling you describe, the "wolf in the grass" thing, has been absolutely suffocating me for a while now but I just haven't had the words to describe it. Thank you for capturing it so well.

i remember seeing something recently how the idea of "internet culture" was dead. it is just culture, and projects onto offline culture far harder than the inverse. Internet is the main culture, and everything else is the offshoot.

"The things that make us feel the most human, are the least compatible with profit:"

i spent this whole video waiting for you to mention neocities i wont lie

I miss forums... I miss LJ comms, small little inclusive communities of fandom, where you were there only because you CHOSE to be. You could talk with fans of a thing, your peers, and not have to couch it in face-saving irony so that normies who had no clue wtf you were talking about didn't think you were weird and unfollow you. I miss being on LJ comms, every single day. I miss forums. I wish they'd make a comeback.
and no, don't tell me discords have replaced them- it isn't the same. you can't read up on a discord channel, nobody does, it's too much. Threads on forums were made for discussion, discord and twitter/bluesky were made for tiny statements, not discussions.
that's what I miss most...

10/10 video. This finally put into words my vague, disjointed dismay at what the internet has become. I made my first website when I was 11, after I learned HTML for Neopets… they were simple comforts. Now, like you, I feel trapped in an endless doomscroll that’s swallowed up those simple joys and leaves me feeling even emptier.
The algorithm is a drag, but it’s not all bad… it found me your channel. Thanks for this! I relate to it all.

Thank you so much for the video! I enjoyed watching it. Why does this video has only 6,5 k views? It deserves to be popular

Holy smokes, this really just put words to a sense of dread i was feeling regarding the old internet and how i haven't been able to adapt to social media like Bluesky and Instagram lol. Great video!

I loved this video SO SO SO much. It's crazy how the internet was just a place we could escape into. For many of us it was THE third place.
I recently checked out the wayback machine because I remembered the names of websites I used to make... and some of them had been captured!! Of course, full of broken links and without the original images, but the text was kept. It's insane to see what has remained, and to know that 20+ years ago things were so different.

19:28 - yes! Despite the web being more populated than it was, it somehow feels harder to form communities and make connections now. I think a lot of that is tied in with the monetization of it all and how the algorithms work, but it's also butting up against the natural human tendency to want to bring something to a community. And if you can't, feeling like you have no value and just shouldn't try. Great video! Also thank you for talking about web rings! I miss them so much.

this is such an amazing video! Thank you for sharing Cameron’s world, I showed it to my dad who used to go on geocities and he found it so cool!

using linux has brought back of the 'sense of discovery' for me lately. its fun to tinker and break things, collaborate with others. the net isn't new anymore, but it can still be really fun (:

I haven't seen the video yet, but I miss the 90s era of the Internet. There was no social media in that era. There was also more anonymity and more creativity in that era. There were more forums and more websites in general. Everything was less streamlined. Everything was bigger, more mysterious, more colourful, more customisable, more romantic, more soulful and more vibrant. It was a good era of the Internet, despite the slow dial-up speeds and the fact that I was able to enjoy only the last two years of it because I started using the internet for the first time in 1998 when I was 10 years old.

This video made me reflect and think about my time on the old internet and taught me more about the old days that I hadn't explored. I would love more videos like this or going deeper into this topic. great job Sarah! Can't wait to see your next video essay!
I am still haunted by the metaphor that current social media and the internet is like trying to consume a firehouse of water. 💕

I grew up in modern internet, but I've always had a sort of longing to experience the old internet. It seems so much more authentic.

In the past couple years I've started to get into small connected streaming communities, as well as VRchat. I think this video made me realize why they've both been so special to me - they hold on to a lot of the old feelings of community, customization, and place.
For streaming, if you can find communities that are more about the love of socializing than people trying to become money making content creators, it has that same energy as old web pages and web rings. It's "your" space - you can pretty it up however you want, design overlays and interactions that speak to your personality. You have to 'enter' and 'leave' inherently by opening the stream, and if you're like me, saying hello/goodbye as you come and go. The vibes are very much "welcome to this silly colorful room I created for us to hang out in". And when enough communities get connected, you can reliably hang out in other peoples streams and see familiar faces.
With VRchat, you literally have to load into worlds and choose to leave them, so again, very much a place where you have to come and go. While the barrier to entry can be higher, the personality shining through often comes from peoples avatars - whether its someone using a random avatar they found of an IP they enjoy, or someone who went all in on making a 3D version of themselves, sometimes with gaudy effects just for the fun of it. Also, the fact that it's literally "places" you visit with spacial movement and even proximity mics helps even more with that feeling of being able to disconnect and re-engage when you feel comfortable.
I just love how both of these things has made socializing online feel so much more tangible and personal to me, especially as someone who has never been able to really latch onto traditional forms of social media. They're not for everyone, and that's okay. Maybe they both even came with a bit of luck for me (ie, the fact that I've found such a large cozy community that indulges in both). Also, heck, maybe the fact that I'm a furry comes with its advantages when it comes to both of them, since its a subculture already rooted in pretty high levels of self expression. Either way, it felt like it was worth rambling about for a second here.

This video is cozy in the way the 90s internet was, perfect vibes ✨

this is such a wonderful and heartfelt video, i can't describe why but it really tugs at the heartstrings and fills you with nostalgia and longing. i also so so appreciate the inclusion and discussion of hypnospace outlaw, it is genuinely one of my favorite games of all time for all the reasons in this video. thank you for sharing this!!

thank you for reigniting my love for research and the internet!!! i just recently dropped my computer science course because i wasn't really aligned with the work going in.. however i have decided to continue my "study" of html, css, and javascript as an introverted filipina in the province :> i would definitely love for the "old internet" to come back and i hope i can create a community about it!

wonderful video essay, have tears from it, thank you sharing your thoughts on the topic. The old french internet was quite different from the distant memories i have of it, i was too young to fully remember it, it was mostly forums for specific topics, full with bright colors and anonymous users making jokes and talking about the weather.
To me your bit about virality is a reminder to be creative and post online without optimizing for virality: setup your own static github page and post blogs about passionate topics, record yourself playing music and post in on your soundcloud page for your friends.
It reminded me of the funny and interesting essay from Eddie Burback "I hate my phone so I got rid of it". I think the most important bit is to bring back intentionality. Watch movies from your watchlist, play video games from your backlog, read books from your reading list.

Loved this! I've been thinking a lot lately about how we might return to a cozier internet. Hosting your own website is teachable, but tied to your personal identity behind the scenes (good and bad), and might not be accessible to everyone. Making something like GeoCities that's accessible to everyone has a huge moderation burden. Decentralized directories, web rings and search engines would also have a moderation burden, but that's probably the way to go. Having 5 billion people in one room is always going to be a hard problem.

I have been trying to read every restorativland geocities page, it's a really fun way to pass the time

I do miss that internet, though I know exactly when that door vanished. I broke it. I spent years saving up birthday and Christmas money for a laptop. I begged for a cheap android even if it would never had service. And I am actively building a PKM system I plan to interface with every device I own.
I know when the door vanished. But where did all the stuff in the room go? Bookmarks that lead to nothing, searches that come up empty. I only moved more and more stuff into that room, earning my Neopets Hoarder icon, yet the room is empty.
I made the door vanish, but why did everything else vanish too?

looking forward to more content like this. Was disappointed there wasnt more of this type on the channel, but makes me curious to see where you're pivoting to :)

this is the perfect video for literally all of my friends... i sent it to them I HOPE THEY WATCH IT

i wish the geocities (there was another one too that hosted pages for free - i forget its name?) pages i made as a 14/15 year old in the late 90s were still online. it was just a bunch of art i made, possibly with a corny midi keyboard background music that played when you opened the page.
it's hard to explain how fun and anarchic - but also frustrating and slow (took all night to download a 3 minute mp3 with dialup) the internet was back then.
i think the internet has gotten progressively less fun in the last 20 years, so most of us have a bit of weird nostalgia for all the things that have been enshittified since each of us have been online - a pretty universal experience at this point, i think.

what a wonderful video. About a year ago the screen of my laptop broke and i had to connect it to an external monitor. Functionally, it became like those old computers of my childhood. If i wanted to use it i had to go to a room and use it. It couldn't be carried around. I haven't gotten around to getting the screen changed or a new device because I love the disconnect it forces on me. You phrased it so perfectly.

omg the dial up...i remember my dad screaming at me to not pick up the phone

Memories of sitting on the couch watching my mum play the Facebook murder mystery game, my mum introducing me to Star doll, playing all the papa Louie games..

It used to be a place.
Now it just is.

What a beautiful video, thank you for putting the time and effort into making it. It's been really encouraging to see how so many people feel this way and all the efforts being made, communities being formed around returning to some of these things. Unique, often amateur-feeling websites built just for fun or for niche passions. Individual community forums. Webrings are even making a comeback. Despite the majority of the Internet being samey corporate algorithm-friendly ... blah-ness ... there are so many small but passionate communities popping up to show that there's still life and passion and whimsy out there, and people utilizing complete freedom of expression. As dark as times are, there are a lot of rays of hope out there to be found yet.

BRO neopets was so goated

Great stuff Sarah. Im looking forward to the Hypnospace sequel.

what a lovely video! i really like myfigurecollection and neocities, defo gives old internet feels.

I was hoping for a neocities mention. People are still making retro intenet content and there's a whole community of cool websites. The old net is still alive and kicking!

I'm glad this video was recommended to me. Good stuff.

This looks incredibly interesting. I'm gonna save this video for when I can sit down and engage

i dont think i have laughed and cried in such a short time in a while.

needs wayyyyyy more views honestly

Amazing video! Super well done. I hope you feel the spark to do this kind of video again in the future

Sarah this was one of the absolute best videos on RUclips I have seen in a very long time. Thank you so much for making this video !! Hope you make more :) your research was so extensive and in depth !! I miss the old internet 😭

Took the words out of mouth, beautiful video, thank you!

I loved it, you’re a great storyteller! Thanks for reminding me that I can create stuff just because I love it, and for no other reason😊 I think I knew that, but deep down.. so it helps to be reminded 🙏🏼
It’s so wild to me to watch your videos, and then I’ll look at the view count… shocking.
I only started following you a few months ago - and I have to say, I feel like I made it here just in time to enjoy this quite little corner for a moment.. because I feel like it has to be just a matter of time before the internet starts waking up and someone realizes, “hey, we’ve got a 10 out of 10 creator over here, getting 86 views…” & everything takes off ✈️
Your last few videos btw - 10 out of 10!All of them are a 10 out of 10 from me!! I am so excited for your next video essay - I can’t wait to hear what your topic will be, and what your thoughts are, and just see what you create next!
Haven’t joined your Patreon yet, but I think I just convinced myself it’s a must… 😂 anyway, thank you! You did such a great job!!
Forget google analytics, THIS is the ONLY stat you need - 10/10. 10/10. 10/10. 😉
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

I have to personally thank you for making this masterpiece of a creation. These years of my life are cherished experiences that found ways to engrain themselves into my mind in uniquely wonderful ways.
Does anybody else remember how popular "Informative/Educational Entertainment CD-ROM Software" used to be? Growing up these programs fascinated me. I'd LOVE to see these niche creations make a comeback where citizen scientists & legitimate scientists collaborate. Scientists could scan in all sorts of stuff into a database library. They could include the option upload & interact with 3D scanning device images. Then a team of computer software people & artists could work as a team to create an interactive visually interesting & informative database project. Full of art, computer designed renderings & the 3D scanned specimens into a unique creative collection. Creating interactive programs like those ones from the 90's were such awesome things to have around especially when I was growing up. Something like that could be really cool for the kids growing up nowadays. I could see this stuff impacting tons of elementary schools. Maybe even universities could help with working on these things as projects.. 🧑🏻‍💻🌐🧑🏻‍💻
I loved this video 💪🏻👍🏻

I loved seeing the story unfold in Hypnospace Outlaw. Great video about the old internet. I never got to experience it, but it seemed fun.

i loved hypnospace outlaw alot when i first played it but didnt realize just how much of it was tied to the geocities culture of back then!! with every new video on the topic of just how much technology changed our lives in recent years i get closer to switching to an old flip phone i bought a while ago but never got to properly use... maybe today's the day! amazing video

gotta love yahoo repeatedly destroying our remaining semblances of genuine connection online

I miss this so much. What a time. 😢

despite sounding boomerish, I do really miss the old internet and think it was better in some ways.
I love Hypnospace Outlaw, It's one of my favorite games.
really well done video essay, instant subscribe, I hope to see many more!

This was an engaging analysis. Thank you for making me feel nostalgic. I miss the old internet.

"make things with no point. personal and unpolished projects...". YES!

beautiful beautiful video. made me tear up several times. i love human connection and communities and weve got to fight for them

Honestly, I think by 2050, the Internet will be a thing of the past and our lives will more closely resemble the '80s in terms of access to information networks than what we have now.

This is the most beautiful video I've watched in such a long time. Thank you ❤️

this video is so good i remember what love is

Love this Video. I love the Idea that the internet is very much dead now, for the last 10 years at least.
I remember back in the late 90's being a queer (lonely & dyslexic) teen, going onto Gaydar website chat and discovering all different communities from just talking to people from around the world. Of course, it was dangerous too, I was 16/17, sometimes meeting people in the real world, usually older men, I was an idiot back then.
Now, its the forever scroll on Reddit for me on my phone. I have tried the dumbphone thing, and I loved it, but I was kinda lost without bus times app, internet banking, whatsapp (which everyone in Europe uses) etc.
I really REALLY want to go back to the 90's early 2000's, before Bebo and Facebook took over. Its a bit depressing.
But Keep up the great work @sarahdavisbaker ! And maybe in one of these future deep-dive vids, show your cats :)

I loved this! Subbed immediately!

Excellent, amazing, incredible video. So friggin good. Amazingly researched, well articulated, great pacing, and a surprisingly optimistic note to end on given the depressing subject matter. Thank you so much for uploading, as it’s a bit validating and a lot motivating to keep doing what I’m doing. I think I’m gonna like this channel. Instant subscribe.✌️

Beautiful video and vibe

I still pretty much only use the Internet on desktop or laptop PCs at home. I recently got a hand-me-down iPhone SE but I have no intention of paying for mobile data and I'll only use public WiFi when absolutely necessary.

Even as someone born in the same decade as the iphone, my memories of browsing the internet, sailing the digital waves, felt magical. And you somehow captured that exact feeling. I remeber coming back home from scool, digging up dusty webpages, fidgeting with old webgames and MUDs, the occasional chat with oldheads still holding on to these relics - It really felt like I was exploring new worlds; Each website so painfully personal. The internet of the mid 2010s, I'd like to think, still had much more of these nooks and cranies. Although I never experienced the internet as you describe, your video brought back memories of so many days sitting at the family computer wasting my time on stupid little websites. Thanks.

I used to pay for the internet for the family back in the dialup days.
I had a great story to go with that, but my comment was deleted and I don't feel like re-typing all that.

Blogger in the early 2010s for me was my first internet experience. It’s still around, surprisingly

Loved it!

Thank you for this ❤

I heard that neocities is pretty cool for those who wants to try and make their own little websites for those who'd like :) (I plan to make a small activity giver on it for when I'm bored so that I can use it to avoid the doomscroll lol)

How does this have so little views?? This is life changing

Ah the memories

Your hair and style are gorgeous, top content too

this was lovely.

I really hope this video essay thing works. I liked this video very much.

i'm not crying, you're crying..

2000s internet was it's peak, easy access due to broadband but not something you zombied on all day.

Great job, thank you.

Today I learned: if you scroll down on youtube, like on this video - you will get a large white wall with a column of videos on your right, forever and ever and ever.

Great video! I really appreciate you mentioning that nostalgic website doll palace from the early internet days-it brought back so many memories.​ I forgot all about it. Saw the snapshot and gasped. Been looking for ages for the name.
It's true that the early internet was a more creative space, with many users building their own websites and learning HTML. Nowadays, with the rise of templates and AI-generated sites, some of that hands-on creativity seems to have diminished.​
Your point about the design elements like doors, buttons, and changing backgrounds helping to signify new locations online really resonated with me.​
By the way, there's a minimalist search engine that captures that old-school internet feel. It's ad-free and even has a feature that takes you to random websites, reminiscent of the early web exploration experience.​ W i b y
Thanks again for the insightful video!

I keep getting videos about reasons to make a personal website..... I'm very intrigued but I'm a grad student and I work full time so I don't have tiiiiiime 😭

I just want to say Bluesky isn't meaningfully decentralized. It's perhaps theoretically decentralizable, but so far, the service is controlled by one entity.

The dark web still kinda works like the old internet

yay ty for making this

The internet "being a place" is the biggest reason I tend to split Gen Z into two halves. Yes, we both grew up with the internet, but the first half will at least have some memory of a time before smartphones and unlimited high speed mobile data became the norm. The later half of Gen Z really has no memory of that and were arguably some of the first "iPad kids."
Since you also mentioned the anonymity of the old internet, that's another I hate about the modern internet. Facebook in particular changed everything. Suddenly, it was expected you tied your real identity to your account otherwise you were discounted as a bot, a troll, or an alt account. I hate that last one so much because it's something no one would've cared about much in the old internet unless you were spamming or doing something malicious.
Granted, botting and AI is definitely a much bigger problem now more than ever, but I HATE how modern netizens on most social media platforms basically scoff at anyone who doesn't use their legal name, a picture of their face, and a bio that damn near doxxes themselves. Plus, that accomplishes nothing. The website "this person does not exist" has been around since 2021. A photo of a face literally proves nothing and it's too easy to make a fake name and bio.

I still use AIM pretty regularly and at 1:16 I actually thought someone had come online on AIM :(

can we go back. at least during that time there is no gen Z ,brain rot ,weird ideology,i'd accept the slow internet.. i think today is a lot more problematic too many politics and job loss

:O I’ve never heard of “web rings”

i want to go back home!!!

Anyone wanna make a webring or know of any modern webrings to check out? Just started working on a personal website a few weeks back

My friend’s family computer was downstairs 😊

Why are you styled like Our Childhoods ?