The early internet’s amateur, spontaneous creativity (Numa Numa, Newgrounds, early YouTube) has been replaced by algorithmic, commercialized content production.
Key Takeaways
Gary Brolsma’s Numa Numa video exemplified pre-platform internet: no monetization motive, no algorithmic optimization, pure spontaneous expression.
The shift is not about fewer memes or videos but the disappearance of idiosyncratic, non-commercial origin – the “MrBeastification” of everything.
AI slop did not cause the decay; it inherited an internet already trained to produce machine-like content by years of platform incentives.
The author marks the mid-2010s as the end of the era when each new platform felt like a genuine improvement over the last.
Hacker News Comment Review
Commenters split on nostalgia vs. structural change: some argue every generation mourns its teen-era internet, but others counter the commercialization trend is measurable and directional, not just generational bias.
Several push back that the fun internet still exists, just buried – niche forums, homebrew communities, and personal projects survive outside algorithmic feeds.
A recurring thread links the cultural shift to post-9/11 scarcity anxiety and economic precarity replacing the 90s surplus mindset that enabled whimsy and creative risk-taking.
Notable Comments
@kilroy123: runs randomdailyurls.com as evidence the weird web survives, just buried under volume.
@boh: argues the critique targets chosen platforms, not the internet itself – niche alternatives exist and behave like the old web.
