Post #1802487

2026-03-15 13:51 UTC

I have to admit, I hadn’t realized it had got this bad. How did this get normalized? I browse with most scripts disabled, and have since JS was first introduced to the browser. What I’ve observed is that some pages contain NO actual content, or just the first paragraph, when I load them. I read what’s provided and move on. If the site is hostile to me reading their content they worked so hard to get in front of me, I’m not going to do any extra work to find out what it is.

Replies (4)

@vinnymac@lemmy.world 2026-03-15 16:14

Ironically somehow AI is making disabling JS better nowadays, because text/markdown is becoming normalized, so receiving a pure text version of a page is a thing again.

Open ##1802537
@jtrek@startrek.website 2026-03-15 17:27

> How did this get normalized? The average user doesn't know or understand technical details, and don't believe they have any power to change anything Also capitalism means a small number of assholes make most of the decisions for reasons that benefit them

Open ##1802538
@Quazatron@lemmy.world 2026-03-15 21:08

Just like the bad old days, when entire sites were made in Flash and Linux users were shafted. Ridiculous.

Open ##1802539
@AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net 2026-03-17 01:46

It makes me glad for having been born when I was. I am a younger Millennial, so I wasn't online for the early internet, but I am old enough that when I read this blog post, it reminds me that I have seen firsthand that it wasn't always this bad — even if, like you, I was surprised to realise how bad things have gotten. I feel like a frog boiling in water that started cool, but gradually became hotter^[1] I feel sorry for Zoomers and younger, who have grown up only knowing the walked gardens of big tech. It invokes an odd sense of ethical duty in me; many of them believe they hate tech in all its forms, because all they know is the toxic cycle of dark patterns and a culture that expects them to be always contactable, making it hard to disengage. However, there's an entire world that they don't know that beyond the walled garden. I wish I could show them what I have seen, but you can't easily convey the magic of a memory — after all, the internet that shaped me no longer exists. So I guess the challenge ahead of me is trying to figure out how I can work with them to co-create a vision of a better internet. We can't put all the enshittification and spambots back in Pandora's box, but maybe we can build something new if people like us can use our memories to distribute hope to where it's needed.

Open ##1802552