Post #4041001

2026-07-23 00:40 UTC

I’ve mentioned it before, but for example, less than a third of the population of Madagascar has internet access in 2026, and the vast majority of those users only have access to Meta’s social networks. I do not think “retvrn to those blessed years when only 0.01% of the population had internet access” sounds quite attractive as a solution to me.

Replies (3)

@erkhyan@yiff.life 2026-07-23 04:11

“I remember when…” Well, I remember when it was 2004 and I had to travel downtown just to buy my weekly one hour of internet connection. I remember when it was 2005 and the only way I was able to get better internet access was because I was lucky to get hired by a well-connected French tech bro. I remember when I could finally afford my own internet connection in 2011, and it was only because I lived with my parents, did not have to pay rents, and thus could afford to pay for a luxury that ate up over a third of my paycheck. I remember those times, and oooh damn have I not forgotten how hard and uncomfortable it felt to try and find one’s space in those “better, smaller websites” when the vast majority of the user base was AmericEuropean and you were not.

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@southpaw1312@yiff.life 2026-07-23 00:49

@erkhyan@yiff.life from my own experience i gotta say absolutely not that. there's alot i dont miss about the internet in the 2000s but lack of global access was absolutely not a plus. what was an enormous plus, however, was that corporate conglomeration wasnt nearly as far along, and there was vastly less complex data harvesting and no cryptocurrency or AI. these are the reasons that alot of people i know miss the old internet for to be clear smartphones also play an enormous role in what the internet negatively became, they've especially been a catalyst for tracking and "personalized advertising" (actually just data harvesting) because having devices with always-on GPS and always-on microphones, even tracking when the phone is completely off, is a godsend for the nastiest possible actors

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@santiago@mastodon.uy 2026-07-23 03:55

@erkhyan@yiff.life Hi, i think the spirit is to return to that early internet when there was genuine human interaction, not fewer people. I consider myself one of those, and maybe the number of people back then was a determining factor on the health of the overall network. You can elaborate a similar argument with some other technology instead the internet. Cheers

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