Online monoculture died when the normies finally got online and brought real life cliques to the internet.
this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2025
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When was this?
Asking as someone who’s been on the Internet since 1989.
IMHO, old internet started to slowly die with the introduction of MySpace, Digg, and even 4chan, I call the period of 2006 to 2010 the slow decline era, then 2010 to 2016 the rapid decline era. 2016 to 2022 is the "classic centralized internet era", and now we have the era of the "new centralized internet", characterized by the peddling of far-right ideologies of these centralized platforms, alongside with the potential rebirth of the old, decentralized internet.
Yeah I have often said that the internet died when conservatives figured out how to use it. And not like the old school "libertarian" nerd conservatives, but like mainstream Republican cultists.
15-20 years or so ago. Whenever smartphones became the dominant communications tool, and pretty much everyone had access to the internet from their pocket square.
Been online since '93 myself at pretty much the dawn of the World Wide Web.
I remember cliques and a lack of online monoculture on Usenet and IRC before the World Wide Web even existed; the web exploded things even further, as did the privatization of DNS and takeover of funding by VCs and ad conglomerates. All that had happened by 1998.
Even then there were things that were more or less known in all corners of the Internet. You could mention things like SCP, 'Charlie bit my finger', or My Immortal on any forum and people there would recognize it.
Now it's all fragmented. Someone can mention something that's a massive phenomenon in one part of the platform and no one else on the same platform would recognise it. For example, I only recently heard about backrooms and apparently it has been a thing for half a decade. That's a long time in internet years.
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I've been using YouTube as my primary source of entertainment since 2009. I don't think I've looked at the trending page even once.
Has the internet ever been a 'monoculture'?
The trending page of YT is like the r/all of Reddit. If I want to see some stuff I couldn't care less about, that's where I'll find it. I have no idea who actually uses that, but I've never found anything of value there.
At least Reddit's front page features some news sometimes while YT front page caters to 3-6 yr olds who are YT's main demographic. It's all AI junk clickbait brainrot and shorts content.
I could never click on any YT's front page links. It's not appealing to me not even in my drunkiest state
The crazy part, IMO, is that there is no way to filter that crap, at all. I'd love a good "front-page" but no.
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keep showing viewers the videos that we think they’ll love
We'll keep profiling you and target you with videos that drive engagement, so largely things that inspire rage or conflict between you and others. Extra points if we drive your political and social views further to the right.
I've noticed that with Facebook. Facebook will push conflict to my feed excessively hard, to the point that spending not even 30 seconds there will start making me angry. I refuse to use Facebook at all anymore.
Its nuts to me that we figured out their strategy like 10 years ago and people just chose to ignore that information and kept using all these platforms anyway.
My father was addicted to the “righteous” rage. Though he was mostly just addicted to being angry. Hated commercials but intentionally watched live tv to curse at the “motherfuckers stealing my time.” I’d say “rest in peace” but I think that might be antithetical to his wishes.
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I followed the link of a video here on Lemmy just a few minutes ago and it opened in the browser.
Nothing shocking up to this point.
Then I get a prompt from the video saying "Ready to buy products advertised in the video? Log into the official app in order to."
Direct purchase through the YT app is a novelty for me.
Newpipe all the way.
I recommend Tubular. Newpipe with Sponsorblock. Didn't realise how much of a game changer that would be until I tried it.
Just need to find a way to stop Eternity from opening Youtube links in the browser. Sure you can share it with the app but it would be a lot more convenient.
If you want all youtube links you click on on your phone to open in tubular you can go to your phones settings>apps>tubular>set as default and make open supported links on and under the supported web addresses you can select all the web addresses you want to be opened in tubular.
Nice! Thank you, works perfectly.
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On Apple: safari + AdGuard
Or: Orion browser
Safari + AdGuard used to work on my iPad, but it has recently been blocked with a disable Ad-block message. Orion works for me when I disable all build-in content blocking and using the Firefox version of Ublock Origin.
I think the build-in blocker is too basic and gets detected by YouTube, while ublock works (everywhere I've tested it, desktop, android, iPad)
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Probably true from about 10 years ago.
People use the youtube app?
Yeah people use all sorts of stuff that you don't. Wild, isn't it?
I use new pipe if I heed. It's like a window into a crazy house. You can see what's going on, but you can't have a say.
I wish NewPipe or Freetube had their own comment community.
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I got rid of YT and replaced it with PeerTube and Nebula. Am I a bit less entertained? Sure. Am I a lot less angry? Yup.
I’m also learning a lot more because I was forced to find new content and new creators which was actually really fun.
Nebula has certainly improved but I still think they need to put more effort into getting new creators that aren't political or news. I just did a skim through their uploads lists for various topics and news and/or political (or political ish) content is still the most active. Topics like technology and gaming see far less uploads.
It's a side effect of the "no algorithm" philosophy. Without anything to suggest what you might like generating high amounts of new content let's you dominate the feed. News is easy to generate on a daily basis.
The thoughtful channel that puts out a video once every two weeks gets on the feed once every two weeks. Then low effort garbage like man carrying things gets on the feed every day.
They need to at least let users block channels from their feed.
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They've removed down notes, date posted in placeholders, and the ability to properly alter monetization the way you want to...seems like a competitive product could pop in at any time. Sadly, the only competition would have to come from another equally shitty company with a massive infrastructure footprint.
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