In the past, it was a treat to be on the Internet. It felt like you went somewhere each time you sat down, dialed-up, and connected. It did suck in many ways; it was, I imagine, like diving in those ancient, bulky metallic suits. Heavy, slow, abysmal view. And yet, at the bottom, looking through that crappy tiny window, you could feel excitement and wonder. Where will I go now? What will I do? Who will I e-mail?
This (and the next passage I quoted) best summarize my own feelings about the internet. In the early days, it was fun to see what was on it and wander aimlessly online down the various rabbit holes. You could be browsing a classmates personal web site one moment and minutes later end up on some random autist's web site praising electric can openers and wonder where you might end up next.
Web browsing was definitely clunky on dial up - especially in the days when 330 - 2400 baud were the norm, but it couldn't kill the curiosity that came with discovering something new any time you were able to connect.
Nowadays the wonder and excitement are long gone. All you can feel is disgust, and your guard must be up.
For me, the novelty is gone and I now find myself surprised and disappointed when information that should be online isn't. As an example, it's frustrating to go to an active organization's web page or social media account and see outdated information when you know the organization is currently active and holding events.
In the mean time, too many spammers, scammers, and grifters now use the internet to find suckers to victimize. Worse, porn and malware always seem to be one typo or expired domain name away.
I got a notification at midnight that someone was trying to access my Facebook account, which I haven't touched in about half a decade. I was able to log onto it, but it's using an old e-mail of mine, and it's resisting every attempt to change it to a new one.
I recently ordered something online and I wanted to update the email address to one I use more frequently now. I can change almost anything in my profile
except my email address. So, my only options are to either contact support to see if they can change it on their end, or abandon the account and its order history to create a new account.
Thread tax: Health providers that insist on posting everything online and requiring everyone to set up an online portal account to view the information or pay their bills. This is in spite of something I recently read that claimed the majority of people don't want to create accounts on such portals because of privacy and security concerns with many others only logging in once and never again.
