I dunno if this is just nostalgia poisoning or what, but like... remember when internet friends were actually friends?

There wasn’t this weird filter of "parasocial relationships" or "content creators" vs "audience". It was just some person with a screen name talking about stuff they liked, maybe on IRC or in a forum or on a webring-linked page. And then you talked back. And maybe you added each other on AIM or ICQ. Simple as that.

Now it’s like everyone’s got a brand. Everything's so fake, so polished. Even the stuff that pretends to be raw is probably scripted. No one's really being themselves. It's exhausting.

Anyway, shoutout to the old net when people could just be weird and honest and not worry about farming likes.