One of the saddest things about the modern web is how hard they try to tie everything to your real identity. Gotta verify your phone number. Link your bank. Upload a photo ID. Use your real name or get flagged for being a "bot".

Like sorry, maybe I don't want a personalized experience with curated ads based on my conversations from last week.

Anonymity was the soul of the old net. You could be anyone. You could reinvent yourself completely. And that wasn't seen as suspicious. It was normal. Encouraged, even.

Now the default assumption is guilt. You're treated like a criminal unless you comply with whatever surveillance setup they’re pushing today.

I miss being a faceless individual on a message board posting dumb memes and not getting a warning that I'm violating community guidelines.

I don't fully agree. Many people who frequent Reddit are anonymous.

In fact, if you look on popular subs such as r/askreddit or r/aita, the default identity is anonymity.

@VisualPlugin I agree to some extent, but even if you're anonymous to the public, you're definitely not anonymous to the three billion companies trying to profit off of your data.











The system we have now became basically inevitable after cross-site tracking became a thing. There's no way to escape it now other than to leave society and find a nice place to shit in the woods.











You win some, you lose some