Yello's Personal Thoughts
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October 24, 2025 - The Internet kills nuance
I miss when I just used the Internet sparingly to look up information instead of dealing with annoying people. When I was a growing up, I was a good little kid and never went on online messaging or forum websites (unless if you count Club Penguin). So I was never exposed to the dangers of online trolls and predators. All I did on the Internet was go on the fun kid websites and look up wiki articles. Back then, going online was truly for personal entertainment and resources. I never even considered taking in other people's opinions. And then came YouTube.
I wasn't there for the birth of YouTube in 2005, but I knew of the website when my sister would show me funny popular videos like "Charlie bit my finger". But when I discovered Nintendo Let's Play's around 2010, I got officially sucked into the YouTube culture and in turn, user-generated content. I fell deep into the YouTube rabbit hole for the next few years; watching funny skits, developing parasocial relationships with creators, constantly refreshing for new videos, the works.
As soon as I got my own email and made accounts across various websites and social platforms, that's when I entered the vortex of online culture. For a while, YouTube was my entire portal into what was happening with famous content creators and sometimes the real world. I learned very quickly how easy it was to take in other people's opinions and views as my own. Usually the more dramatic the content, the more enticing it was.
When I reluctantly got my own Facebook and Twitter account to dip into social media, that's when I started noticing the cracks. I saw a lot more people complaining and disparaging others very passionately. And I was so confused because I thought cyberbullying was bad. But for some reason, I was still watching the circus. I never liked using Twitter, but those were the most intense doomscrolling sessions I ever partook in. I never felt good after closing that app.
But I truly think that COVID just exacerbated these issues because even more people were online, which meant more incentives to be as loud and controversial as possible. I've noticed that it drives away even the most well-intentioned people on the Internet. People seem to be less successful now because they post less. Some even go off the grid completely because discourse is almost always guaranteed. If I became viral for the wrong reasons, I would also likely lose my mind from all the unwanted attention, harassment, and speculation.
Even hobbies that I enjoy, mainly video games, get ruined by constant online scrutiny. And it's usually not to improve the industry, but to reinforce this apathetic yet vitriolic doom and gloom so no one can be happy. I do not like the direction the Internet is going. It's making people less social, less creative, less...open. I've heard the sentiment that the online world is maybe TOO vast and we should go back to tight-knit communities. But in my opinion, that doesn't exactly fix prejudice and fear.
If we want the world to be more empathetic and accepting of everyone. I don't want the speculators and rage-baiters front and center, I want knowledge to lead the way. I don't want everything to be a "can we finally admit that this thing/person is bad?" I just want the Internet to be a proper resource again. Just like how I discovered it in the early 2000's. I've learned so much from browsing websites and watching videos. I don't need to know what everyone is thinking. Or...maybe we should stop waiting for the next person to crumble.