Internet world: The Toxic 'Now' and The Will be Missed 'Then'

One day I came across a meme picture that described the differences between the internet now and then. So, I decided to draw the picture in my own version.

As someone who live in the era before and after the internet become a common thing in life, I truly know and experience the differences in real time. I spent my early childhood in the 80s, teen life in 90s, young adult in 2000s and adult in current 2020s. To put it simply, I'm included in the era between generation x and millennial or known as gen xennial. I've been through the era where the technology shifted faster than ever and things did not last as it used to be for a long time.

Before the 2000s era, everything has been manually done for life and computer still in its early development and so did the internet. Every day was filled with Daily mail, postcards, magazine, newspaper, television, home phone, fax, radio, limited and slower information about everything etc. However, things were changed after that era when the internet slowly easier to be reached and used as tool.  I remember back then, I was so fascinated with internet and felt that I found a whole new world as an introvert to communicate with people from other side of the world, let alone they were strangers to begin with. Back then, there were no such thing of faking IDs and scam or spam as a bunch of it now, or at least it was not something so common as today. I even befriended with some people from different countries and chat so often as if we live nextdoor. That time I thought I finally found a place for me to runaway from the hectic daily life, social pressure and boredom and it worked. However, as time goes by, everything has escalated quickly, the changes is unstoppable and internet is now no longer a place I know as it used to be.

Nowadays, in the span of not only 15years but more than 2 decades, internet has turned into a scary and toxic place to be if we don't use it wisely. Yes, the technology is much more advance and all the things that seemed to be impossible, now is truly possible and information is faster by the minutes or even seconds.  We can share everything but the scary part is, we can lose everything and affect or damage our lives seriously. The doxing, scam, phishing, fraud, crime and all other bad things that could possibly happen is in our very own hand through mobile phone to see. So much so, to avoid it, many people suggested to go back to real life, nature and limit the access to it. Life is shifted into online, socialize online, work online, even everything has to be online. It would be extremely exhausting and troublesome if we don't follow it for the sake to stay relevant but it can't be helped anyway. Well, do we even have other choice to make? none. And now AI finally made it worst. I wonder if there will be new founded thing to counter this to be better next time, again who knows.