>+ wirefaux? Who's this?
A reader of this article, who posted it around several "nostalgia" hivemind circles, only to be met with immense backlash and several bans from many tech circles as a result. They requested that they add more onto this article before Cyberix went back online for the public.
You can view the original article here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20250825125337/https://cy-x.net/articles?id=13
Digital Cargo Cult: How Zoomers Ruined Old Internet Nostalgia
The Aesthetic Obsession
Walk into any zoomer's idea of "old internet nostalgia" and you'll be assaulted by virtual glitter, neon colors, and websites that look like a Lisa Frank folder exploded. They've discovered terms like "Fruitiger Aero" and "Y2K aesthetic" - keywords that literally didn't exist before 2018 - and decided this constitutes understanding internet history.
>Surely by listening to my frootiger ayyrohh playlists on Google's YouTube platform while browsing r/oldyoutubelayouts and r/nostalgia, it will all magically get better!
But here's the problem: they've confused the wrapping paper for the gift.
The old internet wasn't good because of how it looked. It was good because of how it worked. And on that fundamental level, modern "old internet" enthusiasts have learned absolutely nothing.
>Because 2016 YouTube was clearly the best the "Old Internet" had to offer, right?
The Discord Delusion
>Making Windows 10 skinwalk an older version of Windows? Having an entire website, but forcing people to join your Discord server instead of having an IRC channel or a forum?
I recently witnessed this cognitive dissonance firsthand while observing a group of students panic because their school was monitoring their Discord server and Reddit community for cheating. They were genuinely afraid of administrative oversight on these corporate platforms.
So I offered them a solution: move to XMPP and self-hosted alternatives. Actual privacy. Actual decentralization. The real tools that made the old internet independent and free.
The response? I was muted for an entire day, but then banned shortly after. Two users were "bawling their eyes out at the keyboard" claiming it was a scam and something malicious.
>THE OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE IS MALICIOUS! DO NOT CLICK ON IT! AHHHHHHHHHH DO NOT CLICK ON THE WIKIPEDIA LINK IT WILL HACK YOU
Think about that. They want the aesthetic of old internet freedom while rejecting the actual tools that provide it. They'll paste ASCII art and use retro fonts while remaining completely dependent on the same corporate surveillance apparatus they claim to want to escape.
The writing was on the wall. Corporate platforms always follow the same trajectory: attract users with freedom, then monetize by restricting it. The zoomers who got attached to early Discord never learned this lesson, so they're still trying to recreate that feeling within the same broken system. Many "old internet" revival projects attach themselves not to a forum or an IRC channel, but rather a Discord server.
The Cargo Cult Mentality
This is classic cargo cult behavior. In World War II, Pacific islanders observed planes bringing supplies and tried to recreate the appearance of airstrips to make more planes come. They built fake control towers and wooden aircraft, missing the underlying systems that actually made air transport work.
>Maybe listening to hours upon hours of music that happens to be labeled 'fruitiger aero' will help me truly feel immersed in the "old internet"!
Zoomers are doing the same thing with internet culture. They see the surface aesthetics of old websites - the bright colors, the GIF animations, the "quirky" layouts - and think recreating these visual elements will somehow recapture what made that era special.
Meanwhile, they're completely ignoring the underlying principles:
- Decentralization: The old internet was made of countless independent sites, not a handful of corporate platforms
- Technical competence: Users actually understood their tools instead of being passive consumers
- Privacy by default: You controlled your data because you hosted it yourself
- Resistance to corporate control: The whole point was avoiding centralized authority
The Manufactured Golden Age
>The Windows 7 logo looked like this and was also gay-themed in 2009. Don't question it! I need to stay immersed!
The most insidious aspect is that these "nostalgic" zoomers are being nostalgic for something they never experienced. When confronted with this reality, they become defensive and dismissive.
In a recent Discord exchange, when I pointed out that someone born in 2007 couldn't meaningfully remember pre-Web 2.0 internet culture, the response was predictable: "people in the 2000s didn't care either... they just lived their lives... they visited websites to learn or connect with people, much as we do today."
This reveals the fundamental misunderstanding. They think centralization happened because people preferred it, not because they were gradually manipulated into accepting it. They assume that because YouTube dominated video sharing and Google dominated search by the end of the 2000s, this was always the natural state.
They miss the entire trajectory: the corporate platforms won by offering convenience while slowly removing alternatives. People didn't choose centralization - they were boiled like frogs.
The Centralized Decentralist
This person intellectually grasps that centralization killed the golden era, but their actual behavior shows they're still thinking within the corporate ecosystem framework. Instead of building their own photo sharing solution or joining existing decentralized alternatives, they're asking for "an app like Instagram" - meaning they want someone else to build them a centralized platform that feels like the old centralized platform.
The macOS tweet is the cherry on top - they're worried about animation smoothness on premium Apple hardware while supposedly advocating for returning to simpler, independent web solutions.
They wish for the golden era, but are still latched onto the very things and concepts that took it away.
This pattern repeats everywhere: using Discord to organize "decentralization" projects, creating "old web revival" sites that require joining their Discord server instead of having forums, posting retro aesthetic moodboards from $1,200 surveillance devices while claiming to appreciate "simpler times."
They're trust fund babies or financially irresponsible people cosplaying as minimalists, with no understanding of how to navigate modern society, let alone recreate historical internet culture.
Missing the Source Code
These zoomers don't realize that half their memes and cultural references came downstream from places like 4chan and similar communities, while platforms like YouTube and Reddit simply took and sanitized them. They use the language and references while completely missing the underlying ethos that created them.
Zoomers have inherited the outputs without understanding the inputs. They use the language and references while completely missing the underlying ethos that created them.
The old internet communities they're trying to emulate were built by people who:
- Ran their own servers
- Wrote their own code
- Understood networking protocols
- Valued anonymity and pseudonymity
- Rejected corporate gatekeeping
Modern "old internet" enthusiasts do none of these things. They want the aesthetic rebellion without any actual rebellion.
The Defensive Response Pattern
When confronted with actual alternative ideas and beliefs, the response is always the same dismissive pattern:
Stage 1: "Why do you talk like that?" (attacking communication style instead of addressing substance)
Stage 2: "Go outside and tell someone on the street" (appeal to normalcy fallacy)
Stage 3: "You have a superiority complex" (projection and ad hominem)
Stage 4: Mob harassment and eventual banning
Notice the pattern: no engagement with the technical alternatives offered, just personal attacks and deflection. They're defending their corporate platforms the same way addicts defend their dealers.
Nostalgia for the Unexperienced
When you point out that someone born in 2007 has usernames like "Xx_M4xH4xx0r1337_xX" and describes themselves as "a nomad of the interwebz," the response is predictable: "And what does my age even say in this case? Will it invalidate my argument?"
Yes, actually, it does. You cannot be nostalgic for something you never experienced. Your "interwebz" persona and leetspeak username aren't authentic old internet culture - they're Halloween costumes based on pop culture representations.
The irony is that they frequent modern 4chan (a hollow shell of its former self) while claiming to understand internet history. Modern 4chan is just pornposting and political bait - the actual culture and original content creators left over a decade ago.
The Design Language Trap
When pressed, they fall back to: "the entire point for those people IS the design language... they were never interested in anything else."
This misses the point entirely. Design languages emerge from underlying technical and cultural constraints. Skeuomorphic design existed because early computer users needed familiar metaphors. Web 1.0 aesthetics emerged from bandwidth limitations and HTML constraints.
Recreating the visual style without understanding the context is like wearing a spacesuit to the grocery store - you've got the appearance but none of the function.
The Convenience Fallacy
They claim centralization won because it was more convenient, ignoring that this "convenience" came with invisible costs that only became apparent after lock-in occurred. Early YouTube, Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter were free and open precisely to eliminate competition. The restrictions came later, once alternatives had been killed.
People in the 2000s didn't choose surveillance capitalism - they were gradually acclimated to it through a series of small compromises, each individually reasonable but collectively devastating.
Aestheticizing the Corporate Shell
>taking medysine gives me nostalgia! i feel so nostalgic rite now for chugging tasty pink medysine as a child! give me medysine now, mammy! my froootiger ayyrooooh nostalgiacore setup demands it or i won't feel immersed!
The cruelest irony is that the aesthetics they're obsessing over weren't even representative of the actual 2000s internet. The "Y2K" look they worship was mostly corporate branding and early social media platforms. The real independent web looked nothing like their glittery recreations.
They're being nostalgic for a commercial interpretation of an era they never experienced, while ignoring the actual principles that made that era valuable.
The Real Alternative Still Exists
The tools to recreate the actual old internet still exist and work perfectly:
- XMPP has been around since 1999 and runs on every platform
- IRC still provides real-time chat without corporate oversight
- Self-hosting is easier than ever with modern tools
- RSS still delivers content without algorithmic manipulation
But suggesting these solutions gets you labeled as suspicious, difficult, or having a "superiority complex." Why? Because actual independence requires effort and technical understanding. It's easier to slap some glitter GIFs on a Carrd page and call it "old web revival."
The Consequence
This matters because it represents a complete failure to learn from history. The old internet offered genuine alternatives to corporate control, surveillance, and centralization. Instead of learning those lessons, a generation has reduced it to aesthetic trends they can consume and discard.
They've turned internet history into fast fashion - something to be worn briefly, photographed for social media, then thrown away when the next trend arrives.
What We Actually Lost
The old internet wasn't about how websites looked. It was about:
- Independence: You could build something without asking permission
- Durability: Sites lasted because people cared enough to maintain them
- Community: Shared interests mattered more than demographic targeting
- Learning: Users became more technically competent by participating
- Privacy: Your data was yours because you controlled the servers
- Resistance: The infrastructure itself was designed to route around corporate control
None of these require retro fonts or neon colors. All of them require understanding systems instead of just consuming aesthetics.
Breaking the Cycle
Want to honor the old internet? Stop making glittery websites that link to your Discord server. Start learning XMPP. Stop posting on Reddit about decentralization and actually host your own services. Stop buying new devices every year and use your current hardware until it breaks.
The tools exist. The protocols work. The knowledge is freely available. The only thing missing is the will to actually use them instead of just aestheticizing them.
Conclusion
The old internet is dead, and zoomers killed it by turning it into a fashion trend. They've created a cargo cult that worships the appearance while rejecting the substance, demanding the aesthetic of rebellion while embracing the corporate systems that killed what they claim to love.
But the principles that made it great are still available to anyone willing to put in the work. The question is: do you want to build something real, or just play dress-up with its corpse?
The choice is yours - but choose quickly, because the window for genuine alternatives is closing as fast as the corporate noose is tightening.
TLDR: Real internet culture was never about the aesthetics. It was about the independence. Learn the difference, or stay trapped in the digital plantation while wearing vintage chains.