My time on the internet has been brief, but it has noticeably... shrunk (?) collapsed (?) into a handful of social media sites that seem to be trying their best to copy each other: same multimedia contents, same algorithm-driven, infinite-scroll feeds, same pressures to the user to give their private info or post about personal life. Text-based games and browser games fell out of popularity. Flash dying killed off a lot free online games, which made the internet feel even smaller.
Ads, monetization, engagement baits, and scuffy algorithms were already problems creeping in long before Covid hit, but I swear the sudden, massive shift to online classes and online interactions changed something, I just can't pinpoint what.
