BACK IN MY DAY (jk my day is ongoing 😜), many popular sites were called “e/n” sites. This was like before blogs, before Google, etc. Back then, the web wasn’t very feature-rich, but it was “loud.” Contrast that with now: there are more sites than ever and wayyyyyyy more users than in the late 90s, but the www is very quiet and isolated (or isolating? I’m not sure how to phrase it).
Anyway, I think about this a lot, and I came to Lemmy to escape the labyrinth of marketing funnels that we call the www, but the element I can’t quite figure out is like where’s the social element on the web? I see many forums for like whatever niche subject, but where is the e/n chatter? Where do people like…be people in a very general sense? I was looking at the …sublemmies I follow, and they’re all like niche stuff. I really don’t even know where to post this question (so please pardon me if I screwed up and feel free to redirect me).
In essence, where – if anywhere – do people interact with people online?
I had to do some digging to figure out what you were talking about, but it looks like you are talking about something like this
So, basically a blog without any real direction? Like, the og blogs which were basically just public online journals?
I mean, I’m sure there are still plenty out there… but no one (or few people) read them. Main reason being, there is far more interesting content to consume. I think the original appeal of these sorts of sites was that you had something in common with the writer - namely, that you were on the internet - exploring and creating a brave new world together. Now everyone is online, and being online is not a good signal that you might share a connection with someone.
So instead, you filter based on interests - hobbies or music or religion or politics or occupation or niche lifestyle. A blogger first needs to establish a connection with their potential readers, and then the readers are open to caring about them personally.
But once you clear that filter, there are still a ton of people doing this kind of content. Except they arent doing it on self hosted blogs. Instead, they are on substack, or instagram, or tiktok, or twitter, etc. I feel like the closest modern equivalent to what you are talking about is the Twitch streamer who talks about their day while playing video games.
Sites like reddit/lemmy, I feel, actively discourage these sorts of personal connections, since you follow subs or the “hot” algorithm, rather than certain people. With so much churn, it is difficult to remember people’s usernames, and therefore difficult to create a real picture of them as a complete human being. However, there are options here like AskLemmy or CasualConversation where you can talk about random shit if you want.
For the more traditional forum banal chatter, probably the best modern equivalent is small, niche discord servers. The ones with just a handful of members often have tightknit communities. But, by their nature, they are difficult to find and get invites to.
Worth noting, Mbin is a community-based fediverse project like Lemmy that also supports microblogging and thus following users.
Interesting – thank you for your thoughtful response. I think a lot of the “Dunbar number.” This guy Dunbar hypothesized a number of around 180 that was basically the max number of social connections primates had (or something). Circa late-90s, I had fewer friends online than IRL. However, as that behavior has become normalized, the prospect of having “online friends” has been normalized, thus removing pressure to like “go out and do something.” Moreover, back to Dunbar’s number, it has been completely normalized to have many isolated interactions, leading to a general disincentive to form new connections, as it seems like additional effort without clear upside.