Yeah, social media has seemingly broken society.

I think maybe back then we all knew it was going to become a corporate ad-ridden tracking nightmare in some capacity. That is why we remember it so fondly perhaps. Places like lemmy/wikis and the odd ole phpbb forum still running still give off at least a bit of the old internet vibe.

Welcome! I came over during the api shutdown, I mained lemmy for a year, waffled back and forth the last few months. Reddit is such garbage, I dont even recognize it anymore. Its just those few niche subs that got me back but its not worth it.