You didn’t must dwell via the outdated good web to cry about it on the brand new dangerous web.

Zoomers are studying concerning the utopian part of the early web and questioning the place all of it went incorrect. TikTok consumer @mukbokyopo mourned the outdated, good web in an emotional put up shared on Oct. 2, 2025.

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“It makes me so sad to read about web 1.0,” they mentioned. “…all this sh*t used to be so good, and all this sh*t used to, like, mean something positive in the world.” 

Commenters throughout generations echoed @mukbokyopo’s misery and blamed capitalism for the decline of the free net. While millennials within the feedback shared nostalgia for the early web, others warned in opposition to idealizing the early web.

They asserted, “it was never good,” and identified that the “old good internet” by no means stood an opportunity in a political and financial system that runs on revenue.

“Web 1.0 idealism was always a mirage because they would not embrace an anti-capitalist ethos. The open source ideology explicitly adopted this kind of benevolent capitalism mirage that made it seem like somehow the greed that underwrites that mode of operation wouldn’t corrupt the entire enterprise.”

“Do any other zoomers read about early internet and cry?”

@mukbokyopo cried as they in contrast the online 1.0 imaginative and prescient of an anarchic information-sharing platform designed to attach folks and construct information with the present-day web of social media-fueled surveillance capitalism.  

“It’s actually the most heartbreaking sh*t ever… It’s greedy f**ks dominating everything over and over again,” mentioned @mukbokyopo. 

@mukbokyopo Reading “life in code” by ellen ullman was really a fucking recreation changer…….. fuck me!!!!! Join cj the x’s guide membership… lol…… #web #newyorker #timbernerslee ♬ authentic sound  – 🍰🍓🍰🍓

“It was a loser takeover”

The video resonated with commenters who’re anxiously watching the web devolve into one thing dystopian. Social media customers from older generations affirmed @mukbokyopo’s considerations and shared context concerning the early web.

“As a millennial you are 100% right. It was a special time and it felt special. I made friends on weird message boards that I’m still friends with. Capitalism really is the disease.”

“Most technology is like this. Before the Internet, there used to be free unregulated radio, self published zines and public access TV! Now we have like four conglomerates that own all old-school media.”

”Capitalism colonized the web.”

”It was a loser takeover 😭😭😭.”

@mukbokyopo didn’t instantly reply to the Daily Dot’s request for remark by way of TikTok.

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