Is Society an Internet Construct? CTRL, Alt, Delete?

The Internet Time Machine: How We Went From Napster to Neo-Pronouns (and Why It Matters)

5 min read

The Wild West of the Web

Remember how crazy we thought we were online by downloading dodgy music at 56k? Now we're debating what a woman is. How did we get here?

Retrospectively, the promise of free media offered by 'the web' in the late 90s went above many peoples heads! To surf the net made no bloody sense at all, but it sounded cool! I remember being curious by those bizarre secret agent-like codes starting with 'www' all over the place.

90s nostalgia

I still remember the cardboard cut-out of Carol Vorderman standing in our local library, luring in the unready. This was years before her cheekbones and mammary glands had mysteriously swollen! I.T savvy librarians frustratedly instructed the older generations, as well as any computerphobe who wanted to press a few buttons. 

Digital Identity

Every family had its digital pioneer — people who dived headfirst into the unregulated chaos of peer-to-peer platforms like Napster, LimeWire, and Kazaa. Piracy was poorly regulated then, but yet greatly hindered by that impossible dial up which took forever. 

P2P and Pirate Goldmines

Hours of P2P and Ebaum's world videos burnt into my psyche: I watched the insanity of the world for the first time. One particularly woman filmed herself shit out an entire, fully intact water melon! How? Why? She might've been promoting herself as a Cartell Mule? I had no idea, but still, I wanted to see more. 

A New World

The mainstream UK news, most of our regular broadcasting had always been so robotic, dressed up to the point of absolute fakery! This emerging world wide web put everything on the table, self-inflicted digital amputations, bosh! We all marvelled at one video of a man's failed home castration. They weren't all 'ha-ha!' funny, but eye-opening. The world had to be tested, I had to speak to people from all parts of the globe.

Making Money Out of Nero DVD Burning Software

Computers weren’t just a way of enjoying music, but a gateway to piracy! Dodgy dealers earnt a little pocket money off this digital black market, sharing and trading. A five minute song took long enough to download; waiting for a full on film, well, that was a real labour of love!

The Pixel Peep Show

This advent of porn bloomed into existence and we got used to ignoring the constant feed of naked bodies, the full-on sex acts spewed across your monitor as you ignorantly show your mother your promise of any music she could ever want! 

From VHS Swaps to Dial-Up Downloads: an Awkward Evolution

A million miles away from borrowing an overplayed porn VHS from a work buddy. We didn't watch porn as often as today! Surfing the web back then had fewer restrictions, with no such things as neo-pronouns either!

Some Of The Following Generations Have Issues! 

Here Are Five Ways The Internet Changed Life Forever:

1. Information Democracy: It destroyed traditional gatekeepers of knowledge,  taking it from the hands of publishers, broadcasters, and institutions. 

2. Identity Fluidity: We could explore, create, and experiment with identity in ways that are more difficult in physical communities. 

3. Attention-Seeking Economy: Views, likes, clicks have become a hugely valuable commodity. Algorithms are optimized to keep us interested.

4. Death of Privacy: The anonymous internet transitioned became a system that simply harvests our thoughts, preferences and passions as a product product! We are data for marketing and political strategy.

5. Tribal Realignment: The World Wide Web facilitates all manner of supportive communities, but also echo chambers that radicalize and divide.

Confusing Cyber Cluster 

We can see how the internet has facilitated mass clusterings of right wing politics, for example: facebook groups like, we are the 52%, YouTube channels such as GBN News or Matt Goodwin attract like minded people to take action or debate. However, I think something similar happened with other demographics.

From Outsider to Insider: The Role of Uniting People

People with autism and certain mental health conditions, like gender dysphoria, for example, or a personality disorder often feel different or even estranged from other people. Rates of ASD diagnoses have increased. In the 90s and early noughties, anyone confused by their identity or gender could suddenly go online and meet others and share their experiences.

Finding The Tribe: How the Internet Became a Haven for Neurodivergent Voices

That's exactly how todays groups manifested, and subcultural identities like Emo's, Goths and what-have-you developed neo-pronouns on-line. It rapidly became a social construct, and then, a marketable product and finally an inexorable motion! 

From What Soil Did This Flower Grow? 

Before the internet, neo-pronouns — those things everyone has to use to avoid prosecution — never existed. People do try to deal with their identity struggles by latching onto sub-cultural labels and constructs that are being promoted as legit, which in all fairness, isn't necessarily from medical science! 

The Comfort Bubble: How Online Spaces Became Reality-Proof Bunkers

So now we have animal people! Individuals who snipe at anyone who won't agree that a man can give birth. Their echo chambers, powerful processing plant of ideologies of which woke lawmakers continue to rationalise and make money. 

Anti-Woke Sentiment Became a Movement of Its Own

Giving the stamp of approval to these social constructs is simply saying: bio-evolutionary human history is all wrong! Comedian's are like: Yeah, right! We'll just go with whatever you woker's made up from now on! Er no! 

The Future is Change: Something Wicked This Way Comes! 

These pronouns will become archaic, a dinosaur orthodoxy, another monster will rise from the depths of the internet and replace everything! It will be fresh, simplified and practical, maybe retro like something before the world wide web! Share or leave a comment, it'll be nice to know your thoughts!