Internuts

[S.D.]

That's a good assessment. Essentially there was a period of 'The Internet' before the corporate websites took over where it felt both vast, and unknown. Nothing had a Facebook page/Twitter feed, or an app, so everything needed its own website, and within those websites were more pages, links, and locations.

I know there are small places like this one where people still communicate like real human beings (within reason), but so much of the The Internet is now presided over by advertising and media giants that it feels like a far less expansive, or uncharted territory. Facebook welcomes you with cutesy, emotionless phrases. Google can't load a page so it sends you a little emoji. Twitter offers "suggested" feeds. Everything is bought/sold and courier-delivered online, through phones, devices, earbuds etc. to the point that it doesn't feel like a place where people have freedom of expression any more. That's okay, I was always a take-it-or-leave-it person regards The Internet, but it's odd how relatively swift the corporate takeover has been, and as you said, there's now people in their twenties who grew up like that, and to whom it's completely normal.

[Nemoris Inferioris]

It has definitely been turned into something extremely commercial and a tool far too powerful. Big companies own the search engines, and also Internet providers are limited also. It's a mess. I don't think it'll get better.

It's the best and worst thing to happen to the world. It can be used for knowledge, and to be social, And to promote. But it seems like it's used more now by those who abuse it and use it to hurt people. And everything you do leaves a trace.

I'd say it was great until 2011.

[The Empirical Guy]

I'm gonna have to say the period from around 2005 or so, up until a few years ago, maybe 2014. During that period it felt the internet really was what it was meant to be. Social media was in full swing, so people were highly connected, but they weren't yet taken over by the corporate monster already discussed here. While things like Napster and Limewire were long gone, things like The Pirate Bay were still around. 4chan and Anonmous were still equal parts terror of the internet and completely retarded, doing everything from DDoS major websites or government agencies, organising surprise birthday parties for poor war vets and all sorts of shenanigans, the Guy Fawkes mask was iconic but hadn't been so prolific it had unintentionally 'sold out' by people wearing it without really 'getting' it. Memes were in their prime, I remember many a night spent desperately trying to fight for a single lungful of air through the laughter the shit I was seeing was so funny. These days there's a million 'meme' pages on Facebook, but most of them are just unfunny text on an unfunny photo. Many younger kids these days think you can make a meme just by spam-posting something irrelevant and unfunny on every thread then claiming it's a meme (I'm looking at you, Ugandan Knuckles).
Back then, social media seemed more open and like the new great hope for bands and artists too... as someone who maintained a band page from 2005 through to a couple of years ago, it really feels like through that mid point it was a chance to really get stuff out there without a record label... now it seems like Facebook has just become the record label, they decide how many people see your posts unless you pay through the nose. Other platforms like Twitter and Instagram just don't seem to have the same reach and have limited utility for things like running events or integrating a webstore.