Seventy-seven percent of middle-age Americans (35-54 years old) say they want to return to a time before society was “plugged in,” meaning a time before there was widespread internet and cell phone usage. As told by a new Harris Poll (via Fast Company), 63% of younger folks (18-34 years old) were also keen on returning to a pre-plugged-in world, despite that being a world they largely never had a chance to occupy.
I’m surprised even the younger people would say so, since they have no experience with how it was.
I guess I’m “old” now, being 47 and all, but I was part of growing up with computers and the web just before most corporations even had a homepage or had any web presence at all.
I was on irc, forums, BBS:es… The web browser was Netscape in the beginning, and later Internet Explorer. Search engine was Altavista, and the irony here was that it was so full of ads that Google got a golden opportunity to launch their Google Search with no ads whatsoever. It completely wrecked Altavista with it’s clean fast design and the rest is history.
Now Google is the Altavista and we are waiting for someone to come and give us alternatives. Weather that is Kagi or some other AI based engine, we will see.
The problem is always ads. They destroy products and communities. People must change their ways and start paying a little bit for basic services like search and email and support those companies who want to provide a quality service without ads.