The internet from 10 years ago was also less likely to remember everything you do forever. Messaging between friends happened using services that didn't save conversation history server side, public chat rooms including IRC were rarely logged, blog posts had a minimal reach, and were largely pseudonymous anyway, making the connection with a real person more difficult. Perhaps this kind of lack of consequences drove people into complacency.

In fact, young me didn't think that websites, mostly forums and early microblogging sites, would ever go away. I wish I could see those posts today.

It may be a fabricated memory, but I remember always being aware of the lack of privacy in those services. And never using your last name or sharing your location.

True. I meant to say that websites, while seeming permanent, didn't enforce a connection to more private parts of one's identity.

are all your gmail and facebook messages from 10 years ago not still available? I think youd have to go back more than 15 years to get to services where communications are now faded.

Not everything was conducted over gmail or facebook messages.

(This is still true, in fact.)

>Messaging between friends happened using services that didn't save conversation history server side

A lot of messages did.