> Highly specific subset of Internet.

Can I ask what you're basing that assertion on? The article makes it sound as if they were indeed referring to the internet in general: "46% said they would rather be young in a world without the internet altogether."

You are right to question my input. But, that said, I believe there is distinct confusion amongst internet consumers between the protocol stack and framing, and the forwarding of packets and applications services such as web and IM services. I wonder to what extent they have nuance in what "without the internet altogether" really means. Your point would be that they seem to be saying they really want the 1970s (or earlier back). Maybe thats right. It certainly seems to be based on the numbers. But the story arc mainly relates to social media, tiktok and like.

It's like when people say they want to go back to victorian values (of society at large) and forget that pre-dates antibiotics and anaesthesia. These people regret the socialised problems of being connected, misinformation at scale, loss of agency and genuine face-to-face communication and yearn for a simpler childhood. All well and good, but there's baby/bathwater latent in this.

I'll give them 24 hours until they ask for YouTube and Netflix again [1]. Relevant xkcd https://xkcd.com/1348/

[1] And how is call that new video thing? TikTakToe?

Yeah. The xkcd is right.

But it was less stressful at the same time. The shared reality was the 6 pm news. No endless conspiracy theories.

A friend is listening to every recording of Coast to Coast AM, which began in 1988. He notes that it was a remarkably interactive format; people would call in and try to trick Art Bell with preposterous conspiracy theories; Art Bell would play along, because it was fun (and it was his job).[0] The 6pm news was never interactive; what they talked about was never fun; it was and still is an endless stream of terror.

[0] I'm not defending Coast to Coast AM; I'm noting it's interactive format.

For a brief but refreshing period in 2004-05, I was completely without a computer or Internet connection at home. When I moved that year, I also ditched my T.V. for a very zen experience.

It was a dank and dreary little studio apartment and my only companionship was an AM/FM radio. In an interesting turn of events, I experienced Hurricane Katrina solely through audio news reports. I suffered vicariously with the victims and sang along to Aaron Neville's "Louisiana 1929".

Besides a lot of NPR, Fresh Air with Terry Gross, Wait Wait -- Don't Tell Me, and Lake Wobegon, I also listened to Art Bell's show; George Noory was often substituting at that point. It was really entertaining. In fact I used to be enthralled with the supernatural stuff when I was a really little kid picking up books at swap meets. I loved UFOs and OBEs and NDEs and SHCs. The Coast to Coast sessions brought back fond memories of those carefree days.

"Shared reality" - lovely phrase! That's the thing that's missing for most people. In the office everyone is watching different tv shows, movies, listening to different music etc. There isn't much shared reality, at least in the way I remember as a child. Even my own kid has a show she's found on Netflix that she enjoys but none of her peers knows about, or cares to know about.

I don’t think many young people know what “The Internet” is. They probably just think it’s social media. Or “apps.” Heck, a lot of people who grew up with the Internet still confuse the web with the Internet.

Or like abolishing all electrical/internal-combustion vehicles, but what they actually want is a walkable neighborhood.