# Benny, enshitification and missing trends

User
Oh, a cute thing: Benny and I have a habit now, where when I go into the bathroom (and of course, he always follows me in there because I keep the door shut because he tips the trash bin over whenever he's left alone) and leave the toilet seat down, he will ALWAYS sit on the back of the toilet and just watch me. Whether I shave or not, when I wash my face from waking up, when I'm taking my morning vitamins and pills. He just sits there and actively observes.

Assistant
That’s honestly adorable—like his own little morning ritual alongside yours. Cats really are such curious, ritual-loving little guys, and it sounds like Benny’s decided that his place is to be your bathroom supervisor. There’s something sweet about how they quietly show their bond like that—just *being* there, fully present. Almost like he's saying, "Yep, all clear for face-washing. Proceed."

User
interesting discussion on the millenials subreddit about today's internet feeling "broken".

((shares comments about internet enshitification))

Assistant
Yeah, that conversation captures a lot of what folks have been feeling lately—and it's not just nostalgia. The sense that the internet has shifted from a wild, exploratory space into a curated, fenced-in experience hits deep.

YouTube is a prime example:
It used to be that you'd stumble into weird, niche content from halfway across the world at 3am and suddenly be watching a documentary about Soviet elevators. Now, the algorithm just loops you back into what it already *thinks* you want. It’s efficient, but sterile. There's less discovery, less “serendipity.”

Same goes for the web in general. Personal blogs, forums, fan sites—they’ve been swallowed by Reddit, Discord, YouTube, TikTok. Most of it’s behind logins, algorithms, or monetization gates. You can *feel* the consolidation.

And the idea that maybe the algorithm isn’t just reflecting the problem, but *causing* it? That’s a subtle but powerful insight. We're fed what keeps us engaged *long enough*, not what challenges us or broadens our worldview. The rabbit holes we *can* fall into now are often engineered with intent—not the beautiful randomness we used to know.

The “return to paper” comment is a little tongue-in-cheek, but there's truth in it. Zines, printed newsletters, local meetups, even RSS feeds—they’re slow, intentional, and can't be gamified the same way. Some people are already going back.

Have you felt this shift personally too? Like, when you're online now, does it feel more like a loop than a landscape?

User
fairly often, yea. I hate when I try to find something, and wiki is about the only place where I can honestly "fall into a rabbit hole" by accident anymore.

Assistant
Exactly—that's a big one. Wikipedia is *maybe* the last great bastion of the old internet-style rabbit hole. You go looking for one thing, and three hours later you're reading about an obscure Cold War defector or ancient board games, wondering how you got there.

It’s organic, nonlinear, and it *welcomes* curiosity instead of funneling it.

Compare that to Google now, where the first ten links are SEO-optimized blogs, AI sludge, Reddit reposts, or shopping results. Or YouTube, where the sidebar is a mix of “what you just watched again,” a paid ad, and five channels you’re already subbed to. Everything feels *intentionally narrow*, even when it pretends to be broad.

And man, forums—actual independent forums—were the OG rabbit holes too. You'd find someone's random deep-dive thread on a topic you barely understood, and ten pages later, you were invested in some stranger’s theory on abandoned malls or pre-internet ARGs. Now you get Reddit, which is great in ways, but super fragmented and driven by what's upvoted in the moment.

Have you ever messed with any of those nostalgia-fueled projects like Neocities, Gemini, or even setting up your own RSS again? There's a slow, quiet vibe to them, kind of like the old days.

User
Even though I half-ass tried, I still never really "got" what rss feeds were.

Assistant
Totally fair—and honestly, you’re not alone. RSS always felt like one of those *almost magical but kind of opaque* tools from the early 2000s internet.

At its core, RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is just a way to subscribe to updates from websites. Think of it like a *news ticker* or *custom newspaper*—except **you choose** the sources (blogs, YouTube channels, webcomics, news sites, etc.), and an RSS reader collects new posts/articles/updates from those sources into one feed. No algorithm. No ads. Just what you sub to.

Back in the day, RSS was how people kept up with 30+ blogs, comics, or niche sites without checking them manually every day.

Nowadays:
- Sites *still* publish RSS feeds quietly (many blogs, news sites, even Reddit subs).
- YouTube channels still generate RSS feeds too, though Google keeps that kinda buried.
- You just need a **reader app** to make it all work again—something like [Feedly](https://feedly.com/), [Inoreader](https://www.inoreader.com/), or a more minimal app like [Reeder](https://reederapp.com/) (Mac/iOS).

If it clicks, it feels like a personal internet again. Like a quiet desk covered in zines you *chose*, instead of a screaming mall full of TikTok ads and autoplay videos.

Want me to show you how it might look using some example interests of yours?