I am definitely not the only person who thinks that. There are many people who share similar sentiments, maybe even including you, dear reader.
Nostalgia is a very common feeling, just look at how many Russians want the USSR back! Having been born in 2005, I pretty much grew up with the internet going mainstream, with YouTube being created the same year I was born.
Back when it was new, it was mainly used by hobbyists that wanted to show off pirated anime episodes cool and/or funny things they made for fun. (Forgive me if this just sounds like a rose-tinted petty bourgeois fantasy.)
Then you know what happened next. Like so many fun stuff under capitalism, like JoeMarx has mentioned recently with video games, the internet was commodified and made into a dumbed-down addictive tool for instant gratification, all for profit.
EDIT: I am referring specifically to web culture, not the actual technology of the internet.
Frrrrrr tho, early-mid 2010s were fire😭😭😭🔥🔥🔥🔥. Internet, games, movies, tv shows, anime, you name it! YouTube(Markiplier, Pewds, KSI, DanTDM), GTA 4 and V, ARK, Minecraft, FnaF, DR, Assassin’s Creed, RE, BB, BCS, Creepypastas, indie games, Pokemons, Godzilla, Jurassic World, GOT, early 2010s animes, pre-Disney Star Wars, Gangnam Style, Gentleman, holy shit…
I made a similar post about it and mentioned it a couple of times. It literally feels like a completely different time at this point, internet and the whole vibe was so much different than what it is today, basically everything went to shit in like mid-2017 and it only got worse from there. YouTube was completely destroyed, social media became unbearable and actually good ones got shut down or ruined, good games destroyed with pointless sequels or updates and hyped games turned into garbage, constant dramas everywhere etc. It became even worse in the recent years.