Imagine there is no YT, no Twitter/X, no Facebook, no Netflix, no Amazon, no Apple, no Google to to search the Web, no chatGPT. Imagine there is no TikTok either (even though it’s not US). Just imagine there is no ‘giant’ tech from anywhere owning any app or service that millions if not billions of people are willing to use.
A world without any of those giant (US) tech companies and services that many of us take for granted.
In that world, what would you use the Internet for? How would you use it? And how much time do you think you would spend online, compared to now?
(my own answer in the comments)
I don’t need to imagine, I lived in those days and still remember them.
Connecting daily to an FTP to see if there’s anything new to download.
Jumping into mIRC to chat with random strangers and even online dating.
Finding out about cool websites from PC magazines and then visiting them.
Discussing anything in the good old forums.
It’s also not as if there wouldn’t be search and alternative hosting services, which all existed to varying degrees outside of US control.
I used up so much of my youth on mIRC. I was even on a server that had a make shift 1 pn 1 yugioh online battling platform that I believe also ran through irc. Those were the days.
Yes, this is the best answer.