Millennials vs Internet: Is the honeymoon over? Through feeds, performance, and new cultural codes, the generation that grew up online is moving to the fringes of the internet

Talking about the Internet on the Internet has become second nature: what it was, what it will become. And us? The generation that first inhabited this space now seems to be putting more and more distance between itself and it. This didn’t happen overnight, nor because of a single platform. It was more of a slow shift: from a place of experimentation, the online world evolved into a structured media, and above all, a commercial machine. Today, the idea that "the Internet isn’t what it used to be" might sound almost like a cliché, but it also reflects a generation that grew up online. Millennials didn’t just use the Internet, they experienced it during its most spontaneous and handcrafted phase. Blogs, forums, MySpace, Tumblr: comment sections buzzing with conversations and identities built without the constant pressure of visibility. A web that didn’t necessarily ask you to perform or monetize, but simply to be there.

From a playground to a commercial machine: the Internet today

Today, the Internet has become a full-fledged media. With a clear economic model, precise metrics, and a stated goal: to capture attention and turn it into value. Every piece of content is now born within a performative framework: creator economy, personal branding, engagement, reach. Even when no real money is made, we behave as if it’s necessary. For many millennials, the first true digital natives, this shift marked a fracture. Not only because it makes it harder to be online without a utilitarian purpose, but because it changes the very meaning of digital presence. The Internet is no longer just a space to exist, but a place where you must constantly prove something.

The reign of the feed

This feeling is reinforced by the algorithmic experience. The feed has replaced browsing: we no longer search, we scroll; we don’t arrive out of curiosity, we often stay out of inertia. The result is an apparently infinite Internet, but in reality increasingly homogeneous, where the best content isn’t necessarily the most interesting, but the one that performs best within the system. Especially since, today, when we talk about the Internet, we mostly think of social media, Instagram and TikTok above all, places where cultural relevance is concentrated. Everything else still exists, but in a secondary position. Websites are consulted and search engines are used, but it’s on social media that what matters, what circulates, and what becomes common language is decided. It’s there that millennials have lost centrality.

How millennials respond to these changes? By leaving

This is also evident in the fate of many figures who once dominated the early Internet. Creators like Jenna Marbles, Hannah Hart, or Shane Dawson, absolute stars of YouTube’s first era, today occupy a marginal position or have chosen to step back entirely. Not because they stopped existing online, but because the ecosystem that made them relevant no longer aligns with the current one. Changing cultural codes, sensibilities, and languages has transformed those contents into something distant, sometimes even labeled cringe. More than mocking a generation, the term signals a shift in symbolic power: those who once set the rules are no longer at the center of the conversation.

The rise of Substack and a new perspective

Yet, of course, millennials haven’t disappeared from the Internet. They have, however, started to move away from that center. The rise of platforms like Substack is emblematic of this shift: newsletters, longform, direct relationships with readers. A model that seems deliberately opposed to the logic of the feed and hyper-speed. As one Reddit user wrote, “Substack is Tumblr with a PhD.” A space where people feel free to express themselves without constantly chasing performance or numbers; where depth and discussion (in the most constructive sense) become central again. Will it last? Who can say. Recent history has taught us that nothing seems immune to the commercial logic, not even what is born with a niche intent. In the meantime, however, some speak of relief: having found a space to be online on their own terms. Moving in these spaces, away from conformity and virality, those who grew up online can rediscover a different way to inhabit it. More intentional, less algorithm-driven. Not chasing the latest trend, but also not trapped in nostalgia for what once was.