What happened?

I remember how the internet used to be full of upbeat and curious people. Now a lot of sites I used to enjoy are just filled with jaded and depressed losers with a penchant for shitposting. My glasses aren't rose-tinted. The same sites I browse now were much different in the past.
Do you think it's due to the poor economy, or other shitty real world factors? Or is pessimism and behavioral sink merely the result of people spending too much time online?

What happened is the franchise of Internet communication has been spread soa widely that you are seeing the effects of 'cognitive media re-normalization'. In simpler but moar numerous* words, the average intelligence of the Internet is now approaching the average intelligence of the general population. And now you can see how utterly dumb that the average intelligence really is.

* The second phrase contains 433% moar words oar 244% moar letters than the previous phrase. I admit my roal.