The phenomenal success of the Internet has proven many things. To me, it shows that people just love not having to pay for things. I rant often on that topic. Another thing proven by the Internet, is that people are bored and eager to find ways to fill their idle moments. To meet this end, the Internet offers a slew of diversions.
For this blog post, I’m focusing on items people share with each other. These could include news postings, videos, GIF images, as well as other images.
This type of sharing isn’t new. In fact, I remember back in the 1980s people sharing pictures they’d photocopied. I received them in the mail from my grandmother. They were passed around the office. Often times you’d see a multi-generational photocopy of some image with just terrible contrast and resolution. Yet the item was funny or interesting, so people passed it around.
In the digital age, it’s far easier to pass around an image — and people do it a lot!
You can find cute pictures of animals, scenery, poems, political nonsense, funny images, NSFW images, and so on. The list is endless. And when you’re bored, you can hop around from website to website to find something new and interesting to divert your attention and waste your time.
During my boring interludes, I frequent a few websites to look at such diversions. I’ve noticed a pattern.
The last place I expect to find anything unique is Facebook. It’s generally the repository for people as far away from the leading edge of the Internet as possible. Facebook’s posts and images remind me of the old days, back when you aunt first got email and took it upon herself to forward you all the old virus and scam warnings that were outdated even when she was a teenager.
Facebook is home of the has-beens. That got me to thinking: Where is the place to find the freshest of the Internet’s visual produce?
reddit seemed to be a logical choice. It purports to be the front page of the Internet and it’s tremendously popular. Even then, reddit doesn’t really create new images; they come from elsewhere. And I’ve seen images that look fresh on reddit, but they’ve been on 9gag for a few days.
So where does the Internet start?
Imgur. That’s where the Internet starts.
Specifically, if you want to see the latest in interesting, funny, or touching images or GIF animations, go to imgur. Set up an account. Get the app. Log in and view what everyone else will see in a few days or hours.
Indeed, I have found where the Internet starts, and it’s imgur.
