Author Xiao Hai, the original article has been harmonized.
A few years ago, I once mocked a certain tech industry giant. At that time, he said: Maybe the post-90s, post-95s will slowly not know what Google is.
That year, this was the funniest joke in the world for me. Google, the world's most outstanding internet company, living in the internet generation of Chinese people, how could they not know their website?
Today, I take back that mockery. Because this impossible thing, it slowly became a reality.
No one cares about Google or not Google anymore. For them, Baidu is also quite useful, anyway they hardly ever use Google. So what if there's no Google? Everyone is still happily browsing Weibo, reading WeChat, listening to music, watching entertainment programs. For those who never knew Google, what difference does it make without it?
Slowly, it disappeared, as if it had never existed.
Many years ago, we could also log in to Facebook. Actually, this website is just like Xiaonei, quite silly. But on it, you can see the lives of foreigners, easily visit people ten thousand kilometers away, and see many pages that you would never find on Xiaonei. When you reply in Chinese, the person you chat with might be from Hong Kong or Taiwan. When you reply in English, you might get approached by a lonely Nordic person with even worse English than yours. You feel like the world has truly become a global village, before you even step out, others have already walked in.
Then, it disappeared. At first, its disappearance caused a lot of noise, but then, the noise disappeared.
Many years ago, we could also log in to Twitter. Actually, this website is just like Weibo, it's just a stream of information, scrolling through it all day doesn't necessarily have any use. But at least, you can quickly find out about anything you want to know, you will truly understand what things are popular in the world, without going through various screenshots, translations, reposts, and even misinterpretations, distortions, and reversals. What you know is the truth, naked, maybe a bit too concise truth. But at least there won't be countless people's modifications and re-modifications, extreme, one-sided, which arise in this process, whether intentional or unintentional.
Then, it disappeared. First, its original form disappeared, then its imitators disappeared, and even the imitators of its imitators disappeared. Only one imitator's imitator's imitator remained, and now you can see countless ads on it every day.
Many years ago, we could also log in to YouTube. For some people, this website is just a large-scale Youku, someone once confidently said, without YouTube, we Chinese would soon surpass YouTube with Youku. But after so many years, the videos are still so laggy, the content is still so rubbish, original works are still so easily stolen, and the richness of videos is still so poor. On YouTube, you can see the world's best craftsmen, the funniest jokes, the most imaginative creativity, the most stirring music, the most beautiful perfect moments, but on Youku, if you want to watch a one-minute video, you have to watch a thirty-second ad first.
Oh, right. Instagram, some people might feel that it's similar to QQ Space. But on it, I follow over six hundred photographers, they are all top-notch visual storytellers, every day I look at their works, I feel very happy, that kind of happiness of being immersed in a place even if you haven't been there. I also met a handsome Japanese guy who loves taking selfies, a Korean uncle who loves drinking, an American grandpa who visited China ten years ago and now likes every photo I post of the Forbidden City, and an incredibly beautiful Russian girl. I can hardly communicate with them, language is a big barrier, but a few simple words can convey the message, this feeling, sometimes it's even more exciting than meeting up with old friends after many years. Because this is the process of free communication and interaction between different human groups, this process is magical, truly magical.
But now, it's gone, it's gone because at a certain specific time, when you search for specific words, specific photos will show up. Although not many people search like this, although the people who see it won't be surprised, won't feel that it's getting dark, getting light, that the sky is falling, that the world is changing. But it's still gone, Instagram, it just disappeared like that. Google disappeared like this, Twitter disappeared like this, Facebook disappeared like this. I don't know who, in what situation, said what, made what decision. Over a billion people are like being trapped on an island in Gotham City, watching one bridge after another being blown up, blown up again, blown up again, and then, everything is gone.
I often feel sad, really sad, a person I don't know and don't even know who they are, maybe it's a group, constantly taking away things around me, and I am powerless. I complain, but they can't hear it, no one can hear it. I roar in anger, most people around me look at me like I'm crazy. I howl in sorrow, this sound is blocked behind a dark curtain wall. I let out a sharp scream, this sound doesn't travel far, just like the things that were taken away from me, it disappears, it's gone, as if it never existed.
For things that never existed in the first place, who would care? How could those who have been robbed and lost ever understand? I used to have everything, I used to have the world, standing on this land, breathing the air of freedom, drinking the nectar of freedom. In an uncountable amount of time, part after part of my free life was killed, suddenly killed. But I still always feel that they are still barely alive, as if they slowly died.
But they eventually died, and with their death, more and more things slowly happened, very slowly, almost imperceptibly, but they still happened.
No Google, I can use Baidu. But certain results are pushed further and further back, until they disappear. It's as if these results were never meant to be searched for.
No Facebook, I can use Xiaonei. But if you want to post an article that can only be posted on Facebook, it quickly disappears on Xiaonei. Then, Xiaonei becomes Renren, and the topics become topics that everyone cares about. Everyone is rushing to read about horoscopes, celebrities, gossip, entertainment. No one cares about what disappeared, anyway they didn't have much presence to begin with.
No YouTube, I can still use Youku. But you often can only see works that plagiarize others on Youku, and they are not credited, and they are proud and self-satisfied, as if that idea originally belonged to them. You look and exclaim, they are so creative! What a creative plagiarism, but you don't know, because you don't know that there's a website called YouTube in this world.
No Twitter, I can still use Weibo. But the more you want to know what's happening recently, the more obvious it becomes when you search, "According to relevant laws and regulations, the search results are not displayed." After a long time, you think, anyway, it's not useful to know, might as well not look.
Slowly, one door after another closes. Today you open the world's largest blog website and find that it's gone. Tomorrow you look again, the best design sharing website in the world is gone, at first it refreshes very slowly, then it's gone. In a few days, the media website where you usually read two articles a day is gone, the articles there were colorful, but in the end they all turned into a few words saying "This page cannot be displayed". In a few more months, you can't access the university's website anymore, the photographer's website can't be accessed anymore, even Baidu Japan, a website of their own, is gone.
Then, you can't read comics anymore, then, you can't watch animations anymore. Then, American and British TV shows disappear. The websites where you download American and British TV shows disappear again and again and again and again. Respect the genuine, protect the rights, fine, then the subtitle websites are gone too.
Games are gone, the game website you habitually log in to, you find that the download section is under maintenance. The forums are closed, the forums you look at every day, suddenly you receive a call from a relevant department, because of "reporting issues", they can't operate anymore. Personal websites, personal blogs, sorry, if they say it's gone, then it's gone, all the years of hard work you've put into it are useless.
The people you follow, one day you log in to Weibo and find that they haven't said anything for a long time, then you search and find that their account no longer exists, and when you search their name, their name is not displayed.
One by one, the lights go out. The light sources from all directions disappear. The colorful world we live in turns into darkness.
It's dark, so let's go to sleep, hopefully we'll stay drunk and never wake up, damn it, mud horse, motherfucker.
In the end, we become a group of dreamers, the name of this dream is "According to relevant laws and regulations, the search results are not displayed" dream.