We all know that the internet is a product of US military agencies. Yet, the default idea is that the internet means (more or less) free flow of information and a good thing in general.
But is that so? Could it be that the internet was just another con from the get go? Just a bit longer one than the rest of them. After all, we've seen it before.
For example, smartphones. At the start it was all fun and games. Then it got a bit more serious, but still nice and cool. And now it has turned into opressive slave device, with constant suveillance, that is almost compulsory to have and quite hard to live without.
Is the internet any different? It started as this highway of information, rainbows and unicorns and all that. But now it gets more and more censored, more and more oppressive with each passing day. If current trend continues, at the end it will be nothing more than totally controlled tool of oppression. Could it be that that was its design from the very beginning?
Either at conception, or shortly after conception, the intention of the internet was control. They own the banks, the media, Hollywood, government and pharmaceutical industry...there is no way they would allow a free and open internet.
When were smartphones ever "fun and games"? Or "cool"? How did smartphones change?
When they were just rolling them out. Somewhere about 2010 or so. Society was still happily living without them - you know - with real human contact, in person conversations, empathy and all that stuff. Smartphone was just this cool new gadget to show your friends and play with occasionally. Basic mode of interaction with the world was still mostly grounded in reality. Since then all of that has changed significantly.
My point being that, of course, it was a con from the start. The coolness part was just a bait to lure people in and I see the same with the internet. The endless and free information part was just a bait. Nothing more. As soon as it started to get in the way of control an oppression, they have started to gradually turn all of that off.
The coolness part that you're eluding to was internet instant messengers prior to cell phones.