man I sure wonder what we're on right now

Why not? We are currently seeing versions of Facebook or Instagram that are totally warped from what they were back in the day. Where you look at addicting stuff created by professional influencers and ads.

But remember how the glory days of Facebook were: You and your friends and their friends were there and everybody posted things from their lives. So you could see that your friend Peter was on vacation in Spain. That your cousin got a new puppy. What someone from your old school was doing. People used it for dating and to connect with each others. That guy in your class was also into mountainbiking? Perfect to connect. Local clubs could post about their concerts and you would see it. And you might even see that the guy from work was in a band playing there. It was a great thing, which is now totally ruined by algorithmic feeds, ads, MAGA cultural wars, middle east wars and everything else.

Dial-up BBS's or GTFO