Comment by nonrandomstring

You're (maybe) inadvertently on to something there,

> there were printed magazines dedicated to the passtime.

  1. (1) pastime, interest, pursuit -- (a diversion that occupies
  one's time and thoughts (usually pleasantly);

I think what some of us are nostalgic for is when the "Web" was a way to pass the time. For many it was a cultural curiosity first, then an entertainment source. At some point it pivoted to being work. It turned into filing taxes, shopping for insurance, and a place for maintaining a "professional profile". From what I see of social media a great many people make it into "work" of a kind. In this metamorphosis we somehow made the silly web serious and the serious web silly. Now nobody knows the difference and so the headspace of "passtime" has itself sort of vanished.