The internet isn’t the internet anymore. It’s walled off, corporatized, and exclusionary.
The internet used to be for people.
Now it’s for profit.
I’m reminded of the video game Disco Elysium (spoilers ahead).
Welp, two paragraphs in and done with this blog I guess.
Humanity may never see anything like the 90s-2000s era again. That was a distinct milieu of nearly unbound creation and discovery. Not only did corporations remained skeptical of the internet. People were highly averse to being manipulated because the internet was untrustworthy. Paradoxically that’s what made the internet trustworthy. Once trust was established of course. It was a perfect mix of factors that made it a unique period in history.
Maybe all this bullshit is a needed step to bring back old internet
We need forums back… the fediverse is a good start in my book.
Everything gets enshittified - Capitalised, and nothing good ever comes out of those leeches and parasites.
The Capitalist religion crushed a new global, free and open digital community landscape. Say loud and proud: ‘thank you Capitalist believer’, for how it looks and works today…
I hope that we’ll collectively decide that it’s rude to pass off LLM writing as your own, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
We won’t unless we stop the source perpetuating this “culture.”
Big Tech.
Unfortunately, they kinda have a grip on everyone’s information sphere, so I think our chances are low :(
It’s a good post, I agree with it. And I guess The Pale is a good description of what we are noticing.
I got to experience the internet before it became like this, so at least I have memories of greatness. But the desire for great profits ruins everything. Not only the internet but the world.
Greed for excessive amounts of money is the root of evil, the bible got that right. But humans are not aware enough to see a future where greed is not the driving force of society.
Humansbillionaires are not aware enough
Not a bad post and has some good points but I think they’re reacting to broader social changes. Not just the Internet. That mentioned co-workers, and that to me indicates a broader issue.
I’ve long thought that we need a web 3.0 that uses a different protocol entirely and is techie and difficult like getting on bbs’es was in the 80s . For a good 20 years until that one gets enshitified too we have another chance.
Check out project Gemini:
“Gemini is a new internet technology supporting an electronic library of interconnected text documents. That’s not a new idea, but it’s not old fashioned either. It’s timeless, and deserves tools which treat it as a first class concept, not a vestigial corner case. Gemini isn’t about innovation or disruption, it’s about providing some respite for those who feel the internet has been disrupted enough already. We’re not out to change the world or destroy other technologies. We are out to build a lightweight online space where documents are just documents, in the interests of every reader’s privacy, attention and bandwidth.”
No auto playing media. No cookies. Nothing tracking you. And they built it, as I understand, to be deliberately difficult to add new features to, to prevent enshittification.
if all you want is static webpages and text documents you dont need a new web.
I want privacy, and long form thought.
Neither of those things thrive in an environment where everyone is trying to extract value from thought and personal information.
I like this. I’ll check it out when I get home or if I hide from work today.
Try to look at it as the chapter of the internet as we know it is over. I feel the same way as this author but I hold out hope innovation will happen.
Someone will fill the void. How and when it happens remains to be seen. There was a time not too long ago when it was unfathomable for people to have computers in their pocket.
The simpsons will probably predict it.
I don’t know who are they, but they could just curate their online experience by looking for something that is actually organic and genuine, and drop their anchors on that.
Same… I tried Kagi small web which kinda promised to fix it but so far every page is a hyper-focused version of everything I hate. It somehow made it even worse.
I think it can’t really solve the problem because the people that want that tight nit free and open. Internet are already retreating from engaging with whatever this is.
People have repeatedly called things “Web 3.0” but I think we’ve legitimately made it finally and I hate it.
How does he create these cool pictures?
Dithering!
tanks
IDK what. Internet and people are usually shallow. Internet is shallow since like 2005 when it became more widespread and accessible. Sometimes I find myself raising autistic kids on it.
There was that video game Prey. Where the people had their stuff outsourced to flying toaster AI robots called operators. So they can be present patiently and persistent everywhere. You could have like a doctor flying toaster. I want that. I have seen how limited are human doctors under these current circumstances of being in an overly monetized system.
Also human connections are important, but they are usually flawed and backfire.
Not like that people are wrong, they just suffer from this fetal alcohol syndrome and pregnant smoking related innate oxygen deprivation and stuff like that.
It’s always refreshing to read something that I can be 100% sure was not written by an AI.
I like that too. The authentic experience, everybody being compassionate for everyone.
Yet sadly that cannot happen. Time of people usually go for survival in this modern world.
On the AI line, let’s take like an autistic kid in this new age. Having like 3000 unique question marks and unique drives.
Instead of his/her family relatives, failing him/her not giving enoungh attention. It can bash an AI. How to be car mechanic, how to be a doctor.
Bash everyting, it feels good.
He will get then easy answers nobody never got before. Are they a bit uncanny, jagged and choppy. Yes they are. But they are a bit better than nothing. But it is just the begining phase of this.
Sure there will ample places devoid of this blasphemy as it is uncomlete, jagged and glitchy.
VRChat still has a little old internet. Some worlds are weird, but some communities engage in stimulating discourse. Of course, avatars and such are monetized to some extent, but not the spoken content (please don’t monetize speech).








