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I have been wrestling with a terrifying idea lately: The Internet, in its current form, is not a force for good. And the way it is going, it will be a net nega
by sph 3y ago
I have been wrestling with a terrifying idea lately:
The Internet, in its current form, is not a force for good. And the way it is going, it will be a net negative for humanity as a whole.
The Internet itself is just bits pushed between computers, but the things we have built on it are dystopian, are a huge cause of the current loneliness epidemic (epidemics have an end date, this is a trend), and it's a way to control the masses.
The Internet, in a vacuum, could elevate humanity. But whatever we have now, it exploits our shortcomings for the profit of the few, and we are simply not made to have most of our social interactions behind a screen that's always within our cone of vision.
It's been hard to live with this, as a software engineer. A veritable crisis of faith for me.
- JohnFen 3y ago> The Internet, in a vacuum, could elevate humanity. But whatever we have now, it exploits our shortcomings for the profit of the few, and are simply not made to have most of our social interactions behind a screen that's always in our cone of vision. This reminds me of broadcast television. When TV first started becoming a thing that regular people had, it was widely considered to be a force for good. Being able to educate the masses, to provide people with good information they need to know, to bring communities together. In less than 20 years, TV showed itself to be a failure at all of those things. To the point where in 1961, Newton Minnow proclaimed TV to be "a vast wasteland" and bemoaned its failure to live up to its potential during a speech at the National Association of Broadcasters. The internet (well, the web, really) is following a very, very similar trajectory.
- red-iron-pine 3y ago> The Internet, in its current form, is not a force for good. And the way it is going, it will be a net negative for humanity as a whole. i'm convinced the dead internet theory is an inevitability for the reasons you outline.
- pixl97 3y agoYou mean the 'dead internet prophecy' right?
- ryandrake 3y agoI think OP is distinguishing between the Internet, which is a neutral technology, "a series of tubes" vs. the horrible web sites being built on top of it. There is plenty of good in these tubes and plenty of bad. Let's focus blame on the actual bad sites that push the average down to negative. The Internet is not just Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
- juve1996 3y agoRealistically though most of the internet has become more centralized. Even if there is good in the far corners, most don't find it anymore.