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What I want from the internet

chrbutler.com

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Re: What I want from the internet

#21

Post by gspencley »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #3

> And the internet used to be more work to experience. Today, it’s more work to avoid. Since the author likes analogies, I'll add mine: the internet now has become roads, bridges, towns. The internet used to be forests, rivers to ford, camps. There used to be an exploration-aspect to the internet, not sure what you would find if you took this trail or that one. Now we all seem to travel the few, well-worn roads to th…

That's a good analogy.

I like technology and modern cities in the abstract. They provide people with easy access to certain things that were historically scarce. Some of those things are life saving, like cutting edge medicine.

But I can't live in a city. I hate the noise, the crowds, the people, the crime, the pollution and the vast majority of the time I'm not in any sort of immediate need for what they provide. Fine for the odd Saturday adventure one or twice a year. Any more than that and no thanks. I always come away feeling stressed out, anxious, tired and worse off for the experience.

Ironically, online shopping and remote work is what has made living in a city unnecessary.

Re: What I want from the internet

#22

Post by chrbutler »

jasode wrote: post #16

>It is hard, though, to build and maintain the structures of the old, “smaller” internet. You can, today, still go back to the can-to-can structure that a personal website, an RSS feed, and a browser provide. I think the author ignores another reason that people (especially us techies) don't like to admit: The majority of people don't care about following a list of personal websites. Instead, websurfers just get what…

Great points. I think you're absolutely right – social media in particular has given most people good reason to (a) not maintain a personal website and (b) not follow other personal websites. Ultimately, I'm not sure that's a good thing, but that isn't to say that it doesn't present some signficant benefits, like the ability to follow topics, follow a much greater number of people, increase the speed of conversation, etc. Thanks for reading!

Re: What I want from the internet

#23

Post by intrasight »

I like to consider what will the Internet be in ten years. Who will control it? How will we interact with it? Will there be any humans present? Frankly, I am not too optimistic that it'll be the Internet that we want.

Re: What I want from the internet

#24

Post by uneekname »

jasode wrote: post #16

>It is hard, though, to build and maintain the structures of the old, “smaller” internet. You can, today, still go back to the can-to-can structure that a personal website, an RSS feed, and a browser provide. I think the author ignores another reason that people (especially us techies) don't like to admit: The majority of people don't care about following a list of personal websites. Instead, websurfers just get what…

You keep mentioning "websurfers," "the majority of people," the comment you linked describes "real people." Indeed, most people on the internet are not going to start their own blogs tomorrow and fill out their RSS readers with dozens of hand-picked blogs.

The content creators you list may have changed how they publish their content to reach a different/larger audience, and that's totally fine. It's a good thing that there are different groups of people who spend time in different corners of the internet. If you want to make a big splash, of course you won't (just) use the tools of the small internet.

There may be some people who want the "small internet" to make some sort of grand comeback. But I think most of the people interested in it are looking to build out a more intimate community of people who want to do the same. And that dream is already being realized for many. With an internet this large, even this niche can be a large group of people.

Re: What I want from the internet

#25

Post by chrbutler »

intrasight wrote: post #23

I like to consider what will the Internet be in ten years. Who will control it? How will we interact with it? Will there be any humans present? Frankly, I am not too optimistic that it'll be the Internet that we want.

I've seen reports lately that bot traffic is accounting for nearly half of all internet traffic, which is truly wild.

https://www.cpomagazine.com/cyber-security/bad-bot-traffic-r...

Re: What I want from the internet

#26

Post by chrbutler »

uneekname wrote: post #24
jasode wrote: post #16

>It is hard, though, to build and maintain the structures of the old, “smaller” internet. You can, today, still go back to the can-to-can structure that a personal website, an RSS feed, and a browser provide. I think the author ignores another reason that people (especially us techies) don't like to admit: The majority of people don't care about following a list of personal websites. Instead, websurfers just get what…

You keep mentioning "websurfers," "the majority of people," the comment you linked describes "real people." Indeed, most people on the internet are not going to start their own blogs tomorrow and fill out their RSS readers with dozens of hand-picked blogs. The content creators you list may have changed how they publish their content to reach a different/larger audience, and that's totally fine. It's a good thing that…

Yes, I love that – and it was a point I landed on, too. That any meaningful sub-group on the internet is going to be really really big because the whole of the internet, as far as people go, is really really really big.

Re: What I want from the internet

#28

Post by sidewndr46 »

chrbutler wrote: post #25
intrasight wrote: post #23

I like to consider what will the Internet be in ten years. Who will control it? How will we interact with it? Will there be any humans present? Frankly, I am not too optimistic that it'll be the Internet that we want.

I've seen reports lately that bot traffic is accounting for nearly half of all internet traffic, which is truly wild. https://www.cpomagazine.com/cyber-security/bad-bot-traffic-r...

And depending on what group you listen to most of the internet traffic is for pornography, or possibly bittorrent.

Re: What I want from the internet

#29

Post by camgunz »

I mostly buy Eternal September, or as rephrased by David Foster Wallace:

"[The internet] is the way it is simply because people tend to be extremely similar in their vulgar and prurient and dumb interests and wildly different in their refined and aesthetic and noble interests."

Like, the internet is banal because we're (the rich world) all on it. It's not a weird little niche anymore. So it's now subject to all the (rich) world's problems. Racism is a problem on Twitter not because of content moderation difficulties or the lack of sufficient compute power to run sufficiently intelligent AI, but because it's a problem off Twitter too. Getting nickel and dimed, scammed, deluged by ads, or tricked by dark patterns is a problem on major platforms because it's a problem in meatspace too. We all know this, because our main fear with AI (the latest and greatest tech) is that it will soon also have all of these problems, and just amplify them even more than the internet did. It totally will!

But FWIW I think cool things are happening. Wireguard and Tailscale are cool. I hate to admit it, but some Blockchain stuff is cool. MLS is cool. ActivityPub is (maybe) cool. You just gotta get out of the browser.

Re: What I want from the internet

#30

Post by DamnInteresting »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #7

I'm pretty darn sure I'm not the only independent content creator being largely ignored, attacked for "self promotion" if they post their own work while no one else ever posts it etc and then listening to people whine about the internet and how they wish this, that or the other while you roll your eyes and think to yourself again "This is the internet you helped create. If you don't like it, make other choices."

The problem isn't self-promotion per se, the problem is the sheer amount of self-promotion that occurs when it is allowed. If any is permitted, then often all is permitted, and a forum becomes inundated with people vying for attention. Classic tragedy of the commons.
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