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The internet is already over (2022)

samkriss.substack.com

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Re: The internet is already over (2022)

#191

Post by lapphi »

_heimdall wrote: post #181
avh02 wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> that it would be open and really big. I think that was the aspiration, but nobody realized there were so many people who thought 5G caused corona (and similar lack of thought process) until it was too late.

Oh people have known for a long time that the average person has crazy ideas. There's a reason the US election system isn't by popular vote, our founders believed that "the mob" couldn't be trusted and there needed to be a electoral escape hatch to make sure reasonable people were elected. With that said, what's the problem with people having ideas that seem crazy and baseless? Does it really harm you at all if someo…

“The mob” being the voting citizens of a free and open democratic society, of course.

Interesting point of view/source of internal tension there.

Re: The internet is already over (2022)

#192

Post by account42 »

imiric wrote: post #151

This is an overly wordy article, that I think misses the mark. The internet _as the Western world knows it today_ will not be the same in a few decades. But then again, it's hardly the same today as it was 30 years ago either. A few things affect this: - Advertising. It's everywhere and corrupts every form of media. Content is made to appease advertisers, and web services are built to extract data from users. The int…

> Politics. For some reason, it's only dawning on governments now that providing uncensored and unfettered connections to their political adversaries can be used for information warfare. The idea that connecting the world will make it a better place and undo the millennia of tribalism is a romanticized platitude of the 1990s.

Or another point of view: Those who call for internet censorship and country-level firewalls are NOT looking for the world to get better and instead are just afraid of losing their control over the population. Which is why you first see those measures being employed in openly totalitarian systems before now being slowly adoped in supposedly free societies whose rulers like to claim to represent the population they rule over.

Re: The internet is already over (2022)

#193

Post by albumen »

asynchronous wrote: post #137
CM30 wrote: post #92

I sometimes suspect the pandemic and lockdowns probably killed a lot of social engagement and internet activity too. Yes, it seems counterproductive, since those times were boom periods for many social media platforms... But then once it ended, it feels like being stuck online with nothing else to do all day burnt a lot of people out on the internet and online activities. Perhaps they decided it was best to make up f…

Statistically we actually know this is false, the pre-Covid 6pm internet surge window has actually stuck around as the new baseline normal internet traffic post-covid.

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2023-global-overvie...

Interesting read. Check out the section "Decline in time spent online". It kicked up for Covid, but is now back to pre-Covid levels: 2016: 6h29 2017: 6h46 2018: 6h48 2019: 6h38 2020: 6h55 2021: 6h57 2022: 6h37

But users are now spending more of that time on social media (about 40%).

Re: The internet is already over (2022)

#194

Post by account42 »

chpatrick wrote: post #163
Galatians4_16 wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The idea that connecting the world will make it a better place and undo the millennia of tribalism is a romanticized platitude of the 1990s. This only applies in media that allows censorship, and controls visibility. If it doesn't, the bigots are easy to identify and weed themselves out. If it foes, the bigots can form bubbles, and foster tribalism.

I think you'll find bigotry is actually quite popular worldwide.

Good observation. Next step is realizing which "side" is the one holding extremist views.

Re: The internet is already over (2022)

#195

Post by account42 »

dyauspitr wrote: post #170
Galatians4_16 wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The idea that connecting the world will make it a better place and undo the millennia of tribalism is a romanticized platitude of the 1990s. This only applies in media that allows censorship, and controls visibility. If it doesn't, the bigots are easy to identify and weed themselves out. If it foes, the bigots can form bubbles, and foster tribalism.

This is probably an even worse “platitude”. Most people go with the flow so if you’re immersed in a lot of bigotry, you will probably end up being a bigot eventually. Then it just spreads, especially if you couple the bigotry with humor. Bigotry is tribalism and seems naturally engrained so it’s something you have to actively resist.

> This is probably an even worse “platitude”. Most people go with the flow so if you’re immersed in a lot of wokism, you will probably end up being woke eventually. Then it just spreads, especially if you couple the wokism with humor. Wokism is tribalism and seems naturally engrained so it’s something you have to actively resist.

Funny how well a simple word replacement can work.

Re: The internet is already over (2022)

#196

Post by account42 »

torginus wrote: post #169
imiric wrote: post #151

This is an overly wordy article, that I think misses the mark. The internet _as the Western world knows it today_ will not be the same in a few decades. But then again, it's hardly the same today as it was 30 years ago either. A few things affect this: - Advertising. It's everywhere and corrupts every form of media. Content is made to appease advertisers, and web services are built to extract data from users. The int…

Honestly I welcome the 'death' of the internet with open arms. Irrespective of the enshittification flavor of the day, the end result is the same - face to face human relationships will be back in vogue again, and the internet will go back to a complimentary role at best. I would also like people to let go of the idea that the internet is Serious Business. People who live their lives on Twitter, discussing political…

The "Internet" didn't kill direct human interactions, the engagement economy did. This economy will continue to exist and continue to outcompete direct contacts as long as it remains profitable, with or without the Internet.

Re: The internet is already over (2022)

#197

Post by InSteady »

suzzer99 wrote: post #147
tivert wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Like this site, one of the highest signal to noise ratios on the internet because no one has any incentive to game it. There's tons of incentive to game it. If it wasn't, why would all kinds of startups and tech companies have alert bots and slack channels implemented to allow their employees to swoop in and participate in HN threads that are relevant to their marketing interests? IIRC, the one's who've come clean…

I guess I just avoid those threads but stick to the science, history and programming threads.

Same. We have simply learned to filter the noise. It helps around here that the noise takes on a similar and easily recognizable form in most cases.

Re: The internet is already over (2022)

#198

Post by account42 »

Akronymus wrote: post #164
weitendorf wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Small private communities are contrary to some of the most important, biggest promises of the Internet (and the web): that it would be open and really big. It was supposed to be a place where some kid in rural Africa with only 8 years of schooling could learn how to be a software developer, or where people could naturally find and join communities too small to have a local presence (eg people really into collecting v…

> Small private communities are contrary to some of the most important, biggest promises of the Internet (and the web): that it would be open and really big. The many forums that existed fulfilled both of those. Open to read for anyone, really big in aggregate and mostly small and private communities of participants.

Some of them even still exist.

Re: The internet is already over (2022)

#199

Post by account42 »

_heimdall wrote: post #182
leovingi wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>so many people who thought 5G caused corona literally nobody thought this, perhaps except a handful of oddballs. If you want to make your case for describing the state of the internet, please avoid nonsense exaggerations like this.

A coworker of mine tried to convince me of this during the pandemic. I guess she realized I was a bit more antic establishment than normal and thought I'd like that hypothesis. It was a small minority, but there were (and are) absolutely people who believed this. They also usually explain it poorly, I think their idea really is that 5G radio signals caused disease but it gets morphed into a claim that 5G somehow crea…

Ok but then how is this relevant? Crazy uncles have existed long before the Internet.

Re: The internet is already over (2022)

#200

Post by p5a0u9l »

account42 wrote: post #195
dyauspitr wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is probably an even worse “platitude”. Most people go with the flow so if you’re immersed in a lot of bigotry, you will probably end up being a bigot eventually. Then it just spreads, especially if you couple the bigotry with humor. Bigotry is tribalism and seems naturally engrained so it’s something you have to actively resist.

> This is probably an even worse “platitude”. Most people go with the flow so if you’re immersed in a lot of wokism, you will probably end up being woke eventually. Then it just spreads, especially if you couple the wokism with humor. Wokism is tribalism and seems naturally engrained so it’s something you have to actively resist. Funny how well a simple word replacement can work.

Assuming you’re serious and not just trolling - what even is wokism, aside from a name thrown at people you disagree with? Bigotry is a known, studied phenomenon. Are you saying there is not a natural tendency to prefer one’s own kind and mistrust foreigners? Are you saying that groupthink respects no particular ideology?
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