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The fun has been optimized out of the Internet

muddy.jprs.me

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Re: The fun has been optimized out of the Internet

#121

Post by Based-A »

magicmicah85 wrote: post #83

The old internet was a more homogenous society, social outcasts and technically capable people who liked interacting with computers. The content was more relatable because it was created by similar types of people. Now the internet is for everyone so the content is for everybody. It's too easy to blame the algorithms when the algorithms are a necessary evil. TikTok has millions of videos uploaded per day. You are not…

> It's too easy to blame the algorithms when the algorithms are a necessary evil. TikTok has millions of videos uploaded per day. You are not going to sort through all of those on your own.

I don't necessarily think that people have an issue with the algorithms themselves, more so that all of the platforms that implement them will manipulate and alter it so that you constantly stay engaged. And that boils down to pushing ragebait, low effort clickbait, and shock content over everything else.

Now it is possible to avoid falling into this, but its not the default. If I have to actively fight to not see people dying, asinine political and cultural takes, or ai slop, then its a bad experience and I will yearn for the days when gaming let's plays and video essays were the default. Its easy to say "just don't watch it", but is it really "just" that easy when the whole platform is constantly being tweaked and optimized against the content that someone would prefer to see?

Re: The fun has been optimized out of the Internet

#124

Post by joe_mamba »

simianparrot wrote: post #119
joe_mamba wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That and also people weren't paying for Netflix, Disney+, PlayStation online, ChatGPT+, etc Edit: Also people were having more kids back then and earlier in life, so they had less time for hobbies and "finding one's self", they'd be busy with their kids and work. The bored DINKS with free time looking for hobbies is a relatively recent phenomenon in western societies (10-15 years).

Nobody needs to pay for any of that

Says who? Please define your definition of the word "needs" here in this context.

With this logic, nobody also "needs" to buy a Ford F-250 Super Duty, a MacBook Pro M5, an RTX 5090, a recreational boat, drink Starbucks daily, etc if your definition of "needs" is just limited to day survival meaning just providing food and shelter but nothing more, and yet people buy them anyway, because it's entertainment, not because they need them to survive.

People will still want escapism and entertainment ESPECIALLY when their lives suck, like in times of economic depression, be it cigarettes, booze, junk food, porn, games, gambling, movies and TV shows, etc, even if you think people don't "need" them. This is how people function. It's scientifically documented.

Re: The fun has been optimized out of the Internet

#125

Post by micromacrofoot »

doodlebugging wrote: post #43
micromacrofoot wrote: post #12

the fun is still there, it's just harder to find because of all the shit burying it

The juice may not be worth the squeeze when there isn't much reward for finding the single golden kernel that has somehow survived the enshittification.

true, but always people around who just squeeze for the fun of it

Re: The fun has been optimized out of the Internet

#126

Post by pragma_x »

A vantage point from a very long time ago: The big social media services are pining for the days of CompuServe and Prodigy.

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CompuServe - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prodigy_(online_service)

Old, pre-internet AOL is also in the same category.

These are what I refer to as "walled garden" services, that existed up to and (for a short time) through the commericialization of the net in the early 1990's. They offered built-in private services for chat, news, forums, games, etc. As direct competitors, they had an interest in keeping their userbase coming back to just what they were offering, and how they offered it. They also fell by the wayside for cost-competitive (free) online services that offered broader and more interesting stuff.

Anyway, we're circling back to this. Big companies like Meta have a vested interest in locking folks in and keeping them blind to alternatives.

Bringing the fun back simply means offering something better by providing an unmet need. It worked before. Last time it was the humble web browser that broke their near-monopoly on computer-gazing eyeballs. Perhaps we need something new that's just as potent?

Re: The fun has been optimized out of the Internet

#128

Post by dogleash »

functionmouse wrote: post #2

I agree, but it's been said by all... make homebrew software for an old Nintendo console pick up cross stitching or weaving make an independent film with a friend; use stuff from your kitchen as props find a borderline functional instrument at your local thrift store write a 1 page short story in pen it's not enough anymore to merely criticize this bad time we're having

A: "The vibe at my favorite bar has changed"

B: "You are still perfectly capable of having fun in life"

I don't really get how B follows from A. B is true, but A wasn't implying not-B.

Re: The fun has been optimized out of the Internet

#129

Post by opto »

armchairhacker wrote: post #67
fragmede wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you balance that with the need for money to afford things in life though? There's a lot of things I could go do if I didn't have to think about bills to pay.

How did they in the 1990s/2000s/2010s?

Well in the 90s and early 2000s you really could make money as a small local artist in a niche genre. Think of the people who could cut 500 white labels of their new UK Garage tune and reasonably expect to sell them from the back of their car and turn a decent profit on it.

The ability to be a small time artist, musician, etc and live in the 90s depended on the combined effects of technology and local organisations. You could play on pirate radio, you could go on benefits without too much hassle, you could stay at a squat, you could make your own physical products cheaply, there were lots of venues to play at, you could sell your products for cash and keep it.

The internet makes the distribution of music files cheap and easy, but combined with the increased technologising of society, the rest of the infrastructure that made the 90s a time where culture felt like it was on an e-rush with everyone else have fallen apart.

Re: The fun has been optimized out of the Internet

#130

Post by BLKNSLVR »

The internet is just a 'means'; the medium through which an 'end' is reached.

The internet has, to some, become a place. But what these people don't realise is that this place is just the medium, so it's not going to 'do anything' for you passively, you have use it to find an 'ends', rather than just sitting there waiting for the phone to ring or the art to draw itself.

I'm doing the same right now. I should be sleeping but I'm sitting in the medium of HN waiting for distraction to come to me, rather than pursuing my own active goals.

Good night, go and find your 'ends' stop waiting for false ones to come to you.

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