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I don't enjoy the Internet any more

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Re: I don't enjoy the Internet any more

#51

Post by ColdStream »

rswail wrote: post #45

I've been on the "internet" since before there was one, back in 1984-6 when bang paths were email addresses and DNS hadn't been invented yet. I was on one of the earliest BBSs (pre-FIDO) in Melbourne run by Peter Jetson and "Bear's Bull" running on a CDC-6000 at RMIT. It's been an "eternal September" since Prodigy & Compuserve and then AOL joined the net, Usenet started degrading, people had more then 4-line sigs wit…

I guess it might be a good example of evolution in action. Evolution benefits those that can adapt the best, not those with the most abilities.

Re: I don't enjoy the Internet any more

#52

Post by hotcrossbunny »

__MatrixMan__ wrote: post #21

The internet is fine. It's the web that sucks now. It matters, because we can build a different web without throwing out the internet. We'll have to walk away from the attention economy, that'll be a journey that each has to take singly, but we don't have to walk back to the 1980's. We can build something that works for communication, but that doesn't work for advertising: something structurally enshittificationproof…

How?

Re: I don't enjoy the Internet any more

#53

Post by ColdStream »

GPerson wrote: post #22
teekert wrote: post #7

I agree, but if we're being very honest I think the reason is just nostalgia. And I think that you can still find what you're looking for, but it's less in-your-face (as in; it's not a url on altavista.com). We're older now, being young was great, we had infinite time to roam and discover and have nice things (and our first real six-string, and trying different things and not thinking about tomorrow). The youth nowad…

Earlier today I saw that Tik Tok has 2 billion monthly active users and the average user uses it for 100 minutes a day. The app is so addictive that I feel it’s not right to say the user using it every day for 100 minutes at a time is enjoying themselves. To me this doesn’t look like an organic expression of the youth’s desire to explore and create in ways different from precious generations. 1/4th of the humans in t…

Based on that stat, if the average life time is 80 years, Tik tok burns up 4,800 lifetimes a day. (380,000 years) Ouch!

Re: I don't enjoy the Internet any more

#54

Post by ColdStream »

hotcrossbunny wrote: post #52
__MatrixMan__ wrote: post #21

The internet is fine. It's the web that sucks now. It matters, because we can build a different web without throwing out the internet. We'll have to walk away from the attention economy, that'll be a journey that each has to take singly, but we don't have to walk back to the 1980's. We can build something that works for communication, but that doesn't work for advertising: something structurally enshittificationproof…

How?

Funnily enough this is what both Medium and Substack were trying to do but both have ended up being sucked into the system.

Seems to be a universal thing, in a society that values capital as one of the highest achievements, it will co-opt anything that ends up trying to work against it and sell it back to you.

Re: I don't enjoy the Internet any more

#55

Post by asmnzxklopqw »

What I have seen is that the Internet doesn’t attract interesting people anymore and such, the time they spend creating “content” is drastically reduced compared to, let’s say 20-25 years ago. And by “content” I don’t mean tiktok or youtube shorts, but code, blogs, demos or contributing to larger projects. The dynamic is different now, people are working disconnected and from time to time they might release ready projects that previously were seeing their development cycle happening online. Otherwise, there are many projects that don’t make it on the Internet anymore.

Re: I don't enjoy the Internet any more

#56

Post by teekert »

ColdStream wrote: post #53
GPerson wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Earlier today I saw that Tik Tok has 2 billion monthly active users and the average user uses it for 100 minutes a day. The app is so addictive that I feel it’s not right to say the user using it every day for 100 minutes at a time is enjoying themselves. To me this doesn’t look like an organic expression of the youth’s desire to explore and create in ways different from precious generations. 1/4th of the humans in t…

Based on that stat, if the average life time is 80 years, Tik tok burns up 4,800 lifetimes a day. (380,000 years) Ouch!

But it's life-spent on what otherwise? I agree it's better spend creating and socializing, but will it be, if there was no tiktok? I guess socializing, yes.

Re: I don't enjoy the Internet any more

#57

Post by ColdStream »

asmnzxklopqw wrote: post #55

What I have seen is that the Internet doesn’t attract interesting people anymore and such, the time they spend creating “content” is drastically reduced compared to, let’s say 20-25 years ago. And by “content” I don’t mean tiktok or youtube shorts, but code, blogs, demos or contributing to larger projects. The dynamic is different now, people are working disconnected and from time to time they might release ready pro…

I get the point you are trying to make but I will push back on one little part. I think lots of people are putting in more time and effort than ever BUT they have become victims of 'Audience capture'. They are out to do what others want rather than what they want, and that is the death bell of a creative person.

It is no big secret, but it is said quietly, that the most popular creators online are generally fairly anxious people as they are always afraid that they could bomb their entire house of cards in a single day.

Re: I don't enjoy the Internet any more

#58

Post by Bendy »

Terr_ wrote: post #18
akersten wrote: post #4

I'm simultaneously hearing that the internet is more addicting than cigarettes to the point where multiple states are finding success levying gigantic fines on companies for having too good of a product, and also that the internet is boring and drab. Are we on two different internets? Is the author simply immune from the hypnosis of social media? Anyway, the real internet is and always has been/will be smaller forums…

> more addicting than cigarettes [...] also boring and drab That's not actually a contradiction. With addictions, it's extremely common for someone to do $THING not because of any (remotely durable) sense of happiness, but simply "to feel normal", as not-doing it feels empty or wrong or painful or intrusive. If people are feeling hopelessly stuck repeating behaviors they don't actually enjoy, that's more like evidenc…

Addiction is really boring and makes you really boring. That’s part of why it’s so terrible.

When William Burroughs was on heroin he would spend 6 hours or so a day just staring at his shoe.

Re: I don't enjoy the Internet any more

#59

Post by hhjinks »

GPerson wrote: post #22
teekert wrote: post #7

I agree, but if we're being very honest I think the reason is just nostalgia. And I think that you can still find what you're looking for, but it's less in-your-face (as in; it's not a url on altavista.com). We're older now, being young was great, we had infinite time to roam and discover and have nice things (and our first real six-string, and trying different things and not thinking about tomorrow). The youth nowad…

Earlier today I saw that Tik Tok has 2 billion monthly active users and the average user uses it for 100 minutes a day. The app is so addictive that I feel it’s not right to say the user using it every day for 100 minutes at a time is enjoying themselves. To me this doesn’t look like an organic expression of the youth’s desire to explore and create in ways different from precious generations. 1/4th of the humans in t…

Every generation has its own vilified time waster. Can I truthfully say that time spent on TikTok is worse than the 4+ hours a day I spent playing Skyrim in 2011?

Re: I don't enjoy the Internet any more

#60

Post by zippyman55 »

sibeliuss wrote: post #34

This is how I feel completely, having also grown up online all the way from BBSs onwards. I literally don't even have websites to visit any more. I get on my computer, scan hacker news for a bit, check twitter for a few minutes, scan some world news site, and thats it. I still spend a lot of time programming (and thus a lot of time on the computer) but other than that, absolutely nothing appeals. Its a wasteland in m…

Yes, I’m running out of websites that I value enough to spend my time. I have a large list for weekly and monthly reviews. I walk thru them periodically but the lists are rapidly diminishing in size
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