Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I think I hate the internet

strategictree.bearblog.dev

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 158 posts

Re: I think I hate the internet

#81

Post by herunan »

I think we're reaching a level of maturity in tech that makes us question it for the same reasons it's great.

I think it's healthy for a society to question everything, as long as it doesn't get us stuck, but rather helps us conciously choose our path. We have more options than ever.

I used to be on social media all the time and always want the next shiny thing in tech. And I enjoyed that. But now I can choose to not be on social media and be on a basic iPhone mini. And I'm enjoying that now. All is to reiterate: we can choose our path, and that applies to many verticals.

Re: I think I hate the internet

#82

Post by herunan »

72deluxe wrote: post #65
JKCalhoun wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. But it didn't used to be as pervasive or hateful.

It did. The Internet has always had awful views on it, because it was used by humanity, who also had awful views on things. What is a hatred of the Internet seems to be a hatred of humanity or at least its ability to freely express itself. The solution is to reduce the noise, in much a way someone 100 years ago would only visit clubs or establishments they enjoyed.

So true. I think the problem is not that there's more or less hate. I remember forums and chats with awful stuff.

The problem are the algorithms that put us into buckets and benefit from divisions.

Re: I think I hate the internet

#83

Post by donatj »

I've been trying to come to terms with the modern internet just not being for me. It's honestly taken a bit of emotional processing, growing up a very lonely teen in the late 90s the internet was a haven and a lifeline. It's where I met a number of my current friends. It was my community.

The modern internet and especially social media is just... bizarre.

I open Facebook and it's all videos of body horror bullshit because I linger on them because my brain can't help but stare. I open X and it's all engagement bait from major creators I don't give a damn about. I can switch to the Following tab and it's a lot of political opinions I'd just rather not hear about.

Bluesky was a decent little community for a minute. I was having old internet fun. And then it just died, I don't know. All the energy left the room.

Hacker News and my very curated Reddit are about all I even use the internet for these days, and Reddit is on some absolute mission to make the experience miserable.

There was a very popular thread on here the other day basically talking about how these modern algorithms are the product, and how they're actually great and everyone loves them despite denying it... I'm just like is my brain so alien? I actively want and desire these services to be interesting or fun to use and they're just... not. They're boring.

There's nothing I want to see, so I don't use them anymore. It's not a leave Meta/X/etc in a huff like some of my more reactionary friends. It's just I don't even think to open them anymore because there's nothing worth my time.

Re: I think I hate the internet

#84

Post by wikiiiisksklhll »

whstl wrote: post #79
seanclayton wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What seems more likely: There are literally zero people working on a web alternative, or all existing alternatives and forks are so unpopular that you have never heard of any of them?

I think the more likely reason is that there's nothing wrong with the web per se, but rather with the way people use it. Even the argument against the Javascript/CSS/APIs explosion and browser complexity... all that can be "avoided" if you make a JS-less document-centric webpage, for example.

The issue is not that the web is bad for content producers, the issue is that it’s bad for content consumers. Consumers doesn’t do create the content (like js) that they are consuming.

Re: I think I hate the internet

#85

Post by halsafar »

fyredge wrote: post #58
raincole wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that's why we should deanonymizing the internet. Everyone should need a government-issued license to access websites. That's exactly what the modern society needs. (in case it's not super obvious, /s)

But why not? I want to make the distinction on public and private speech. In the physical world, no one should ever have their private speech scrutinized, that's why there are laws banning covert recording. But in public, speech is very much moderated. We don't allow hate speech and we don't allow harassment of others. Social media is a public platform. We can't enforce moderation if we can't identify the abuser, the…

Not all internet usage would be deemed public.

Social media sure.

What about what you watch on PornHub? Should that be tied directly to your government ID?

I know that's an easy one to cherry pick but just consider all you use the internet for and how an adversarial governmenft could use some of that info.

Personally I'd love to see all social media corps required to verify ID but leave the rest of the internet alone.

Re: I think I hate the internet

#86

Post by hypfer »

halsafar wrote: post #85
fyredge wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why not? I want to make the distinction on public and private speech. In the physical world, no one should ever have their private speech scrutinized, that's why there are laws banning covert recording. But in public, speech is very much moderated. We don't allow hate speech and we don't allow harassment of others. Social media is a public platform. We can't enforce moderation if we can't identify the abuser, the…

Not all internet usage would be deemed public. Social media sure. What about what you watch on PornHub? Should that be tied directly to your government ID? I know that's an easy one to cherry pick but just consider all you use the internet for and how an adversarial governmenft could use some of that info. Personally I'd love to see all social media corps required to verify ID but leave the rest of the internet alone…

And that's how you get Minecraft letsplays on PornHub.

Interesting question though, because IRL, before the internet, there was also ID verification to access that kind of content. And that was actually worse, because the person checking your ID lived in your city and could see you buying groceries.

I suppose what you would want there is a verification mechanism that proves that you're an adult, but gives absolutely no info on which adult you are.

This - to my understanding - is possible with the technology we have. But whether that will actually be what happens remains to be seen.

Re: I think I hate the internet

#87

Post by macintux »

sakjur wrote: post #53
jiraiyasarutobi wrote: post #36

Internet and largely tech is a tool. How you interact with it and how pervasive it becomes to the point of genuine hate towards a tool comes largely from choices on how you interact with it.

You're affected by the choices others make too.

This is the part that I feel the “just turn it off” crowd don’t think enough about.

The algorithms helped give us the single most dysfunctional and corrupt US administration since the 1800s.

Re: I think I hate the internet

#88

Post by ryandvm »

donatj wrote: post #83

I've been trying to come to terms with the modern internet just not being for me. It's honestly taken a bit of emotional processing, growing up a very lonely teen in the late 90s the internet was a haven and a lifeline. It's where I met a number of my current friends. It was my community. The modern internet and especially social media is just... bizarre. I open Facebook and it's all videos of body horror bullshit be…

We need legislation that requires all platforms to support a mandatory "algorithm opt out". News, social media, shopping, chatbots, everything - they all become far less predatory and addictive if there's no user stats driving the presentation.

Sure your online experience would become boring and, horror of horrors, less profitable, but at least you wouldn't have to be googling anti-depressants in between your customized bursts of dopamine.

Re: I think I hate the internet

#89

Post by beanjuiceII »

ryandvm wrote: post #88
donatj wrote: post #83

I've been trying to come to terms with the modern internet just not being for me. It's honestly taken a bit of emotional processing, growing up a very lonely teen in the late 90s the internet was a haven and a lifeline. It's where I met a number of my current friends. It was my community. The modern internet and especially social media is just... bizarre. I open Facebook and it's all videos of body horror bullshit be…

We need legislation that requires all platforms to support a mandatory "algorithm opt out". News, social media, shopping, chatbots, everything - they all become far less predatory and addictive if there's no user stats driving the presentation. Sure your online experience would become boring and, horror of horrors, less profitable, but at least you wouldn't have to be googling anti-depressants in between your customi…

please no more legislation, especially for 'thing i dont like'

Re: I think I hate the internet

#90

Post by leonidasrup »

roenxi wrote: post #6

> The internet was about connection, but the way I see it, it’s become a great way for bad actors to... There seems to be a profound confusion somewhere in here that people come with an evil bit and we're going to toggle technology so that those people can't use it and everyone else can. Y'know, racists use cars to drive to their racist conventions or whatever. On publicly funded roads. Possibly with time freed up by…

Fritz_Haber, his inventions killed millions and his invention (Haber–Bosch process) helps to produce food for billions.

" It is estimated that a third of annual global food production uses ammonia from the Haber–Bosch process, and that this food supports nearly half the world's population. "

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Haber

" Ammonia production is a highly energy intensive process consuming around 1.8% of global energy output each year (steam methane reforming accounts for over 80% of the energy required) and producing as a result about 500 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (about 1.8% of global carbon dioxide emissions) "

https://royalsociety.org/news-resources/projects/low-carbon-...

Post reply on HN