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I think I hate the internet

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Re: I think I hate the internet

#141

Post by pjc50 »

pmdr wrote: post #96
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…

> Bluesky was a decent little community for a minute. I found it interesting before the mass-exodus from Twitter/X. Now it's mostly politics and negativity. Not much different in that regard from X, just at the other end of the political spectrum. X still has, for me at least, most of the relevant accounts.

Really this is the problem: the internet has enabled the global Hater community, who come together and find common cause in their hate, and that radiates outwards into everywhere else. Even if you're trying to define your place as "not that", it is influenced simply by trying to be negatively defined.

Not even specific to a type of Hate. Obviously it's the "big Hates" which are dangerous (and can get people killed), but even the "small Hates" such as "pop star gets cancelled for wearing the wrong outfit" or whatever nonsense is going on in kpop fandom are annoying.

Re: I think I hate the internet

#142

Post by pjc50 »

alexgieg wrote: post #59
alex1138 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know why? Because Acton and Koum arranged the carrier deals prior to the acquisition. That's what Zuckerberg bought, to enlargen his war chest. It's not his product, it's something he effectively stole

True, but here things went a little differently. Carriers here charged per SMS sent, and had plans with things like "includes 100 messages per month for free!!!" and extra SMS packages sold at a discount compared to the standard price, even years after they had began providing Internet (2G at the time). People sought cheaper alternatives, and for a while several messaging apps were used, but WhatsApp was so convenien…

Yeah, I think people forget that before the internet there was the telcos. They had a "microtransaction" infrastructure, and they were determined to use it by gatekeeping everything. The power of the internet making almost everything almost free has been hugely net positive, although not without a few downsides.

Re: I think I hate the internet

#143

Post by classictraffic »

karmakaze wrote: post #132

Seems like a random rant to me. > What is the internet now to me? In many ways it’s something that I have to tolerate to do many things that functioned fine before. I have to use an app to pay for parking. I need to create an online account to pay for a family swim at the local leisure centre. I have to submit an online form to book a slot at the local recycling centre. I need an app to check my bank and credit card…

> Seems like a random rant to me

I think this applies to all personal blog posts

Re: I think I hate the internet

#144

Post by fyredge »

vaylian wrote: post #117
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…

The internet would be a lot poorer, if all users had to be identified. I really appreciate it when people tell their personal stories and talk about how they have overcome crises. Anonymity empowers people to help others by sharing life lessons. Those same life lessons would be very harmful for the reputation of the internet user, if they had to be posted with the user's real name. Not everyone has a life that is all…

I completely understand and actually agree with your stance. Consider this, the personal blog we love reading can remain anonymous, because it is private in the sense that it is ostensibly the writings of a single person, it is not a platform.

To bring it back to analog, newspapers are platforms, where journalists are identified members of the public and can be held accountable for their words.

If you would like more personal stories, by all means, search for the personal blog online and share them with your friends privately. But if you share it on a public platform like HN, you are making an editorial decision that this is worth sharing to the masses and thus should be scrutinized.

Re: I think I hate the internet

#145

Post by baggachipz »

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…

> Reddit is on some absolute mission to make the experience miserable

Lemmy/Piefed are a pretty good approximation of the "old" reddit: community of people you remember, geek-centered for the most part, better discussion. It fills the void for me, and there's no algorithm to monetize or incentive for advertising. Well worth the few bucks a month I give my server admin.

Re: I think I hate the internet

#146

Post by voakbasda »

donatj wrote: post #129
mrhottakes wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, looking around at society today it's obvious the main problem is the government trying too hard and passing too much legislation.

I mean I do think regulatory capture is at least in part what's allowed corporations to conquer the web

Everything. It is what allows corporations to conquer everything.

Re: I think I hate the internet

#147

Post by anal_reactor »

bodash wrote: post #125

Like how Maduro kidnapped from Venezuela affected RuneScapes[1], maybe our dislikes of internet today is just a reflection of the reality itself. [1]: https://youtube.com/shorts/3D6LRLwraLg

Can you summary the video? I cannot change the audio track and the AI dubbing makes my gut bacteria cry.

Re: I think I hate the internet

#148

Post by iso1631 »

tao_oat wrote: post #70
alex1138 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know why? Because Acton and Koum arranged the carrier deals prior to the acquisition. That's what Zuckerberg bought, to enlargen his war chest. It's not his product, it's something he effectively stole

> effectively stole Could you say more about this? I'm not very familiar with the WhatsApp acquisition, or necessarily happy about it, but at first glance I don't see what part would come anywhere close to theft.

Zuck paid billions to buy it.

It almost all collapsed because of an airmiles ticket which couldn't be changed.

Re: I think I hate the internet

#149

Post by voakbasda »

fyredge wrote: post #144
vaylian wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The internet would be a lot poorer, if all users had to be identified. I really appreciate it when people tell their personal stories and talk about how they have overcome crises. Anonymity empowers people to help others by sharing life lessons. Those same life lessons would be very harmful for the reputation of the internet user, if they had to be posted with the user's real name. Not everyone has a life that is all…

I completely understand and actually agree with your stance. Consider this, the personal blog we love reading can remain anonymous, because it is private in the sense that it is ostensibly the writings of a single person, it is not a platform. To bring it back to analog, newspapers are platforms, where journalists are identified members of the public and can be held accountable for their words. If you would like more…

If the blog is publicly published, so the author should be unmasked.

Identification schemes would be fine if there were never abused, but every single instance of them has been abused in the past. There is zero reason to believe it will it be different on the internet.

Are you familiar with how the DMCA gets abused? Do you really believe that bad actors will not find similar ways to abuse an identification system?

Re: I think I hate the internet

#150

Post by anal_reactor »

mancerayder wrote: post #126

This Internet experience has convinced me that intelligent people need a safe place separate from everyone else. I grew up on BBSes as a kid, a sort of hateful misfit, and learned to write, code and made friends I still know today. Local message forums and meetups, and FIDOnet and other distributed message forums for the wider reach. It took effort to even learn what these were, much less use them. As a kid computer…

HN is for me the last bastion. And I wholeheartedly agree that intelligent people should have their own separate space from the rest. I used to be a very progressive guy "everyone deserves equal chances" but the older I get, the more elitist I become.
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