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The internet is kind of a predatory cesspit now

stephendiehl.com

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Re: The internet is kind of a predatory cesspit now

#51

Post by thot_experiment »

aktenlage wrote: post #16

This so exaggerated. If you think some of the people you know are assholes, that's fine. If you think all of them are assholes, you are either choosing the wrong places to be, or (more likely) the problem is with you.

It's written in a hyperbolic way, but I don't think your characterization is right. The author isn't saying everyone is an asshole, he's saying the systemic forces are mostly aligned in a predatory direction, and that part is absolutely true. I have a good time on Instagram despite the ways the platform is structured.

Re: The internet is kind of a predatory cesspit now

#52

Post by swed420 »

tamimio wrote: post #10

What ruined the internet is monetized social media, regardless ad driven or direct monetization. Monetization will basically ruin anything meant to be fun, even a simple board game with friends and family, if it stopped being about spending quality time and having fun and now there’s a competition of how much will each make at the end, it won’t be fun, you will see tribalism, manipulation, cheating, and other shenani…

> What ruined the internet is monetized social media, regardless ad driven or direct monetization

Agreed, and the first step ought to be a push for demonetized / citizen-owned platforms:

https://www.noemamag.com/the-last-days-of-social-media/

Note, however, that even with achieving this first step, we'll still have a platform full of profit-motivated actors, because our economies incentivize this behavior whether online or IRL.

Both problems need solving, but the first one is easier, and demonstrating its solution on a large scale could help convince everyone that it's an endeavor worth applying to all domains.

Re: The internet is kind of a predatory cesspit now

#54

Post by well_ackshually »

abixb wrote: post #40
teekert wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the opposite. The vast majority of kind and gently people are suddenly observing a small but ultra loud obnoxious minority take the stage and burn resources like nothing else to get maximum attention. Attention wins and you don’t get it by being gentle, balanced, kind and most importantly, don’t care about maximum attention.

Yes. I remember reading a piece on /r/SlateStarCodex subreddit many years that said something like, "Most of what you read on the internet is written by insane people," and that had an impact on me. In fact, many articles by Scott Alexander had an impact on me, though I don't know what he's up to these days. Okay, found it -- https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/9rvroo/most... Edit: It was written in Octo…

And the SlateStarCodex people are also, for the vast majority, batshit insane people behind a veil of "no but you see i'm a rationalist". That includes Scotty.

Re: The internet is kind of a predatory cesspit now

#55

Post by gilleain »

teekert wrote: post #29
operatingthetan wrote: post #9

My feeling is that the current state of the internet is just exposing how humans behave normally, the guardrails have just fallen away. Everyone is immune to shame, the threat of consequences etc. You see this in real life on the streets too.

I think the opposite. The vast majority of kind and gently people are suddenly observing a small but ultra loud obnoxious minority take the stage and burn resources like nothing else to get maximum attention. Attention wins and you don’t get it by being gentle, balanced, kind and most importantly, don’t care about maximum attention.

There is the saying "the empty vessel makes the loudest noise". This was part of the reason I eventually left Reddit, as I was getting sucked in to the habit of making empty meme-like responses to posts.

Some of the worst places for comments I've seen are on youtube - just the lowest effort ("who is listening to this in 2026?!") or the most obnoxious, or just misunderstood. Partly this is because of voting systems combined with large numbers of people. Partly because of bots I suppose.

Re: The internet is kind of a predatory cesspit now

#56

Post by oh_my_goodness »

aktenlage wrote: post #16

This so exaggerated. If you think some of the people you know are assholes, that's fine. If you think all of them are assholes, you are either choosing the wrong places to be, or (more likely) the problem is with you.

>This so exaggerated

No, it's just what's happening online.

>If you think some of the people you know are assholes, that's fine. If you think all of them are assholes,

Wrong thread? Doesn't seem to correspond to anything in the article.

Re: The internet is kind of a predatory cesspit now

#57

Post by [deleted] »

demritocracy wrote: post #18

I saw a video of a doctor answering a call and the caller started saying some strange hate/concensus-pushing message about Jews hating people who hate Jews in a very angry tone. Neither the doctor nor the commenters suggested it was AI, but it certainly sounded like it. I got a flash of a future where every telemarketer call is either an angry voice ready to convince you of something, or the gender you like trying to…

[deleted]

Re: The internet is kind of a predatory cesspit now

#58

Post by dumberquestions »

shuwix wrote: post #25

Internet didn't change, it's population did. It's 8 billion potential victims and all bit more sophisticated thieves under one roof. Can't blame Internet. People which were scammed "offline" are now scammed online.

The internet is the people using it, if many of its users have come up with more effective ways to exploit the rest than the internet has become a worse place.

Re: The internet is kind of a predatory cesspit now

#60

Post by trudler »

tl;dr: The internet is the thing that needs the most attention when educating your kids.

I get a lot of value from the internet. I fell for some traps (instagram, facebook with very little value but lots of wasted energy) that I mostly got rid of.

But I have many products I am very happy about, that I got to know through other people on the internet.

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