I rand across this post on Reddit, by a 24yr individual who claims that the internet has become passé & outdated. That they are basically “over it.”
After thinking about it for sometime, part of me has to agree.
Other than reading the news (which is pretty crazy these days, anyways) I somehow feel that the excitement of the internet is GONE. I mean, I like being able to connect to the people & being able to have access to useful information, but, other than that, nothing really excites me about it.
What do you guys think? I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on this.
I see it as a tendency, and I have a personal opinion:
We became a virtual product.
Society is much faster and more complex, and we humans can’t follow that powerful rhythm.
The current censorship on social media limits general critical thinking and questioning, conditioning the new generation to the trends. The algorithms only show “good things,” creating almost a dystopian reality. On the other side, I never saw so much hate and “canceling” the life of someone with a few clicks.
With a few exceptions, everything you visit creates a direct and indirect advertisement spiral.
We are on the side of someone and scrolling a display seeing their “profile” and liking it, trying to get updated so they can start a conversation. We see landscapes through a display. BTW, of course, it is the individual choice and freedom, but it is bizarre for me to pay +1000$ for a device whose main feature is an “island.”
Main point: There is a lack of balance at the moment. I’m afraid of the future consequences of it. Perhaps, the recent internet model is becoming obsolete ironically by the fault of those (big techs and partners) who created a monster they will not control.
I had a read of that Reddit post and it sounds like the author is saying that they think social media, specifically, is tired. It sounds like the are conflating the whole of the Internet with social media.
Personally, I don’t use social media, but from what I understand, most of the social media platforms use algorithms to profile users and then feed users content based on the profile of the user that the algorithm has determined. I guess that this would mean the once the algorithm on a social media platform has finished “putting a user in a box” so to speak, it will just keep feeding the user the same kind of content each day. Could this be happening to the author of this Reddit post? Could the algorithms on each social media platform that the author uses be putting them in, more or less, the same box and thus feeding them the same sort of content?
@user1 I also got that feeling from this poster. However, as I thought about my own experience with the internet, I kinda got the feeling that FOR ME, it’s gone BEYOND social media.
I don’t see the internet as something fun & exciting- the way I saw it in the 90s.
I see the internet a more of a UTILITY, something I have to use to get certain things done.
In that way, the INTERNET has lost it’s charm for me. It’s just there the way electricity is there. The way my dishwasher is there. It’s just something I use to make things easier on myself. I’m not excited to use it. It’s just there.
I hate to say it, but I feel pretty similarly. I still have an ideal of “the internet” as I used to experience it, and I won’t say the feeling is gone forever, but for me right now, the internet is almost entirely a utility. I correspond with friends by email (though not even as much as I used to!) and drop in on the occasional forum to talk about how the love is gone, and other than that, it’s 100% a work tool. As a utility, I love it. As a source of news and entertainment, it barely exists for me anymore. I have less than zero interest in social media or having my interests sorted by an algorithm - and I know that’s not all there is out there, but I don’t have the drive to explore right now that I had 20 years ago.
These days, zines have started to take over some of the fun and function of the old internet for me - I get Xereography Debt, a review of mostly personal zines, and find my fascinating glimpses of other lives that way.
Driving in a car used to be a thrilling weekend adventure, and now it’s just what you do to get to the grocery store. That doesn’t mean the car wasn’t a world-changing invention, but it does mean it’s harder to appreciate it than it was in 1906.
@theflipside That speaks to me. It’s just not exciting anymore.
This summer, a friend of mine sent me a PHYSICAL postcard from her travels & I swear up & down, that was one of the highlights of the last few months.
I guess I can say, analog, traditional things excite me more now, than the internet.
Now that I think about it, most of the stuff from the 1990s is still on the Internet, there’s just a lot of other stuff on the Internet now which is just not fun. Social media for example, and all of the other web sites and platforms that are operated by large multinational corporations. It almost makes me wonder if anyone has compiled a list of all of the fun stuff that’s still on the Internet.
I find with electrical and radio frequency sensitivity, the less time I am interacting with internet based devices the better for my health, and by extension, the less time I spend on the internet, the better for me. I feel the frequencies of the internet in general have changed significantly in recent years, some are more ‘addictive’ than before and also with the control and censorship that is rife at present, some websites are simply ‘no go’ zones for me. I have removed my products and business from the internet almost completely and am working on personal interactions in the future - marketing by word of mouth, encouraging face to face interactions. For me, this next period is about coming out of ‘virtual’ zones of the internet and engaging with the world, with people, with my environment in meaning, mindful, compassionate ways…
@galtions Thanks for sharing this. I agree with you. I think slowly people are realizing that living completely online is not the way that humanity can meaningfully move forward.
Same! I have a specific film camera I adore and I get so excited every time I use it. Taking photos with a phone? The magic is gone. I have old photos on my iphone where I’d literally just take photos of things around the house because I was so stunned by the new technology.
I also read in a book recently about how taking photos (pre-smartphone) used to be a thing for special occasions. That really stuck with me – imagine having to develop as much film as we take on smartphones these days, haha.
The internet has its uses and is convenient, but at a certain point enough is enough, and nowadays I ask do I really need to know this right now (or ever). It is just too much information and noise.
Since cutting down drastically on information consumption (news, social media feeds, even time chatting and sharing pics with family), I don’t feel like I’ve been missing out on anything, as I’d initially thought I would. I just feel like I have gained so much more, especially time and energy.
There sure are still places that develop film! Before I moved away from North Carolina a few months ago I worked at a photo shop which develops and sells all kinds of film, both 35 mm and medium format! Most medium and large cities, at least in the U.S., have at least one place that does it locally, and they often take mail-in orders as well if the location isn’t convenient. You’d be surprised how many millennials and Gen Z-ers are getting into film photography!!
I would actually welcome that! Okay, maybe not writing them as much as we send email and text messages, but certainly returning to written correspondence with loved ones occasionally. I sent a friend a Rosh Hashanah card to celebrate the Jewish New Year last month and she surprised me by sending one back! There’s just something so special about getting handwritten letters that someone put effort and care into, and it would make checking the mail a lot more gratifying as we could expect more than just bills and junk.
@catan I love that you’ve brought up the topic of information overload. I’ve written about something similar:
We are constantly connected and bombarded with information, when in all honesty, our brain can only process a finite amount of data at any given moment. There come a point where it becomes completely mentally EXHAUSTING.
@grilledcheesebb This is another thing that irks me to bits & pieces. The internet has allowed EVERYONE to chime in & share their opinion on just about everything even when no one asked for it. Then they proceed to fight over those conflicting opinions. I’m in this KETO recipe group & someone posted a version of KETO chicken friend rice with cauliflower instead of rice. In the picture you could see that she used a certain brand of eggs & would you believe that they came for this poor person and dragged her for using eggs that were not 100% organic, range-free & all of that stuff. PLUS posting opinions of the business practices of the brand.
Is there any place to develop it anymore. There used to be places everywhere, but now, I don’t even know where would I take it.
