You're viewing a single thread.
We're about a year away from people just abandoning the Internet as useless. Usenet Redux
Just think of how much worse things have gotten in the last few months, and project it out on an exponential curve
I'm not sure what really stops AI spam from following people into something like Usenet, at least in a way that's not NSA-friendly or making self-doxxing a prerequisite for write access.
Usenet was an example of a previous service that got so choked with bullshit that it effectively died, not a positive suggestion
The thing I can't decide is whether the exodus will start from people most plugged in and who can see how shitty the Internet really is or from people least plugged in and who have nothing to lose from quitting.
i imagine some combo of both. since i deleted myself off of all the big social media platforms, the only people who don't regard me as a total weirdo are the crunchies who hate screens and the people with very high IT competency. these people, at the tails of the bell curve, are like, "that's smart." it's the people in the middle who are irritated they can't like my likes or see where i went to high school.
the 'net junkies will hang on until the bitter end. can't even properly quit twitter
Good point. I think a better question would be whether the exodus will start from:
-
normal people quitting because they have too much real life bullshit on their plate and don't want more bullshit to deal with
-
some subculture centered around how much the Internet sucks putting their subculture's ethos into practice by quitting
-
In the future—not the distant future, but ten years, five—people will remember the internet as a brief dumb enthusiasm, like phrenology or the dirigible. They might still use computer networks to send an email or manage their bank accounts, but those networks will not be where culture or politics happens. The idea of spending all day online will seem as ridiculous as sitting down in front of a nice fire to read the phone book. Soon, people will find it incredible that for several decades all our art was obsessed with digital computers: all those novels and films and exhibitions about tin cans that make beeping noises, handy if you need to multiply two big numbers together, but so lifeless, so sexless, so grey synthetic glassy bugeyed spreadsheet plastic drab. And all your smug chortling over the people who failed to predict our internetty present—if anyone remembers it, it’ll be with exactly the same laugh.
https://samkriss.substack.com/p/the-internet-is-already-over?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2
