A place that once held so much promise now feels suffocating under the weight of its own excess seems like a good description of the internet. An endless stream of senseless, valueless content generated by bots or people hoping to farm traffic for ad revenue is overwhelming. It’s as if every pixel of the screen is monetized, every interaction sold to the highest bidder. And the result is a fragmented and noisy mess that leaves people more alienated than ever.
For instance, when googling a recipe I’m not met with just a pesto recipe, but bombarded with ads, pop-ups and two thousand words of personal stories about someone’s childhood summers at their grandma’s house before even getting to the ingredient list. Eventually, the righteous course of actions seems to go to TikTok instead, hoping to find that information in a format that doesn’t required so much emotional labor. I can’t blame anyone who does this, after all who has energy to go through all that wave of nonsense?
Also, while online shopping I’ve come to realized that what was once a convenient tool to find what I want or need has turned itself into a gauntlet of sponsored posts, counterfeit products and predatory advertising. Amazon, the once paradise of fast, cheap, and reliable goods has devolved into a shoopee-like digital landfill. Each purchase is a gamble unless you meticulously filter through reviews, sort by Prime delivery, and ultimately cross your fingers that the product you buy isn’t just a cheap knockoff from a drop-shipping scheme. And don’t get me started on the reviews… How is it possible that a product with 4.5 stars is filled with complaints like “it doesn’t work or “I haven’t tested it yet, but it came in a nice box“? This isn’t feedback: it’s noise.
Yet, I feel like digital services are now trapped in the prison of subscriptions. Everything is “netflixized“, and it’s infuriating. Sure, some things deserve to be paid for, like useful tools such as DeArrow, which de-clutters the normalized stupidity and clickbaity Youtube thumbnails. But a menu bar calendar? Apps that once cost $10 now expect a monthly fee for the supreme privilege of existing in your dock (/s). Did I inadvertently sign up for a world where every trivial app becomes an overpriced purchase?
It’s common sense to state that streaming services have also lost the plot: netflix and its gang have tripled their prices, introduced ads and pretended like people wouldn’t notice. What once was a revolutionary way to watch media now feels like cable TV with extra steps. People are turning to piracy everyday, and rightfully so. I’ve already written about it here.
Sometimes I feel like the internet is more of an antique store than a library – everything is orderly disorganized, buried under layers of disposable content that, if dig deep enough, might lead to a gem. A blog with an actual human perspective, perhaps (cough cough), a thoughtful YouTube creator not chasing the algorithm, a niche forum filled with passionate, knowledgeable people — these are the places that strike the internet as worth traversing.
And under all that, privacy has become an afterthought, it seems. Every click, every like, every search is tracked and sold, creating a digital version of yourself that corporations use to deliver a never-ending stream of personalized ads. It’s hard to escape the feeling that the internet itself is spying on you — always watching, always selling, always monetizing. The world revolves around money, we all know, and the internet only reflects this.
Stuck we are, under this cycle of curated perfection, clickbait, spam, scams, and a tremendous, unbearable amount of ads. Inundated with noise, unable to escape this chaos unless if retreated into smaller, curated bubbles that reflect back our own preferences. Do not understand this as bubble. I could spend many and many hours trying to turn this into doomsday, but it’s not like that. I’m often pragmatic, sure, but in the end I’m optimistic and say it will get better. Or it won’t. Either way, we’re stuck. Visit my ko-fi page if you agree. If you don’t, double it and pass it onto the next person.
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