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If you log off and look around you, a disturbing trend you may notice about the world around you is that slowly but surely, the world is growing more online for all the wrong reasons and many analog ways of life are slowly being replaced by the newer, online ways, even for something as simple as purchasing tickets to an event. Turn on the TV and prepare to see some stupid Instacart advertisements encouraging you to order groceries online instead of simply getting dressed, leaving the house, and making a trip to an actual grocery store. And if you walk into a store that sells groceries, you may find that many of the human cashiers are being replaced by automated self checkouts.
Remember when the internet was a place where you could actually connect with people online via message boards, chat rooms/IMs, and early social media sites like LiveJournal, Xanga, and MySpace (as opposed to the algorithmic based social media sites of today that try to divide us and discourage actual discussions and connectivity and even normalizing such a disconnect)? Even if you don't, you are likely still aware of how much better the web was prior to the 2010s as a user of this site in the days before exploitative algorithms and when people would still log off and balance their online lives with their offline ones.
Hell, even early YouTube was radically different back then than it is now in terms of the types of videos people would make and the software they'd use to edit videos together or create lyric videos (everyone can spot a 2008 video edited together with Windows Movie Maker from a mile away). YouTube nowadays is a complete shell of what it once was, both in terms of the way the site looks/functions and even the way most YouTubers nowadays edit their videos that feature way too many jump cuts and just feel so... fake, especially in comparison with the old school vlogs that people would record on their digicams that have a soul to them and don't feel like AI generated garbage (although, speaking of which, is unfortunately now an actual epidemic on YouTube nowadays).
The internet of the 90s and 2000s and the internet of the 2010s and 2020s is almost like the difference between night and day. I hate the current state of the web and how many face to face human interactions that people once took for granted are now being replaced so unnecessarily by the internet and by stupid robots even. It really makes you wonder how we could've allowed ourselves as a society to have so easily devolved into this and continue to allow this to happen, to where the internet is currently run by the conglomerates of Silicon Valley for the conglomerates of Silicon Valley and feels a lot less free or fun than it once did in the days before normal human interactions and even creativity started being suppressed by these billionaires just so that the same handful of people would be able to line and fatten their pockets in some of the dirtiest and most unethical ways possible with little to no regard on the negative consequences of this. It's no wonder as to why we're facing an epidemic of loneliness in this current decade, and it's a shame too, given how things didn't have to be this way.
And while I'm at it, I HATE how society is becoming so gentrified in a way to where not only are people expected to own a smartphone, but also how things are intentionally being made difficult for us neo-Luddites who reject those addictive giant slabs of glass. and how ignorant society has become over those of us who just want to live simpler, less hectic lives the way people used to live. I'm so sick and tired of seeing these "QR code" things instead of seeing direct web addresses/links at the very fucking least. >:(
Finally, I want to also take the time to remind anyone who is reading my blog to take breaks from the internet, even if it's just for a few hours a day (remember that the internet should be used in moderation when possible) and to leave the house during some of your spare time if you're able to and practice living in the moment the way people used to do on a more regular basis. Maybe also get some offline hobbies and spend some time with friends/family face to face as well and dedicate some of your spare time to doing those things. I also personally like to do things like print out digital tickets onto paper, pay for my items at the store using a human staffed checkout (even when I only have 1 item), refusing to use these generative A"I" sites/programs, and to dial up a number and call for a pizza the old fashioned way instead of ordering it online. I am living out my life to the fullest and am doing my part in trying to slow down the crisis of diminishing human connectivity and the crisis of automation. I'd highly encourage everyone reading this to do the same before it's too late.
Signing off.
Comments
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Jammer439y8
Oh my goodness, I thought that I was the only one who hated the fact that everyone is expected to have a "smart" phone these days.
This is one of the best blog posts I've ever seen, and completely reflects my feelings towards the addiction-fueled nightmare that is the modern Internet.
I received an old landline phone as a gift a few years ago but I can't use it because my house doesn't have a phone port, and even if there was one, my parents would discourage me from plugging it in because of the amount of spam calls we used to get, and to that I say, so?
austin
i think about this all the time
crimson
on a similar note: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FExnXCEAe6k
people need other people, i 100% agree with you