The death of the internet: why the future is terrifying, and how we fix it

Date:
Sun, 10 Nov 2024 17:00:00 +0000

Description:
Were living in a slowly degrading echo-chamber of AI, ads, and profits

FULL STORY ======================================================================

The internet is in a precarious place. Its assaulted from all sides - not by technological problems, but by social ones. Misinformation is rife, marketing and advertising covers every facet of the web, and armies of politicized and automated bots roam the wilds of its social media landscapes, all of which
are filtered down to you through carefully curated algorithmic posts designed to induce endorphin kicks and keep you on your platform of choice. Right now, everything is changing, and not necessarily for the better.

For many of us, looking back 10 or 20 years, the 'world wide web' looked radically different in that golden age. The social media platforms, the communities, the gaming landscape, the knowledge and accessibility, the shopping - all of it felt different, and it was different. This goes beyond rose-tinted glasses. The companies that joined into the foray were
incredible, almost revolutionary. Spotify, Netflix, Amazon, Facebook,
Twitter, and Uber: all remarkably impressive, market-upsetting ideas that
broke the mold. They drew in masses of customers, users, and consumers with awesome features and affordable pricing.

Yet over time, those same features and costs have gotten predominantly worse for the average Joe, as the companies have scooped out the investment in the middle for the sake of greater margins. This usually occurs once they become publicly-traded entities; driven by shares, investors, and board members clamoring for greater profits rather than the ideals and concepts that
founded them.

A digital world in decline

The same sadly goes for the scientific endeavors too. Educational tools and access to information are equally falling apart. So much of the information
out there has now been muddied and diluted by TikTok Reels and YouTube Shorts in their thousands, spewing forth all manner of falsehoods from anyone who
can pick up a phone and film a 60-second clip. Flat-earthers, fitness and
diet influencers, climate-change deniers, moon-landing hoaxers, political activists on both sides of the spectrum, so-called journalists pandering to clickbait, you name it. Its increasingly difficult to identify whats real and whats not, whats true fact and what isnt. Its partly why Google changes its search ranking algorithms so often, as it continually tries to promote
correct and accurate information over AI-regurgitated content and misinformation. Millions of people filming themselves dancing probably isn't what the founding fathers of the internet had in mind.

Were in a world of demagogues and social media personalities, where your
reach and the number of views on your content dictate whether youre taken seriously or not. Whether your facts and statements are taken as truth. We
saw it during COVID, we saw it during the US elections, we saw it with the
war in Ukraine, and the recent UK riots. It isnt slowing down either, and the impact it has is arguably getting worse.

We even have services now that capitalize on that too. Ground news, collating all the media together to give you the full spectrum of political opinion on any one given event, fact-checkers covering masses of social media platforms, and Community Notes pointing out when folks with lots of clout spout utter nonsense. Hell, there are even entire divisions of scientists out there now making a living out of debunking the empirically-incorrect insanity spewed by other social media influencers. Its absolutely wild.

Algorithmic Echo Chambers

The problem is systemic. It started in social media, with algorithms
delivering 'curated' content rather than just showing you a historical
timeline of those you follow. Your likes and dislikes, what you spend time watching, reading, listening to, it all became fuel for the fire. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter - all of them feed you content in that manner. If thats right or left-wing politics, or 9/11 conspiracy theories, or cute black labradors, it didnt matter: as long as you stay on the platform and consume more ads. In fact, it's become so prevalent that its hard to find a feed
system on any social media platform today that doesnt do that.

The problem with this is that it has effectively stifled creative debate. No longer are your opinions challenged or questioned, no longer do you have meaningful conversation and discussion, but instead you're fed more and more
of the same content. That in turn reinforces and influences your beliefs as a consequence, as you sit in an echo chamber of like-minded people repeating
the same things. Its not difficult to see how this actively leads to an increase in extremist beliefs and views.

How can your opinion change or evolve if theres no one there to challenge it? Its part of the reason why so many in the last few elections across the
planet are almost in utter disbelief when their political candidate of choice doesnt win. Because to them, all they see is a deluge of support online for their chosen party and nothing else. Hope for the hopeless?

Its a bloody mess: a relatively free market, held back only by the sparsest amount of regulation. 31 yearsthats how long its been since the World Wide
Web made its first foray into the public arena. Its hard to imagine what Sir Tim Berners Lee envisioned; itd be like this far into the future. I doubt
this is what he imagined (although Tim, if youre reading this and are free
for a chat: hit me up, Im so up for that).

That said, theres still hope. The amount of good thats come out of the WWW since its conception, and even today, is still far greater than the net negatives (no pun intended). Even if in ten years its just filled with AI-generated articles and gradually degrading memes while Amazon charges you $90 a month for next-week delivery, as long as people are still using it to actively and openly communicate with one another, itll be a net positive.

We dont hear about the number of scientific breakthroughs that have been accelerated by the internet, the discoveries, the health conditions cured, or the humanitarian aid organized; we dont hear about any of that because thats not what makes the news. Its not interesting. Thats not included in the scientific journals or the papers. We dont hear about the relationships
formed or how integral it is to our modern societys infrastructure as a
whole.

How do you fix it, then? Well, its not so simple as slapping a band-aid on something. By its very definition, the World Wide Web is exactly that:
global. To get some form of consensus on how to improve the current cesspool that it is requires collective effort. Weve seen that happen before in the
tech industry. Theres a reason JEDEC exists, and standards like USB and DDR
are a thing; we need one for the internet, one with teeth on a much larger scale. One with smart minds behind it, looking at the monopolization of segments of the internet and pushing governments to act on it. Suggesting legislation. Looking at patterns and predicting what might occur. One that
can react rapidly without necessarily being hindered by bureaucratic
nonsense.

Then theres education, and Im not talking just about kids and young adults,
but for all ages. In a similar manner to how we strive for complete adult literacy, we need to have a big push to make each nation-state computer literate as well, beyond talking about how to turn on the PC and this is the internet," but how to identify fake posts, how to fact-check statements, how
to find multiple sources, and the legality behind what you post and how you post online. So much of that is just not available, or not known to the
public, of all ages.

Learning new critical skills as a global society is hard. But we did it for
the threat of nuclear annihilation in the Cold War; we did it with the introduction of the seat belt in cars; we did it for reading; it needs to be done again, but for the digital age. Is it a challenge? Yes, but this isnt
the first time weve faced technological turmoil, nor will it be the last.

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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/computing/internet/the-death-of-the-internet-why-the -future-is-terrifying-and-how-we-fix-it

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