It's been well over a decade since I noticed something was amiss online. Neither Hive nor its predecessor existed yet. Web2.0 juggernauts Twitter and Facebook had not yet approached the levels of censorship to come, but something was already shifting behind the scenes. Clickbait grew more frequent. I saw independent sites getting bought up by holding companies, and/or start shoveling out filler so they could sell clicks to advertisers. Then Facebook and Twitter started selling more and more ad space. YouTube added more ads and also started cracking down on creators for doing innocuous things.
It was around this time when someone on 4chan suggested Dead Internet Theory: Most of the Internet is Fake. I didn't see it at the time, but it's clear my impressions were also being considered by even the internet anons.
The Internet feels empty and devoid of people. It is also devoid of content. Compared to the Internet of say 2007 (and beyond) the Internet of today is entirely sterile. There is nowhere to go and nothing to do, see, read or experience anymore.
Anons being anons, it's a bit over the top and you're never really sure whether you're being trolled, but there is at least a germ of truth there. Everything grew generic even before COVID and its accompanying censorship. Bots proliferated in comments. People bought followers created en masse overseas in digital sweatshops. Accounts were created simply to shill products by pretending to be an organic consumer base.
And this was all before generative AI flooded the web. Algorithms in social media had already started transforming how we experience media on Web2.0. Once upon a time, you saw a roughly chronological feed of posts from people you followed. Now, the Facebook feed is roughly as follows:
- Ad
- Your friends like this content, so we'll show it to you!
- Sponsored post
- Random content the algorithm thinks you'll like
- Ad
- An event announcement 2 weeks out of date for some reason
- Remember this from 5 years ago?
- Something from someone you actually follow
- Ad
Meanwhile, everything you do is analyzed and catalogued and used to turn you into ad revenue. You're not a user or a customer, you're a resource. Human contact and real communication is scrubbed away to be replaced with curated feeds some server chose for you, and echo chambers of rage which generate "interaction."
One of the things I hate is the algorithm feed of short videos. Its fun for a while, but it's designed to suck you in and keep you scrolling for moments of mild amusement punctuated by ads and irrelevance.
In the video above, the host describe show much he likes BlueSky and Mastodon allow the user to curate their own feeds. Crazy, right? But those are still corporate centralized platforms. HIVE is decentralized, and thus resistant to single points of failure. HIVE is also owned by its account holders, Sure, the whales can create problems, but they know if they do something dumb, the value of their tokens joins the morass of forgotten altcoins.
If you hold Hive Power, You own part of Hive itself. That means you have true ownership of your content and a real claim in owning the blockchain itself. That's why voting for witnesses matters much more than your vote in modern democratic governments. You also have a responsibility to help keep the bots, A.I. spam, plagiarists, and abusers in check. I recently wrote about Identifying and Addressing Spam.
We also have a community which generally encourages positive engagement as people share everything from ideas to practical skills to glimpses into their lives. It's an amazing project where we can still nurture human connection. Make comments and build conversations!
Is the internet dead? No. Hive is alive, and we can be one of the remnants no matter how Web2.0 devolves. But we also need to prune some dead stuff here. Use that downvote button when you see the eerie emergence of zombie internet here.
The two examples he give are not corporate or centralized, they are examples of distributed systems with great (free) APIs and no thin-skinned billionaires controlling the show :)
You say that, but I'm not convinced they're fully decentralized and free (as in libre).
Why not?
I generally like Jack Dorsey, but Bluesky is still a central corporate entity with power to censor. Dorsey seems like a free speech guy, but will he always be able to keep his company that way?
Mastodon is open source but also has what I perceive to be risks of centralized "content moderation" which could be easily used for censorship.
Feel free to correct me if I am wrong in these cases. And to whichever BPC bot replies, no, downvotes are not censorship.
Dorsey exited Bluesky pretty early on. Anyone can set up instances of either service without any moderation at all, though it’s a fact that users prefer moderation the debate is always where the line is drawn.
I am alive! And you are alive!
I try actively to stay away from deadscrolling.
Maybe every time I feel like scrolling shorts I should pick up my brush! !LOL
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Just had a thought Wiki is the main culprit. We used to have 100s of websites about important scientific details, or engineering or whales, or … now we have them all sterilized on wiki.
And, we have done the same with America. You used to drive across America, and every town would be different. Now, you see McDs everywhere. The same signs in every city. The same look and feel at every familiar store.
This is what is gone in the internets.
Plus, like only 3% of the content is cateloged. The rest you can't find.
I don't blame Wiki. So many academic sites paywalled themselves into irrelevance, and the popular science and technology sites often transitioned to click bait and ads.
I did drive across a big chunk of America last year. I stayed at small motels and ate at local diners when I could. My quest for better boots and clothing has led to small companies and heritage businesses still running behind the screen of corporate garbage. There is hope.
I have noticed this on FB, I rarely see a post from a lot of my friends even though they are listed as family. There are more and more ads and, about the stories, you are right, they suck you in and most end before you find out what happened and since you watched it, it gives you more of the same, they are annoying.
You're replying so much it looks like this post is generating triple the engagement it really is, but you still don't comprehend how your behavior is the problem?
How many times do you copy/paste the same comments even within the replies to a single post? How many times just here? That is spam.
People are downvoting you because you are an obnoxious spammer. Your pompous declarations carry even less weight than your accusations. You're right, my actions are laid bare for all to see. I just don't think any honest observer will reach the conclusions you have. I have repeatedly made good faith efforts to help you become a better member of our community in spite of your harassment campaign. As such, you will be downvoted as a direct consequence of your behavior, including this nonsense.
You automatically post copypasta shit all over Hive that has zero relevance to the posts your bot comments on and when you have actual humans interact with you your responses are arrogant and flowery without any acknowledgement of your wrongdoing.
You remind me of conspiracy theorists who use highly-compressed low-resolution video asn "evidence" to make accusations of lizard people blinking sideways on news broadcasts and then accusing anyone who questions such claims of not caring about our freedom.
You're the one with the bulletin board of news clippings, pins, and a web of red yarn "connecting" everything in a grand conspiracy through links only you seem able to see. When challenged, you accuse your interlocutor of being part of the lizard people conspiracy instead of defending your thesis.
This is why I encourage you to seek help offline. Your behavior is erratic and irrational. You are so hyper-focused on your "message" that you are utterly oblivious to everything else including helpful advice about content, context, and social norms.
And yes, your comments are spam, no matter how you try to deny it. The downvotes continue.