The Internet used to be thought of as a gem, a technological diamond in a vast landscape of archaic pebbles. Pure exhilaration marked each keystroke of stumbling upon a new website, a hidden treasure unearthed. Some still think of it in this way. But that number is dwindling.
As the Internet hurtles through its formative years, the perception of the Internet is gradually resembling the outlook of television–so many channels, so little worth watching.
It could be a problem of relativity, of shrinking attention spans, if people have grown so accustomed to being entertained with increasingly interesting trinkets.
Rather than expressing their gratitude: “Thank you so much for all of this content!” They instead communicate ennui: “Really, we’ve seen this before. What’s next?”
It could also be a problem of waning originality and declining sophistication of cultures.
During this age of abundance, quantity no doubt exponentiates, whether you measure it by the number of television shows, movies, or even blog posts.
But in the reciprocal fashion of a true zero sum game, quality is often lacking.
The quest becomes not to find an article to read about the recent mass killing in France, but a good article on the topic (of which I am certain Amenuti Narmer of the Volta Times wrote one of the best).
Quality, indeed, can be eroded with too many writers.
It is nirvana to have a critical mass of perspectives to draw from on a global issue. But 5,000 perspectives? I worry I could never read that many, certainly not on every single issue, nor would I genuinely desire to. And more to the point, I would wonder whether saturation had not already been reached long ago.
Too many perspectives, especially when they start repeating each other, or worse just copying verbatim, is definitely a number too much.
Quality can also be eroded with too many ads.
Television has suffered from capitalist greed. So ubiquitous is the vice that the television format itself, for broadcast and cable networks, is wholly structured around ads. Shameless plugs for companies even appear within television programs. It is an unfortunate truth that the age of brand-less television has long past.
And so too has the possibility of a brand-less Internet.
Ads appear on most websites. Behind-the-scenes companies even track virtual excursions and tabulate findings to understand user behavior—how people navigate the Internet, what they like and don’t like–all in an effort to increase their profits on the backs of our free and often leisurely labor.
Myriad plug-ins can encrypt your IP address, block ads, or even block tracking companies, but there still might remain a reluctance to be online if it means having to be proactive in order to prevent spying.
Changes in the Internet world can lead to changes in user behavior.
For fear of privacy violations, users might start to cover their tracks or not leave any tracks at all. They stay at home a little more, or at least closer to their friends. There are fewer searches for new homes and more associations with sites that are familiar.
Some opt out altogether, a disposition that reasons: “If it’s that much work, then why bother?”
The Internet is but one small part of this age of overwhelming abundance, when there is too much although so many have too little.
The puzzle becomes what happens after the age of abundance.
Whether we all move to our little corners in the world or come together as one, or a few, is a telltale sign of human psychology in a world that is little understood.
The internet has become a place fro dumping information. When people can’t make sense of information, they just dump it onto the internet. Well… this can be good if you are Nefetiti or bad if you live in the middle of nowhere in rural France with little or no educating to understand or sift through the information or yet when you live in rural Germany and you become a target for propaganda.
The internet gave intelligent people a chance to give us intelligent material to become educated more on issues. But idiots have taken it up too – which is the frustrating part.
No, the frustrating part is when the so called intelligent render us stupid with materials and articles written for them by the CIA. Most of these articles we read now, be it about Ferguson, MO, USA, or the Hebdo Attack, are written by the Intelligence Communities for these journalists. There is nothing authentic anymore when a few people have sought to control the world and the world resources. The so-called Intelligence agencies are not so intelligent, are they?
The best thing the world ever had was Kemet and its 1000s of years of advanced civilization. The Greeks copied it and became great too. The Romans wished they were the Kemetians and succeeded in conquering a big part of the world. The west copied the Romans and threw what made Kemet so great away because it was African, because it was a Black civilization. In this bid to distinguish themselves from the rest of the world, and impose themselves on it at the same time, they have become the single Neanderthalic Civilization that has no place on Earth.
HM! My friend ooo… ey! I agree. They like to think they were the first to become enlightened. It is laughable – ridiculous. A friend of mine, a journalist in Sweden, referred to them as petulant children, crying and thumping their chest, and causing trouble leaving nothing but wailing in its wake.
Couldn’t agree with you more. I love these comments. I wish I had met that Swedish journalist.