You can tell it’s true by, uh, some of the facts
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I knew that the internet was fucked when MySpace came out and the barrier of entry was all but eliminated. When I first started using the internet, most of the info that was out there was from scientists, researchers, and people with an expertise in very specific subjects that had enough motivation to jump through the technical hoops of needing to join a BBS, host a website, or jump into IRC or another forum.
Once MySpace, and then Facebook, allowed anyone to post any dumb shit they wanted with an immediate way to spread that nonsense, it was all over. From there, corporate interests in how the internet could be used to control messaging and serve ads turned what little there was left into the same bullshit we’ve had since the advent of television. You can still find pockets of the old internet around but it’s mostly related to extremely niche interests.
As much as I agree with you part of me is experiencing cognitive dissonance because I don’t know how to square this view with the appeal of democratization of a powerful tool.
There are intelligent voices out there exposing otherwise unseen parts of the world that range from fascinating to alarming. Some of those people are far from technical and we only hear from them because they do know how to hold down the record button on their phones, and they found platforms with built-in audiences who were responsive to their messages.
Let’s say it were possible to review all content prior to it being published. You might be able to nip a lot of the e.g. anti-vax or anti-science or garbage anti-intellectualism in the bud. (Garbage that should be legal to express [in USA] but that is harmful when spread so there is no need to help enable its distribution.) I expect however some legitimate, underrepresented views would be silenced as well.
I could probably ramble on – I don’t think I have a specific point, just meandering thoughts.
And MySpace still had a much bigger barrier to entry than the popular formats today. Now all you need is a phone and the ability to tap a few buttons on the screen.
MySpace wasn’t a huge barrier unless you wanted to really customize and personalize your page. You could post dumb shit just by signing up for an account (which really only needed an email address) and then you had access to add friends and post to your wall/feed right away.
Smartphones also really fucked things up. At least before that you had to kinda know how to use a computer to get online.
Not really. You needed to know how to use a web browser and that’s about it. Facebook really opened the floodgates allowing anyone to post whatever dumb shit was in there head for all to see.
You know, I was a kid back then with my own website on Tripod, and I felt the same way. Growing up I realized that was just an infantile thought, but... Maybe I realized wrong.
It’s not an infantile thought. Barriers of entry change the signal-to-noise ratio of what gets put on the internet.