Welcome to the Unpopular Opinion community!
How voting works:
Vote the opposite of the norm.
If you agree that the opinion is unpopular give it an arrow up. If it's something that's widely accepted, give it an arrow down.
Guidelines:
Tag your post, if possible (not required)
Rules:
1. NO POLITICS
Politics is everywhere. Let's make this about [general] and [lemmy] - specific topics, and keep politics out of it.
2. Be civil.
Disagreements happen, but that doesn’t provide the right to personally attack others. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Please also refrain from gatekeeping others' opinions.
3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.
Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.
4. Shitposts and memes are allowed but...
Only until they prove to be a problem. They can and will be removed at moderator discretion.
5. No trolling.
This shouldn't need an explanation. If your post or comment is made just to get a rise with no real value, it will be removed. You do this too often, you will get a vacation to touch grass, away from this community for 1 or more days. Repeat offenses will result in a perma-ban.
6. Defend your opinion
This is a bit of a mix of rules 4 and 5 to help foster higher quality posts. You are expected to defend your unpopular opinion in the post body. We don't expect a whole manifesto (please, no manifestos), but you should at least provide some details as to why you hold the position you do.
Instance-wide rules always apply. https://legal.lemmy.world/tos/
This is why I’ve switched back to the old internet. Chat like irc/matrix for social interaction. RSS for information. And webrings for browsing the personal garden websites that used to constitute the internet before social media took over. It’s been great.
The good internet magazine has been writing about this and is my inspiration
As well as the internet history podcast.
People were "running a script" probably since communication existed.
"Hey how are ya."
"Imgoodhowareyou"
"Bloody weather ain't it"
This is real human interaction. The point of interaction is not to always get some new ideas across, but the interaction itself. Just to reassure yourself that other people still exist. For many people, knowing the script exactly is a good thing. They know exactly what to say, how long it will take, and its impossible to get wrong.
For many people, knowing the script exactly is a good thing.
Yup! Hate it when people go off-script!
Relevant stand-up.
"Ehh.. not so good, I just found out my wife's been cheating on me for about two decades... My kids might not even be mine! Ahhh fuck..."
Okay, take it from there!
"You need something to distract you. Let's seize the means of production together comrade."
Calm down Kanye, I'd argue that the kids have been yours the whole time.
"Uhh, I was just saying hi, I didn't want your life story."
Or, to fit with the theme...
"Uh sir, this is a Wendy's."
I doubt you'd really say that to someone in those circumstances, lol. I hope at least!
I agree for the most part.
I think you're really describing social media rather than "the internet". Of course some elements of the internet still enrich our lives.
Social is tricky. As much as I dislike the term I think an "addiction" is probably the most app. I just naturally open up some kind of feed when I need to take five minutes off. It certainly doesn't enrich my life.
Ah yes, the good old "everybody else is an NPC, but I, the superior specimen, see things clearly".
And yes, I already know how some people will respond to this - with some version of “I’ve never had those issues, maybe you’re the problem.”
Maybe you don't quite have things as figured out as you think you do?
It's not that I'm trying to say what you're describing isn't a problem, but this tired schtick in itself is just another "script" as you called them, and I seriously doubt variations of that are going to be the main response. This line of thinking isn't particularly novel in any way, in some ways people have been going "y'all are just automatons" for thousands of years now, and eg. Yrjö Kallinen, a Finnish politician, talked about this stuff in the 70's and probably earlier too (there's a playlist of this on Youtube in Finnish for any Finnish speakers who might be interested) – the phrasing he used was that most people live like they're "in a dream".
So, it's not necessarily that you're wrong, but that this kind of "automation" is a lot more widely recognised that you give people credit for
Nearly everything has been said before, but because nobody was paying attention, it needs to be said again.
I agree, the internet started dying before AI, not necessarily because of repetition or predictability, at least from my pov. It’s the political manipulation, the greed for getting and selling data and the advertising that is killing the internet.
AI is just the last blow to something that is already gasping for air.
Dead internet theory long predates genAI/LLMs.
I know. I don't see how that invalidates my criticism.
It doesn't, my point is that this isnt anything new, and your take isnt particularly novel or controversial.
You're describing the world of The Machine Stops by E. M. Forster. Originality and direct experience was dead, only interpretations of interpretations remained.
@Opinionhaver It is just a communications medium and I see absolutely zero indication that it will die. People's ability to communicate effectively, that is a problem but if writing hand written letters were just as easy the same tripe would be communicated.
You're pretty much describing social media here, as it is now. I think it's designed to do that. People go there to re-post some memes and share pictures, comment on each other, scroll through the news or blast out their opinion on all of that. More often than not it's an uninformed opinion or what's the most popular take on it, or what someone can come up with in 30 seconds...
Ok, let's assume you're right. Is there any way out of it, at least on a personal level?
This is why I’ve switched back to the old internet. Chat like irc/matrix for social interaction. RSS for information. And webrings for browsing the personal garden websites that used to constitute the internet before social media took over. It’s been great.
The good internet magazine has been writing about this and is my inspiration
As well as the internet history podcast.
What’s needed is a cultural shift, which obviously starts on an individual level - but it’s not going to be easy. First of all, someone has to want change - and a huge number of people simply don’t. But even if you do, you’re going to take a lot of hits for it, and it can get pretty exhausting when it feels like the entire platform is against you.
Personally, I think the karma system is one of the main problems. It’s a useful tool for sorting posts, but seeing the scores as users is intoxicating. Downvotes hurt, and upvotes encourage short-form, easily consumed, reactionary content. Why take the time to explain why you disagree when you can just call them stupid and feel like you’ve “won” the argument just because you’re being upvoted and they’re being downvoted - when in reality, no one’s views have shifted. Everyone’s just dug their heels in deeper.
Why take the time to explain why you disagree when you can just call them stupid and feel like you’ve “won” the argument just because you’re being upvoted and they’re being downvoted - when in reality, no one’s views have shifted. Everyone’s just dug their heels in deeper.
That's a nice way of putting it. I agree with the karma system. It can work behind the scenes as a content sorting algorithm, but seeing upvotes and downvotes does more harm than good imo.
You see this a lot on Reddit: no serious answers but mostly one-liners, reactionary phrases and people making jokes because they know it's gonna be popular.
For that, karma be damned, I'm glad we're on Lemmy because this effect isn't that strong over here, at least for now.
I don’t feel like most people paid that much attention to total karma. The score of an individual post or comment is far more important - and that's just as much of an issue here as it was on Reddit.
I’m just not sure how to improve it. Hiding the score entirely might make it feel like nobody even read what you said. Maybe instead of simple “like/dislike” voting, there should be other ways to react to a post - like “Well said,” “I disagree but appreciate the input,” “I laughed,” "Offtopic," and so on.
With karma I was including vote and post scoring as well instead of just the net score on your profile, my bad.
Places online can only be as interesting as the people behind it. This is why 4chan was the internet's main meme factory in 2010/20, which would eventually trickle down on the well known pattern of Reddit->9GAG->Facebook. Not only did it host the funny and original neurodivergent folks of the world, but the space was as close to free speech (and slurs were restricted too!) as I've ever seen online. What can, for example, the heavily propagandised American, scared of original thought and shamefully out of practice, produce as valuable speech online?
Well...
I'm posting original content...
Hell yeah