dreaming of a better internet

The URL bar is perhaps the most fundamental part of browsing the internet, and yet it’s something I haven’t thought about in at least five years. That’s because I’m often just going to one of four sites that autocomplete the moment I type the first letter, and because I’m a Chrome user, the URL bar is interchangeable with the search bar, so when I... See more

The trouble with the internet, Mr. Williams says, is that it rewards extremes. Say you’re driving down the road and see a car crash. Of course you look. Everyone looks. The internet interprets behavior like this to mean everyone is asking for car crashes, so it tries to supply them.

Large parasocial platforms transformed the internet into a hostile and impersonal place. They feed our FOMO to keep us clicking. They exaggerate our differences for "engagement". They create engines for stardom to keep us creeping. They bait us into nutritionless and sensationalist content. Humanity cannot subsist on hype alone.

Small and sincere... See more