dreaming of a better internet

The internet used to be an escape from reality. Now, reality is an escape from the internet.

“The internet, as we have known it, has evolved from a quaint, quirky place to a social utopia, and then to an algorithmic reality. In this reality, the primary task of these platforms is not about idealism or even entertainment — it is about extracting as much revenue as possible from human vanity, avarice, and narcissism.”

Search engines — the window into the web for many people — top their results with pages containing thousands of words of auto-generated nothingness, perfectly optimized for search engine prominence and to pull in money via ads and affiliate links while simultaneously devoid of any useful information.

Social networks have become “the web” for many... See more

The battle is between two wolves.

One is permanently angry, resentful, loud and aggressive. It’s always howling for our attention with sensational headlines, provocative images, and manipulative tactics.

It wants us to stay on the surface, encouraging us to react rather than reflect.

It feeds on outrage, doomscrolling, negativity, fear, and... See more

I’m personally hopeful for a “de-globalized” internet of the future—one where we’re all a bit more siloed off from each other, like we are in real life. Think of little internet neighborhoods. This is my hope, if for no other reason than our mental health. We just can’t seem to handle an internet more broad than that, spiritually speaking.