Is the Internet dying?

[Deleted member 657006]

i dont go aginst the .net i go with the .net and earn easly .

it not good worrying what this or that your just get ill

all i no the more trends added the more i will work hard to earn more .

i wont the internet full blast so i can earn more .

get into correct niche and 3k a day nothink ...

 

[Idris93]

The internet in general is not dying, cannot die (unless a major earth catastrophe happens). I think what OP means is that the freedom that the internet gave to people in the 90's, the freedom that they've dreamed of for a long time, the early internet has actually gave it to them and they lived it and enjoyed it for a while. THAT freedom is dying !
My opinion is that that freedom needed some awareness, and awareness alone will make people responsible, nothing else. But most people are not aware of many things and they don't understand many things either. And for the awareness and understanding of people to develop, it needs Time and Experience !
In the 90's people dreamed of something and expected it to happen in a matter of years. IMO it needs Decades if not more.
People should be first taught to be aware and to be responsible, then the internet will create that freedom again and even a far progressed one !
So if we lost that freedom and gave it away for big corporations, that's only because we are not aware of what we are doing.

Just my two cents.

 

[Deleted member 657006]

The internet in general is not dying, cannot die (unless a major earth catastrophe happens). I think what OP means is that the freedom that the internet gave to people in the 90's, the freedom that they've dreamed of for a long time, the early internet has actually gave it to them and they lived it and enjoyed it for a while. THAT freedom is dying !
My opinion is that that freedom needed some awareness, and awareness alone will make people responsible, nothing else. But most people are not aware of many things and they don't understand many things either. And for the awareness and understanding of people to develop, it needs Time and Experience !
In the 90's people dreamed of something and expected it to happen in a matter of years. IMO it needs Decades if not more.
People should be first taught to be aware and to be responsible, then the internet will create that freedom again and even a far progressed one !
So if we lost that freedom and gave it away for big corporations, that's only because we are not aware of what we are doing.

Just my two cents.

rules are needed for everything .
shouldn't scare no one just life
think out the box rules seem to despair

 

[youbike]

no no , it is quite fair , the hardworker and new inventor always get a lot of attention and or most money .. usual man and usual woman get a sh1t on internet

 

[ExperimentalSEO]

The problem is that there are anti-competitive practices going on. Big tech runs their services with the "We decide what you are supposed to see" mentality. That by itself is not an issue, as they are free to do that. However, if you want to enter the market the only option is to choose "Let the consumer decide". If you do that, your service will be attacked by journalists and as a result deplatformed under the lie of "allowing extremists".

 

[LSP24]

Good old days

 

[steamsupreme]

The internet is transforming, as everything does. However, most of the changes are akin to the monopolization of America during the gilded age. As a pendulum, the situation will sway back and there will be an opposing reaction. There already are decentralized webs being formed using the blockchain so I am optimistic that there will be alternatives to the corporitization of the internet today.

 

[Kamparia]

This is a very interesting insight. I totally agree with you.

 

[virtualbyron]

The good old times

 

[royserpa]

Website access is becoming appliance access.

Few large companies control 99% of online traffic.

Social networks are 99% noise.

Getting a new site seen takes months. Unless you spend big $, just like in traditional media.

There is no longer much difference between the Internet and traditional media. Large corps have taken over.

People no longer run their own blogs, they just publish on Facebook or Twitter. There is no grass roots publishing any more.

Sites are all standardized to Google's specs. No longer can a crazy site from Geocities appear anywhere on serps. Sites all look pretty much the same, produced to suit one corporation's demands.

The Internet I knew in the 1990's is dead already. But the question is, is the larger Internet dying for individuals and becoming a communications network for large corporation's applications?

Smart phones, smart TV's, websites running as applications in these devices, people accessing these using a TV remote control instead of a keyboard. Only content published by individuals is on Twitter or FB using their phones (very limited).

Basically we've gone back to large media. Individuals no longer yield any power on the Internet. It's been that way for a long time, but I've come to realize this more clearly recently.

We're all working for a few large corporations online. Those who get into the Internet today have no idea how free we were in the 1990's.

A handful of large corps coordinate the Internet. You only get seen if you shine through on their proprietary platforms. Individuals are gone. No independent search engine exists, no competitor to Google exists in fact, Facebook and Twitter command a large fraction of the rest of traffic. Amazon and a couple of others take the rest of the traffic.

The Internet as we knew it is dying or is already dead. It's now a closed system run by a few corporations, a lot like AOL and Prodigy were back in the day.

That's what I'm talking about. We should totally give a damn fuck about what google (or ayone in particular) thinks about our site. We shouldn't try to rank, but to give our audience the best CREATIVE content we can!!!

The deep web is becoming the new internet lol. Lots of way interesting (and unfortunately criminal stuff as well) stuff there!

 

[SwitchMitch]

Hasn't it always been the case with Internet Marketing/gaining eyeballs? We cater to the needs of the user. Even back in the 90s, if you had a product to sell or an advertisement to publish, you tailored it to match the interests of the users. Of course, you could just publish a random blog, with personal rambles and some users would pass by. That is not possible today because the average internet user is also evolved and savvy.

I get your point of how big corporates control what you publish but then, those corporates also follow the principle of user 'centricity'. (I just made that word up but I think you get the meaning). Google tailors a template that is best equipped to gather maximum eyeballs. Yes, giving these corporates that much control over us and the users is not good but then, when we're in that matrix, we have no option but to play along.

 

[royserpa]

You can still try darknet. Slow, modem like loading, basic JPEG pictures, no SEO whatsoever, sell and buy whatever you like.

Thats the main reason is called "dark" ,"deep" or whatever... There is real freedom, even for criminals lol

 

[bartosimpsonio]

That's what I'm talking about. We should totally give a damn fuck about what google (or ayone in particular) thinks about our site. We shouldn't try to rank, but to give our audience the best CREATIVE content we can!!!

The deep web is becoming the new internet lol. Lots of way interesting (and unfortunately criminal stuff as well) stuff there!

That is exactly right.

People these days don't know what freedom means. To them freedom is to be monitored and "protected" by something or someone. They have no idea what it means to be free.

The new generation grows up being filmed, recorded, monitored at every step. It's dystopic.

Every city, even the richest neighborhood, has crime in it. Beverly Hills has crime in it, Manhattan has crime. Still the best places to live and work. Do we call them dark neighborhoods?? Nope....

But for some reason people are afraid to be free. They don't want a really free internet, they want to be controlled and told what to do. Funny.

Hasn't it always been the case with Internet Marketing/gaining eyeballs? We cater to the needs of the user. Even back in the 90s, if you had a product to sell or an advertisement to publish, you tailored it to match the interests of the users. Of course, you could just publish a random blog, with personal rambles and some users would pass by. That is not possible today because the average internet user is also evolved and savvy.

I get your point of how big corporates control what you publish but then, those corporates also follow the principle of user 'centricity'. (I just made that word up but I think you get the meaning). Google tailors a template that is best equipped to gather maximum eyeballs. Yes, giving these corporates that much control over us and the users is not good but then, when we're in that matrix, we have no option but to play along.

Man back in the 1990's you'd see the craziest ads, craziest sites, totally unconventional stuff.

Today everything is standardized. 99% sites look the same. It's all meant for Google and links and so on. This Internet is not free (as in freedom).

Thats the main reason is called "dark" ,"deep" or whatever... There is real freedom, even for criminals lol

That's right. Like in every free place. There are criminals everywhere. If you restrict everything to combat crime, you end up with The Truman Show.

 

[Trolling4Dollars]

Thumbs up if you used Usenet as it was originally intended!

But yeah, @OP, I totally know what you're getting at. I spent my 20's in the 90's & built a career around the Internet.

Semantics, but I think it's better to say that the "web" is dying... not the internet. I think about starting new sites & then think to myself - how many times do I sit down at the computer any more & browse the web? 70% is app usage on a phone, 20% is using appliances like Alexa.. maybe the rest is on the computer. 90% of computer browser time is spent on BHW lol!

I actually walked away from my IT career a year ago. I was sick of the direction things were taking & didn't want to be a part of it any more.

 

[RogerRog]

I think no

 

[remboka]

And even you 'have to' or 'prefer' use bhw to talk about this, a 'platform' with rules to obey.

 

[Zbigniew]

The Internet is very interesting, in that it reflects human nature to the core. How society works and people interact with each other. I mean, we can have complete freedom - but sooner or later we will find ourselves in a small system controlled by a small minority of people. Just like the Internet.

I really like your example of every website being the same and following the same structure, just to comply with Google. The power that these companies have is absurd. They can change the whole layout of the Internet, just by changing the guidelines on their own platform.

As they say "He who controls the information, controls the world".

I don't think there is an alternative way, it's a natural process that a few people/organizations set the trends and rules for communities. If there is space for leadership, then someone will take it: formal or informal. I guess it's just human relations.

However, I would like to add that it's quite scary how these companies and people are using their power at the moment. The book 1984 is not far away from reality in Europe today.

A lot of things have changed for sure. Something that worked in 2010 will no longer be that fruitful now.

Nice spam post, as always. At least read the posts you are repling to. Amazing how you can have been here since 2011 and still get away with these nonsense oneliners.

 

[Talebano]

we can have complete freedom - but sooner or later we will find ourselves in a small system controlled by a small minority of people. Just like the Internet.

I don't think there is an alternative way, it's a natural process that a few people/organizations set the trends and rules for communities. If there is space for leadership, then someone will take it: formal or informal. I guess it's just human relations.

Laws of thermodynamics say that every system tends to the lowest entropy possible

 

[semiprodota]

This is just the natural flow of all things. The internet was like the wild west. Eventually authorities and moneymen come in and change things. Is the internet truly worse than it was in the 90's. I couldn't say personally but looking at acrhives I think in many ways we are better off today. True the magic is gone and it no longer feels like this amazing new thing. However, it still allows billions of people free access to accurate(hopefully) information that they otherwise would never be able to attain.

I don't agree with everything google and the other large IT companies do. That said, wanting to give people access to true and helpful information seems like a decent cause. Sure it's not out of the goodness of their heart but the outcomes are intertwined. Same with doing away with adridden and malicious websites that prey on the ignorant.

Yes pretty much every website is a clone of one another but that was always going to be the case. There's always going to be a "best" way of structuring, and everyone would eventually flock to it.

This was always going to be the outcome. Not dead but changed, for better and worse.

 

[AccidentalDarthVaddy]

[black metal intensifies]