what killed the internet is information overload. in many way no one can have a private or closed space. twitter for example you are bombarded with everyone’s thought on everything and before long you have a lot of information about things you dont care about, and no way to engage properly with just one of those things. you can be vulnerable on the internet, but in a mostly public and algorithmic internet, its gonna be exposed to so many people who will hate that.
A lot of people confuse my arrogance for irony.
Yep, not a single post of irony on the Internet before zoomers.
Absolutely true. Usenet was completely devoid of irony, outside of alt.science.metallurgy, of course.
I agree with this post with 4 layers of ironic sarcasm.
Since there’s an even number of sarcasm layers I appreciate your sincerity.
I feel like I saw people saying this back in 2007 (with different terminology, ofc). Kids just like in-jokes and being ironic. It’s not ruining the Internet, big business is what’s ruining the Internet.
I mean that concept is a thing that does exist, but the internet is doing fine. Its inevitably gonna get better again at some point, both technology wise and socially.
Federated, decentralized and open source platforms are saving the internet. Everything else is pretty trash.
This reminds me of what David Foster Wallace wrote: “The next real literary “rebels” in this country might well emerge as some weird bunch of anti-rebels, born oglers who dare somehow to back away from ironic watching, who have the childish gall actually to endorse and instantiate single-entendre principles. Who treat of plain old untrendy human troubles and emotions in U.S. life with reverence and conviction. Who eschew self-consciousness and hip fatigue. These anti-rebels would be outdated, of course, before they even started. Dead on the page. Too sincere. Clearly repressed. Backward, quaint, naive, anachronistic. Maybe that’ll be the point. Maybe that’s why they’ll be the next real rebels. Real rebels, as far as I can see, risk disapproval. The old postmodern insurgents risked the gasp and squeal: shock, disgust, outrage, censorship, accusations of socialism, anarchism, nihilism. Today’s risks are different. The new rebels might be artists willing to risk the yawn, the rolled eyes, the cool smile, the nudged ribs, the parody of gifted ironists, the “Oh how banal”. To risk accusations of sentimentality, melodrama. Of overcredulity. Of softness. Of willingness to be suckered by a world of lurkers and starers who fear gaze and ridicule above imprisonment without law. Who knows.”
