Is the internet dying?

[Auburn]

The internet is dying.

The internet was only ever a one hit wonder, and now stupid cat videos have had their day in the sun.

^ I've seen this trend increase over the past 5+ years.

Has the internet discussion age come to an end?

Has global information become so widespread that everyone's opinion is now also diluted in equal proportion?

Have Twitter, Instagram, Facebook (etc) conditioned our generation to digest short, bite-sized chunks of information, and made us intolerant to heavier meats? Do we now only look for memes and quick pleasure fixes?

Do we skim over everything and not focus intently on anything? And doesn't that detract from the meaningfulness of it all?

What's going on??

 

[Black Rose]

What I have is ADD. What the video is talking about is ADHD. Having ADD really sucks because your mind just goes blank. Thinking just stops and you don't know what to do. It would be nice if I could get distracted but I can't pay attention long enough to get distracted. Instead I just listen to hour-long lectures to relax and think.

 

[Hadoblado]

I think internet death is a little melodramatic.

The internet has issues. It's got addictive qualities, and it's value is diluted by the grim reality of financial concerns.

The more we know about this stuff, the better we can navigate it. For anyone considering the impact of the internet on their productivity, last year I locked myself out of several sites (including this one), and my productivity sky-rocketed. I still went to jump on facebook a few times only to realise I had not a chance in hell of remembering my password, and then went straight back to work. It is crazy how much time this crap wastes.

It also drains energy. If you're doing work or w/e, you don't give your brain a chance to rest by getting dug into a forum or w/e else. Instead, I took short walks every hour, and this kept me going a lot longer.

ATM I'm considering doing a similar lockout for this year. I know it'll improve my performance and make me happier in the long run, but it's still difficult to do.

 

[Reluctantly]

Dying?

Well it seems to have migrated from
* people looking to expand their knowledge, gain information, and have productive discussions
* seeing funny videos/pictures
* finding/meeting people
* playing games that required more than twitch reflexes and insulting everyone you can

towards
* everyone having personal virtual spaces where their opinion needs to be heard (youtube, facebook, twitter, etc) - millions of voices all crying out in contradicting unison
* endless social media that takes advantage of the social chaos by creating news that baits, politically charges, or just flat-out enforces an agenda
* endless memes that provide nothing more than entertainment
* the trolling. Nothing is sacred on the internet. oh the trolling. It's like people become mentally deficient once they go on their computer. I honestly feel like if I take anything seriously, I'm just going to get trolled for it, so why bother.
* shitty first-person shooter and action games that suddenly make grown men feel 12 again.


duuhhh, I feel old now.
I miss aol online and getting disconnected every time someone wanted to use the phone and those random blue screens in Windows 95 or being blamed for breaking the computer because I installed a game on it (lol).

 

[Pyropyro]

Nah... I think it's normalizing rather than dying. It's no longer this newfangled technology that the young un's are using.

It has lost the mystic that it had during the wild wild days of the pre- dot-Com Bubble era. It's now more like an ordinary household item like the phone and the telegraph before it.

 

[Architect]

No it's vastly increased. All that happened is it moved from boards like this to Twitter and Facebook. Same thing happened to Usenet Gopher when boards like this took over. Overall discussion is far greater though. I still prefer those old days and boards like this. Can't stand Facebook and while I like Twitter it's not a forum for deep discussion.

 

[Jennywocky]

The internet is dying.

The internet was only ever a one hit wonder, and now stupid cat videos have had their day in the sun.

I've seen this trend increase over the past 5+ years.
Has the internet discussion age come to an end?

...Curse my prescient humor.

I think a lot of it has migrated onto certain forms of social media as Architect said. (I really hate Twitter btw, I don't get why it is so popular and my only way to frame it is not really complimentary to the userbase.)

Plus, the Internet is no longer in its infancy, so it is being used more productively and/or behind the scenes versus a bunch of amateurs just playing sandbox. The amateurs get bored and do other things, the folks who are serious about it perfect their skills and translate their work into more professional endeavors. To do serious stuff too, you now need more infrastructure esp in regards to security since it's easy to be exploited if you don't.

And yes, it's now more "old hat" and the novelty has worn off. People accommodate the parts they like and otherwise do whatever.

I think it's become more part of daily life on one hand but kind of a lot of "background stuff" too -- I mean, a lot of people now pay bills online and do banking online, versus mailing checks and visiting their local bank branch. We even shop online a great deal, with Amazon the most prominent example; even "Black Friday" isn't that big of a deal as it was 5-6 years ago because you don't have to leave your house anymore to get deals, and stuff gets delivered quickly right to your door. So it's more commonplace, less blingy, more incorporated into natural behavior.

 

[TheManBeyond]

maybe the old internet is dead

 

[The Gopher]

No it's vastly increased. All that happened is it moved from boards like this to Twitter and Facebook. Same thing happened to Usenet Gopher when boards like this took over. Overall discussion is far greater though. I still prefer those old days and boards like this. Can't stand Facebook and while I like Twitter it's not a forum for deep discussion.

What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I’ll have you know I graduated top of my class in digging holes, and I’ve been involved in numerous secret digs across the country, and I have over 300 confirmed tunnels. I am trained in gophilia warfare and I’m the top miner in the entire Gopher engineering forces. You are nothing to me but just another gardener. I will wipe your precious lawn the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of gophers across the USA and your home is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your garden. You’re fucking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can destroy your plants in over seven hundred ways, and that’s just with my bare hands. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed tunnelling, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the United States Gopher Corps and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable yard off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little “clever” comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn’t, you didn’t, and now you’re paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over your backyard and you will drown in it. You’re fucking dead, kiddo.

Edit: I may have misread your post.

 

[Reluctantly]

Unleash the gophers!

[bimgx=700]http://i.imgur.com/lqcAvpd.jpg[/bimgx]

 

[Auburn]

I think it's become more part of daily life on one hand but kind of a lot of "background stuff" too -- I mean, a lot of people now pay bills online and do banking online, versus mailing checks and visiting their local bank branch. We even shop online a great deal, with Amazon the most prominent example; even "Black Friday" isn't that big of a deal as it was 5-6 years ago because you don't have to leave your house anymore to get deals, and stuff gets delivered quickly right to your door. So it's more commonplace, less blingy, more incorporated into natural behavior.

That

I think I figured out how to say it. It's as if all of the chitter-chatter/noise, salesmanship, politics, gossip/drama, stores, bills (etc) that made real life... Real Life... has migrated to the internet. So the internet has basically become an extension of the mundanity of the world; becoming ever more synonymous with it.

Whereas before, that was all confined to real life, and the web was more of an odd/esoteric place for either nerds, hackers, bookworms, loners etc.... to use for recreation or escapism (from said real world).

...will VR be the new internet?

 

[Black Rose]

...will VR be the new internet?

Yes

and also virtual agents.

 

[Reluctantly]

Eh, VR is not that great. It's just 3d glasses with head and controller tracking. It's different and fun in its own right, but nothing close to the matrix or anything where people would bother with virtual avatars and such. I just don't see it becoming big until it integrates with your brain waves, especially for the price.

 

[JimJambones]

What worries me most is all the misinformation that already misinformed people are consuming from the internet and spreading to other misinformed people. Web searches should have the option to reveal evidence based results first, supported by facts and sources, unless that option is already available and I'm not aware of it.

 

[Solitaire U.]

Not dying, Things of Substance just getting buried deeper and deeper under all the Amazon product reviews.

 

[Pizzabeak]

No.

In one word, no. People are going back to pre internet days for more succes in business and overall life pleasure. The memes are too easy a way to try and convey a point and look smart, so I tire of trying to convert people to be more critical thinkers, or not to believe the reasoning if they do. Because they aren't funny or smart. Getting a successful means you're a mix of more clever than smart, it's for comedic effect, which requires whatever smarts it does.

But VR has been the new internet since forever. You'll be able to use the internet inside it. The internet is definitely different from its 90's days, it became what it was destined to. It will probably die soon if different laws get passed. We need more freedom and VR promises that once again. The internet discussion age never was one of the best uses for it. Technology has gotten to the point where everyone can have the same opportunities that were promised to only a select few back then. There are more people who think that way, who prefer one social media style to another because it's easier for them.

Everything is just a parody now. If you don't want internet death then popular works of art being desecrated has to cease being comedic. But we all want equal opportunity. It's hard for people to pay attention now so values are changing. Doesn't make anything more or less valid as it is.

 

[Auburn]

As a follow-up question, have any of you found an existing analog to the early internet experience?

Is there a platform or medium (on or offline) which you frequent that you may find fulfilling those needs for the less trivial?

 

[QuickTwist]

^ I've seen this trend increase over the past 5+ years.

Has the internet discussion age come to an end?

Has global information become so widespread that everyone's opinion is now also diluted in equal proportion?

Have Twitter, Instagram, Facebook (etc) conditioned our generation to digest short, bite-sized chunks of information, and made us intolerant to heavier meats? Do we now only look for memes and quick pleasure fixes?

Do we skim over everything and not focus intently on anything? And doesn't that detract from the meaningfulness of it all?

What's going on??

Ironic that the link is from youtube.

What makes you think this is a trend as opposed to a perception?

 

[Auburn]

What makes you think this is a trend as opposed to a perception?

Said video links several sources, for example the list of neurological studies at 2:24, author Nir Eyal, etc. I also study a little marketing and know that a lot of the way the internet works is by playing off of human motivational centers.

Think of it like a natural selection process that the internet has created, where the apps/sites with the most success are apps that cause the most people to be hooked on them. High pageviews per month = higher revenue via ads = higher budget to augment the efficiency of said apps to create even more views (via market research).

Companies spend millions on market research to intentionally get people to use the app. Candy Crush and Angry Bird have psychological elements weaved into them designed to capitalize on the weaknesses of human instinct.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pm2da8CAB6M

What results, causally, is that those apps that reach 100 Million+ users are exceptionally designed to capitalize on attention-span limits, flashy/colorful effects, motivational cravings, etc. This makes part of why the internet is filled with somewhat trivial applications that are exceedingly successful at keeping an audience hooked on them.

Other things like eBay and Amazon (non-games) still use the same sort of tricks via Summarization Technology, etc, to make sure the right product gets to your eyes at the right time/place.

All that said, I count myself among those influenced. I sometimes scroll through Imgur.com for hours just trying to find the next funny image, without really having any destination in mind.

 

[QuickTwist]

Said video links several sources, for example the list of neurological studies at 2:24, author Nir Eyal, etc. I also study a little marketing and know that a lot of the way the internet works is by playing off of human motivational centers.

Think of it like a natural selection process that the internet has created, where the apps/sites with the most success are apps that cause the most people to be hooked on them. High pageviews per month = higher revenue via ads = higher budget to augment the efficiency of said apps to create even more views (via market research).

Companies spend millions on market research to intentionally get people to use the app. Candy Crush and Angry Bird have psychological elements weaved into them designed to capitalize on the weaknesses of human instinct.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pm2da8CAB6M

What results, causally, is that those apps that reach 100 Million+ users are exceptionally designed to capitalize on attention-span limits, flashy/colorful effects, motivational cravings, etc. This makes part of why the internet is filled with somewhat trivial applications that are exceedingly successful at keeping an audience hooked on them.

All that said, I count myself among those influenced. I sometimes scroll through Imgur.com for hours just trying to find the next funny image, without really having any destination in mind.

That doesn't answer why you think its a trend, only that some companies implement things that trigger motivational centers in our brain???

Also, I've never played candy crush in my life.

 

[Auburn]

*confused* I think it's a trend because of all of the above.
But also because I can see this trend has been measured statistically.

[bimgx=600]http://imgur.com/3fiUnuR.jpg[/bimgx]

The number of people in the world that are online has dramatically increased in recent years.

^ Positive relationship between online advertising and online social media usage.

^ The apps that are driving the majority of the traffic in this ever expanding internet.

[bimgx=600]http://imgur.com/YpEb3bP.jpg[/bimgx]

^ Here's one of Twitter, specifically. Which is a very short-text/quicky application.

~~~~~~~~

You can look it up pretty easily; there's a lot more than this. If you put it all together it's pretty evident that:

1. Internet traffic has exploded
2. A huge percentage of this new traffic is coming directly from Facebook/WhatsApp/Twitter/etc (short, instant, simple communication platforms)
3. Marketing is intentionally driving the production of these platforms

Therefore, over time the internet is being populated by more and more of this sort of information, and less of the type that existed before the social media explosion, by proportion.

 

[crippli]

^ The apps that are driving the majority of the traffic in this ever expanding internet.

Am I getting old? Not using any of these.

 

[Redfire]

No, but forums are. The few we had in Argentina, for example, have all closed except for one: which is mainly about videogames (3dgames). Why? Well, idk, but maybe: there are three generational cohorts:

1- Kid natives (grew up with Facebook, Twitter, etc; by the time they were developing their thoughts forums weren't popular).
2- Teenager natives (didn't have broadband internet as kids, then we had: and all kinds of forums were widespread then)
3- Migrants (some migrated to the internet as adults, discovered forums and were interested; most didn't). Architect, Jenny and EditorOne would qualify here.

Teenager natives are mostly in a stage in our lives where we don't have so much free time anymore, and we're also not successful yet. My life, for example, has been a mess for the past few years; otherwise I would still participate in a lot of forums.

I would also add: MSN was very popular when I was a teenager. I met my two best friends chatting (different people, not connected), and all kinds of other people. Then MSN died and kids don't seem to have a similar habit anymore. They only message each other with WhatsApp or (FB) Messenger, but it's not the same. Back when I was a teenager, you could log in and anyone that turned up as "online" was usually willing to chat. Nothing has really replaced MSN. People just have different priorities.

The age cohorts thing is more complex than that, I know. But I don't feel like elaborating further. So you see? That's the thing: binge drinking with friends semi-regularly, having a job, studying, having stuff to do at home, etc; adds up. And I'm not emotionally mature enough to handle the whole thing; much less having free time and energy to participate in a forum on a regular basis.

And also: I guess some are lucky enough to become hikikomori and have a full internet life. But my parents wouldn't roll with that.

 

[TheManBeyond]

right now i'm downloading a virtual orchestra that i will start using for my home demos
im giving the world back what it took from me

 

[Auburn]

@RedFire - I hadn't thought about how the first gen (which were teens when the internet exploded) has now started 'adulting' and we don't have time anymore. But that's precisely true for me as well. Far less free time to devote to interests in general.

And the new gen prefers the more mobile-based social media platform, so there's less replenishment.

I remember MSN messenger! Good times. The big platforms which I remember were MSN, Aol, Yahoo, and a bit later Xanga, MySpace... and I used DeviantArt.

 

[TheManBeyond]

msn sucked, not good times at all, what we have now is much more perfect in every sense
oh god the design alone was awful, i think the whole design for windows xp was awful

 

[Auburn]

msn sucked, not good times at all, what we have now is much more perfect in every sense
oh god the design alone was awful

Really?

I really loved the msn look:

I have this nostalgic attachment to the little beveled avatar square thingy. I liked seeing it blink into green from grey.

It was way more personal. And you could customize your background. Then again I'm prolly attached to it because of the positive experiences I had there.

 

[Redfire]

Good times indeed. I actually got shivers looking at that picture. Nostalgia is such an odd feeling: neither good nor bad. It hurts, but it's also sweet. MSN Messenger is part of the 90s kids mythos: like Windows 95 and 98, TV shows from the 90s, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWIwFEGNynQ

 

[TheManBeyond]

Really?

I really loved the msn look:

I have this nostalgic attachment to the little beveled avatar square thingy. I liked seeing it blink into green from grey.

It was way more personal. And you could customize your background. Then again I'm prolly attached to it because of the positive experiences I had there.

maybe it's about bad experiences for me, being blocked and blocking people, skipping classes, a few short no ever meeting relationships and the thrills of seeing someone login in or knowing he's offline but there! awful times, i was so locked, damn how much time i have wasted in my life, yeah 2008-2012 was the most unproductive period in my life possibly
and sure actually that version design isn't bad
but i was refering to xp design overall, and also to these things:

[BIMG]https://admin.todayonline.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/msn_status.jpg?itok=GvgCultA[/BIMG]

on the other hand windows 95... you are long gone but i'm still alive :3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9ukSm5gmKk

 

[JR_IsP]

Well, I'm not that old... but I remember WinXP, I remember MSN and all those protosocial-media days... the beggining of facebook, and stuff like that (Til this day I've never really liked facebook)... and all this VR trend. I think that internet is all but dying, it's evolving. And this reminds me the Huxley's book, BNW. People are going selfish, simple, stupid. Posting online your dinner is more important that eating it. Why can't just people live their own lives?

We are in the very beggining of a new era, an era that will take us to a metauniverse, with our planet contaminated and overpopulated... but a digital space for us to live. Where nobody really needs to know a thing, because Google can answer inmediatly. That's freaks me out, but I think that in maybe... idk... 10 or 20 years, Earth may be like that.

And of course, we INTPs would live offline reading a book or something, far away from the virtual crowd (or maybe just me.)

 

[Shieru]

everything changes. i think the next iteration of evolution in a social platform always seems like 'the end' to those who interacted in the previous form of the system. but being one of those people who adapted to the previous age, i do miss the more personal quality of the old internet. more people = less specification and intimacy. it's like being one of the first people at a party where you find one or two others with common interests. when the room becomes crowded and loud, you're either going to stick with your friends and perhaps try to find somewhere more private or disburse and loose touch. i think people are more likely to authentically express themselves and make real connections when there's a small, intimate group. as more people flood into what used to be forums grounded in specific common interests, the whole vibe gets diluted and people close off.

i think the sincere discussion age continues in some tucked away cracks and corners of specification, especially heavy intellectual forums (where actual scientists go to converse) and emotional support groups. trolls tend to be allergic to dry science, and most support groups are heavily scavenged by their mods to prevent the already suicidal from being harassed :P

Has global information become so widespread that everyone's opinion is now also diluted in equal proportion?

i think this is probably true to some extent. it seems to be more a consequence of postmodern philosophy though. part of it may be a paradigm shift where we've become more aware of our ignorance. but these days it seems like people are more interested in asserting their right to hold their own opinion than they are in discovering the truth. we haven't changed for millenia though, people have always been largely focused on their own way of seeing things, we're egocentric creatures. i think the difference now is that debate is discouraged in favor of harmony via respect for 'other's opinions'. it's an attempt at a solution for the human conflict i think, a shift in ethical paradigm away from value of truth and toward value of the individual. postmodernism is quite like romanticism in this way.

I really loved the msn look:

^ +1

i dunno if anyone else remembers it, but i was kinda attached to the old yahoo messenger as well ah the nostalgia.

 

[JR_IsP]

i think the sincere discussion age continues in some tucked away cracks and corners of specification, especially heavy intellectual forums (where actual scientists go to converse) and emotional support groups. trolls tend to be allergic to dry science, and most support groups are heavily scavenged by their mods to prevent the already suicidal from being harassed :P

Ohh, that's so true! At least this forum, with its old school looking style haven't really catched the trolls atention, soo, I think that we will have a nice place to debate, at least for a while :P

Btw, did you guys remember MS Encarta? I loooooved that, I learned so much with that... now I just have Wikipedia XD

 

[TheManBeyond]

Ohhh Encarta, my favourite place when internet was impossible to navigate, i used to read a lot of stuff there, the games it had and all the interactive charts were over the top
I remember i heard there for first time ever Sepultura's Refuse Resist in the form of a 30 second clip and i was blown away
Encarta turned me into rock
HERE'S THE STORY FOLKS: WISDOM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ODNxy3YOPU

 

[Nymus Anon]

The internet has died and left behind its hyperactive child.

btw, windows xp was on the first laptop I ever had, and I actually really liked it, but I see so much hate for it.

 

[The Gopher]

The internet has died and left behind its hyperactive child.

btw, windows xp was on the first laptop I ever had, and I actually really liked it, but I see so much hate for it.

Well I liked vista so I know how you feel. Hmm liked is a strong word. Stockholm syndrome?

 

[JR_IsP]

Stockholm syndrome? Never heard of it. But I really liked XP. Guys, do you know where to find THE original wallpaper? The one with the green hill....

 

[Artsu Tharaz]

Is the whole fcking earth dying? Things could be done so much better than they are, we could know so much, do so much, I can see it. But maybe we'll all die out by then. Like someone with so much potential that squanders their youth and dies young *cough*

I don't get why it's all done the way it is. Just some dumb automatic process. Path of least resistance. Fulfilling base impulses and going no where beyond it.

It's an inherently limited medium anyway... but still with much potential. Like, all it is is fricken pixels. Text, images. But a lot can be done with that. And once Virtual Reality comes in all is lost. Goodbye world.

But ok, then there's the whole thing that... I exist, I am part of this world. I can be a part of the problem, or a part of the solution, and I tend to err for the former and be a reflection of the sickness of earth, never quite reaching purposiveness. I try to try, at least.

 

[JR_IsP]

You should really read some Nietzche.