January 23, 2026
Two decades ago, logging into the internet meant a lot of possibilities. You could download music for free, chat rooms gave this rush of talking to strangers across the world and there was this grungy aspect of surfing websites and finding weird corners of the internet that gave both you and the internet a personality. Then, this “e”-world seemed like a novelty, mass adoption where a life without it was impossible felt like a dream one would brush away. Then the first social networks emerged and the iPhone and its many clones, followed by cheap data to the point where now being plugged into the global economy means being connected by 4 devices but the whole experience of the internet revolves around a handful of platforms and a few apps.
It is fair that the initi…
January 23, 2026
Two decades ago, logging into the internet meant a lot of possibilities. You could download music for free, chat rooms gave this rush of talking to strangers across the world and there was this grungy aspect of surfing websites and finding weird corners of the internet that gave both you and the internet a personality. Then, this “e”-world seemed like a novelty, mass adoption where a life without it was impossible felt like a dream one would brush away. Then the first social networks emerged and the iPhone and its many clones, followed by cheap data to the point where now being plugged into the global economy means being connected by 4 devices but the whole experience of the internet revolves around a handful of platforms and a few apps.
It is fair that the initial wonder of the internet has faded away into oblivion, it was too good to be true. To reach the economies of scale meant that standardization was inevitable, which induces the feeling of sameness but still there was the element of adding ones own personal touches to the experience of the internet. With generative AI this has changed, the last frontier of personalization on the internet has also become automated which means that every post reads the same, every video looks like a copy of a copy of a copy.
Plus, why would anyone want to create on the internet anyway? The obvious money incentive which means that certain norms have to be adhered to: You can’t be too left, can’t question the overlords or stirrup trouble. But otherwise with the surveilling apparatus baked deep into the experience of the web, we’re just giving more data points to allow ourselves to be policed. Gen AI also means that one’s content becomes the fodder for another model of your favorite LLM, further diluting the incentives to create. So the best way to enjoy the internet is as a mute spectator, a consumer rather than a creator. The internet is killing itself and us along with it and we aren’t even noticing. Or maybe we aren’t supposed to.