Life in a post 'dead internet' world - The coming Netizen Exodus

[Duiker]

I've been thinking alot about the dead internet theory and believe that it is here. Yes, there are actual people who use the internet, but bots and marketing algorithms clearly outnumber us. More people are funneled through smaller amounts of websites, and those are heavily moderated and monetized. So the question becomes, if the internet is dead or dying, what then? I think we will see in ourselves a change of our habits and lifestyle. When the internet was new, only the hobbyists were using it, now that it is ubiquitous, its the hobbyists that refuse its use.

Now I don't mean a complete disconnect from the internet, but a focus on spending less time on it in a more focused manner. I've outlined some thoughts about how I want to live now that it's all fake and gay. Looking to hear others thoughts on this so I can refine my views on this.

The internet isn't real
Yes, actual information exists on the internet, but we must return to the skepticism of the early days of the internet. Everything can be faked now, and everything can be edited by malicious actors, and everything can secretly be an ad. That will only get stronger.

Focus on the real, and on people
By this I mean prioritize face to face interactions, and direct online communication with other people. Bots that can pretend to interact with you, or real people online who are shills/grifters will only get better at being sociable. Focus on the humans around you, and if you must communicate online, focus less on 'general/passive communication'. In a world were everyone is communicating through phones and computers, we need that face to face element or we get weird and unhinged.

Consume Intentionally, and therefor consume less
Media is everywhere, and Media is endless. There will always be more to watch, play, listen to, and the production of these things will only get faster and faster. I am not saying stop watching shows, or stop gaming, but I think mindlessly consuming media isn't the answer. I'll admit I am still vague on this point, but caring about what you consume, not necessarily its quality, but caring enough about some aspect of it in a way that self limits how much you consume.

Use the internet as a tool instead of a place to live
Even in the early days of the internet we saw people who were permanently online, and it will only get worse, and I think that needs a change in mindset of how we use the internet. Instead of it being a place we live in, its a tool. We should have specific goals on why we are browsing and what we are looking for. Especially now that the algorithm will want us to scroll more and spend more time on each site so we see more ads.

Preserve what you care about
Not all of us are data hoarders and we don't all need to be. However, if there is something you care about, even if its just one or two movies, or one singers discography. Preserve it. In this age where what is online can be changed and edited decades later, if not completely erased, then we must be like the monks in the dark ages preserving old tomes. Even if its only a small one, keep data that maters to you, and be willing to share it.

Build your Own Third Place
For many, there will be Work (or school), Home, and then the internet. Whatever it is you do, make a third place for you to socialize, even if its just playing MTG with a couple other nerds face to face at a cardshop, atleast that is more real face to face interaction that others might not get. The focus should be an interacting with others, and relaxing.

Be your own Network and be willing to adopt new ones
This relates to the point on preservation, but having a network of people you can interact with and share data will prove useful and helpful, as the internet gets smaller and more focused on selling you shit. There will be more and more people who realize that they are lacking in knowledge and cant find it online anymore. Be that person who can supply that information. Keep the spirit of the internet alive, even if you aren't using it as much.

In conclusion
I think we are already seeing these things happen in our habits and the subjects we talk about. As time goes on, we will start to see a hard divide between more and more people permanently online, and those who have...god I dont want to use this word, but Ascended or risen above the internet. making the positives of the internet work for them while separating themselves from the many social downsides we are seeing.

Thank you for listening to my schizo Ted Talk.

 

[poopshoes]

I think the only way people will sort of step back from the internet is when AI slop gets so manifold and inescapable that using the internet will become like watching TV but its nothing but infomercials. Its already bad but like everything else there IS a limit to how bad something can get before it dies.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

I don't know, you can argue that literal NPCs are the least dangerous group on the internet. With predators, manipulators and schizoids being a far bigger danger to individuals.

As for people being permanently online it really depends on the mindset. It's pretty much a luxury and if the economy and infrastructure gets worse then even if more people get addicted they won't be able to anyways.

 

[Preacher ✝]

Way ahead of you. I have a very large offline archive of the media I like, over the years I've been reducing the video games I play and YouTube channels I follow. The closest thing to social media I use anymore is KiwiFarms. Other than that I have a small group of old online friends that has multiple layers of contact redundancy.

IRL I have my own old friends, my family, and my Church.

 

[Merton J. Dingle]

Over the past year or (year and a half) I've actually returned to many of the habits that I had in the 2000s and early 2010s, while taking advantage of any new tech or conveniences from the 2010s or 2020s that are actually good for the consumer. For one, not using any site that forces me to post under my real identity and that is highly restrictive to what I can say. I occasionally spend time looking for interesting sites on Wiby or Marginalia, but mostly only visit various websites when using the web as a tool, i.e. researching a potential purchase (the Kiwi Farms is one of the most prominent exceptions to this. Most large mainstream sites should be avoided except to scrape whatever useful information one might need from them at a particular time; Co-Pilot has been invaluable in getting the information that I need without visiting some of these shit sites, while providing the links to said sites in case I do actually need to visit them. For the paywalled sites, Bypass Paywall Clean has helped immensely. Aggregators like Skimfeed and The Weblist have been great as well for identifying content worth a damn from mainstream sites, while avoiding any propaganda/slop.

I spend a lot of time watching TV (often in a halfhearted manner while doing something else) and listening to the radio. So far just keeping things simple instead of subscribing to a thousand different services with tons of slop on them has worked well. I use Philo when I want some background noise, and it has a great DVR in which you can just skip any commercials when you're actually watching something that you care about. Fucking SiriusXM has been far better for music discovery than YouTube Music (and has helped with some news relating to music I like), though the latter undoubtedly has its uses if one has RVX Music and the ad-free desktop app. YouTube itself I only use for research using FreeTube (or occasionally ReVanced), with occasional forays into past content using the before:[year] search option. As for typical streaming services, Amazon Prime's ads can be blocked if you have uBlock Origin and Tubi functions essentially as a free Netflix since the ads on the on-demand side of things can be blocked and many of the videos can be downloaded with yt-dlp. And there are some niche paid services that aren't shit, like The Great Courses Plus and History Vault.

Honestly, I think that being reasonably tech literate can go a long way in making one's modern web experience much more pleasant, but there's also a mindset involved; you have to be unwilling to accept the ways that you're incentivized to use the modern web. I've met people that had dedicated servers in their home and were highly literate in Linux, yet used iPhones, participated in the belittlement of people for having Android phones, and consumed all the same slop that normies do on social media. That definitely threw me for a loop.

 

[Fleetwood]

I don't recommend the LSD part of Glowie Hippie Timothy Leary's philosophies but "Turn on, Tune in, Drop out" can be applied to the internet. Turn on the computer, get what you need send your message download your files, then turn it off. Live life.

 

[Cats]

The only thing I focus on anymore is cats. That's why I'm Cats. I've been absorbed by the hive mind

 

[KuntyFukLugs]

Yes, very good. I try to rely on the internet very little anymore now, or as little as I possibly can. So if I start with social media I'm not on anything, the only account that remains which could fall into the category is snapchat but I find that more for messaging instead of aimlessly scrolling through, but I feel the day where I get rid of that could be drawing closer. I follow 1 Youtube channel atm and mainly use it for reviews on something or music while I'm on my laptop. Game wise I've started going back to old single player games ranging anywhere from a few years to 20years old. I feel like the goal of internet usage now is to keep you there as long as possible scrolling and watching pointless shit that has no benefit in the slightest. I have people older than me showing me tiktoks and despite the video may only be 20-30 seconds long it feels like a lifetime and it's soul destroying to watch.

 

[Dysnomia]

The only thing I focus on anymore is cats. That's why I'm Cats. I've been absorbed by the hive mind

I've made frens with so many community cats. It's very relaxing.

 

[KosherFarms.net]

I am too young to remember anything other than this recent iteration of the Internet but from what I've seen hasn't it always been this way? Social media has always been completely useless. Media has always been prone to deletion. And having your own area has always been very important.

Feels like nothing has changed

 

[Masturbator]

Focus on the real, and on people
By this I mean prioritize face to face interactions, and direct online communication with other people. Bots that can pretend to interact with you, or real people online who are shills/grifters will only get better at being sociable. Focus on the humans around you, and if you must communicate online, focus less on 'general/passive communication'. In a world were everyone is communicating through phones and computers, we need that face to face element or we get weird and unhinged.

its kind of obvious thing that internet is reflection of reality so upcoming shittifying of internet and loss of more less cozypozy personal resources in favor of commerce is directly byproduct of stuff irl turning to shit at accelerated paces

outside of memes i dont believe in dead internet by engine since even in the "good old days" it was extremely botted to the limit with malware injections whenever possible (esp through flash then html5 ads), the reason why internet generally is "dying" is that most creative and more less interested people left it or otherwise moved on more interesting stuff and so to find who didnt you gonna have to put so much effort to the point its legitimately form of netstalking than trying to find someone sharing the interests on their webpage that is still updating or at least has author responding to emails

 

[سلیمان عثمان]

I am too young to remember anything other than this recent iteration of the Internet but from what I've seen hasn't it always been this way?

I suppose that the largest difference is that it was a far smaller group of people and the larger societal relevance / visibility was nearly non-existent. Other than a passing mention in certain magazines it is hard to imagine Usenet slap fights or MUD fuckery making head lines in main stream publications the way that tweets and 'likes' do now.

There were also far more sites worth visiting fore all things were swallowed up by the larger sites / platforms.

It felt far more like a giant de-centralized club for odd-balls than the ever present part of the mass media culture that it is today. The lack of user friendliness also acted as a bit of a barrier for the truly irredeemably stupid. Retarded political arguments and autistic screeching matches were certainly always a part of it but I think that the fact that not a thing said or done on the earlier iterations of the Internet really felt like they actually mattered gave it a fundamentally different character.

 

[P R O X Y]

I am too young to remember anything other than this recent iteration of the Internet but from what I've seen hasn't it always been this way? Social media has always been completely useless. Media has always been prone to deletion. And having your own area has always been very important.

Feels like nothing has changed

Yes, but no.

90's/00's era of the internet was not really censored and didn't really have social media in the same way we do now. People met in chat rooms, forums like this, or other community software for the most part. Myspace is the last example of a social media site that wasn't really trying to cash in on it's users thoughts and activities. Doesn't mean they didn't try, they just didn't figure out the algorithmic profit hellscape that is modern social media that companies like Twitter and Facebook did.

Media was always prone to deletion, but it used to be mostly it was just lost to time. It wasn't as trivial to setup a website in ye olde days, so people often stopped hosting things, especially as it was expensive for the time with far less ways to make money. It's cheaper and easier to setup a website now, but you are beholden to so many third parties of which any could be malicious and force you to take down your content. KF is a good example that you don't get to have your little home, host what you want, even your own forum software can attempt to stop you from having your community.

My ending opinion is that we are slowly erasing ourselves, and replacing it with recycled content of what we think we want. Companies have started removing old content in the hope to further monetize it. More and more stuff is locked behind some paywall/subscription. Bigger websites outshine the less popular but more quality sites just do to their reach. And now bots/AI are polluting every reachable area of the internet that we are in a loop of eating our own garbage while continuing to filter out anything that is different and would make us more human.

I don't even know if my rant makes any sense, but the internet of now is nothing close to what we had.

 

[Drael]

.....Thank you for listening to my schizo Ted Talk.

By the way, half of the replies in this thread are generated by bots. Don't believe their lies.

 

[Spooky Dogwood]

I am too young to remember anything other than this recent iteration of the Internet but from what I've seen hasn't it always been this way? Social media has always been completely useless. Media has always been prone to deletion. And having your own area has always been very important.

Feels like nothing has changed

I would like you to imagine a world with no faceberg, no reddit, no twitter, where google has yet to become such a monolithic giant, where every topic had it's own dedicated website, with their own dedicated forum, and where there was practically no financial incentive to run a website, and the people who did try to monetize their site often turned into pariahs after pissing off their community.

 

[Big Brown Schlub]

Honestly I've realized that the dead internet isn't as much of a result of the internet being flooded by bots as much as it's the result of turd worlders getting access to the internet and they're so fucking stupid that they are virtually indistinguishable from bots. See: Poojeets.

 

[Squawking Macaw]

This is something I've been thinking about, not in regards to dead internet theory per se, but just trying to combat the trend of people becoming terminally online pseudo-autistics. I've been trying to stop watching stuff on the internet mindlessly and use it only for jobs, education, and personal projects. Those are also being encroached by AI, but it's a start I think.