The Increasingly Terrible Internet, and Revolution
2025-02-23
This article takes heavy inspiration from Technology Connection's video, where I make some of the same points he brings up, while also bringing up my own points and examples. I highly recommend that you watch his video.
Introduction
If there is one thing that I would go back in time to ask of the world, it would be to regulate social media better. I've gotten to the point where I genuinely believe that social media is a cancer that is killing society. Somehow, since my official departure more than 2 years ago, it has gotten significantly worse. To remind you, when I left social media, Twitter was still called Twitter, the concept of "sludge content" (later rebranded as "brainrot") had just begun, (closed)AI was months away from their release of ChatGPT, and Andrew Tate was just beginning his reign as perhaps the most influential human being on the planet.
It's kind of weird. I look back at the past few years of technological advancements, but on closer inspection, the world is fundamentally different. The social media of the past is quite tame compared to today's social media, full of hyper-everything and a message to consume at every corner. It's genuinely a dystopia and yet despite that, nobody seems to be caring to leave it. I tell so many people around me to stop using social media, and despite that, they still keep using it. I don't even think the 2-3 people who I know who stopped using social media were even influenced by me or my previous blog post on deleting social media. So realistically this blog is just me yelling into the digital void; I guess it's nothing new.
Survivorship Bias
A study in 2018 concluded that people prefer algorithms and computers more than human curation.
"On the one hand, our results suggest optimism about the potential for usage of
algorithmic advice. Indeed, we are deeply hopeful about the potential for humans to use
algorithmic advice to help them make wiser decisions. At the same time, our results raise
questions about the willing reliance on technological guidance. In an age when we routinely
allow our attention and our spending to be directed by technological systems, when we rarely
bother to understand those systems, let alone read the terms and conditions of our usage, we all
ought to be concerned about our vulnerability to manipulation"
This article from 7 years ago fears that people may be too reliant on algorithms and technology. I know that this affects me personally. I use LLMs for pretty much everything. I use the internet for literally all my research. The internet is quite literally the most powerful tool created by humans. Despite that, it feels like nobody actually uses it to its full potential.
On multiple occasions, someone has asked a rhetorical question as if they couldn't find the answer within literal seconds if they wanted to. "Gee, if only there was a way for me to find the answer to this question with some sort of magical device that I can have on me at all times", I normally respond. It's like we've forgotten just how powerful phones and computers are. I genuinely feel like the only time these devices are being pushed to their limits are when they are running games or websites with bloated frameworks.
I guess people don't really want to Google things, or search for information, because it is way too inconvenient for them. I bet that someone across the world just uttered the words "I'm too lazy to Google this". After all, why do basic internet research when you can just let the computer serve content to you? Scroll, scroll, scroll. Consume, consume, consume. Keep going, I'm sure you'll find what you're looking for if you scroll for just a little longer.
We don't even question the algorithm; we just freak out whenever it serves you content about something you were talking about the other day and then move on as if that isn't completely insane?! Even if the content on our feeds were genuinely good, based on whatever your definition of "good" is, how would you know that? The illusion of social media is that it makes you believe that you are well-informed, know about everything, and are always right. It makes you feel good when you see those dumb people fail at basic math or geography questions or when you see someone make a complete fool out of themselves because you would never do/say such a stupid thing. When politics is on your feed, you hear or see the dumbest possible takes no matter what. The rare time you see something that took some genuine effort to make or made you think for longer than 30 seconds makes you believe that you're going to see more of that content. But alas, most of that content is nowhere to be found.
The reality is that there are so many smart and talented individuals who make thought-provoking content but you will never see their content because the algorithm doesn't promote their content. You only ever hear about successful YouTubers, but how many "failed" YouTubers exist? The answer is unknown; not even YouTube knows the answer. You can never know what you're missing out on because there's simultaneously nothing that you are missing out on, and also everything that you are missing out on. FOMO (fear of missing out) is created out of thin air, because the algorithm decides what shows up on your feed.
Why Algorithms Suck but We Love Them
All of the social media algorithms work based on engagement. The more engagement, the more the post gets boosted up the ranks and the more likely that it will show up on your feed. Engagement includes likes, comments, reposts, shares, and time spent watching the content. Notice how the content itself doesn't really matter, but rather the reaction/reception of the content is more important? This is the exact reason why we see so much negative content or content that makes us want to comment.
The best thing we could do is go on our own personal adventures, scouring the internet for the best content and aggregating it ourselves. Unfortunately, as I mentioned in my Personal Website Journey, it appears to be not as fun nor all that rewarding to go out of your way to look through stuff like blogs. Human curation leads to personal touches and twists; it's something an algorithm can't naturally emulate since it is based on patterns. Algorithms lead to a sense of complacency and sameness in your feed... well except for the times that it makes you angry (but even then, it feels somewhat predictable). Ever notice how sucky the Spotify algorithm is? It's because Spotify's only goal is to make sure you keep consuming so that you buy something. It has nothing to do with broadening your music taste or anything meaningful for a music streaming platform. It is for this exact reason why I love listening to new albums and other friend's playlists, ie recommendations by people since everyone's tastes differ from each other.
The reality is that it's difficult to discover cool and interesting things, and it's also difficult to do cool and interesting things. These algorithmic slot machines have a consistent feeling to them, but the unknowns of human curation lead to potential highs and lows that the algorithm can't match. It feels as though algorithms manage to only evoke a neutral emotion, occasional laughs, and a whole lot of anger.
On Ragebait
To fight back against stupid people, ragebait, etc, the solution is very simple. We need to ignore them. There is no reason why we should even engage with stupid ideas and behaviours because by engaging with them, we legitimize their thoughts and ideas. This tactic of using ragebait is not new whatsoever, and is actually being used by very prominent people right now. Before I go into the obvious examples, I want to mention the man who mastered social media hijacking. Andrew Tate successfully managed to infiltrate everyone's feeds, so much so that he needs no introduction. His impact on social media, and promoting "red-pill" content has probably set back society by a significant amount. The amount of unlearning required is substantial and I wish every man who was brainwashed good luck on the long journey getting rid of their toxic ideologies. What should be learned from Andrew Tate, is the way he managed to capture the hearts of so many men. It's clear that he struck a chord with them by exploiting ragebait. This is the exact same method that "political" figures use to get people to engage with "politics". It is in the best interest of anyone who is in politics for people to yell at each other because they end up making the most money when theres is a divide and when nothing productive happens. It's how social experiment type social media accounts have managed to become prominent. As a viewer, it has this additional "benefit" that makes you feel like you are engaging with the "other side" while you end up not changing your mind on anything and continue to affirm your existing biases.
The idea of ragebait is not new. Kanye West, for example, has made loud and brash statements his entire career. In the past, his controversial statements were considered to be progressive (calling out homophobia in hip-hop, saying "George Bush doesn't care about black people" on live television, etc.). For the last decade, his controversial statements started leaning more conservative, and now he spews literal hate speech. Kanye's contrarianism has kept the spotlight on him for the past 20 years, similar to another person. I'm sure I don't need to spell out the similarities that Kanye and Trump have, but unlike Kanye, Trump is the current US President, again. As a Canadian, I hear more about him than I do my own Prime Minister, and for what appears to be a good reason. Trump engages with ragebait by making outlandish claims all the time. All of this chatter is but a distraction to the actual problems, and this goes far beyond Trump, as you can probably extrapolate.
Hypocrisy of the US Government
When TikTok was banned for a day in the USA, I was hoping that the people would have done some self-reflection, realizing how bad TikTok was for them, and that they should just stop using social media. But I guess I expected too much of the citizens, because they decided to jump ship to some other social media. I guess I should have seen that one coming. Somehow, Twitter is still alive despite the sheer number of bots and ragebait, and the people who stopped using it decided that it's better to use a clone of Twitter to solve all their problems.
In 2020, Donald Trump signed an executive order to ban TikTok. Almost 5 years later, the government finally made progress to ban the app, and even shutting it down... for one whole day. Donald Trump managed to save the day... from an order he first signed. Never mind Trump's own hypocrisy, the US government is just as guilty as he is in this. The policymakers tried to ban TikTok as it is a "significant threat to national security.". I guess Trump disagrees, even though it seems clear that his executive order also claims that it's a threat to national security.
Comparing TikTok's data breaches and Facebook's data breaches, they don't seem too dissimilar in some cases. Facebook's most severe punishments were but mere slaps on the wrist, considering they generate over 150 BILLION dollars of revenue a year. Herein lies the problem. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and all these other social media/tech companies make too much money for the USA. Why do you think the big tech CEOs had front-row seats at Trump's inauguration? At the end of the day, it is in the best interest of the US government that people are hooked to their screens, so long as the computers are made by Americans, the apps they use are made by Americans, and the data goes to the Americans.
On a separate but similar note, it is exactly these same reasons why the US government is totally fine with Facebook/Meta torrenting 81.7 TERABYTES of pirated books (not to mention, these monsters configured to seed as little as possible). But when Aaron Swartz, an activist who helped develop RSS and Markdown (important things that I use for this website!), pirated books, the US government tormented him to the point that he committed suicide. Likewise, Deepseek is constantly criticized and blamed for whenever anything negative happens in the world of generative AI, because the US government doesn't believe in free market. If Meta, (closed)AI, Apple, or Google were based literally anywhere else in the world, the US government would happily do everything in their power to destroy these companies. After all, what is competition if the US government doesn't directly benefit from it?
Why I'm "Like This"
So many people ask me "why do you use Linux?". "Why do you use Firefox and other FOSS alternatives?". I hope you now understand why big tech is bad. It's not just that I love tinkering with technology. It's not just that I love having control over my own software. It's not just that I love not having to worry about paywalls. It's not that I love not having to worry about spyware. It's all of that, and more. People make the software I love, not corporations, and I want to keep it that way. Note that there are many good things about big tech that I can't deny. It is big tech's money that is paying for development of many Linux/FOSS projects, big tech contributes to open-source (mostly out of necessity of course), and there are some brilliant moments too (VSCode for example, is a great text editor in my opinion). On the other hand, it is big tech's willingness to release terrible software that made me ditch W*ndows.
Enough Complaining, What are the Solutions?
Well, depending on what part of this article spoke to you the most, you will want to employ some of, if not all of these solutions. Firstly, when it comes to politics, I don't know much. I merely pointed out facts that I collected straight from the source. I don't really have any faith in the American people to vote for a competent leader considering the past decade, not to mention a general amount of complacency that I see amongst everyone (myself included). Perhaps we just need one semi-competent leader who enacts a little bit of change and promotes a growth mindset amongst everyone, but that thinking is far too wishful.
I would recommend that in general, you shouldn't spend too much time getting bogged by politics and getting sucked in by the news. After all, news on social media is just headlines, and news stations make money from you clicking on articles and continuing to watch without enacting change in your life.
Stop using social media
Seriously. Genuinely, there is no reason for you to be on social media anymore if you care about your mental health. There is nothing you gain from modern social media. I guess if you're still not convinced after this article, then there's no hope.
Tell others to stop using social media too
This one is important. It's easier to stay off social media when nobody you know or care about uses it either. Why do we even care about Instagram and Facebook anyways, and why does nobody care about MySpace anymore? If you can stop using Myspace because nobody you care about uses Myspace, then you can get off Instagram if nobody you care about uses Instagram.
Replace social media time with hobbies
Read. Make music. Listen to music. Read blogs. Write blogs. Write code. Play games. Watch movies. Talk to a friend. Hang out with someone. Play sports. Go to the gym. Study something. Learn a new skill. Take on arts and crafts. Paint something. Volunteer. Join clubs. Browse older style forums. Make a website. Go for a walk. Go for a run. Go to the library. Watch a documentary. Research a very niche subject and become a leading expert on this niche subject, obtaining niche micro-celebrity status on this niche subject, and travelling the world, spreading your knowledge and wisdom on the niche subject.
Ponder. Think. I feel like we ought to do this more.
Note that I'm not trying to act like I do all of the above. I'm not perfect, and I still struggle with staying at home and wasting my time too. However, being aware of these options might remind me to be more productive. I hope so.
Research Skills
I think I am going to just make an entire blog post about the lost art of being an internet detective. But for now, look into OSINT exercises, they are pretty fun.
Conclusion: Lines from Rappers
I would write a conclusion, but J. Cole basically did it for me. I'd highly recommend listening to his track, "High For Hours". The last lines resonate with me the most.
"What good is takin' over when we know what you gon' do?
The only real revolution happens right inside of you"
It seems like I can't write a blog without Kendrick Lamar, who, of course also talked about this throughout his career.
"Yeah, Tupac dead, gotta think for yourself" (Savior)
"Turn this TV Off" (tv off)
And finally, the poem written by Kendrick's friend on To Pimp A Butterfly, on Mortal Man
"The caterpillar is a prisoner to the streets that conceived it
Its only job is to eat or consume everything around it
In order to protect itself from this mad city
While consuming its environment
The caterpillar begins to notice ways to survive
One thing it noticed is how much the world shuns him
But praises the butterfly
The butterfly represents the talent, the thoughtfulness
And the beauty within the caterpillar
But having a harsh outlook on life
The caterpillar sees the butterfly as weak
And figures out a way to pimp it to his own benefits
Already surrounded by this mad city
The caterpillar goes to work on the cocoon
Which institutionalizes him
He can no longer see past his own thoughts, he's trapped
When trapped inside these walls certain ideas take root, such as
Going home, and bringing back new concepts to this mad city
The result?
Wings begin to emerge, breaking the cycle of feeling stagnant
Finally free, the butterfly sheds light on situations
That the caterpillar never considered
Ending the internal struggle
Although the butterfly and caterpillar are completely different
They are one and the same"