The internet has always been my salvation.
As a socially underdeveloped kid, I’d spend my lunch hours in the high school library on those public desktop computers, reading fandom sites about my favorite video games. Computers always made sense to me. I even owe my entire career to them.
But the internet today feels wrong. Whatever the fuck kind of psychological warfare is happening right now with this Epstein stuff is too much for my mind to handle. I can’t do it anymore.
I will love. I will vote. I will support my community and continue to oppose this fucking nightmarish system we all find ourselves in. But I need to sign off.
Imagine the door closing sound effect when logging out of AIM.
I thought about this multiple times, I’ve went digital minimalist and it partially is better, you just unlock so much space and mind relax once you are a few days without an internet connection. But I think that’s not enough. And the internet today is shit, like every communication media, if it isn’t permeated by enough novelty it starts being in control of the few and it starts entering game powers and becoming shit. Think of printed press, radio, TV: all great inventions but they all eventually just lost their original empowering and sharing purpose and became redundant stuff, getting worse and worse, more and more controlled, less and less free and reachable.
And this is happening to the internet as well, it’s not a novelty, it’s just that we’ve grown up with it, and as the tool is new its way of getting out of reach is new as well, and there aren’t worthy alternatives yet, at least not so used that you can even build very effective communities / new medias of communication on. It’s not even internet fault, it’s human fault. We love power games and control so much that we end up using our tools to destroy ourselves instead of empowering ourselves, that’s not a technological problem, that’s a cultural one. We are stressed animals, we’ve been like that for centuries.
I am also very very very, and I mean very tired. Every business wants to enter social medias, and every person who joins social medias ends up becoming the same: they want more, more followers, more attention, more posts. People are starting to lose actual human contact and interactions, even sex is starting to be more about a screen than body on body.
We have AMAZING tools. Internet is amazing, AI is amazing. We could solve so much of the world’s problems if we used them the right way, but we didn’t. We like becoming stale, we like to avoid novelty, to avoid connection, we are sick and stressed. We simply focus on the wrong things. All the time.
I mean think how software just progresses better if it’s open source, think about Linux, it’s just an open, novelty seeking OS. Even Linux Torvalds said that every kind of locking development with licenses, every kind, even GNU licenses that made illegal to close source the code, was detrimental to the development, he was an advisor of completely open licenses as MIT. And that’s because he loved what he was doing, and loved that the code was completely accessible and most companies originally were selling support, not their code.
Proprietary platforms mask the same ways to profit on you as novelty accessibility. They lock down their code and they make it stale, the problem is not even they wanna profit from it, it’s they wanna subtly profit on you without you being completely aware on what they are doing (whether we can still debate if money is a good way to exchange value between people). It’s they wanna play tricks on you. It’s okay if you sell a platform to someone for a service in exchange, it’s not okay to strongly push people on it, locking their machines down, closing down hardware and software on a single platform, influencing the politics, people’s view of reality, actively destroying alternatives, for selling your product.
They all knew what they were doing, but they saw the profits and started to ignore everything else.
Power makes people sick, power is our problem, the concept of power is something typical of a carnivorous animal when it predates other animals, or in hierarchical structures all deriving from the stress of the animal about not being able to satisfy its needs. And being so aggressive towards our own species to the point of creating institutions made specifically for that purpose is something that can arise just from a highly stressed species. We ignored the existing networks in nature and ignored that real harmony can be found in relationships that are more similar to symbiosis, not to predation. We are definitely capable of satisfying our basic needs as a collective species thanks to all our technologies, but we did never seek for balance, we seek for power. Instead of accepting death and pain we started to reject them, and in that process we created way worse pain and more death, and we became blind to beauty. Sometimes somehow we seem to realize it and create better situations, but history teaches that we always come back, it’s a cycle.
I don’t even think this can be solved by human beings unless we somehow change our brains, the alternative is some sort of external entity interacting with us, something that can be incredibly fast and distributed. Otherwise, with the help of our beloved technology, we’ve happily became so powerful that we can destroy ourselves.
No, not “off” the internet.
Off the big corporate-driven soulless sites, maybe. Smaller discussion groups/forums, dedicated services, etc. still works. It’s less tedious, less eating your brain.
Basically, going back to internet before central planetary services that feed on everyone being miserable.
In my free time on the weekends I disconnect and go outside and do stuff like hiking, climbing, airsofting, archery; then I come back to reality and it sucks
I’d say you’re coming back “from” reality. More like back “to” Plato’s Cave, which is what I consider screens to be.
Don’t give up, stick to places that don’t suck. Corpotrash is replacable
I agree! If we give up and move somewhere else, they’d just follow us and ruin it.
Not if it’s set up right. This federation is the model, it just needs to be tweaked. Clear rules on instances that can talk between the lemmy and piefeds to the open source facebook and twatter and instagram type social medias. One account that can travel between them.
More than that, to have a clear set of rules for moderation, both in the instances and the general forums, and for violations to be appealable, and a final decision contested to end in a jury trial of users. To prevent the powerful from getting their hooks in, and to prevent the moderators and administrators being unjust. It’s the only way to get the critical mass we need to have a viable alternative to these silicon valley parasites that are in thrall to big business and government.
Also in addition we need new sort of organizations, ones where innumerable groups can cooperate on what they agree on on general forums, as they see fit. Privately and publicly, where we can pool knowledge, funding, create businesses where maximizing revenue isn’t the only concern in sectors where the private market isn’t providing needed outcomes, finding and grooming and electing political candidates, pooling votes and collectively using votes and other actions to force poliiticians to adopt our positions over those of monied interests.
Monied interests cooperate on what they agree on, and if we don’t do the same we can never counter-act them. We are stronger than the united greed of those interests, that is hurting itself long term to maximize it’s short term profit. We just need the forums to work together. Federated systems are that forum, to remove liability from he whole for one thing.
If what was meant when OP says ‘internet’ is the cesspool social media, then yes, we should totally ditch them.
However, the fact remains that the real definition of internet is simply a bunch of interconnected devices that run the internet protocol (IP), nothing more and nothing less.
Though I have my doubts, I’m not disagreeing with you or anything, just pointing out that there’s a lot of people confusing this term, and simple as it may be, it might be harmful.
I think I was just trying to say that it’s not doomed to enshitify if we set up new systems to work despite the malign forces at work. The idea behind open source and federation could work to set up systems that could be resistant to the enshittening.
We need a sort of federated social media as much as anything. While lemmy is a good start, we need to add more types of social medias that can interact together and improve their functioning, and also give a set of clear rules that can be appealed to a jury trial of users for serious infractions to get and keep the trust that would enable us to overcome the established silicon valley parasite companies that the government and big business has their hooks into and as such is a compromised forum we are doomed to lose the common good on.
Valid point.
What I would like to add to it is that we will need to defend it from time to time.
We’ve already seen an example when Meta’s Thread tried to federate.
Spammers have also been a nuisance, and thankfully our mods & admins have been handling them well.
I’m not going to completely give up on it, but I’m finding ways to be more selective about how I use it. I’m moving away from it gradually, as going cold turkey has never worked for me in the past. I’ve started buying physical books when I can, working on hobby stuff more, going outside to exercise, etc.
Corporate social media is outright abusing people’s minds for profit and is wholly unethical. It should be burnt to the ground and only mentioned as a cautionary tale. Anything with an algorithm should be treated with the same kind of caution we use for hard drugs. Honestly, I’m not sure any form of social media is good for your mental health anymore, but at least federated socials are organic and free range, so to speak.
Streaming and gaming I’m more conflicted about. I feel it’s obvious that the current business models most streaming and gaming companies use have contributed to a decline in quality and artistry in our media. Microtransactions in games should be held in the same low regard as corporate social media. However, I don’t think giving people access to a broader selection of content is harmful in general, it’s just the constant price hikes, seemingly arbitrary cancellations and removals, and shifting of content from one service to another that ruins it. With product placement becoming an accepted practice, we’re seeing more and more movies and TV becoming ad vehicles and propaganda platforms… But we could have a nice thing if creators were respected and consumers treated fairly by the major streaming services. Sadly, that’s not likely to happen unless the money dries up.
News… News is awful. Regan dealt broadcast news a fatal wound by repealing the fairness doctrine, but it was Facebook that finally buried it. When more people started to access news content through Facebook and Twitter than from actually watching the channel, news networks adapted by creating content that plays well in the attention economy, which basically means they generate as much rage-bait as possible. If it’s not outright propaganda or apology peices then it’s just political gossip aimed and pissing one demographic or another off. There’s not much point in consuming any news except long format articles from a few select sources any more.
Interacting with people… Back in the heyday of forums you could find a wealth of info and helpful people to answer questions on almost any topic. But most of those forums had a miscellaneous or off topic board where the chronically online could talk about what ever they wanted. Those places were always a minefield of trolling, misinfo, and general assholery. That’s basically what smartphones turned the Internet into, one giant off-topic section full of angry, chronically online people. I don’t try to find online friends anymore…
For me, I limit devices to specific purposes. My phone does calls, messaging, and the few socials I interact with plus occasional music for workouts. My tablet only plays music, has a limited selection of games, and my e-reader apps (no socials, no streaming, etc.). TV is only for streaming video. My laptop I’ll occasionally access Lemmy on, look up hobby stuff, and do online shopping with. Any gaming is on a steam deck these days, and usually single-player offline titles. Setting things up this way helps me avoid doom scrolling, buying shit I don’t need, consuming mindless Netflix content, and buying in to AAA game hype. It’s not perfect, but somehow it helps a little.
Your mileage may vary.
Thank you for such a thoughtful response. You and I are pretty much on the same page on everything. I’m relieved to see that I’m not the only one who feels this way.
No problem. I get really down about what the internet has become because I remember what it was supposed to be back in the early days. We were gonna communicate without social barriers, end prejudice, save the rainforests and the whales, you know…?
But the very nature of the medium is impermanent. Every protocol and technology that underpins the internet is flexible, changeable. It’s changed significantly from the early days, back when people were optimistic and hopeful about what it meant for us, it can change again. But it won’t until we disengage from it. As long as we’re hooked, we feed the beast.
I think it’s good to talk about our dissatisfaction with what online spaces have become, to encourage people to pull back, consider what they’re doing, and to look for alternatives. We can’t pretend that it isn’t a part of our reality, it’s out of the bottle, the box is open and so forth, but it doesn’t have to touch the whole of our existence, it doesn’t have to shape every part of our reality.
I tell people to take a single small step. Leave your phone at home so you’re not tempted to cheat, then go to a book store and buy a book, pay cash for it, and don’t use a rewards program. Don’t ask for suggestions or look up reviews, browse the aisles and pick one based off the blurb on the back cover. Unless the cashier is a friend of yours, no one knows you own that book except you. No one was paying that much attention, I promise.
Owning that book will be something private, something only you really know about, so it can be any book you want. It’s a small act, but it’s one that’s utterly free of judgement, analysis, and intrusion, which makes it something profound in this day and age.
EDIT: Bonus points if it’s a local bookshop, but do the best you can.
You sound like a really wise dude. When you put it that way, it’s sooo true, I can’t believe that the simple act of buying a random book in cash is the antithesis of how consumerism works these days (we go online, read reviews, get tracked, get recommended books based on our search query and our “profile”, etc)
Also, may I ask what kind of games you’re into? That was a huge dilemma for me in the past. Like, should I run Linux or Windows. In the end, I gave up PC gaming after a lifetime of being a hardcore PC gamer and moved to console for simplicity sake.
Thanks. I don’t know if I’m wise, but I’m definitely old enough to have a little experience and cranky enough to resent someone being in my business all the time. Social media pushes us to share everything with everyone, so it can be fed into surveillance advertising, but there’s some peace of mind in having time and things that are only, or at least mostly, yours.
As far as gaming goes, I was a PC gamer for a long time as well. I used to play mostly RTS titles, but got into online games and MMOs in the vanilla WoW era. I’m not beholden to a particular type of game, and these days I play most exploration and story driven games with less of a combat focus where I can relax and complete them at my own pace like Stray, Firewatch, Jusant, and Death Stranding. I replay old favorites a lot. Portal and Portal 2 still hold up really well.
Outside of issues with AI, a decline in quality, and privacy, the Windows vs. Linux choice really comes down to looking at the software you use and the games you play. In a lot of cases, there will be something that’s equivalent to common windows software, but works a little differently, Libre Office instead of MS Office, etc. So you have to consider your desire to relearn some common tasks as well. If you do try it, I’d get a second hard drive if you can, install Linux on it and dual boot or just keep the Windows drive around in case you decide you want to switch back.
I like Linux, I started using it after taking a class on it back in the early Win 10 days. I don’t do anything extreme or crazy with my set up, I mostly run Debian or Ubuntu based distributions like Mint, PopOS, MX, and so forth. I haven’t tried Bazzite yet, but I’ve heard good things. But if you want to tinker, go nuts, you can customize about anything if you have the skills. It’s never been 100% trouble free for me, but neither was Windows, and for the most part it’s run really well on my older hardware.
Linux gaming is a lot easier these days, and for the most part if you’re avoiding big AAA online only titles, you can run just about anything you want with minimal hassle. I bought the Steam Deck for simplicity’s sake, I was running most of my games through Steam with Proton on my desktop anyway, and it was cheaper than upgrading or replacing my old PC. Valve isn’t a perfect company, but they seem to be much better than most of the competition these days, and I like that they’re working to provide a solid alternative to Windows in a market that’s been dominated by one company for far too long.
I’m ready to give up on most things.
Already have. Continued existence is mainly just for the benefit of the spouse who actually has things worse than I.
Inertia is really the only thing keeping me alive at this point…
Every other post on this platform is political.
I really couldn’t care less about politics right now…
Please tell me if there is a way to turn off political stuff…
