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Here is a small rant about the current state of the net by me BEST_MAN_202
Introduction
2007-2009 marked a shift in society. We have the election of Obama in 2008, the iPhone, financial crash, and arguably most important- the maturity of the internet. 2007 was the worst year for the internet and mobile phones and videos becoming more popular. This opened the floodgates for the lowest common denominator of people being able to access the internet. Other things plagued the internet like the internet becoming indistinguishable from everyday life, becoming a part of life and who we are instead of a hobby. It was also the time where companies got a foothole on the internet and tried to regulate it. 2007 was when the internet turned to shit, especially internet communities.
The wild west and the regulation of the net
The early 2000s was the wild west of the internet and life in general. The new century for new life, new beginning, and new dreams. Now, it's feels old and too jaded. Everything feels like a jungle-tron and is infested of drugs, depression, and other sad things. Social media has become a incorporated to the point where you can't say anything without being threaten to be unemployed for what you twitted/ stated on facebook, demonized or even speak freely. Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and other big time social media platforms are the newest forums. Any active forum before that is now a ghost town.
Prior to 2007, the internet really was the Wild West. The golden age for me was 2001-07, high speed internet and the feeling of endless exploration. Facebook was still “cool” This era marked a shift in the way content was produced. The old internet was exciting because it was new and lawless. Lawmakers had no idea what the internet was in 2000. Fear about hackers stealing your money from the banks, phone companies not understanding what a script/virus that called a 900 number from your computer was.Hell congress use the movie "Hackers" as evidence for trying to regulate the internet?
The internet was used to promote anything and everything , it was full of pirated everything, Napster was insane when it came out. Think of what they charged for CDs, games, and such in 2000. You had no option but to buy it or try to copy one of the 2 songs from a cd off the radio. They kept trying to regulate it but no one in power had any idea what was going on or how to even start regulating the internet. It was around 2005-7 that companies realized the money they could make with it. Things like EBay Amazon and Apple music started to take off. When the companies started making money, they told congress how to regulate the internet to insure their profits. Torrent something nowadays without a vpn and there is a good chance your cable company will cut off your service.
Smartphones and the dumbing down of the net
Smartphones is one of the reasons why the internet is ruined. Before smartphones, getting on the web was an activity, similar to watching a movie, or playing a video game. You had to put aside your other tasks and sit down in front of a pc and then "surf" the web. And when you finished, you got up, turned off the pc and did something else. People no longer spend hours gazing at a computer screen after work or class; instead, they use their mobile devices to stay online everywhere, all the time. Before it the internet was considered a fringe place for "geeks and nerds". It made the internet mainstream for every single normie on the planet, which ruined the internet in a way.
With smartphones its no longer an activity, it's just part of everyone's day to day life, because it's always right there, at all times, at everyone's fingertips. Smartphone apps also made social media easier to access , made videos and online articles more standard as a means of getting news and info, etc.When you can go to the bar and browse the web, or check Twitter on your lunch break (or when you have any downtime at work), and then can check Facebook as you watch a movie or between video game matches, or as you fix your car or watch your son play baseball, it means that it's no longer an activity you have to spend time doing; it has become part of your "lifestyle".
Smartphones turned everything into a swipe app zero iq mess. and the fact that a lot of people don't really process - most people on the internet are on phones now. 10x so. Also several interesting studies point to smartphones having at least some effect on cognition. Studies have linked smartphone use with a decreased ability to exert high levels of focus and poorer attention control.
Monetising the illiterate population
A large portion of the population isn't capable of reading and learning from books. About 20% of people in the USA can't read the instructions on a pill bottle. 20% of American adults have very low to nonliterate literacy level and over 12 Percent of UK citizens are illiterate. They tend to be consumed by spectacles and lack the ability to concentrate on more rational, dispassionate presentations. This doesn't include the amount of children that are on platforms like youtube and twitter
Youtube, instagram, etc., are monetizing this illiterate portion of the population and feeding them the very political content they've ever really been able to consume. It's similar to the revolution that happened in society when the Bible was first translated into other languages. Messages are corrupted (intentionally and accidentally) and people who have never thought before rush to rash and ill considered worldviews.
Social justice groups, skeptics, youtube political groups like breadtube/left tube, twitter mobs and similar such groups resemble a religious movement like the puritans or protestants because they are birthed by similar technological phenomena. Plus web search engines now are orders of magnitude worse than around 2005. everything wants to be curated content. you can't type a text string in google and get a match. It's all dumbspeak for dumb dumbs.
Epilogue
I honestly doubt the internet will get better, and it honestly seems like it's getting worse. The censorship crackdown many places online seem to have been taking place, from the shut down of right wing controversial commentators like Alex Jones, to the shut down of 8chan, to even attacking small relatively unnoticed creators like MisterMetokur it seems like the internet is getting worse each year and it seems like in 2020, the internet censorship brigade will go in full swing and the internet becomes TV.2.0. Honestly at this point I think the internet, the world wide web at least is unsalvagavble in terms of communities. Not to mention that any sort of internet movement that was born on the internet and wasn't shilled by any establishment groups, that actually changes something gets shut down by the federal agents. Not to mention china wanting to influence the world and send its message abroad by censoring games and events, eg blizzcon, the nba and eccetera eccetera.
Sources
Here are some sources, and some things you might want to read about this issue
Also thanks for reading my little ramble about this isssue
'US literacy rate'
www.wyliecomm.com
'20% of American adults have very low to nonliterate literacy level'
education.cu-portland.edu
'More than 30 million adults in the United States cannot read, write, or do basic math above a third-grade level. — ProLiteracy (over 10% of the adult population)'
medium.com
'UK literacy rate'
www.telegraph.co.uk
www.jrf.org.uk
literacytrust.org.uk
'16.4% of adults in England, or 7.1 million people, can be described as having 'very poor literacy skills.' They can understand short straightforward texts on familiar topics accurately and independently, and obtain information from everyday sources, but reading information from unfamiliar sources, or on unfamiliar topics, could cause problems. This is also known as being functionally illiterate.'
www.independent.co.uk
'The report summarised that one in five young university students could manage basic tasks but might struggle with anything advanced, like reading instructions on an aspirin bottle.'
'PDFs on Internet Law and Regulation.'
www.researchgate.net
docdro.id
'Smartphones and IQ'
2002 research documents talking about the shift of people getting access to the internet from white males and well off families to the average population
www.researchgate.net
2010 Article talking about illiteracy, phones and the net
www.wired.com
'The internet and daily life'
www.academia.edu
www.bbvaopenmind.com
'China's influence'
www.youtube.com
'8chan and free speech'
8chan Is Vile, But Free Speech Doctrine Is Clear- Bloomberg Oppinion
Why the courts don't see online manifestos as incitements to violence.
'Internet freedom in the USA and the rest of the world'
surfshark.com
www.vox.com
techcrunch.com
www.theverge.com
www.forbes.com
www.privateinternetaccess.com
Introduction
2007-2009 marked a shift in society. We have the election of Obama in 2008, the iPhone, financial crash, and arguably most important- the maturity of the internet. 2007 was the worst year for the internet and mobile phones and videos becoming more popular. This opened the floodgates for the lowest common denominator of people being able to access the internet. Other things plagued the internet like the internet becoming indistinguishable from everyday life, becoming a part of life and who we are instead of a hobby. It was also the time where companies got a foothole on the internet and tried to regulate it. 2007 was when the internet turned to shit, especially internet communities.
The wild west and the regulation of the net
The early 2000s was the wild west of the internet and life in general. The new century for new life, new beginning, and new dreams. Now, it's feels old and too jaded. Everything feels like a jungle-tron and is infested of drugs, depression, and other sad things. Social media has become a incorporated to the point where you can't say anything without being threaten to be unemployed for what you twitted/ stated on facebook, demonized or even speak freely. Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and other big time social media platforms are the newest forums. Any active forum before that is now a ghost town.
Prior to 2007, the internet really was the Wild West. The golden age for me was 2001-07, high speed internet and the feeling of endless exploration. Facebook was still “cool” This era marked a shift in the way content was produced. The old internet was exciting because it was new and lawless. Lawmakers had no idea what the internet was in 2000. Fear about hackers stealing your money from the banks, phone companies not understanding what a script/virus that called a 900 number from your computer was.Hell congress use the movie "Hackers" as evidence for trying to regulate the internet?
The internet was used to promote anything and everything , it was full of pirated everything, Napster was insane when it came out. Think of what they charged for CDs, games, and such in 2000. You had no option but to buy it or try to copy one of the 2 songs from a cd off the radio. They kept trying to regulate it but no one in power had any idea what was going on or how to even start regulating the internet. It was around 2005-7 that companies realized the money they could make with it. Things like EBay Amazon and Apple music started to take off. When the companies started making money, they told congress how to regulate the internet to insure their profits. Torrent something nowadays without a vpn and there is a good chance your cable company will cut off your service.
Smartphones and the dumbing down of the net
Smartphones is one of the reasons why the internet is ruined. Before smartphones, getting on the web was an activity, similar to watching a movie, or playing a video game. You had to put aside your other tasks and sit down in front of a pc and then "surf" the web. And when you finished, you got up, turned off the pc and did something else. People no longer spend hours gazing at a computer screen after work or class; instead, they use their mobile devices to stay online everywhere, all the time. Before it the internet was considered a fringe place for "geeks and nerds". It made the internet mainstream for every single normie on the planet, which ruined the internet in a way.
With smartphones its no longer an activity, it's just part of everyone's day to day life, because it's always right there, at all times, at everyone's fingertips. Smartphone apps also made social media easier to access , made videos and online articles more standard as a means of getting news and info, etc.When you can go to the bar and browse the web, or check Twitter on your lunch break (or when you have any downtime at work), and then can check Facebook as you watch a movie or between video game matches, or as you fix your car or watch your son play baseball, it means that it's no longer an activity you have to spend time doing; it has become part of your "lifestyle".
Smartphones turned everything into a swipe app zero iq mess. and the fact that a lot of people don't really process - most people on the internet are on phones now. 10x so. Also several interesting studies point to smartphones having at least some effect on cognition. Studies have linked smartphone use with a decreased ability to exert high levels of focus and poorer attention control.
Monetising the illiterate population
A large portion of the population isn't capable of reading and learning from books. About 20% of people in the USA can't read the instructions on a pill bottle. 20% of American adults have very low to nonliterate literacy level and over 12 Percent of UK citizens are illiterate. They tend to be consumed by spectacles and lack the ability to concentrate on more rational, dispassionate presentations. This doesn't include the amount of children that are on platforms like youtube and twitter
Youtube, instagram, etc., are monetizing this illiterate portion of the population and feeding them the very political content they've ever really been able to consume. It's similar to the revolution that happened in society when the Bible was first translated into other languages. Messages are corrupted (intentionally and accidentally) and people who have never thought before rush to rash and ill considered worldviews.
Social justice groups, skeptics, youtube political groups like breadtube/left tube, twitter mobs and similar such groups resemble a religious movement like the puritans or protestants because they are birthed by similar technological phenomena. Plus web search engines now are orders of magnitude worse than around 2005. everything wants to be curated content. you can't type a text string in google and get a match. It's all dumbspeak for dumb dumbs.
Epilogue
I honestly doubt the internet will get better, and it honestly seems like it's getting worse. The censorship crackdown many places online seem to have been taking place, from the shut down of right wing controversial commentators like Alex Jones, to the shut down of 8chan, to even attacking small relatively unnoticed creators like MisterMetokur it seems like the internet is getting worse each year and it seems like in 2020, the internet censorship brigade will go in full swing and the internet becomes TV.2.0. Honestly at this point I think the internet, the world wide web at least is unsalvagavble in terms of communities. Not to mention that any sort of internet movement that was born on the internet and wasn't shilled by any establishment groups, that actually changes something gets shut down by the federal agents. Not to mention china wanting to influence the world and send its message abroad by censoring games and events, eg blizzcon, the nba and eccetera eccetera.
Sources
Here are some sources, and some things you might want to read about this issue
Also thanks for reading my little ramble about this isssue
'US literacy rate'
U.S. literacy rate
What’s the latest U.S. literacy rate? Just 2% of global adults read at top level
www.wyliecomm.com
Illiteracy in America: Troubling Statistics and How Schools Can Help | Resilient Educator
The United States is facing a literacy crisis. Yes, crisis. It isn't new, but its impacts upon our kids, our economy, and our society are far-reaching and expanding. How bad is it? Take a look at some numbers. More than 30 million adults in the United States cannot read, write, or do basic math...
32 million American adults can’t read: why literacy is the key to growth
32 million American adults can’t read: why literacy is the key to growth
medium.com
'UK literacy rate'
Millions of British adults are functionally illiterate but problem is ignored, Dame Gail Rebuck warns
Millions of British adults are functionally illiterate but the subject is ignored because it is not a “fashionable” cause, according to the most powerful woman in publishing.
5 million adults lack basic literacy and numeracy skills
Five million adults are lacking basic reading, writing and numeracy skills essential to everyday life and being able to find and secure work, according to analysis for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) today.
Adult literacy | National Literacy Trust
Information on adult literacy in the UK and our Books Unlocked programme.
English teenagers 'are the most illiterate in the developed world'
English teenagers ranked bottom of 23-strong table for literacy
www.independent.co.uk
'PDFs on Internet Law and Regulation.'
(PDF) Internet Law and Regulation." The International Encyclopedia of Communication.
PDF | On Oct 12, 2013, Lyombe Eko and others published Internet Law and Regulation." The International Encyclopedia of Communication. | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate
www.researchgate.net
06_antoniov1.pdf
Internet Regulation and the Role of International Law Antonio Segura-Serrano * †. I. Introduction II. The Debate on the Regulability of the Internet III. Current Role of International Law in Internet Regulation 1. The Conflict Between Free Speech and Harmful Content 2. The Consensus Concerning I ...
docdro.id
'Smartphones and IQ'
The mere presence of your smartphone reduces brain power, study shows
Your cognitive capacity is significantly reduced when your smartphone is within reach — even if it’s off — suggests new research.
www.sciencedaily.com
(PDF) The Internet in Everyday Life
PDF | this paper. The Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Communications and Information Technology Ontario, and IBM's Institute... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate
www.researchgate.net
Connectivity for the illiterate
*This sounds like yet another of those hopeless “appropriate technology” schemes, where technicians try to invent stuff for impossibly remote poor people, without realizing that those people are poor for reasons other than their lack of cool gizmos.This article has been reproduced in a new...
'The internet and daily life'
Impact of the internet on our daily life
Written task for IB English Language and Literature course, on the impact of the internet on our daily life. Was supposed to be a blog but uploaded only the text portion of it.
How the Internet Has Changed Everyday Life | OpenMind
The Internet has dramatically revolutionized many different fields. It has become a global means of communication in our everyday lives.
'China's influence'
Chinese Censorship of US Media Explained (Blizzard, NBA, & South Park)
China has been censoring Western media for years but people only just now noticing due to the high profile cases of Blizzard & Blitzchung, the NBA controvers...
www.youtube.com
'8chan and free speech'
8chan Is Vile, But Free Speech Doctrine Is Clear- Bloomberg Oppinion
Why the courts don't see online manifestos as incitements to violence.
'Internet freedom in the USA and the rest of the world'
Internet Shutdown: Causes, Consequences, and Resolution - Surfshark
The internet is no longer as free as it used to be. There are rising cases of online restrictions all over the world. Almost every week, we hear about government mandated online disruptions, internet shutdowns.
surfshark.com
The internet is getting less free
Election interference and government surveillance on social media are hurting internet freedoms.
www.vox.com
US declines in internet freedom rankings, thanks to net neutrality repeal and fake news – TechCrunch
If you need a safe haven on the internet, where the pipes are open and the freedoms are plentiful — you might want to move to Estonia or Iceland. The latest “internet freedoms” rankings are out, courtesy of Freedom House’s annual report into the state of internet freedoms and pers…
techcrunch.com
Internet freedom continues to decline around the world, a new report says
Governments are reining in liberty for the eighth consecutive year, Freedom House reports
Is South Korea Sliding Toward Digital Dictatorship?
The U.S.-North Korea summit this week has put inter-Korean trade back on the table, but the South's new censorship plans set a troubling precedent as the two Koreas grow closer.
South Korea expands internet censorship to HTTPS with first countrywide use of SNI filtering
Previously, the Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC) used Domain name System (DNS) filtering to ferret out which domains users were trying to visit, compare them to the blacklist, and redirect them to the warning site if needed. This basic DNS filtering was defeatable by using a...
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