What is rarely needed on the Internet is even more doom and gloom. The sentiments are pessimistic enough, the actual topic is almost irrelevant. What has been new in the past few days and weeks is that the general gloom is not generated from the countless trouble spots in our world or the major social fault lines, but rather from the state of the Internet itself.
“The Internet could be so good, really now,” it says in Atlanticthe new Yorker explainedwhy the “Internet is no longer fun” and in the Technology Review At least a plan is already being devised “how to fix the Internet”.
Incidentally, when these articles talk about “the network” or “the Internet”, they are not referring to the physical transmission paths, the fiber optic lines and WiFi hubs, but rather those social networks on which the majority of users mainly spend their digital lives spends.
The Internet feels emptier today, like a wide hallway, even though it is filled with more content than ever before, they say. More right-wing conservative echo chamber instead of a surprise bag. In addition, dealings have become more hierarchical. Tiktok, Twitch and other platforms function more like broadcast stations than like a marketplace of ideas. While social media used to be more of a place for conversation, equal conversation is no longer absolutely necessary, just observing and listening. In this climate, only the content that the masses can already agree on is promoted and shared; there is the tyranny of the loudest voice; The traditional understanding of fame and success has continued online.
Pipe dream or reliable diagnosis? The way we communicate online could fundamentally change
People have settled in quite well in the dystopia. Well, although the social network is hopelessly commercialized and there are attempts at every corner to sell us junk with an influencer seal of approval, disinformation is now shrugged off in the assumption that the overwhelming proportion of content we encounter online is fake anyway . Of course, this is not entirely the corporations’ fault. Online trolls and professional meme makers have absolutely no interest in civil discourse.
No wonder that almost all commentators come to the conclusion that the era of large platforms is coming to an end. For the first time in a decade, there is now a feeling in the air that the way we communicate online could fundamentally change.
Is this more of a pipe dream or is it already a reliable diagnosis? New decentralized networks such as Mastodon, Bluesky or Threads offer cause for hope. If these interoperable offerings become established, users would be able to easily switch platforms without losing all of their content and the followers they have laboriously accumulated. A widely distributed online existence and increasing competition between new apps and platforms then offer the opportunity for more self-empowerment. Users could decide for themselves about the necessary level of data protection and moderation guidelines.
Today, these red lines are formulated at corporate headquarters, and the top priority is often not to impact user engagement and number of clicks. And despite all the pessimism, that is perhaps the most important lesson: all the bad things that bother you every day are not inherent in the technology itself. They were installed intentionally.