this post was submitted on 25 Dec 2025
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[–] massive_bereavement@fedia.io 135 points 2 days ago (9 children)

That the internet is not a good thing.

Twenty years ago, even some more, the internet was something that brought me hope for humanity: A democratic network of knowledge open to anyone for both participation and access. I truly expected this to improve the lifes of those in less fortunate countries and backgrounds, and help reduce conflicts between people by understanding each other.

Yeah, a bit too much "we are the world", but you read about the pioneers of the internet and this was a shared belief.

Turns out it was like Cyberpunk, but like boring.

[–] BranBucket@lemmy.world 5 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

Yup. The Internet was going to demolish barriers and let people communicate mind to mind without prejudice. We were going to democratize information and science, put the power in the hands of the people, and put an end to pointless conflicts.

Far fetched? Sure. But we should never forget what they stole from us. The most complex and powerful machine humanity has ever created, a collaborative project built in the spirit of cooperation and empowerment, is being monoplized and exploited so some high functioning sociopaths can get rich.

[–] Omega_Jimes@lemmy.ca 3 points 22 hours ago

This is a really upsetting thing.

I grew up with "not everything on the internet is real" but it seems all the people that told me this forgot it.

I was promised access to the whole of human knowledge, but everyone ignores it because we've been trained not to read critically.

Yeah now-a-days the internet is a surveilled corporate hellscape. People in power are trying to make it moreso (age verification, war on encryption, etc).

[–] Maiq@piefed.social 26 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I remember watching the Arab Spring unfold. Twitter being a guiding light through the darkness for so many people whos government tried to control available communication.

Such high hopes for people back then.

[–] laranis@lemmy.zip 26 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Occupy Wall Street and Me Too, also. I thought we were headed in the right direction. Fast forward... We got this.

[–] foodandart@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This is the final end run of policy and people pushing for it who have been slinking around in the shadows since Ronald Reagan. It's a whole bunch of white paranoia and greed rolled up into a reactionary viewpoint and it's been carefully cultivated for decades.

The one bright point in its implementation, is that the demographic most taken in is the one still dominantly getting it's information from cable TV. And there's a reason that as the demographic ages out and dies, cable TV viewership is falling.

You've got another 25 years or so until the last of the boomers hit their life expectancies. Hang on.

[–] laranis@lemmy.zip 2 points 17 hours ago

I hope you're right. But something tells me there isn't a generational limit on shit-baggery and overt, planet killing greed.

[–] Maiq@piefed.social 13 points 2 days ago (1 children)

All that has happened with the consolidation of social media into a propaganda arm for governments and corporations makes the fediverse decentralized network an important step forward in the right direction.

If there were another "??? Spring", could the fediverse be a tool for communication central to a movement still remains a question.

[–] lonesomeCat@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The fediverse is empty and scattered as hell

[–] Maiq@piefed.social 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Empty true, might not always be that way, we'll have to see. Scattered is an advantage IMO.

I'm more worried about what the instance owners and admins might do when pressured. I suspect widely different treatment depending which country was in spring so to speak.

[–] lonesomeCat@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

My point is there is no enough mass here to make a difference.

You can say not yet but the way I see this world moving we're already past the end.

[–] foodandart@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago

My point is there is no enough mass here to make a difference.

Not yet.. and TBH, if the shit hits it, all that will be needed is a few people well placed within the system, to disseminate news to everywhere.

[–] fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 35 points 2 days ago (2 children)

It's more of a billionaire nazi propaganda problem. Imagine if they bought up the newspapers and tv stations and there was literally no alternitive

[–] IronBird@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

...they have done that. like 5 ~~people~~ billionaires own the majority of media in the US, radio/news/3 letter networks

[–] fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 day ago

But we do have an alternative

[–] dubyakay@lemmy.ca 21 points 2 days ago (1 children)

That's exactly what happened in Hungary, Slovakia, Russia... terrestrial news stations and papers all have people at the helm that have ties to their government.

I don't think it's much different in the US either.

[–] anomnom@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Still currently in progress but most of the way complete. We’re gonna have a hard time un-fucking it at this stage.

[–] foodandart@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

This is where capitalism needs to be leveraged - with a vengeance. Do not ignore that most of the media outlets are commercial in nature, and entirely dependent on advertisers.

[–] BarbecueCowboy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 2 days ago

All the dystopia, none of the mantis blades.

[–] Ricaz@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

How is the Internet not a network of knowledge open to anyone??

It's full of crap, yes. Back then it was just much smaller, but still very much crap-filled.

[–] IronBird@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

people eat shit and wonder why it tastes bad

for some reason they never seem to consider they can just...not eat the shit?

since the advent of the printing press, there has always been more media than any one person can consume in a lifetime...if your not filtering the content you consume your doing it wrong

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I think the Internet is still a good thing, it's just become so pervasive and ubiquitous that it's easy to ignore when it's not a bad thing. Humans are really good at noticing bad things, which makes sense from an evolutionary perspective. They stand out more starkly against a neutral background.

[–] Ricaz@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 days ago

It is, and people are sharing all the knowledge in the world, in a way that was never possible before.

Just because an AI-driven botnet is flooding it with bogus articles, and mainstream entertainment is full of brain rot, it doesn't mean the internet isn't incredibly useful, to the point that many people would struggle with daily life without it.

[–] motruck@lemmy.zip 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Social media made the internet not worth it. I had high hopes also but humanity sucks as seen when we are all interconnected with global squares.

[–] massive_bereavement@fedia.io 8 points 2 days ago

Yet here we are, defiant in someone's server in a basement in Germany.