Is the internet getting worse and worse?

[Leo-Tzu]

I had this feeling for some time and while i was reading Meditations i thought hell life was harsh back than yet still willpower-wise now is worse as can be. 

If you are some extrovert dude with tons of friends and family i bet you have no time to lose around tech but if you re the average westerner with just tech as your only friend and enemy youre getting screwed. 

In roman times nothing stood between you and your task, well maybe a bit of lazyness or overthinking which are still found on mass today yet life worked in a survival way you had to accomplish a lot just to stay alive even if youre the emperor of the biggest (debateble) empire ever seen.

Lets compare an average lets say tax collector of that time with an irs guy today which can be almost the same field of expertise. 

A roman tax collector had to wake up at sunrise, feed the animals, eat, dress up, go to work, come back to his family and maybe at night have some partying in the square with candle lights. I bet his family had like 10 people and he had a lot of firends too. He also enjoyed hiking, fishing and hunting. 

An irs guy in usa or his counterpart in europe has to wake up tired by his alarm of his phone which is near him all night and he checks it every hour during his imnsonia. Goes to work or works from home. If the first one has to do the whole cavalcade shower, traffic, prepare food etc. If he works from home even worse. Probably at 32-35 no porperty on his name, he lives on rent. No family. He has not seen his friends in 1 month. He uses a lot of phone/pc/tv to keep himself busy. At night maybe plays some games too. If he gets hungry he orders uber eats. If horny porn or prostitution. He has no animal to feed. No land to work and so on he has to put in his "to do list" things like walking in the morning sun and going to the gym. 

My point is we are now paying dividents for the tech solutions we liked so much in the beggining but now are enslaving us. People have less and less willpower to counter this offensive. The human brain can deal with some lazyness in the morning but you had other mechanisms that pushed you like maybe if you didnt farm or catched a fish you died that day. No way this brain that works on these terms and with the comodity of eating food prepared from 1000 recipes around the world and brought to our door by a pakistani unlucky immigrant for the mere cost of 13$ and with the dopamine it recieves can counter the "doomscrolling" he will do on tiktok or insta or youtube for the next 1 hour. Also these apps are engineered by experts in psychology to keep us as much as possible engaged in them. Also they are becoming less and less intersting and more and more addictive.

I remember 10 years ago facebook was interesting because it was something new. Instagram was interesting because it was new, there was no frame how to use it. People posted random shit and it was best as ever. It didnt need an explore with reels that keep you doomscrolling to keep you engaged. Other disgusting mindkilling apps can be

All meta products ofc,

Tiktok and all these apps that use the slot machine mechanism for you to scroll

All the dating apps who are a scam

Streaming apps who all require subscriptions but you get like 1% value out of it

Linked in and shit like that who are an offense to the common sense and human nature itself

Videogames (except aaa) who are becoming season pass vendors

I dont enjoy the internet as much as i did and still i cant stop using it and i never used it as much as now. The game is rigged so tight that work, marketing, selling, meetings, gaming are becoming an online thing more and more. 

You sure can go out the grid for sometime (like i tried to many times) yet you still come back by the fear of missing out, job related reasons or even you cant miss on those black friday sales on amazon. 

Corporations arent evil in per se they just want to make money without contribution in humanity. They mask it behind capitalism and competition yet still no one contributes a meaningful amount. 

Human nature needs sun, needs sea, needs friends, needs family, needs games, needs dancing and singing together, needs celebrating and mourning together.

I feel like the internet world and internet culture is working actively to divide us and keep us alone in a crowd of a city where we can be easily manipulated by their ads. 

So when i read the meditations of marcus aurelius i find paradoxically even harder now achieving what he meant because we re not fighting only the lazy part of us but the whole new system we created to make our life a bit easier in the beggining. 

Places like these forum are an osasis on a desert of value and humanity.

The internet is getting worse no doubt.

[jimwell]

The internet is one of the most beautiful things humans have ever created and should be cherished. Thank God for the internet.

The bad things you see on the internet are merely a reflection of society's values. If the majority of its members value stupidity and shallowness, that's what dominates on the internet. If society values meaningful, intelligent content, that's what would dominate online.

Your username made me laugh, hence the reply.

Edited August 8 by jimwell
acknowledged username humor

[RawJudah]

Of course it’s getting worse. Not the internet - but social media. It’s become more interesting than talking to people in real life, because you’re safe on social media. You can hide behind a screen and say what you want. Our real life social skills are fucked. You try to talk to a teenager these days, it’s like getting blood from a stone… And you try getting off it! Within a couple of days you’ll be back on Facebook. 
The Jack is out of the box, and he isn’t going back in. It’s too late. We’ve woven the internet and social media into our physical lives. 

[jimwell]

Just look at the complexity of the backbone of this beauty.

Unfortunately, devils recognize its power and value, potentially corrupting it.

[jimwell]

3 hours ago, Jade123 said:

That's geopolitics as usual. Of course US and China will compete for this.

Correct, and what you said aligns with what I said.