Changes in internet use habits

[EricG]

Today, I realized that over the past few months, my internet use has been reduced to watching film, listening to music or audiobooks, composing longform emails to friends and family, work-related email, chatting in quality forum communities such as ERE, and basic research.

The present state of the internet has induced me to use it sparingly. Too many pop-ups and other interruptions, too much obnoxious advertising and marketing, nudge theory mindf%ckery, clickbait news, fake sentimentality, fearmongering, social media, trolls, etc. It feels more and more like the virtual domain version of the setting for Blade Runner, a negative feedback loop of increasing competition for shrinking and increasingly overwhelmed attention spans. I prefer the early days of the internet, when it was more a domain for pioneering geeks, and less about maximizing consumption via manipulation that's now tailored to the individual level using algorithms that factor in personal internet use. So I guess in response I created my own anti-algorithm formula to help make my internet experience feel more simple and personable, and less dystopian and hyperconsumptive.

Has anyone else developed a similar mistrust and distaste for what seems to be a large swath of the internet, which led to similar changes in how you use it?

[candide]

Yes, that does about sum it up for me as well.

My main difference is that I don't tend to listen audiobooks, but rather podcasts while I do chores that are quiet enough to do while listening.

I have also played around with using the lynx web browser, as well as the "smol" internet (see:
https://thedorkweb.substack.com/p/gophe ... l-internet )

Ultimately, I find it better getting off the internet altogether and switching to books, nature, family, chores, making stuff and (just recently) working on my backgammon game.

[AnalyticalEngine]

This is pretty much my experience too. I've ditched 90% of the Internet and just do things offline. I was a huge computer nerd growing up and would make my own websites/loved the indie web, but the internet now is not the same at all. Being as offline as possible is a huge boon to my life.

"The internet used to be an escape from real life. Now real life is an escape from the internet."

[EricG]

That quote hits the mark. I think you're both right on about the benefits of being offline.