It’s the end of the internet as we know it—and I feel fine

The internet feels like it’s falling apart. To start, nothing seems to work anymore. Google’s search engine once provided directory-level assistance to the denizens of the internet. Now it’s chock full of ads, sidebars, SEO-optimized clickbait, and artificial intelligence-powered guesstimations of possible answers to peoples’ questions. On Amazon, the digital shelves are littered with sponsored products and cheap replicas of popular items. On social media, the situation is even more dire. The internet, of course, is controlled by the largest, richest, most powerful companies in the world. Silicon Valley’s giants no longer compete and no longer innovate; instead they cut costs, boost profit margins, and block out competitors in order to maintain consumer habit and market dominance. Online platforms give us convenience, but no novelty, and they have vanishing utility in increasingly our digital lives. In 2025, perhaps the whole thing will explode. But hopefully, people will begin to rethink their reliance on digital platforms that treat them with utter contempt, like they’re consumers, like they’re “users.” If it’s the end of the internet as we know it, then I feel fine.