11 things that suck about the internet today

1. Listicles

I hate them them, they're everywhere. Yes, I'm aware this looks like one too. I'm being sarcastic.

2. Everything's an ad

Even when it's not explicit everyone is trying to sell you something.

3. Lack of diversity in presentation

Most big websites look all the same. It's just sad.

4. Content creating

We are supposed to just keep "creating content" for other people's —I should say corporation's— websites. They get the content, the traffic, you get the anxiety and dopamine addiction. Sweet deal.

5. Walled gardens

All the big sites are actively trying to keep you in their site as long as possible, they rarely share a link that leads outside, and if it does, it's only to some other big ass corporate walled garden.

6. Gatekeepers

Google, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok etc., all act as if they know exactly what you want and spoon feed you the content they want you to see.

7. SEO

Fuck SEO. Google only returns websites that bend over backwards formatting their content to please their crawlers. And since 87% of visits to any website on average come directly from Google, and their business depends on getting online traffic, they have no other choice.

8. Algorithms

Have you noticed that nothing gets more "engagement" in social media than saying something that'll piss off everyone? That's by design, bruh.

9. Bloat

Websites are so loaded with images and scripts, eats all of your device's memory and takes a long time to load. It's just tiring.

10. No privacy

You. Are. Being. Watched.

Every website you visit and where you came from, how long you look at an image or "post", how long you stay in their app or website, every click. Why? Because that is the data they feed on.

11. Post-truth

I used to think "misinformation" was just a buzz-word used by the establishment to try to censor the web. And it is something they will happily profit from and take advantage of to centralize more and more, but it's also real. And the worst part is not just the misinformation, it's that truth doesn't matter one bit. A publication can be flagged as "false" or "misleading" as many times as you want, as long as it gets engagement, it will keep being repeated. And the worst spreaders of misinformation are usually the ones who claim to be the keepers of the truth. Truth has no meaning anymore.

Can we do anything about it? Yes, there is a whole movement of creators actively trying to unfuck the internet, look up "indie web", "old web", "small web". But don't do it on Google, use Wiby or Marginalia instead. I've been gathering a decent amount of resources in my links page too, you are welcome to have a look around there.