Something is wrong on the Internet

>Every app has a different design, almost every design is optimized based on your activity on said app, with each app trying to make you do different things in uniquely annoying ways

Two ways that instantly hit me with Google is:

1. In Google Play search is now moved to the bottom. My muscle memory still keeps trying to tap the now empty bar on the top 2. Google revoke permissions of Nextcloud app to access all files (https://github.com/nextcloud/android/pull/14099) breaking some of it's functionality. I moved to Nextcloud from F-Droid where everything is working as expected. As a revenge to Google I disabled (because I can't uninstall) all apps from Google I could replace with Fossify versions https://github.com/FossifyOrg even apps like calculator and gallery. These are good quality apps, try them too. Free on F-droid https://search.f-droid.org/?q=fossify&lang=en

This blog post seems to be mostly quotes from this original article: https://www.nplusonemag.com/issue-49/essays/casual-viewing/

Here’s a moderately more “optimistic” take.

Most users just don’t care, and power users will eventually learn to use better tools.

It’s the exact same rational behind airlines charging the same, but offering ludicrously valuable loyalty programs.

User behavior changes based off of these outcomes, and the short-term hyper focus on metrics to the detriment of the long term usability will eventually have detrimental effects, and behavior will change, and we’ll get better alternatives.

Re: Netflix. Actually, most people just want to consume slop. The popularity of reality TV proves this. Now they can consume slop with their whole family for $16/mo instead of $80/mo with cable. This is an objectively better outcome, and does not preclude studios from putting out genuinely incredible works of art. I have seen some incredible movies. A24 keeps pumping out bangers, Perfect Days and Look Back were some of my other faves from this year.

But I agree with the author that the state of things isn’t “ideal”. I’m just offering a perspective that the whole world doesn’t fucking suck completely and maybe you’re being melodramatic and overly pessimistic.

It's true and horrifying at the same time. I find similar disregard to customers in other traditional innovations as well like credit cards and their rewards, not at all beneficial to the average user, similarly insurance products that keep finding ways to increase your premium with add-ons and riders in every unimaginably creative ways that doesn't serve the customer any value just confuses people and prompts them to hire advisors and pay them. Take the microwave ovens and refrigerators with full on PCs with WiFi inside them serving nothing useful just more mild convenience I suppose and more price. And take Software like windows, that keeps pushing higher hardware requirements forcing users to upgrade hardware and its just everywhere in our lives not just the internet now. Take tax filing portals, Real estate agents and many other domains where you will find similar wrongdoing. The Internet is just the part of our lives that we spend so much time these days that it's seems to be just out there.

> And why does everybody need your email? Because your inbox is one of the few places that advertisers haven’t found a consistent way to penetrate.

Fortunately there's still the ol' good email!

I recall Robin from Teen Titans Go! at one episode saying something on the lines of "there's only one way to fight people with money: with more money!" - and it seems we haven't been able to find another way indeed.

The protests and boycott on Reddit at the end did absolutely nothing to improve it or turn people to its alter atives (at most some power hungry mods were sacked, like that one from r/art who banned someone because they said their art was done by ai). The "mass" migration of people to Bluesky seem to lose its momentum already. The Cambridge Analytica scandal did nothing to make Facebook less miserable.

It seems we are stuck in this worst version possible of internet and all things around it as long as there is absurd amounts of money governing it.

Companies don't make products for customers anymore. They make sinkholes for rich peoples money. The reason everything feels like a scam is because it is. Everyone is scamming everyone else in every possible direction. The VC companies are scaming entrepreneurs by fuedalizing owning a business. The entrepreneurs are scamming their customers by creating a product that moves a metric that they then sell to a private or public equity firm. Those companies scam investors by selling stock without dividends. Those investors scam other investors ad infinitum by selling them the idea of an even bigger sucker. And the government scams people with money by saying if you don't do something with it they will take it away from you through taxes and inflation.

All of this is propped up by the middle and lower class, and even lower class in nondeveloped countries.

There are plenty of apps and platforms that don’t do this.

People don’t use them, and continue to donate content to Instagram and TikTok.

There are hundreds of phones that still have headphone jacks and large batteries, too.

Let’s not pretend that this isn’t an ongoing choice by consumers.

The first thing I see after clicking on this link is a popup begging for permission to spy on me. Those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

On the one hand, films are getting worse, as the article points out.

But on the other, a person with a few thousand dollars of hardware and some know-how can produce feature length films in their home and distribute them on video sharing sites. This capability is only going to get better.

The next generation of Indie films may be good art like we used to get in theaters. Exploring weird ideas and themes deemed too risky for the mainstream.

It's weird to see a case like this being made on streaming services, which have produced a world-historic surplus of high-quality scripted series. People have very strange ideas about how vibrant film and television was in the era immediately preceding streaming.

> […] your inbox is one of the few places that advertisers haven’t found a consistent way to penetrate.

It would be interesting if sending an email to an address would cost money, and the owner of the address would set the price.

Do most people really want an internet without ads, flights with large seats and plenty of space, high-quality local food — or do most people just say they want that? Because when push comes to shove and these options temporarily become available for some reason (e.g., a new farmers market, a premium streaming plan that removes ads, etc.), most people don't spring for the higher quality option. The cheapest option still seems to consistently win out overall.

I'm certainly not saying "blame the consumer", but if people really don't like ads so much (to the extent that they stop clicking on them), really dislike the subpar streaming services so much (to the extent that they unsubscribe) — then why haven't they abandoned these products?

There are other countries where valuing quality seems to be more deeply embedded in the culture, and most people in these countries will reject subpar offerings altogether. I think the U.S. has had a uniquely precipitous fall in this regard — the average person just doesn't seem to care that much. Why this is the case, I'm not sure, but it's not surprising that since Silicon Valley is located in the U.S., the region simply optimizes on whatever (revealed) consumer preferences return the most. Tech companies are certainly not unique in this regard.

The power of capitalism comes from our decision. It works in both ways. Either you willing to pay for service and benefit from it, or you don't pay and make company die.

Complaining about how terrible private company is doesn't change anything.

I highly highly recommend the late Mark Fischer's Capitalist Realism.

There's no good reason why the internet needs to be this bad.... aside from an irrational demand for continual returns, damn the cost to humanity. There are, in fact, better ways to run society than begging the rich to care about the rest of us. Anyone who says alternatives to capitalism are unrealistic are lying to your face.

>Every app has a different design, almost every design is optimized based on your activity on said app, with each app trying to make you do different things in uniquely annoying ways

This is exactly what is discussed in this great article: https://www.wheresyoured.at/never-forgive-them/

tl;dr: I find the author's reasoning very similar to the one by Cory Doctorow about enshittification, however this goes more into precice details how users suffer.