Greetings, friends! In today’s article, I’d like to briefly share a few thoughts related to how using the Internet has become quite painful for me. It will be interesting to see whether or not you share my feelings.
I should begin with a note of appreciation concerning how incredible the technology associated with the Internet has been. I have absolutely loved working with digital media, and the opportunities that the Internet has offered — and still offers to some extent — are truly wonderful. Heck, I couldn’t be writing this if it wasn’t for the Internet, so I am most grateful!
So why do I want to sell all my technology, grow a huge beard and move to a hut in the mountains?
Here are some of my concerns:
- The ridiculous cookies nonsense. Every time we log on to a website we’re faced with those cookies popups, and having to go through the process of selecting how we want to be tracked. This is surely ridiculous.
- The lack of human involvement in major sites. When we use a website like PayPal, eBay, or Facebook, and something goes wrong, we have no way to do anything about it. We can’t pick up the phone and call someone, or even email someone, in most cases. This is most frustrating.
- The decline of social media. The early days of Facebook were truly special. But these days, social sites are flooding their platforms with new features and seemingly trying to squeeze money out of us at every opportunity. Facebook and Instagram have both become bloated and overly complicated, and Twitter is an abysmal experience — you can post quality content on a daily basis but it just dissolves into oblivion. The best you’re likely to get is some snarky hatred.
- The lack of privacy. We all know it, we’re being watched. Whatever we do is recorded is secret by government agencies and God only knows who else.
What prompted this article is not only several years of increasing frustration with using the Internet, but also a particular experience I’m having with eBay right now. I have been shut out of my account because I have a new phone number and in order to sign in to my account I need a code to be sent to my old phone number to verify it’s me. But I no longer have access to that number. And eBay is presenting me with no other options for signing in. Needless to say, their help pages are useless. So I simply cannot use their platform. This is incredibly frustrating.
I expect some of you can relate to at least some of these problems. They make me feel that the glory days of the Internet are behind us unless something major changes. All the present developments around blockchain and crypto are adding another layer of frustration, because it’s just making the experience of being online even more complicated. And it all seems to be about money, anyway.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
Perfect Chaos 
14 responses to “Has the Internet Become Rubbish?”
I have been using the internet since MySpace and before. I have watched it’s metamorphis from a way to quickly communicate to what it is today. I agree with you in your assessment of bloated add laden platforms.
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MySpace was truly wonderful in its day! Thank you for commenting 🙂
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Sad but true 😒
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Maybe it’s not too late? I fear that us humans simply too corrupt and greedy though 🤷🏻♂️
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There is always hope for humanity 💙🙏
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Yes, with God, all things are possible! 💛🙏🏻
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I agree, it has a stronger corporate presence than ever. I remember when it was easier to find any sites using google or yahoo, but nowadays all you get is commercial and business pages or wikipedia than anything homegrown or original.
There is this one isometric workout page I loved visiting, for example, and I would be able to access that site for years. That page is still up, but nowadays I have to do a deeper search for it since all I get are fitness clickbait pages.
The internet has become more homogenized, for better or for worse.
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Interesting. I find the Internet is increasingly ‘pay to play’ — you can’t do many of the things you used to do without paying for them. Sad, especially when we’re all being squeezed financially from other directions. But that’s a whole other topic!
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I’m not a fan of the internet and increasingly less so. I find more and more contentment and peace the more “unplugged” I become… which is difficult when one’s business is primarily run “online”.
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It’s difficult because we’re so invested in the internet as a society/ as societies. We understand its amazing potential. But at the moment it feels like the possibilities it has afforded us, and can afford us, are being blocked (for want of a better word).
I’m feeling like real life connections do bring greater contentment and peace, and will be focusing on events in the community this year. Still going to be online, just going to redress the balance a little 😊
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Same here, my friend.
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Well said, today the internet is the biggest distraction but nothing can work without the use of the internet.
We must make a balance.
Thankyou for sharing.
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I agree, Deepak. Thank you for reading, brother!
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😊 Welcome
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