The internet (aside from being *checks notes* a series of tubes?) is often treated as if it is not a real place, or having any bearing on life or reality. The term “IRL” or “in real life” demonstrates that, having the definition of “not internet life.” But more and more of IRL takes place on the internet. Those lines are blurring. We work online, go to school online, visit with family and friends online. Especially now, in the age of COVID and everlasting pandemics, our online lives are becoming more and more our “real” lives.
In the old days, to reveal a little about my age, the internet used to be a wild, living, almost organic place, teeming with culture and personality and diversity. You could start a website for anything or everything, from a hobby to a online journal to a fan page for a favorite movie, book, TV show, or band. It was perhaps one of the last places of true democracy, because certainly The Real World didn’t make it easy to do those things in it. But the internet gave you, or anyone who accessed it, a voice.
But as the lines of real life and the internet started to blur, that freedom of expression and the ability to organize and come together over shared interests and goals was seen as a liability. The billionaires couldn’t have that. They already controlled things in the real world as much as they possibly could and so they couldn’t let people organize and exist outside of their control, their influence. They wanted complete hegemony. The likes of Musk, Zuckerberg, and Bezos bought up the internet and sterilized it, commoditized it, stripped it for parts and made it so you couldn’t leave their walled ecosystems. They wanted to control what you see, what you consume, what you experience.
And this isn’t just in social media (something pretty much engineered to give you cheap hits of dopamine without thinking too much about it); no, this is pretty much all of the “corporate” internet. From Netflix to Youtube, the algorithms push the least thought-provoking, most addicting content that you don’t have to pay attention to, and in fact paying attention would give away the game. Just shut up and consume. Don’t think, just feed. In fact, look at your phone or your tablet while you watch. That’s the intention.
So much of capitalism (and specifically the American brand of capitalism) is about the result rather than the process, and to the oligarchs and shareholders the process often takes up too much time and resources and gets in the way of the result. That’s why the billionaire capitalist class has gone all in on generative AI. What could be better in their eyes than a magic button that can vomit out “content” to consume, free feed for the trough? And all without having to pay pesky artists or creators.
But I’m tired of being fed from the trough. I’m sick of algorithms and corporations deciding what I should consume. I’m over passive, inactive, consumption. I am not a bottom feeder, mindless and ravenous, eating whatever slop is placed in front of me. I am a human being. I have agency and will and dignity. If I go to the trouble of taking in some kind of media, I want to experience it. I want to be in charge of when and how and what I consume and be aware of what it’s saying, what it’s trying to do, what it’s trying to make me feel or think. I want to play a part in the process.
