“Consulting a website on my phone recently, I was struck by how painful it has become to use the internet. All I wanted was to read some local news and check the spread of a power cut in my area. Instead, as I scrolled, I was assailed by interruptions from integrated adverts which – in the best case – wanted eagerly to tell me about the charm and usefulness of a new BMW. In the worst case, I was urged to consult some lawyers immediately because I had been mis-sold an insurance or financial product in the past and was due an enormous payout, if only I would contact the least credible-looking advocates in the country…” (James Snell, How the Internet Turned Ugly)
I was an early and enthusiastic convert to the internet, and this blog is ancient by modern communications standards. But my distrust mounts more and more. We build this website using WordPress, which is a pretty sophisticated publishing system. We should be able to control what you see when you look at this blog. But that’s becoming more and more difficult, and we’re debating killing advertising forever. (It offsets our hosting costs, nothing more.)
If you’re a regular commenter, you may have noticed your comments swallowed up in the ether recently. My host and software are good about repelling cyberattacks, which happen periodically. Recently, however, we’ve been getting flooded with bot-comments linking to spurious websites. While they couldn’t be published until I okayed them, they were burying real comments in a sea of goop. Protecting against this kind of stuff takes time and energy away from painting.
Then there are the bogus ‘offers’ to buy my work as either NFTs or with fake cashier’s checks. I used to get two or three a year. Now I get a dozen a day. I delete them, of course, but they clog up my communications channels.
The worst offender, platform-wise, is Facebook. We used to have intelligent conversations about art and culture there. Now any real discourse is buried in promoted posts and advertising.
What’s wrong with the internet?
Much of the internet is now driven by ads, clickbait, and monetization schemes. All bloggers understand search-engine optimization (SEO) driven content; it’s how search engines work. But SEO also floods search engines with low-quality, repetitive results. And social media platforms prioritize engagement over accuracy and depth. That’s why all our writing tools have reading-level gauges; heaven forbid we use language that forces the reader to think.
You might imagine you’re surfing the web for stuff that interests you, but content discovery is at the mercy of computer algorithms. You see what those platforms want you to see, not what’s most valuable or relevant.
Niche blogs like this one are a dying breed. We just don’t pack enough punch to compete with centralized platforms. I have a big readership for a painting blog, but it’s a mere flyspeck compared to modern influencers. The answer for many creatives has been to go to Substack, which is a subscription-based newsletter model. That would be a departure from my original model, which, sadly, might be obsolete.
Do you see this blog on a social media platform?
If so, you might want to take a moment to subscribe, at top left. I’ve spent twenty years not thinking overmuch about email as a means of dissemination, but in the current state of social media platforms, I don’t trust them to deliver fair, free content. Neither should you.
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I have felt that email was the way to go, maybe 80% of the time. It doesn’t allow for expansion but you know you have someone how knows you and has been interested in some form or another. When folks change emails is when things get clogged up.
With Faceplant plopping ridiculous ads every fourth post it has become the advertising behemoth of the internet. I am afraid of asking a specific question for fear of being inundated by the algorithms choice of answers for me. I do not know how to ask without that happening. Posting flowers kittens and puppies must frustrate the bejesis out of the system but who wants cute and fuzzy all the time. I find your blog relevant to most of the time but it chooses to show up either on faceplant or my email inconsistently maybe 3 xs a week. And I know I have whined about the ads on the blog, some really awful ones, and wonder if the algorithm uses them too?
I am thinking some genius is out there working on a cleaner version of internet communication, BlueSky maybe or something else.
Of the notion we have to ride it for as long as we can till the next Iteration comes along. That said I do get quite a few substack. I don’t subscribe with a paid follow to all of them. I would go broke. So all that blather and no answer. Sorry. D
Thank you Carol. You have given me insight to what is wrong with the internet. I swear more often when using it. Have deactivated FB, Instagram for the reasons that you described .
Hope to take one of your classes in Maine
Well, I for one left Facebook about 10 years ago. Yes, the Darpa Lifelog program that ended the exact day Facebook launched–nothing to see here… and as a relentless researcher and truth seeker, the explosion and legislated proliferation of propaganda staggers the mind–that, and the sanctioning of data-mining through “free apps” all this for “FREE” as in “there is NO FREE LUNCH, but always a cost” They use your personal internet activity and use your smart phone activity by listening in on your conversations, and photographing your life every few seconds on your phones in “trade” for FREE. SMART meaning Self-monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technologies. The tech giants and governments interested in influencing the opinions of the masses, controlling consumption, and influencing the “hearts and minds” and prevailing ideologies of the “oligarchs du jour” has done it’s part in this march to their holy grail of singularity … For those who have been lucky to be alive at the beginning of this technological revolution, where the intention of the internet was “open source, and free for the good of humanity,” we have the fortitude to see the impact of sacrificing our liberty with convenience. Much of the younger generation has been raise on the milk of automation and has been “dumbed” down to comply and not resist. The push-back is coming from our generation mostly, some have stayed away from technology, and others are fighting the march toward technocracy that will tell you what to think, when to sit and when to stand, what to buy, and the LATEST BREAKING NEWS!!!! with lots of flashing emojis … Quite frankly, as an original techno-geek and early adopter, I am becoming more and more tech-adverse. Anything with a flashing emoji is ignored, DELETE. The intrusion into my own software tools of my profession is an abomination with color psychology of big buttons positioned at strategic places to lure you to “save to the cloud” and pop-ups that ask to “record your screen” … sorry, I “ain’t” lettin’ adobe steal my years of design experience to train their Artificial Intelligence so they can steal my intellectual property and life’s work. Makes working outside of the digital space is a more attractive vocation. Mainstream anything these days is all fake nonsense either cgi, deep fakes, or controlled narratives. It is the digital wild, wild west these days! Shakespeare was on point “All the world is a stage.” and truth is “there is nothing new under the sun” as the truthers say, “We are watching a movie” and I have grown to avoid movies and their actors these days. I love technology, but with the craze and push into AI, without any say in the matter is cringe-worthy and although the access to information is amazing, the entire spam, bot, phishing, click bait and sensationalism is enough to inspire more hermitages! I am currently so turned off by technology at this point, yet have to manage through my rage with the amount of the hoops that I now have to waste my precious time jumping through. One may ponder if this too is intentional? Marketing folks are drooling from the mouth with this technology. It is quite frankly obscene. I would like to believe that humanity still has common sense and a desire for truth and order and perhaps the pendulum that is stirring up chaos, anxiety and vitriol will return to sanity. Sanity in the context of free choice, respect for human dignity and the pursuit of happiness with common sense in lieu of clicks, profit, control, greed and power. Sigh … I feel your pain.
It IS exhausting, isn’t it? And bad for business.
So disturbing really. I thought it was only me. I don’t do facebook, or Instagram, yet I am in months long disagreements with 5 or so companies because of their mistakes with digital or internet billing, not cashing checks properly, billing for charges never approved, or ones approved never fulfilled.
One co actually cancelled my car insurance for one month directly with the DMV unbeknownst to me- AFTER cashing my check- (fortunately i had no accidents…but nearly a heart attack when i found out).
Then there’s threats to take my property away from the IRS, (for payments made electronically over a year in advance they lost or mistakenly filed who knows where).
Plus over 100 daily email solicitations for money, many for great causes. So much wasted time stressing out about or reading and deleting internet junk. Or calling and waiting hours on the phone for the wrong person to answer, or an incompetent AI with 300 wrong options to choose from because they now think everything can be easily solved on line.
I long for the days past of enjoyable snail mail from friends, and calls that were simple and a person answered and resolved your problem in a few pleasant minutes. Who knew such a wonderful invention to share info and” free up time” would become such a horrific stress, and energy vampire, like a crazy relative with their hands around your neck that you can’t get to leave your home!