The Murder of the Internet

The title of this article is perhaps a bit sensationalist, however it works to  show the point of the article in a sardonic manner. The end of the internet as any early adopters of the platform will attest went largely unnoticed as an event, the masses didn't notice the change in the content they were consuming with their shiny new technology and easy to access app stores. Google, Facebook, twitter etc... changed the way the internet was accessed, much like the car before them; of which roads were created, these companies needed new ways to interact with their content. Devices were created and adapted purposely for what started as small bursts of interacting, but quickly became time consuming behemoths of advertising and data collection. Which leads to the question how did this murder the internet?

Back in the early days of the internet; a short time after it was made from a military communications mechanism to a publicly accessible portal of freedom, information and ideas, is when the internet we know now was going through its labour pains, people were trying to find its limitations, capabilities and purpose. It became clear early on that the limits were undefined and endless, the purpose was anything you wanted. This unfettered freedom led to a kind of wild west of pure anarchy. Sites began popping up like YTMND (You the man now dog) and eBaums world; these sites would represent the simplicity of the internet, but also would be creators flexing the boundaries of acceptable content. This would come to represent the early phase years of the internet, where a baby learns to crawl and interact with its environment, learning the limits of that environment. This flexing would ultimately lend itself to the creation of today's boundary stretching sites like 4chan and 9gag, these sites would achieve a level of household notoriety, their predecessors never quite achieved. But where did all this lead?

The next phase of the internet would be led by data or more precisely the collection of; whereas the previous baby/toddler phase prided itself on the anonymity it had achieved, this phase would not. The rise of sites like Facebook, twitter, Instagram etc... were born out of the idea of global connection. Their forerunners such Myspace and friends reunited, had shown there was a niche place for people to lay down their anon status in order to connect with old friends or random strangers with similar interests. This sudden expansion phase of the internet worried those who felt that there should be some kind of policing of the internet, that the John Wayne and Clint Eastwood anything goes attitude of the bounty killers of the internet had to come to a close. But how to police the wild west; by getting people to slowly surrender not only their personal data, but also more of their time. How better it would be to get the internet to police itself; like some benign sentinel, called into action when the people demanded it. This is where Facebook and its competitors enter the stage left, names, addresses, mobile numbers, email addresses and personal pictures, all freely submitted without a thought or care; all in the name of having a voice and making a connection. Once a threshold in site users had been reached, chaos would ensue. Debates would break out, arguments descend in threats of violence and all without the largely anonymous safety of the wild west. Unpolicable, ungovernable discourse, every group identity marker (mums, dads, males, females, gay, straight, teacher, builder, celeb, so on and so forth) all trying to be the loudest, all trying to heard above the din of noise. All these people competing for one another's attention, hoping for their 15mins in the spotlight, their viral moment. The only winner throughout was the platform being used, no care for the trampling upon someone else's life or privacy. A new border of the wild west had been drawn, however with a very minor exception, money.

The new age technocrats had quickly realised that advertising revenue could be exploited in a scale not seen before, but the catch was no one was going to seriously advertise on sites that allow open discourse on the red flag issues. Nike doesn't want an ad running over the commentary of slave labour in the far east, it wont make the shareholders happy. So the next question was raised, how to get around this problem? Targeted advertising. This would prove to be the “Et-tu” moment for the internet, where the wild west days would bleed out on the steps of freedom. New devices were being designed to make internet browsing faster and more convenient, iPhone, iPad, smart phones, notebooks, chromebooks. No longer was the internet only for desktop browsing, devices purposely designed to drink your attention like starving vampire, all preloaded with apps and programs designed to increase the amount of attention you give to the hungry blood-sucker. All with one purpose in mind, collect as much data from you as humanly possible. Every tiny detail, how long you spend looking, what you like/dislike, what you interact with, what did you get for your birthday (from the pictures), are you more or less likely to buy a razor because a guy looks handsome after using it or because he has a beautiful woman stroke his face afterwards.

This led to the development of rooms, places and spaces where you can exist in an echo chamber. Meme away with people that will largely agree with you, where you can be targeted with an ad that you are more likely to click through. Make a search for Adidas classic trainers, you will be bombarded with ads, a trending page page filled with similar searches; all in the need of making you feel part of a group, a trendsetter, ahead of the curve if I buy this thing or read that corporate news article; step outside of that sphere and a ban will likely follow. This is where is the internet drew its final breath, the homicide complete. A once free space now controlled by shareholders and corporate interests, designed to make you believe your voice is strong, worthy and most importantly heard. Everyone trying to stay out of the gaze of the sentinel by staying in the sun, hoping that one day that they will go viral for all the right reasons.