The internet seems to be collapsing… But not literally, that is, structurally, because it is still an intact network, as there are a lot of fiber optic cables lining the ocean floor, cell phone towers that rise on the horizon above the landmarks of cities, in addition to data centers full of servers،
But the very foundations of the utilitarian utilitarian web – the platforms that support our daily online experiences – seem shaky, pulsating with the first tremors of collapse.
To begin with, it seems that nothing works anymore… The search engine “Google” once provided guide-level help to the inhabitants of the internet.
Now it’s full of ads, sidebars, optimized clickbait for search engines, and artificial intelligence-backed guesses of possible answers to people’s questions.
Earlier this year, a group of German researchers found that “Google” ranked product reviews pages highly when they had low-quality text, tons of affiliate links to e-commerce sites, and were full of SEO tricks that did not quite correspond to quality.
In other words, “Google” was allowing the lowest echelons to take over its platform.
On Amazon, digital shelves are littered with products supported by its “sponsors”, cheap copies of popular trending products. And on “Amazon” or “Google” you will often need a little more time to get anything useful or remotely relevant when searching for something you like.
The government’s antitrust complaints against both companies have basically fired at them because they collect fees from advertisers, who pay in order to attract the attention of users, degrading these services in the process. When big tech giants make their certified services worse, it’s bad for consumers, even if they don’t have to pay more.
On social media, the situation is much more serious.
“Facebook” is functionally good for fighting with high school friends about politics, getting birthday reminders and others, there is almost no more news on the platform.
As you guessed, the ads for the “X” platform are of low quality, they are a right-wing swamp full of Elon Musk hypocrites, tech guy scam posters, and the worst ads you’ve ever seen. As for” TikTok”, one of the few interesting, coincidental and (usually) cheerful places on the internet, it is a platform that is in danger of being banned from the United States next month unless the conservative Supreme Court or President-elect Donald Trump himself intervenes to save it.
The rise of generative artificial intelligence means that each of these platforms is now saturated with what is commonly called nonsense, offensive bad fake images often designed to deceive or irritate people.
You may find groups on Facebook bragging about the picturesque landscapes without realizing that they fade away if you look closely, and that the beautiful model on Instagram in the photo has too many fingers.
The Internet, of course, is a network controlled by the largest, richest and most powerful companies in the world. It is not a dead internet, but a living and neglected one, cursed only by corporate greed, laziness and indifference.
Silicon Valley giants are no longer competing and no longer innovating, instead, they are cutting costs, boosting profit margins and blocking competitors in order to maintain consumption habits and dominate the market. Online platforms give us convenience, but they do not offer anything new, and they have a fading usefulness in our increasingly digital life.
In 2025, maybe everything will explode. But it is hoped that people will begin to rethink their dependence on digital platforms that treat them with complete contempt, as if they were consumers, as if they were “users”. If this is the end of the internet as we know it, I feel fine.
