How the Internet Ruined Everything
The horse is out of the barn. What are we going to do with it?
For those of us lucky enough to remember an analog youth, that Golden Age before the Internet, PCs, and cell phones, it’s facile—too facile, in fact—to say that life was better back then.
I don’t think it was.
How many times did we drive around, lost, in endless loops through dangerous neighborhoods, before the advent of GPS? Do you remember long distance charges? I do. How about missed rides, no access to bus schedules, having to call a hotline to find out what movies were playing, snail mail? Technology has changed every part of our lives, including the way we date.
But there’ve been casualties. Quite a few. We fix one problem only to create three others.
Here then is a by-no-means complete record of the dead.
Music. Platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube have decimated an industry that already had a long history of kicking musicians like rented mules. It’s the smaller record labels and about 99% of the artists who are suffering. Time was, musicians made money selling albums, tapes and CDs. Now, payment comes on a pay-per-stream basis. Wanna turn a profit? That’s going to require, literally, millions of streams. And in case you’re questioning my math (which you should always do; when it comes to numbers, I’m not to be trusted), Rolling Stone magazine reported that the average per-stream payout is between .06 cents and .0084 cents. So I wouldn’t be adding any artist riders to your next big arena event just yet.
Photo by Soundtrap. Many musicians have taken to subscriber sites like Patreon, which is better than posting music for free on YouTube, I suppose, but just barely. You’re still competing with thousands of other musicians, some of whom are better known than you are. It’s demoralizing, scrounging around for subscribers instead of doing what you’re supposed to be doing, which is writing music.
Why should the average consumer mourn this turn of events? Because fewer record labels willing to take a chance on new artists means fewer new artists, period. How do you find the next Ray Charles if you’re constantly being force-fed a diet of pop music featuring tarty little bubble-gum kinder-sluts who got their start belting out Katy Perry singles at the mall? Big tech wins; musicians lose.
Porn. I realize few consumers actually care about the fate of adult film, but for porn actors, who do provide a service, it has become virtually impossible to make money in their profession anymore. The onslaught of amateur performers providing free content for streaming platforms makes the tech titans richer, but not the people providing the content, including the amateurs. It’s the ultimate goof, just trying to get the attention of a jaded and porn-glutted public. Imagine uploading a sex act for free and getting nothing in return but some rude comments.
Photo by JJ Ying Many actors and amateur performers have turned to Only Fans, a subscription service providing customized content. But like Patreon, you’re competing with thousands of other people who are willing to dare more, do more, and show more for less. Big tech wins; adult content providers lose.
Social media. Mark Zuckerberg’s Libertarian dream of “move fast and break things” has actually broken the world. From Facebook-caused genocide in Myanmar to allowing a racist game show host to have pre-election free rein, Facebook has successfully divided America from itself. We’re at each other’s throats. Why? Because Facebook’s proprietary algorithm keeps feeding us more of what we want to see in order to keep us on the platform. YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, it’s all the same. No matter the international consequences or the violations of our personal privacy, Facebook is there to grab your eyes and pin them to the screen, even if what they’re showing you is wrong, a lie, or a dangerous conspiracy.
The truth is, we humans are barely out of the forest primeval. We can’t handle social media. We’re too eager for other people’s approval, too willing to do anything to curate our public image, too stupid not to fall for obvious misinformation, and too addicted to screens to stop.
Photo by NeONBRAND Journalism. We already know that the Internet has destroyed the classic newspaper business model that produced fact-checked, balanced journalism. What most people don’t yet understand is how the Internet has supercharged sensationalism and conditioned people to consume news in un-nuanced, highly damaging and partisan ways. Do you think the January 6th insurrection would have happened without ezines like the Drudge Report and Gateway Pundit spewing out their vile nonsense? It’s a many-headed Hydra we’ve created, each head more poisonous than the last. Free speech protects all speech, and should, but when articles purporting to be news are broadcast where Democrats are Satan-worshiping pedophiles that sift children for their chemicals, more controls must be put into place.
Retail. Amazon has no competitors. When competitors arise, Amazon eats them. And while some of us may be dazzled by the raw Darwinian struggle playing out before us, when the needs of one person—the no-tax-paying Jeff Bezos—outweigh the needs of the many (everyone else on the planet), it’s time to make changes.
Photo by Bernard Hermant.
There’s a retail apocalypse underway in this country. Fifty percent of mall department stores are likely to close by the end of 2021. Twenty-five percent of U.S. malls will be shuttered within the next five years. There’s no staunching this hemorrhage. But handing over the keys to the likes of Jeff Bezos isn’t the answer. Bezos needs to pay taxes, just like you and me. Anti-trust violations, of which there are many, must be prosecuted. Dead malls must be repurposed for the public good. And retail will have to reinvent itself. I’m sure it will. If there’s one thing retailers know how to do well, it’s sell us things of questionable merit.
Some of these industries will rise, phoenix-like, from the ashes. They won’t look the same, but they’ll survive. It’s not businesses I worry about. It’s the people. People who’ve played live music their entire career, for instance, only the gigs keep getting scarcer, the pay lousier, and recording contracts a relic of the past. What will three generations of musicians, artists, writers and performers do as fewer consumers attend live concerts, theater, book signings and ballet? After all, what’s the point of paying $150 for a Broadway seat when you can watch the whole show on YouTube, pirate a copy of a book, or stream a song for a dollar or two?
It’s too late to stuff the genie back in the bottle. I’m not even sure retroactively penalizing behemoths like Amazon is the answer. What we need are BETTER ALTERNATIVES. Better alternatives for consumers; better alternatives for providers. A little less for the tech titans; a little more for the rest of us.
We need social media platforms with demonetized algorithms. We need a reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine so that broadcasters and Internet news providers present controversial issues of public importance in a manner that is truthful, fact-checked, and equitable.
The adult film industry needs better oversight, tighter regulations, and intimacy coordinators that are not on the payroll of the companies they are tasked to oversee.
Musicians of professional standing must be government subsidized. They are in other countries. They should be here. So, too, with artists of all disciplines. They are part of our cultural heritage; part of who we are as a country.
But we can’t sit around waiting for our lawmakers to do it. It is up to us to apply pressure. The Internet is here to stay, and I’m actually glad of that. But it is our responsibility to make sure the Internet serves our needs, we the people, and not the needs of Jeff Bezos, Jack Dorsey, Mark Zuckerberg, and all the rest of the soulless, profit-hungry tech monopolists.
But we need to take action now. The longer we wait, the more entrenched this virtual fiefdom becomes.