The Broken Promises Of The Internet

Entrepreneurs, Startups and Small Business Owners,

This article is primarily addressed to small business owners and boot strapping individuals who promote and advertise their own business or venture online and who also have a small or non-existent marketing budget in order to do so. However, the internet symptoms below affect everyone who still values self-expression and freedom of information.

Whatever happened to all the promise and potential of the internet to help small businesses and individuals flourish

The fact is that for small business owners trying to leverage the web to promote and grow their businesses - it is now a painfully slow and time consuming process to generate any significant amount of organic internet traffic and market traction unless you pay the gate keepers.

Before I explain further, are you also sick and tired of these online trends below:

Being clickbaited everywhere, even on big established news channels.
Obvious exaggeration, misrepresentation and outright lying in marketing.
The politicization of everything and everybody.
Blatant social engineering and manipulation.
"Social" media platforms that have become intelligence gathering agencies.
Fantastic sales pricing every day of the year.
Down-playing or hyping up to divert attention from the real issue.
Being siloed, tracked and manipulated whilst browsing.
Misled by false statistics and fake users or vanity metrics.
Being patronized by technocrats and their tools.
Fearmongering, warmongering and fake news.
News that minors on majors and majors on minors.
Sound and news bytes lacking any depth or substance.
Provocative adverts that undermine traditional family values.
Silly sitcoms designed to dumb us down and keep us superficial.
Celebrity worship, the smuttier the better.
Hacking, malware, ransomeware, scams and spam.
Identity politics, virtue signaling and the obsession with race and sex.
Vain notions like entitlements and the universe is your butler.

Do you experience these trends on a daily or even an hourly basis? YES or NO.

This irritating list goes on. Before I make a few suggestions on how to buck these trends and regain one's online sanity and direction, let me reinforce why the above symptoms are now systemic.

The internet, and more specifically the world wide web was intended to be a tool to free the masses in respect to self-expression, networking and access to information everywhere. The internet is no longer that, it has been annexed by a handful of powerful corporations and platforms that don't need naming - they are the gate keepers. They decide what information you are privy to, in what way you can express yourself and how effectively you can reach out to others. As far as promoting and advertising is concerned, you have to "pay to play" and you pay dearly if you want real results. Though this situation is the natural result of human ingenuity and mass consumer behavior, it was not the original intention of the internet.

Do you think that these sick symptoms are just coincidental? Maybe a few are, here is a reminder that these internet giants are not finished with their plans for you and me just yet, their goal is total ownership of us, our habits, our intentions, our thoughts and emotions and eventually even our dreams - we are the product they trade in. Soon we will think that we are still acting autonomously and are free agents when in reality we are being micro-managed and led around by the nose by algorithms, artificial intellegence and augmented reality. If you consider this statement conspiratorial and farfetched, do some research into the agendas of our internet overlords who openly publicize their aspirations for all of us - its a brave new world indeed.

The sales pitch of the giant social media companies was that it is a wonderful new world of universal communication, expression, sharing and solidarity. They even talked of the new sharing economy, anyone sharing anything of value with you? How about you with them? Some sort of avantgarde socialist utopia cool-aid was bandied about, we had Occupy Wall Street and the occupy x, y and z movements, cryptocurrencies where going to fix banking once and for all and collapse the income divide canyon, unfortunately all these "promising ideals" evaporated into the ether or where sold at auction like all utopian promises tend to, forgive me for I have strayed from the topic.

Below are a few practical things we can do as individuals to counter the locked-down and locked-in online life we experience more of each day.

Be honest and authentic in what you publish and share online, like attracts like.
Search out and use smaller, simpler platforms and services that don't monetize you.
Find alternatives to the "mainstream narrative" sites and services.
The herd loves convenience and is hive-minded, be the individual you're meant to be.
Support and share services and platforms like ours to help preserve non-conformity and options.
Take the time and make the effort it takes to sift through the trash to find the treasure.
Educate yourself and others as to the direction the internet and the IOT is heading, it's not for the general publics benefit.
Put your attention and your buying power where it can benefit authentic businesses and individuals that are making a difference.
Buy local and boycott dictatorial corporations and institutions whenever you can.
Start your own private network where those who share your values and goals can support one another socially and economically.
Remind yourself and others that lasting value and integrity takes time and effort to attain.

Why should you care? Most people don't have the time and energy to care about these trends and that is why we have them. However, with more and more business and communication happening online and on your phone it's worth paying attention to how you are being increasingly packaged and traded as a product by ever intrusive technologies. Never mind the adverse health effects of holding a cell phone near your head for hours a day. In the minds of those who wield power, a passive public don't deserve freedom and actualy prefer being subjects, do you?

Our platform is a simple tool for networking and promoting. No tracking, auto posting, manipulation or fake users and stats. Our vision is to help legitimate entrepreneurs and small business owners generate more publicity for their principal business or venture, and to increase networking opportunities with other entrepreneurs and individuals in your location and around the world.

For similar trends affecting digital marketing and our virtual lives read our The State of Social Media Marketing for Small Business and The Post Giant Marketing Platform articles.

View our Entrepreneur Articles on our vision to build up local small business.

Regards, Justin Grounds.
Founder & Admin

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