The Internet Is Broken

To all individuals who care,

This article builds on the back of a previous article titled The Broken Promises Of The Internet about the pay to play situation. This article addresses the plight of us as individuals regarding the role and use of the internet in improving our lot in the real world.

We could all well ask whatever happened to the promise and power of the internet to help the individual.

If you require easy reading or a rose-tinted view on the topic, you will need to look elsewhere. I'll list some current negative online trends before commenting further:

Being clickbaited everywhere, even on big established news channels.
Exaggeration, misrepresentation and lying as almost the norm in published content.
The politicization of everything and everybody all the time.
Mainstream medias vise-like control of their controlling narratives.
Social engineering and manipulation using the fear of existential threats.
Social media platforms that have become intelligence gathering agencies.
Social media platforms that have become political and marketing garbage dumps.
Fantastic sales pricing every day of the year, MSRP type bs.
Down-playing or hyping up to divert attention from the real issue.
Being siloed or tracked and targeted by personalized ads and customized search results.
Misled by false statistics and fake users or vanity metrics.
Being patronized by technocrats and their tools, keep up the good work.
Fearmongering, warmongering, fake news and diverse threats.
News that minors on majors and majors on minors.
Sound and news bytes lacking any depth or real substance.
Provocative ads designed to undermine and surplant traditional values.
Silly sitcoms designed to dumb us down and keep us superficial.
Celebrity worship and hobnobbing, the smuttier the better.
The veneration and worship of our billionaire overlords and mentors.
Hacking, malware, ransomeware, scams and spam.
Financial market manipulation by insiders and central banks.
Identity politics, virtue signaling and the obsession with race and sex.
Vain notions like entitlements and the universe being your personal butler.

The internet was intended to be the killer app for the masses, it was to usher in a new age of freedom of expression, easy networking and easy access to all information everywhere 24/7/365. There are indeed many wonderful and useful tools and spinoffs of the internet age, many of them have been commandeered by narrow interest groups though. Mainstream news outlets are the perfect example of totally lopsided and biased pseudo reporting, the alternative channels have become similar in nature offering up the polar opposite, where has integrity gone.

The trends listed above should tell us that internet is no longer what was promised, it has been annexed by a handful of powerful corporations and platforms that are now the gate keepers. They decide what information you have access to, in what way you can express yourself, and how effectively you can reach others.

This situation is the natural result of human ingenuity leveraging mass consumer behavior, the herd mentality, the hive mind and the slothful intellectual habits of the average individual. If the hat fits wear it, we only have ourselves to blame for swapping out our personal freedom and self-determination for convenience and entertainment. Why did we think that the power of the internet would not be secured by the power elite.

A day does not go by without news articles of how big government, big banking and big business has betrayed the little man. The common and convenient tool used is the internet and its high-tech wizardry, it is the tool used to squeeze the life out of the individual. Every time you pick up your cell phone you unwittingly relinquish a fraction more of your individuality for convenience and a false sense of belonging to a tribe.

Books could be written on the anti-social effects of social media, influencer marketing and the narcissistic addiction to photo and video sharing apps. This is self-evident self-destructive habitual behavior, but it's a lot easier than being a free responsible agent discovering your true self.

What's to do then? Below are a few practical things we can do as individuals to counter our locked-down and locked-in virtual life.

Ration your time on social media platforms and doing mindless scrolling.
Be honest and authentic in what you post 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 options.
Take the time and make the effort to sift through the trash to find the treasure.
Educate yourself and others as to the hijacked intentions of the internet gate keepers, it's not for your 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.
Don't bow to political correctness overreach, it's just power grabbing.
Banish the idea forever that big government and big business is looking out for you.
Remind yourself and others that personal freedoms need guarding from sociopathical mechanisms.

Most people don't have the time or energy to care about these trends and that is why we have them. With the bulk of business and personal communication happening on your phone and laptop, it's worth learning how we are being processed, packaged and posted as a product or data set. Never mind the adverse health effects of hours of cell phone use per day. In the minds of those in authority, passive people don't deserve freedom and actually prefer being prescribed to.

If you are an entrepreneur or small business owner, our platform is a tool for networking and promoting with no tracking, no auto posting, manipulation or fake users and numbers. Our vision is to help legitimate 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 globe.

Please share this article and leave your own observations, experiences or ideas in the comments below. Lets rescue ourselves together.

Do you blog, podcast or write about entrepreneurship, solopreneurs, small business, digital marketing, social media, internet trends or any related topics? If so, join our network and get listed as one of our small business resources, we will promote your service to our members and boost your publicity.

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.

Regards, Justin Grounds.
Founder & Admin

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