7 Things I Can’t Stand About The Internet
How beneficial has the internet been to you, really? For me, the internet is only a positive right now because I am using it to learn to code, and once I know how to code and make stuff I can presumably exchange that skill for money. The only other times I think the internet came in handy for me was when I’d use maps when traveling and downloading podcasts for long trips.
Not long ago I wrote a post on how entertainment is the enemy, how it keeps us from accomplishing our goals, how it makes life hollow and meaningless. The internet is one of the biggest mediums that broadcasts entertainment into our lives. I don’t mean to say the internet is evil, or bad, or a mistake; it has been highly beneficial to many people and businesses, but for some of us regular Joes it is a distraction and addiction, a liability instead of an asset. I say this because most of my use of the internet and what I see in other people is not very different.
Before I get into my list, I want to briefly recap how I’ve used the internet in my life, starting with the late 90s progressing up to the present day:
- AOL chatrooms. Dragon Ball Z fan sites. MUD (Multi-User Dungeon) games.
- Game forums. Game walkthroughs. File sharing.
- Variety of online games. Forums. Clan (video game clan) websites. Amazon. Facebook. Entertainment sites like ebaums world and Strongbad. Adult sites, cause hey, let’s be honest here.
- Blogs. Online games. Youtube. Steam. Forums. Economics and news sites.
- Youtube and Games.
- Entrepreneur sites, the whole Timothy Ferriss era of online wannabe businesses.
- Manosphere blogs. Reddit. Streaming.
- Reddit. Twitter. Mobile games.
- Codecademy. Youtube. Medium. Chess. (present day)
As you can see, and I encourage you to do the same, I spent 20+ years seeking entertainment online, and I found it, oh boy did I ever find it. My use has mostly been chatting with strangers, reading strangers thoughts, following people, and playing games. Only now am I using it to educate myself to think and create. Let me transition here to my list.
It’s a MASSIVE time waster.
I don’t know what adults did before the internet. Maybe they got together and played cards. Maybe they zoned out in front of the TV. Or maybe they went outside and touched grass. Whatever it was, there is a sense of loss the internet has created. It’s difficult to not spend the majority of one’s day online. Unless I am doing something specific offline, I am at home online. And until recently, learning to code blah blah, my time spent online would be an utter waste, even when I would think I was using it wisely (hint: I wasn’t). One of my recurring regrets in life is that I didn’t spend more time offline pursuing interests. If I was going to be spending my time online I should have at least been creating things and participating at the technological level.
Huge sites.
Less and less do I care for Google, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit. Youtube is the only exception because there are a lot of small channels that can help you learn anything. But for the other big sites, I find I don’t care anymore. I want variety! I’m tired of googling stuff, I want different search engines dedicated to different stuff. What about a search engine that specifically points you to foreign websites, or websites that match your keywords exactly but are indexed low down, or… you know, how Google used to be. Perhaps Google has the ability to advance your search to whatever parameter you want, but I’m just tired of using Google. I typically use Yandex these days if I really want to search for something juicy.
I miss old forums to a certain degree. Reddit is too big, there’s too many users and I believe it degrades the quality of the site. It also means there’s too much content. My old haunts were barely active, so you spent less time there. There were also more nuanced and dedicated arguments between users. Large sites seem to encourage drive-by commentary and trolling.
I created a Twitter account about a month ago and proceeded to lay down 1,000 tweets in a week. I gained 3 followers. The site is too big, frankly. People gravitate to the big guys and the big guys never follow anyone. It’s not social media, it’s simply media. I got so bored from the lack of engagement I quit. I’m glad I quit and I can say I quit before Elon took over.
Never Actually Helpful.
A huge variety of the things I sought out to improve my life never panned out. It’s almost like the entire industry is snake oil. I spent years “wantrepreneuring” and then pulled the trigger on my own dopey dropship enterprise, that promptly pulled in an average of one sale per month. It turns out when most internet users gravitate to a few huge sites, little guys, nobodies, simply die from lack of traffic. It’s why we write on Medium instead of our own blog. It’s why we commentate on Twitter or Reddit, because at least then someone might read what we said.
Unless you are searching for some specific, actionable answer to a problem, there is surprisingly little the internet appears to offer. Sure, I can find mealplans, information on workouts, information on basically anything I desire, but no one can teach you, mentor you, on how to use that information productively. It is also too easy to get caught up in information overload. When that happens you are going to stagnate, it’s simply not sustainable. This is why the internet suffers over time. It follows the law of diminishing marginal utility, meaning, it becomes less valuable over time the more you have of it.
Path to Addiction.
Most of the addictions in my life have been internet based. Addiction to games, social media, porn. Each thing was granted infinite access via the internet. That’s the thing, it never ends, it never stops, the scrolling can go on forever. Our brain becomes addicted to all the little dopamine hits, and soon offline life is boring and lame. The less you can handle the boring and lame, the harder real life will become, because work, chores, responsibilities will all be painful in comparison. I think this is something every generation now faces, the battle against internet-based dopamine addiction. I couldn’t find any way to combat it other than by abstaining and I have to author my own solution, which I posted about recently, and it has continued to work for me (in a nutshell: reduce who and what you follow down to a bare minimum of 1–2 per site, and master the art of lurking, which means to not engage with anyone).
The Tone has Shifted.
Part of why I am not tempted to go back to social media is because of the tone of most users. I can’t stand it any longer. The way people talk these days, there is too much “I know it all and you’re an idiot if you don’t think like me or see things like me.” Then I’ll sometimes see these people change their minds but still have the same know-it-all tone for the new thing. People are also much more combative and trollish, even when I believe they aren’t deliberately trolling. Out of control intense emotions brought about by political extremism, black and white teenage-level thinking, general low-IQ thoughtlessness, and people’s need to be smart and right, all pollute and destroy the quality of interaction available. I reached a point where I couldn’t take the insanity anymore and my only recourse was to disconnect. I can’t even imagine why people want to be hooked up to Meta or Elon’s Brainlink garbage. Why do people want to be connected to the internet all the time? Don’t they know that hell is other people?
I hope there are some who can relate, I am retired from my internet armchair warrior days. I have hung up my troll-slaying sword, my white-knight armor, my various roleplaying masks, my utility belt of internet-based logical fallacies. When I occasionally glance at a forum or thread here and there, I see some wall of text argument and I nope right out of there. Sometimes I’ll read a well thought out post and break one of my rules and dip my toe into the comments, only to instantly draw it back the moment I see everyone hijacking the post to insert their own advice instead of comment on the actual post. I believe the term for that is “snowflaking”. Yes, yes, every internet user is a special beautiful snowflake that isn’t like anyone else. I know I have been guilty of everything I’ve complained about here time and time again.
The Doom and Gloom.
There’s a looooooot of negativity online. I can’t prove this, but I think the more time someone spends online the more depressed and negative a person they are. People are self-aware of this phenomenon on Reddit, that there tend to be a lot of single, depressive, child-hating young men on the site. The same goes for 4chan, which blessedly I never visit. Part of the negativity comes from endless arguments and handwringing found on every site. Or people’s tone, the tone itself is dark, angry, combative, insulting, for no reason.
Then you have the news and news-related discussion. It’s almost always doom and gloom. If I glance at the news right now I see headlines about nuclear war, world war 3, economic collapse, inflation, energy crisis, the sky is falling, the world is going to end, repent ye sinner. All of that stuff is plastered everywhere. Look, I’m a simple guy trying to figure out how pointers work, I don’t need to know my family may be consumed by million-degree heat in our lifetimes. There is also endless gloomy speculation. People like to predict bad things, I guess, and it gets apocalyptic pretty quickly.
I now moderate my intake of news to a bare minimum, typically less than 5 minutes a day. The less I take in the better I feel. I return to a normal, healthy level of optimism about life. If I sat around worrying about the world ending I’d become paralyzed and do nothing. Don’t give into the Doomers, the Wormtongues of our time who whisper in your ear to sabotage you from taking action in your life.
Conclusion
Everyone needs a break from the ole net now and again. I happen to find that the longer my breaks are, the better I feel. It’s as if a fog has lifted. Not a brain fog, but a life fog, a mist that interferes with my ability to enjoy life itself. The internet is dangerously entertaining in that it is both quality and quantity. You can find endless high-quality material if you wanted. You could spend all of your time engaged with people from all over the world, but to what end? It’s not a net benefit to do this, to participate heavily on every form of social media. To endlessly scroll is also a waste of time and destroys your ability to focus. Before I cut out social media I was convinced I had adult ADHD. After I cut out social media I found I could focus on learning to code for an average of 6 hours a day. Overnight! Immediately!
Don’t allow the internet to rule your life. Look back on how you have used it. Ruthlessly examine whether or not it has ever been a net benefit to you. Don’t lie to yourself, don’t kid yourself. Purge all of the bad elements of the internet from your life, you’ll thank yourself later. Perhaps you also have a list of things you can’t stand about the internet simmering inside of you wanting to get out. Let it out, let the purge begin.
