Bitcoin Forum

Have you notice how corporations took over the internet ?

I am a web dev and designer from 2008 ...i remember the internet being more human / person to person even chatting was fun back in '00 ...now the internet ...it's like a giant platform to do propaganda / advertise / spam and  for narcissists to showoff  on social networks like insta and fbook ...in my opinion we need to do something to get the vibe and freedom back ... else small businesses will have 0 chance against corporations and people will be continue to be programmed in to thinking the internet should be like it is now.

Not good for the economy not good for people.


It's similar to bitcoin when the movement started ... it was fun ,now di.ks with suits (fund managers ) started to hoard it...sure it is 50k now ,but you can't use it for the reason it was created... to be a currency...

Even youtube lost it's charm with does ads...

That's the way things have gone, remember that Internet is for everyone to use so of course companies are going to use it so they can make more money, remember that where there's more people, you can be sure that these companies are also in that place too.

I think the current world economy makes wealthy entities by:
1. Having money
2. Investing from having interests/doing research and taking risks to some extent with a small amount of money.

I've seen indie films do quite well if they can get the word of mouth out or produce something people would watch (even if just to cringe through it).

It's obviously hard to move up and become wealthier in the system because there are many flaws: people get paid for work based on how much demand there is and not on how hard working they are.

Bitcoin was never supposed to be solely for the smaller guys though. Bitcoin is literally for everyone, and that includes the suits.

Fortunately though, them having bitcoin doesn't give them power over the network. Bitcoin isn't proof of stake. :P

Except the fact that you actually can. Mostly just not directly due to Bitcoin not being heavily adopted yet.

That's OP's point (which I've definitely noticed), that corporations have used and used and used it to death, to the point where the internet in 2021 is nothing like it was back in 2000.  Hell, by 2000 companies had already started to attach themselves to everything and anything related to the internet--hence the dot com bubble that burst in April of that year.

There was a lot of talk about "internet 2.0" a few years ago, probably about the time that Youtube started monetizing videos and/or Facebook started to become something everyone used.  I think that was the beginning of social media on the internet, where what you saw on the web started to become user-created posts, tweets, videos, and whatnot.  And of course all of the big companies used that as an advertising platform, and the rest is history.

There's some good stuff on Youtube, but every time I visit that site I swear I'm being shown what to watch by some unknown gatekeeper (probably in the form of an algorithm).  So yeah, OP, I can empathize with your thoughts on this; I remember the internet from as far back as 1993/4, and it was a magical place.  Now there are about 10-20 sites I visit regularly instead of using Yahoo's search engine to find some obscure website that might have very interesting and odd things on it.  Things change, of course, but I miss some of that old stuff.  I can do without all the advertising, that's for sure.

That's so rare, though.  I've watched plenty of indie flicks, and most of them follow some formulaic story or are filmed digitally (which makes it look so much worse IMO) or have actors who don't know how to act.  

Edit:

LOL, now that's old school.  I would have written those "words" when I was in my early 20s maybe, but those days are long gone.  I remember when AOL's chat rooms used to be extremely popular for that sort of thing.

sure you can use it like you say ... but now with bitcoin you can buy only  things with high price ( ex: car,house etc ) ... try to buy via wallet to wallet  something with btc less then 50 usd for example, fees will be higher then 50 usd ... either bad design from software devs or intentional done like this . A currency should work with small amounts and  with big amounts

Ex dollar:
1¢, 5¢, 10¢, 25¢, 50¢,$1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50,$100 ( 1¢ - $100 --> theoretical infinite supply )
If i use the dollar ( fiat ) as cash it's 0 fee
1$ = 1 bar of candy + 0 fee
------------------------------------------------
Ex btc
0..00000001 BTC - 21.000.000 BTC   --> finite supply
0.0001 BTC = 1 bar of candy + 0.1 BTC fee ( example ) ( a good design would have been if the fee stayed the same no change )
------------------------------------------------
I understand that miners have to get paid ...but to much ...so software was designed incorrect in my opinion or intentional they did it.

actually without realizing the purpose of the internet is like that because the internet is a place for everyone who really has no boundaries here so it is very natural for companies and narcissists to make advertisements everywhere and that is not a violation here.
because indeed if it is said in my opinion here also need capital at least if for example there is no money used as initial capital the minimum is speaking skills and they (companies & narcissists) use these two things to increase their coffers of money as income from the Internet.
and bitcoin is only a small part here, believe it or not cryptocurrency is still a small part because indeed the internet is very large in scope and very broad even though it may be crypto in which there is bitcoin for everyone.

back in the "old" days you could find the information you needed easy ,now you got to read a few monetized articles , press a button to "accept cookies", view some adsense ads , read what google gives you via it's algo ...kind of like "you watch my ads or you do what i say and maybe later i give you the info you want"

Now try to talk to a girl via chat and say "hi" or "asl pls" ...0 answers

I think that's reasonable, my friend, because the internet is getting more sophisticated and of course with this sophistication I think there needs to be something that is to their advantage for that, yes one of them is advertisements and cookies which are now a lot.
but if we talk about it, it actually comes back to the money factor, because now there are so many applications, even though they are paid, but in fact they are very effective at warding off ads and things like that.

Internet changed drastically several times. From being simply a military network DARPA net, to becoming a net for the science hubs in USA, then the world, then becoming something more personal as you are describing, with scattered and minimal information, many times amateur contents and quite difficult to search. The the 2000´s bubble generated a few jewels and lots of crap but eventually the innevitable commercialisation begun.

And lately, I think that Google has become so dominant that is shaping the internet, and it is shaping is in a quite shitty way. 200 word articles designed for their SEO algorithm repeating g catch words, lots of paid status quo and an absolute lack of variety in points of view and intelligent discussion.

This is the type of shit that Google is creating all over:

"Many people ask about what a Purple Monkey Dishwasher is and what type of Purple Monkey Dishwasher is best for them. In this article we help you decide what is the best Purple Monkey dishwasher of 2021 among all the Purple Monkey Dishwashers on this year 2021.

Purple M. D. Samsung

It is bla ....

LINK TO AMAZON


Purple M. D. Apple

It is bla ....

LINK TO AMAZON


Purple M. D. Microsoft

It is bla ....

LINK TO AMAZON


......"

So what's the correct software do you think?

Do you think workers on Bank don't get paid? they got paid from your money! Just like how miner earn some Bitcoin by validating your transaction. Don't forget you still need to pay fees or charge when you use Bank service to transfer your money.

They don't do that intentional since they need to follow the consensus rules, if they do intentional to add more fees or want to take control of the network it's called 51% attack, but the fact is Bitcoin doesn't had 51% right now. Take a look of lightning network discussion to reduce Bitcoin fees.

Solution : Use fiat to pay small transaction and you could use Bitcoin to pay large amount transaction.

Seriously though, haven't you heard of the lightning network? It's totally mind boggling how we're still seeing the "too expensive to transact" argument in freakin 2021.

And "fees higher than 50 usd"? It's obvious that you aren't even using bitcoin, because fees have been really really low for a while now. Maybe try using it before making outdated 2017 criticisms.

Wish you spoke about the possibility of corporation taking over the cryptocurrency like you said they did to the internet. I guess that happened to the internet because people were sleeping, complacent, went for what was easy/convenient, it made them more money, etc. Fortunately, Bitcoin was built to make such takeover hard. To make it even harder, we need to stick to its good ideals and make sure the potential hijackers can only develop things along the ideals

In regards to the hoarding & price, I wonder why you think it can be hoarded,assuming the consequences of hoarding is that Bitcoin becomes unaffordable to others... whereas it makes everyone's coin to be worth more, and that means people having more good things to buy with money. I don't see why it can't be used as currency... With less volatility (that does not compromise on its anti-inflation feature) it could be way better money than lots of fiats.

The Social media scene has become toxic, with large corporations censoring contributions that does not suit their agenda or the agenda by the people (government) that controls them.

Let's look at ICO's and how it was handled as an example : Facebook and other large Social media platforms, simply implemented a "blanket ban" on all Crypto currency advertisements  during the ICO boom period. They did not even consider filtering legitimate Crypto companies from illegal ones. (Not even Coinbase or other large companies were allowed to advertise on their platform, even though some of these companies were very heavily regulated)  ::)

The shift has definitely happened, from where the Internet was used as an educational and productive platform ....to a platform that are being used as a propaganda tool for people to distribute misinformation. (You have full-time paid operations, where individuals are sitting with 20 phones and just clicking on "likes" to generate and to distribute wrong information)  >:(  

That's not something that we should be worried about, that's their marketing strategy and ploy so it's not like they're in the wrong, what we should be worried is that we are feeding what they give to us like a meth addict, if we start ignoring them, their takeover is going to be useless.

Those big corporations are dominating the internet because they have created products,which are convenient,user-friendly and simply better than the products that were made by their competition.
If you don't like Microsoft,Amazon,Google(Youtube) and Facebook(Instagram) just don't use them.
Nobody is forcing you to use those platforms and products.
The companies are working for profits.They aren't non-profit charity organizations.
Nobody is saying that the tech giants are perfect.They are far away from being perfect,but nothing better has been invented so far.
I don't like the overall "the good old days were better" type of nostalgic whining.
Bitcoin didn't change that much during the last 11 years.The only thing that changed is the Bitcoin price.
We should adapt to the changes,instead of whining about the "good old days".

I feel you and I very much miss the haphazard internet of the early 2000s as well. The consolidation of a lot of small websites into giant platforms, while probably more user friendly, came at a great loss of personality and freedom.



Hoarding is not the problem; not even the involvement of fund managers and banks in itself is. The danger we are facing is the cryptocurrency ecosystem itself turning into walled gardens. There's three fronts from which this can affect us and unfortunately there's activity on all three of them: (1) overregulation by governments and financial institutions, possibly followed by them trying to enforce their own centralized digital currencies, (2) consolidation into a small handful of exchanges and services that integrate themselves vertically into the ecosystem, possibly also followed by them trying to enforce their own centralized digital currencies (looking at you, Binance) and (3) end user complacency leading to a market focus on aforementioned centralized digital currencies or those that are pretty close to being centralized.

Right now the ecosystem still looks largely healthy, albeit arguably overvalued in some parts (the latter being nothing new for crypto). Some developments look rather worrying, then again Bitcoin has mastered worse. Overall all we can really do as a community is uphold our values, let our wallets speak accordingly and hopefully the rest will follow. Be the change we want to be, so to speak.



Bitcoin yes, the cryptocurrency market as a whole not so much. As long as Bitcoin remains king I'm not worried, but beyond that consolidation and platformization is just around the corner.



Wait, are we talking about the same internet? ;D

In terms of being a time waster and spreading questionable information the internet was always bad; it's just that in some respects the mass consumed content got worse. However I believe that's largely due to the internet's audience having become larger and more diverse over the years, leading to a lower common denominator (e.g. cat memes and sexy selfies) which is further amplified by the consolidation of platforms.

yes, I feel the whole system when I entre the market BTC was the too low price but I haven't taken is very important for that reason now I am seeing I have lost lots of opportunities from there.

Did you notice that you are 13 years older than you were in 2008? This means that the Internet has not necessarily changed the way you think, but that your view of the world has changed, and that what did not bother you then, you now consider a problem.


Bitcoin was available to everyone from the beginning, the same is true today - only today not everyone can buy 1 BTC, and 10+ years ago you could buy maybe 100 BTC for $10. Then one man paid for a pizza with BTC, today people all over the world do the same - I personally use BTC as a currency every week, and I don’t understand why you think that’s not possible?


True, these ads can be really annoying, but if you pay a subscription then you won't see them again - all in all, YT is still what it used to be, only with the addition of ads.

That the Internet used to be far more decentralized can't be denied tho.

First people used to run private websites and exchange links. Then Blogs became a thing with people being on each other's blog roll. Now everyone just has social media profiles -- linking between people is mostly algorithmic and off-platform content is heavily discouraged.

Of course "old school" corners still exists here and there (for example forums such as this one) but overall the internet has been consumed by content-singularities.


A parallel to crypto would be personal cash trades vs buying crypto on an exchange. The latter is much more convenient and a maturing exchange ecosystem definitely brought more people in. However it also lead to cash trades becoming more marginalized with regulation doing the rest. Put differently, I guess one of the takeaways is to be careful that we don't end up in a world where the only way to get Bitcoin is through e.g. Coinbase with the altcoin market being reduced to a list of government and corporate approved currencies.

You're living under the rock if this is the first time that you've seen corpos on the Internet, I mean they're the reason why there's a dot com bubble back in the yesteryear so I don't think that it's actually surprising that they're here on the Internet, they've taken over a long time ago and you are naive if you think otherwise.

I would say that internet is not taken over by companies at all, not even remotely true. Why? Because, there are too many places where thousands or even millions of people chat and we get to hear about the two sides of any narrative which makes it harder for the companies to advertise towards. Like just recently there was a topic here about VISA advertisement and we bashed it to the ground, they are taking a risk by making the simplest of advertisements, because it is going to be viewed by millions upon millions of people and will be bashed in a thousand different places.

Look at twitter alone, they have so many companies there, so many advertisements, so many "look how cool we are" posts, and in the end they are getting negative stuff replied to them all the time. This is not because world is filled with haters, it is filled with people who can finally see the truth which is the fact that companies are not our friend.

What happened was the demise of net neutrality, brought on by regulatory agencies. ICANN mandates and allegiances being altered and changed. Leading to all of the negative circumstances supporters of net neutrality promised would happen. But somehow no one appears to remember any of that happening.

The level of discussion on forums and social media drastically deteriorating with the introduction of bot farms spamming mass misinformation. And people increasingly feeling afraid to voice their opinions under the encroachment of state surveillance and internet censorship.

The overall level of content on the internet has suffered tremendously with people increasingly being afraid to speak the truth. Or to post views which run contrary to official narratives.

...

How is it that no one seems to remember net neutrality ever existed btw? 

The big corporation has the means to control and beat small companies and people because everybody is on the internet now and where the money is that's where big corporations are going to go.

Bitcoin started as a peer to peer but now institutions and big corporations are hoarding and buying Bitcoin and other altcoins so they can control the market and shut off small players, there are advantages and disadvantages to this but for me having them in the community will create more jobs and innovations that the community can use to enhance the blockchain technology.

The internet was never designed for, or even considered the existence of, advertisements. In fact, advertisements infected the internet and completely transformed it into something totally different from what it was supposed to be. And advertisements only serve a purpose to corporations.

I'd say it was the other way around it actually. It was the internet that overtook the corporations and caused paradigm shifts in the corporate and advertising industry. Back then large companies and corporations wouldn't even bat an eye about advertising on the Internet, but years from now they soon realized that if they keep a blind eye to the wonders of technology, they'll soon be left in the dust. That alone forced them to advertise and show off over the internet which is why you may think they are the ones who took over the internet when it is the other way around, whatever the internet wishes to do these companies will follow suit. One thing that I would only agree on regarding your statement is that advertisements infected the internet, but this only goes for pop-up ads which is the most annoying thing ever invented in the history of humanity. Advertisements are cool because without them products and competitive products wouldn't be made, leaving us into a much more substandard living situation than what we have right now because lack of competition breeds complacency. So I think advertisements in general are good, pop-up ads however, not so much.

Everything in this world evolves. That explains why most corporations are now taking over the internet. Almost everything on the Internet nowadays is about business. The different platforms we use are businesses by the elites and they make a profit by running ads on their platforms. Like for example, back then, you can freely scroll and watch videos on youtube and Facebook without interruptions. There were no ads or if there were, they were only very few unlike now. At the present, most videos you'll watch contain advertisements already. This is completely legal though. Only that it really interrupts us from watching instead of listening, watching, or reading without a disturbance. We just really have to adapt or we could opt to purchase a premium subscription if it really bothers us so much. It's really business. You don't buy or you buy, they make a profit in every possible way they can.

Unfortunately this happens everywhere and not only the Internet, if someone has a good idea and begins to make money then they may be ignored by a time but once it reaches a certain size then the corporate world decides they want a big piece of that and that is when you begin to see the activity losing its soul and becoming about nothing more but to extract the last penny out of their customers, I agree that the Internet has lost its early charm and only websites like this keep some of that old charm, which is one of the reasons I am still here.

This may sound harsh but it is the truth. protesting things that shouldn't be needed is no longer needed now than it would sound better if we used it to earn income there.
sounds quite naive when we want good access, smooth business opportunities and convenience in any case but don't want cookies or ads when browsing it.
it's the same when you want to live safely and comfortably in a place but don't want and don't follow the rules that exist in that place.

I agree with you El Kaka22! Before everything else the internet is a world for itself, there are too many places... and it's kinda stupid to generalize it!

My experience is the opposite... since I don't use social networks, only telegram for a chat... on the internet, I am interested just in crypto-oriented stuff... so I don't have to deal with corporations or anything similar! In the end, it's about us how we use something, what places we are visiting... what we support!

Everything is nice and beautiful when only small number of people know and have access on. Internet was nice when it wasn't that widespread, I remember the days when I was playing CS and we had a call in Skype at the same time. I remember the times when the internet comunities were really the great. There was less spam and more real, educated people.
Btw things are developing and it has it's pros and cons. For example, wars rapidly develop nations, just see how many amazing and useful meds were created during the ww1-2.
The difference at the moment compared to past is that everything turned into a commercial thing, there is a huge competition in everything and these tech giants like Google, Microsoft, Apple and others are the governors of the digital world. The freedom is lessening.

The corporations have no choice than to chase their people to where the market is now. The internet is currently having much attention that being the reason corporations will take their business and offices and address to the internet where it will be reached. The internet not only helping the big firms but also helping individuals and businesses related to cryptocreency. The adds of cryptocreency and groups selling their trading ideas are all there through YouTube, Instagram, twitter, telegram groups etc. I think the internet has better increased the awareness of cryptocreency more than it has been to corporation because corporation also adopt cryptocreency payment which keeps their transaction faster and far reaching across.

The internet becomes a dangerous weapon but does not hurt physically, but mentally will be more destroyed because of rumors, insults, bullies and many other things made on the internet to attack certain individuals or groups. It even becomes a daily consumption. Not a few are depressed, resulting in mental complications in someone who can be obtained from social media networks.

Let's illustrate with Bitcoin, isn't the decline that occurred a few days ago can be accepted by the public by the internet and many of the recipients of the news do not filter the information, then it causes noise, panic, and not a few who sell at a loss because they consume too much unfiltered news. first. This also adversely affects investors who immediately withdraw their Bitcoins from the exchange to store them in the Wallet and there is no selling interaction in the market. So that the impact is enough to affect the price of Bitcoin significantly.

Well, change is only a constant thing even in our generation today. Internet is now the capital of advertising for businesses because everyone could have an access to it unlike before. It's filled with business where everyone could earn and gain money for a living. It's the modern market and it will surely develop continuously in the future. It actually made advertising easier for businesses and it's beneficial for everyone.

It happens that now we cannot be a competitor to those who are such economic giants. Controlling social media with easy distribution, while goods or services offered by ordinary people on social media only become useless spam. Marketing skills in this case are important, but having a team in every media channel is also very important.     

I don’t know, it’s the way the world is now May be? I mean the digital advertising is something that keeping those business up and alive. Let’s not forget that people earn from the advertising and others get published with it and consumers get connected with it. That’s the Internet today we have and I think it’s for the best. Today, same internet is home fir the crypto currency projects and for their publications. We are transmitting the data from the same internet which is being run by these suits! But I think it’s for the good, because we don’t want it controlled by someone with suspicion eye on it.

this depends on how you look at the situation and conditions, you may say that because you are comfortable when you are in that era but now it is different you must be able to adapt to this, you must be able to accept and must also be able to compete when there is the new thing here, when you complain about it, you are actually limiting yourself with the progress that is on the internet.
and regarding the internet itself, even though you think it is like that but I think for now the internet is much better and more friendly even though there are indeed many advertisements and the cookies can't be counted but this is comparable to the facilities in it and you should also be willing to accept and try to use this to your advantage because compared to a few years ago, making money via the internet is now much easier if you try and are serious about doing it.

Advertisements don't bother me, I thought you were going to talk about centralization of the internet (maybe you were alluding to this and just using ads as an example).

Notice how all the big platforms use AWS for their web hosting? What happens when Amazon, one of the largest corps in the world, has centralized control over giant companies? They get to run the show. Amazon can force small online platforms to obey their own rules or they risk getting kicked, and the alternatives for web hosting are scarce. This is a bigger threat than predatory advertising. You have the ability to visit websites freely, but if giant companies continue to take up market share, you can be sure they'll force sites to adhere to specific standards.

See the Parlor fiasco by AWS here - https://www.pcmag.com/news/report-amazon-to-suspend-parler-from-aws

Wow. This hit really hard.

No that I reflect, you're absolutely correct.

Large corporations have definitely pushed the internet to a more formal place of discussion compared to the fun times early on. Same thing with bitcoin.

But at the end of the day this is merely a part of the maturation process - in order to scale we do have to let go of some of the informalities that we initially had.

I remember back in 2011-2015 when the internet was still good, there were no ads, and people in forums really cared about you. I remember one forum where I made friends who I now talk to on Facebook because we made friendships over the internet even though we didn't know them in person. It is now overrun with spam and advertisements, which the majority of people use to make money. You could find direct-to-point tutorials on YouTube before, but now they're making longer ones. I'm watching tutorials from 5 years ago that have better content than the newer ones.

It's not just Amazon ,it's Google,Microsoft,Apple etc ...

Linux i still respect them,you have the freedom to do what ever you want on Linux and the best thing is that is absolutely free,no strings attached.Sure it's not user friendly,but you can make it if you want to ..you just got to learn how to and work a bit.

People want easy lifes , ok i get that ... but don't let them take your FREEDOM ...once they take it bye bye.

The internet is a network where people connect with other people to share info ,thoughts,ideas,chat etc,That's why we pay our internet bill...if your a corporation and if you don't like that make your own internet and connect with other corporations.

We can't even watch something without some ads in it, if it is not commercial breaks, it is product placement, if it is not product placement it is banners everywhere, if not that then ads in between. Basically, it is just too much companies everywhere around the world. However, let's be honest for a second, how many times we have made a decision based on what we have heard online? It doesn't have to be even an ad, it could be a discussion under a tweet and that still puts us in a place to make a decision.

If companies are not online and constantly there, then they would not be making this much profit, if they were not making this much profit then they wouldn't give this much ads. I mean if you are ranked first in google when searched "pants" then you will earn millions upon millions of dollars, no doubt about that. If that works, then why stop doing it? So, companies took over internet because we actually wanted them to, we gave them positive reinforcement to keep going by paying them for their products.

Yeah, I've noticed that. It's being used for propaganda and other way to distract and destruct what's currently we're having. These media companies have migrated to the internet and they have no choice because they'll be left behind.

Well, we just got used to it and these corporations that have been using all their might to adopt the evolution like with the internet. I think there's no way to stop their reign and we just have to accept the fact that we should be choosy on what content we have to read, watch and search.

In the reality, there's no free lunch. In the internet, there's no free access. All of us have been cheated by the design of internet which interest full of our attention in 24 hour. We spent our whole life more than 50% with the internet. The corporation designed this innovation looks like really ease us but behind of this, they ask pay for our whole time and psycology. Propaganda is one of kind side effect which is supported by the corporation. We will blame each other just because one side that we looked, but the corporation hides the biggest secret just for their own profit.

I have been using the Internet before search engines existed and you needed to keep your own list of favorite sites and you shared interesting websites with other people and they gave you their lists as well, people have become too dependent on centralized institutions when with the Internet they can connect with anyone they like, they just have to make the effort to do so, but for the people of today that is asking too much as they want everything to be easy and as such they let those companies to take complete control over their digital lives.

I don't think that's a cheat. It's about the new way of gaining information and internet really is something that we need. Before it's just a want but now, it became a necessity. Not just only for businesses but also in our daily life. Well, it's a fact that mostly doesn't have free access but there are some places that do provide it for free and people are talking advantage it.

20 years ago I think, when it was like a new thing and majority were staying away on it as they don't know how to use it.

Besides the migration of large companies to the internet, people who have long been selling and looking for income on the internet have been crushed by greater influence. We know that any company must be able to keep up with the times and not be left behind in the financial sector on the internet and create a kind of network, a community whose role is to encourage the company to be better known. Until finally, what was neglected were local products.

The Internet will never go back to its good old days. But I can't agree with the idea that corporations took something over. Internet went mainstream and most people choose to spend their time on the big sites instead of looking for smaller sites. This doesn't mean that you are not allowed to visit any site you want or that you can't host any site you want. There are people who still use IRC channels or create personal websites or communicate through mailing lists.

this is true and even me i do also like the old way of chatting using a wap browser in my nokia phone compare  to what i have right now .
 not only in the internet but to also the other things in my life , i can feel that old is more golder .

why not ? i can still be able to use my bitcoin as a currency and i enjoy it latey because the fees are now getting low and confirmation times are now faster .
btc was fun before because getting it is easy and less costy but not really at the moment .

They actually did take over. Most people didn't really choose to spend their time on big sites - it's mostly that they somehow manipulated you to do so. Think of the ads nowadays - most of them are very, very relevant to what you're interested in. Why? They're tracking you and then they're showing you the ads you specifically have an interest in.

And then, think of Google's reCaptcha. They're using you to improve their own AI so that they could manipulate you even more in the future or use the tech to their own good. Almost any website I am trying to visit through Tor requires a completion of Google's reCaptcha which I don't choose but have to complete - if I want to browse the web with at least a little privacy, this is what I get. I literally have to work for their AI to browse it.

I guess you've used Google's search engine before and noticed how accurate it is.. people "choose" big sites (e.g. Google over DuckDuckGo) because they provide relevant results post-tracking. They collect the needed info about you and then they provide you the perfect results.. which now includes even shopping suggestions that coincidentally are products from your favorite shops. They took over by implementing anti-privacy scripts and features everywhere to make you addicted to their websites by manipulation.

And I can't blame them really. They may be assuming the majority of it, but it does provide the results that most people look for most of the time. The cost being reasonable is still up to question, but the results of what they've done can't exactly be denied. At the same time though, the same costs can't just be ignored just because of the benefits they give us. Really it's just a matter of what they're going to ask us to pay for us to receive the benefit. It may be unfair for some, but hey, nothing we can do about it, big wigs have the final say most of the time. A matter of perspective maybe?

Maybe the use of the word rigged sounds redundant, I admit it.  However, by saying access to the use of various platforms is free when they collect all of our data into a collection and trade it to bind our psychology as users.  This we should be able to prevent by limiting the use of the concept as necessary.

Well I do think that it's something that should be expected in the first place. The internet is for sure a very powerful tool which people with power are able to afford and to influence. The way YouTube changed themselves is the way most of the applications are trying to change themselves slowly.

- I do believe that bitcoins was not exactly meant to be a currency but rather to support the user, if the user is really into investing and rather than just using it as a currency, they might as well do it. I think it honestly depends on the user and not on anything else.

Things are paid for now a days.
YouTube is getting more and more like commerical applications, but you can't blame them since this is actually what's been happening to everyone else as well. Therefore they have to be in par with everything.

It's the sad truth that there's this mentality from everyone that they don't like to use local products. I think this is a problem not just to be shouldered alone by the government but as well as its citizens. There should be a call for support for the local products and those young entrepreneurs that are residing in your country. Especially in these trying times, a lot of people have been doing everything in the internet and selling things that they possess just to sustain their needs.

The large companies will just continue to supply, manufacturer and sell those products that they have with ease. While the other businesses and startups that just got in, they'll go through with a hard start and if they have the same product or goods as the large and established companies, they cannot bear the competition.

So they manipulated people by providing them what they want? That's called free market. Taking over means using force, but these companies didn't force smaller sites to shut down, they didn't threaten them, they just won the competition.

I blame people for giving away their privacy, not companies that simply try to act in the most optimal way for gaining profit while obeying the law.

Back then internet was more restricted. There was a more select (demanding) group of people who had access to internet only, so the services provided had to be proportional to the taste of that public who didn't accept anything like nowadays. I believe those were good times because the public was actually on the control of the digital platforms. Websites had to please their users to remain popular, while what we see now is the public being controlled by the digital platforms. What the conscious portion of the users want and ask for doesn't matter anymore, because there is a much larger portion that accepts anything imposed to them by the big techs.

And since numbers (quantity) is all that matters for these giants they will just ignore the opinions of those who were in this universe since the beginning and cared about the quality of the environment and of their experiences.

Every services or products which have the masses as public target will lose all its charm and grace. Think about it for a while and I'm sure you will be able to find out many different examples.

What can we do about an issue like this? Even if there is a  solution to it, it is going to be a very difficult thing to achieve. things keep on changing all the time and it’s difficult for us to change it. And yes what you have said is true, Bitcoin has really changed and the community has changed and it’s not as fun as it used to be before.

Everyone that’s coming now just wants to invest and make money and get rich immediately, nobody is talking about how they can use Bitcoin as a currency or trade for transactions daily, they just want to get rich and that’s it for them. There should be lots of companies that are making payments with Bitcoin and paying their employees with it. Things has got to change.

Agreed, people are willing to sacrifice their full privacy for a little bit of comfort, I remember when the first search engines came out and you needed to go through many pages to find what you were looking for since they were far from perfect, but at the same time this gave you the possibility of visiting many websites that you would have never found out otherwise, however now the results are more accurate which could seem like a good thing right? Well that is wrong because the way they give more accurate results is by people sacrificing their privacy and that is never a good thing.

I honestly agree, back before the price of the bitcoin started going into the ten thousands people view bitcoin as a currency and as a way to send and receive transactions without taking thing way to seriously without thinking about the future of the price, but now everyone and i mean everyone who is using bitcoin is using it to make profit and investing in it just because the price is highly volatile in hopes that they will become millionaires because of it, keeping the same idea in their head and forgetting the true purpose of it and how it is a change for the corrupt system that we live in.

Do NOT be surprised by all the changes they make in favor of advertising, it is day to day, when you watch TV there is also advertising, on the radio there is advertising and obviously on the internet it is more open to advertising, which It must be borne in mind that for the internet as in any field of entertainment or whatever has to do with knowledge and any subject, there will always be a business model that will be used by corporations and others.

The times are changing as the world does too, currently technology innovates, there are new projects, there are new visions, and everything has to do with corporations, from there a lot of money is handled, the sense of fun or enjoyment cannot be lose for that reason.

The free Internet ... before the 21st century, getting all kinds of software without a license was the trend and forums of this type were the novelty in communication.

bitcoin right now is no different in terms of how they have been distributed, most of BTC is in control by a few.

The participation is done, it only remains to fight for the satoshi and in the event of large investments opt for the BTC.

But given the configuration and eventual architecture of bitcoin, still it could be distributed among a few million people part of the participation in the bitcoin, that such participation generates wealth is another story, but people remain lethargic prefer to invest $ 700- $ 1000 in a cell phone.

Society does not know how to organize itself into a collective that generates power of social and economic thought, and boy, bitcoin is/was and perhaps is still a great "tool".

Yes, advertisements are everywhere in Internet today especially at YouTube. You can hardly find film on line without built-in X-bet ad.
Moreover, I’ve read news that corporations want to launch ads even at the night sky: https://www.albawaba.com/business/spacex-create-billboard-shows-ads-sky-1442260 https://futurism.com/startrocket-giant-ads-night-sky-cubesats . So probably soon we won’t see stars in the night sky any more, only ads. Corporations took over the internet, over our everyday life (all these ads on shops, supermarkets, billboards, cars, etc) and even over the sky.
Sometimes even in mined BTC blocks were found hidden massages: https://decrypt.co/55642/the-5-best-secret-messages-hidden-on-the-bitcoin-blockchain . Once they probably will find ads there.

This is a bit overblown out of proportion i would say. I am not sure how they are going to do that, even if they do it will be a small portion and for that advertisement to shine brighter how much energy is needed, i bet a lot of energy would required to shine something from outer space, so it is not going to be a viable advertisement area from a logical stand point.

This one, it is possible but who cares, no one is going to read those hidden messages and no one is going to spend money for those  ;D.

It's just that the Internet has broken into the daily life of every person from a little accessible and not understandable curiosity for everyone and has imperceptibly turned into the basis of the life of the absolute majority of people, entertainment and a place of work. It would be foolish to expect that this will escape the attention of business, and we ourselves know perfectly well that the most effective and most influential tool for doing business in modern conditions are corporations. Also, no business can do without advertising. We can only try to limit their influence so that their work is also for the benefit of the ordinary person and society, and not just for profit, but it will not be possible to simply do without them.

The corporations you're railing against built the internet into what it is today, and the reason they've been successful is because they're giving people something they want.  You want to change it?  Don't use any of the services you named.  That's literally the only thing you can do.  But your absence will go entirely unnoticed and it won't stop other people from using those services.  The internet isn't "supposed" to be like anything.  It just is what it is.

It's no surprise, to be honest. I mean the internet is for everyone, and the internet has made our lives easier and more connected. No wonder companies are taking advantage of it.

This, at the beginning the Internet was thought to be a fad, something that people would be interested for a time and then it would disappear, in fact if you take the time to look at articles from the early 90’s you will see that kind of attitude from people that thought themselves experts on the topic, and as such at that time the Internet was more free even if it took forever to download anything, but once most people began to use it then corporations found a new way to advertise themselves and that is what they have been doing ever since.

Not surprised , in the past only a few people could access the internet . so that the internet ecosystem remains peaceful and pleasant. now everyone understands and accesses the internet. Now the internet is almost more chaotic than the real world.

The internet is not chaotic but progressive. It has accomodated series of opportunities for the people for information has broken the large number of community. The internet has been very helpful to the world not only corporation but also government. The government that tries to fight the internet also benefit from it because of its large coverage.

The "democratization" of communication was supposed to be a great thing for humanity, but giving everyone a voice just conditioned everyone to think that their opinion was the most important and that if things weren't happening the way they wanted then the government or the system or the world was broken.  The internet created echo chambers that reinforced the notion that anyone who didn't agree with you was your enemy who had to be defeated.
 In reality, the internet ushered in this era of extremism and vitriol we see in politics now, and it's not fixable.  The internet and social media has ruined public discourse forever and turned everyone into intolerant trolls.

There is so much truth and what you have said, yes bad things were totally different than how it is now. Sometimes when I remember how I used to feel when I discovered Bitcoin in 2014 and how the community looked like then,  I kind of like always wish that those years will come back and things will return to being as it was then. This time around things have really changed and some of them are just so weird, the Internet has become something else.

Social media are now very annoying, just like you said Instagram,  Facebook, and even Twitter. Then Facebook used to be so fun and I can’t stay a day without going there, but now it's really annoying with the kind of posts and how people has really ruined it, plus adverts that are very annoying, now I hardly even go there any longer, I can even stay a whole month without even looking at it.

From my perspective, internet is like a way people get easier solution to problems, many companies used it for easier problem solver or for advertisement of product, so it's obvious today that internet is used only to make money but also security purposes and other contributions that elevate the development of mankind as well, so it's used for all ramifications of life.

I agree, before the Internet people were exposed to all kinds of points of view and while they could find some people with similar thoughts there was enough diversity to force people to interact and consider the ideas of others, but now the Internet has created echo chambers in which if someone says something that you do not like then you can block them and never hear of them ever again, this means that many people only interact with other people that think like them and reinforce their thoughts, so even if that was not the intention at all the Internet has created a world in which anyone that does not think and has the same values as you is the enemy.

That shows that in deed, the future is internet because almost everyone now live with it. The days were we used to be lonely and depressed without having a partner but have changed already, I know quite people who will stay indoor in their home without coming outside if they have access to free Internet connection and good electricity.

I can still close and opens my eyes during days when bitcoin was trading below. $4k dollars, that was a big opportunity back then bough who knows it Wil be like this.  :'(

No one would deny that. There used to be a time when Google, Twitter and Facebook didn't had the monopoly in the internet. But things started to change in a big way after Google acquired YouTube in 2006. They had tons of cash, and this helped them to go on a shopping spree and purchase whatever they want. And once they attained the monopoly, these corporations started getting involved in politics. The best example is Twitter flagging, and then banning Trump during his presidential campaign. Google has also behaved in a very biased manner recently. 

It is impossible to deny at this point that those companies are monopolies and we have many laws that can deal with them and even force the owners to split apart the company in many others that are smaller, and we need to wonder why this doesn't happen? And the answer to that is very simple the governments do not want to do it, they love those companies because they receive all of that data and they can spy on their citizens almost every single hour of every single day, so both parties get what they want out of that deal while the population is the one that suffers.

I think that makes sense, my friend, because the internet is getting more sophisticated and Bitcoin was never meant for smaller people either. Bitcoin is literally for everyone, so is the internet. The goal of the internet is that because the internet is a place for everyone there are really no boundaries here, the work of companies and advertisers everywhere is powerful and that is out of scope here. we also can not cast spells nor castrate because this is the right of everyone to use us including all companies, organizations or groups of gatherings.

Well it is what it is , that was the reality ...
those corporate bastards has very angelic vision at the first time they came in but then become greedy to own and acquire everything around the internet.. the goals is always to have a power to influence... and once they have got achieved what they want , nobody can touch them like what the world did to facebook and google in freely stealing our privacy...

not even law can fight against this giant corporate.

I wouldn't say anyone or any corporation "took over" the internet. I think the internet is just the tool of natural evolution of how we exchange information as a evolving species. So basically anyone and everyone "took over" the internet gradually over a period of time. Im sure at some point the internet will become redundant and nobody will even remember it anymore. But taking over? Not even China can take over their own internet. People will find ways to break free.

I understand the nostalgic opinions but it is difficult to turn back time. From what OP says it's like a snowball that grows. What we can do is occupy those spaces and create our communities.
On the other hand, bitcoin could be taken as a means of payment by more people with the developments proposed by the lightning network.

I do not know if it is already available to send tip on twitter through the lightning network under the developer Jack Mallers founder of Strike. Because that's good news for bitcoin and opportunities for more people to join us.

Although seeing it from the point of view of market speculation it is not bad for BTC, of course corporations take advantage of everything that has to do with human trafficking, in fact there is a lot of publicity at all times on social networks, and I prefer that whether it be from BTC than from anything else.

Although everything is headed towards investment and trading, in 2017 when it was on its way to $ 10k those who had more control of the market were the usual whales, currently there are many corporations that have bought BTC, and having more Holders , everyone will point in your favor and that influences the publicity. It should also be noted that due to the adoption of BTC in some countries such as "El Salvador", many countries are studying how to adopt it so that they can also make a profit, now BTC is being highly sought for its speculative market value.

I do believe the characterization that some companies have taken over the Internet is correct, before those giants came to the picture people used chat rooms to talk to each other and there were many back then, eventually social media appeared and people went from using hundreds of chat rooms to only using a few centralized services like Facebook, and the same is true for Google and other websites, so I do really think that the Internet is way less free than what it was decades ago.

Internet can only help for fast or rapid awareness of a something and from another perception, internet is like an information career or processor which enable thousands of people to get ride of it, everyone knows that's internet is like an engine block of technology from perspective. So emphasising on bitcoin is never meant to small people, i would say it's wrong idealogy from my views, bitcoin is everyone who can afford a specific denomination they need, because it's not stipulated anywhere that without this particular amount you can't purchase btc.

That’s normal. Anything good will always be scooped up. It also shows the value of bitcoin.

Big corporations are getting greedy to do whatever they think will benefit them and this is very unhealthy. Even with abundant finances some
giant corporations can break the law even if they commit violations, this sounds pathetic. But we as ordinary people can't do anything, our freedom
on the internet is getting less and less, because of the monopoly by giant companies. In the end, instead of worrying about it, I'd better focus on
using the internet for something positive, at least it can provide benefits for me.