Have you notice how corporations took over the internet ?

[smartcontracts100]

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...

[Kong Hey Pakboy]

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.

[jackg]

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.

[mk4]

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.

but you can't use it for the reason it was created... to be a currency...

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

[The Sceptical Chymist]

remember that Internet is for everyone to use so of course companies are going to use it so they can make more money

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.

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).

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:

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

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.

[smartcontracts100]

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.

but you can't use it for the reason it was created... to be a currency...

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

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.

[agg2702]

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.

[smartcontracts100]

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

[ninkdwi]

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.

[paxmao]

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


......"

[Jawhead999]

I understand that miners have to get paid ...but to much ...so software was designed incorrect in my opinion or intentional they did it.

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.

[mk4]

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.

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.

[Ucy]

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.

[Kakmakr]

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)    

[Kittygalore]

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.

[davis196]

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".

[HeRetiK]

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.

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.

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...

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.

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

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.

The shift has definitely happened, from where the Internet was used as an educational and productive platform ....

Wait, are we talking about the same internet?

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.

[CaptainCrapper]

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...

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.

[Lucius]

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

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.

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...

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?

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

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.

[HeRetiK]

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

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.

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.