One of my favorite hypothetical questions is "Would you take a deal where you could 10X your salary, but you'd have to live the rest of your days starting in 1979."<p>Imagine all the same tech is available at the same periods in time, but produced by different companies so you can't do the "Back to the Future Sports Almanac" thing.<p>Imagine you're 40 today. Would you rather have 10X as much money, but know you won't get Aol until your 55? No smartphones until you qualify for Social Security? Maybe 10X is worth it, but 5X? 2X? It helps put the value we get from the web in perspective.<p>Just once, I'd love to read a story about tech in a major pub from the perspective of someone 35-55-ish who remembers the pre-internet world — and can't stop raving about how much better everything is now.<p>I get that it might not be a majority position, but it's not insignificant, but it's almost entirely invisible in the NYT's tech coverage.<p>Moreover, I find it crazy how every misstep of American tech companies portends the end of democracy, but they have the gall to write: "In China, a whole new internet is flowering."
It's exactly as we hoped, wtf. Not the Internet's fault most people are dumb as a brick.<p>It's still possible for anyone to run their own stuff. And it's still a massive repository of all human knowledge, if you take into account all sources, legal or illegal.<p>What do we do from here? Stop being dumb and trying to change into subscription TV, for starters.<p>Fringe believers need actual education, not more control over the sources of their misinformation.
10 or 15 years ago, you'd click on a political link on Slashdot, early reddit/digg or whatever and the top comment would usually be pulling apart all the oversights and bullshit in excruciating detail.<p>It was good, the internet was a 'cold medium' in Marshal McLuhan terms. If the internet of that time replaced the 'hot medium' of television, things could only get better I thought.<p>I was a fool! I never conceived that outrageous bullshit like antivax or God Emporer memes could get so much traction.
I think I’ve acquired “New York Times fatigue”. When reading a headline, I can always tell if it’s from NYT before checking the source.<p>The headlines are usually clickbait and the subjects play with your fears and concerns. It’s really tiring.