By There’s a myriad & a galore of things happening on the Internet each time the hands of the clock tick. Adverts are literally becoming more than original content, there’s some much of a mess happening on social media, cyberbullying is the order of the day, some have committed suicide and because of this, people have stopped using certain apps, engagement has drastically declined, egos have clashed, meaningful discussions are no more and tempers are easily flaring.
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The internet that was built for — connecting, sharing and learning is not the one we have today, everyone is shouting and no one is listening on the interwebs.
Today social media is up in flames about a bizarre advert that aroused mixed feelings in either racism or sexuality and the company responsible is getting its own share of the roast, The other day the Internet is up in flames because Donald Trump just tweeted and all international and local media houses are busy with all sorts of angles and this goes on and on! The internet is such a mess.
The internet is a home for manipulative psychologists and we have let these app developers be at the forefront of these ‘atrocities’. They have succeeded in convincing us to keep glued to their apps, they’ve easily made them so addictive that we have welcomed them into our lives unconditionally. These addictive apps are now more like our heroine and we have been hoodwinked to believe that we can’t do without them.
However, we have to be reminded all the time that technology doesn’t care about us and the people using it to create amazing stuff simply care about increasing their earnings, users of their innovations and getting wealthy.
Surfing is no longer as exciting as it used to or ought to be. Adverts are now more than the content we would love to consume, websites are now populated with adverts and it’s hard to tell which is the right consumable content and which is a click-bait to a whole gallery of adverts. Money is at the helm of the internet today and when you are casually navigating the web, you will easily tell. Like as if that is not enough, the internet too is darned expensive.
The biggest players of the internet are not here to soothe you nor are they here to entirely make you happy, No! All the likes of Facebook, Apple, Amazon and more are simply here to make money and ensure they continue doing so. They are willing to go to the extreme of meddling with your private data for their gains and that is something you simply don’t have much power over.
While all this continues to happen, privacy on the internet continues to deteriorate and soon it will be hard to ever keep a secret away from the “ever woke’ interwebs. Apps are always asking to access your photos, microphone, books, location and just about anything they can mine data from. This is actually getting scarier than ever! These apps might be actually spying on you and that is a time bomb ticking but is a story for another day.
Countless times we have seen people come to the internet and seek validations, opinions or praise and applause and when they meet diverse opinions, they are really not happy about it, they are no about to take a negative comment and this erupts into an exchange of words that could go on back and forth.
There are moments when you have had to run to the internet to seek for solace only to be welcomed with a mean response or a ‘savage clapback’. A photo you humbly took and posted on the internet is now being used to depict something embarrassing and is now a meme. To be on the internet, you should not be faint-hearted nor should you be easily triggered for the internet doesn’t take such people into account.
The truth of the matter is that the Internet doesn’t really care about you, your feelings or even the values you stand for. But we should recollect ourselves and make it a safe place for everyone. The internet was made to be a home for everyone to freely connect, share and engage and that is what should be for. Although the nature of livelihood dictates that money has to be made at some point, this shouldn’t erode the values of the internet and making it a safe space for everyone and the future generation.
If we all upheld the values of the internet, we could improve each and everyone’s psychological wellbeing, ranging from anxiety to self-esteem.
This article first appeared on @enywaru’s Medium
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