Article: Anna Olivia Böke | What was doomed first, the human or the internet? [Image: Anna Olivia Böke]
Can you remember what you watched on your phone this morning? It’s okay, neither do I. The internet is doomed and so are we. This is a rant about algorithms that destine our lives online and how their invisible tentacles reach far into our offline lives… if such a thing still exists.
Despite the title this is not supposed to be one of those doomster articles soothsaying the end of the world, though it is hard not to stumble down that lane. This is much rather an attempt at self awareness. Because when looking at a long history of humanity, which the internet has only been part of for a split second, the ‘chicken or the egg causality dilemma’ is quickly answered: The human was doomed first. I remember the days when I was around twelve years old and I found out about vlogging. It was exciting. It was new. The internet was by the people for the people, unlike TV shows with big productions. Now advertisers and algorithms are taking the place of TV production companies.
Though I love my carefully trained cats and dogs algorithm, I see the flooding of my feed with short, quantity over quality content as a threat. Algorithms ask for continuity, quick follow ups and watch time, so of course videos get shorter and the actual content itself more hollow. As someone who moves within the creative fields and has an ambition to do this full time, there is no way around social media. Staying offline is a luxury in 2024. I understand why this is happening for many and why we are all part of it. We abide by those algorithmic rules to stay relevant, to be seen, to find an audience, but the crucial question we need to ask ourselves is: If we all post the last thing from our camera roll with a quote, do we still enjoy our feeds? I highly doubt that.
Creativity isn’t lucrative anymore
It’s everything, everywhere, all at once. The internet is in its abundance era. It might seem like an advantage at first. There is so much to choose from, right? But this is also the downside. There is so much to choose from, you have to find something interesting first. Social media has become like Netflix. There is so much to watch, but 99 percent of it is garbage and you can’t decide what to stick with.
You also don’t get to see the real abundance of content, because the algorithm thinks it knows you. It shows you what it thinks you want to see. The way it works nowadays kills diversity. A picture that shows a face, preferably looking into the camera and smiling, gets more reach, than an artistic side profile with a blurry filter. This determines the choices artists and brands (including myself) make when posting. The algorithm rewards according to patterns. You either play along or you get overlooked. If you were doing something interesting and different back in the day, you would likely succeed. Now if you’re doing something different the algorithm just won’t pick it up. This assimilation of content results in a cycle.
Even the conditions for the Youtuber or influencer as a job have changed. You don’t have to follow people anymore to see their content. If you like a person’s video on TikTok, all you need to do is watch it to keep seeing their content. Follower counts lose validity. Simultaneously content creators lose incentive to experiment. Creativity doesn’t pay the rent anymore, it’s ads and views. If you want to increase your reach or even just reach all of your followers, you have to pay for it. It all becomes a big advert anyways.
The inflation of the internet
Why is that? Are we really using the internet more than we were ten years ago? Is that even possible? According to a statistic by Statista the time spent daily on social networks by internet users worldwide has almost doubled in the time span from 2012 to 2023. In a world where everything gets more expensive, the price for the internet doesn’t. In fact data plans become cheaper. One of the reasons for an increase in internet usage could be that it is the only affordable alternative to entertainment activities like the cinema, concerts and the theatre and it seems to offer so much. It is free and it is comfortable. At least ever since the pandemic, leaving the house unnecessarily has become something to avoid for a lot of people. As long as the internet is free, people will keep using it and it will stay overcrowded.
Also people don’t want to feel left out. Trends change weekly and it is hard to keep up, so we stay in the hamster wheel in order to not fall behind. As a creative brand on social media it often feels that way. It is either accepting the bad conditions and hopping on trends or giving up. The American dream has its second moment in the social media age, where people can seemingly ‘make it’, starting with nothing. But the brief moment of fairytale Youtube discovery stardom stories is long gone, cluttered by the echoes of all our screams. I think we only have so long until it all becomes unwatchable, unmanageable and redundant. We are circling the drain and nobody knows what’s at the end of it.