The Internet’s Desperation In 2021
A year and a half after lockdown hysteria spread across the world, more and more people try to squeeze what they can out of an ever flatter Internet. As broadcast television’s handful of channels grew into Cable TV’s hundreds to Youtube’s every growing offerings.
Celebrity and fame are increasingly ephemeral, is Jimmy Fallon bigger than Cody Ko for being on NBC? Who takes a greater take for their being on camera? Who enjoys greater control? How do either of them compare to Ron Unz and his marginal collection of dissidents, and is there any meaningful way to compare them? For all the talk of engagement, and subscriber/follower “quality” how different is an account connected to an inactive person versus an abandoned bot farm?
Advances in automation and every increasing vanity metrics push people towards one of two strategies:
- Keep up on edge of platform promotion rules constantly skirting doom and elimination.
- Resign oneself to pursuing only the finest Organic growth studiously adhereing to best practice and maintaining maximum distance from the edge.
How distinguishable is the ideal earnest person from the perfect blackhat sockpuppet bot? Does it matter?
Today’s Paradoxes Online
The online world today is full of paradoxes where beneath surface appearances reinforced by the old truths, a new reality has exploded from the ever increasing complexity of the world.
Youtube can pay creators ~10x the ad revuenue per 1000 views brought to the platform than Pornhub does despite Youtube’s prudery and Pornhub’s rejection of the possibility of shame.
“Business Development” and “Financial Advice” influencers build audiences based around their success in developing audiences eager to hear recreate the “success” like an ourboros of bullshit.
Leaderboards on livestreaming sites balance the tension between uncharismatic man-children and trust fund kids paying to chase trending and a most fleeting feeling of being famous against the attractive entertainers swapping internet points with them who themselves embrace substantial handicaps for accepting these trades.
Economic hypotheses built around ideal “rational actors” can readily be discounted anytime users are involved. Maximum irrationallity can almost safely be assumed when transitioning from ideal economic theory to behavioral economic observations.
Tools to create ever higher definition content are ever more affordable and accessible and yet quality of content remains locked into a race to the minimum effort bottom.
What remains? It sure doesn’t seem to involve any degree of reason.
