Could the Internet Become Useless?
While estimates vary, it is theorized that somewhere around ~45% of internet traffic is largely just junk. Spam, scams and just meaningless bot traffic. Now, researchers are seeing the rise of Generative AI content, known as slop. Some have suggested the Internet might become largely useless. Could it?
Yes. And no. But it could become very different from what it is today. But that always happens with technologies. When penny dreadfuls came out in the mid 19th century, along with other cheap novellas, many a pundit suggested it was the end of literature. It was not.
The internet will likely become much better, more useful, more valuable across all aspects of society. It’s the getting there that’s a bit wonky.
When the telegraph burst it’s way into the world, some believed we would end up talking in staccato sentences and poetry was doomed. We have a long history of overestimating the impact of a technology in the early days, known as Amara’s Law. But the internet, at a global scale, is a few decades old. Why the angst of a useless internet?
It’s worth considering as the internet has become deeply enmeshed in the very fabric of our global sociocultural systems. The internet impacts all aspects of culture; the aesthetics (music, art, literature, fashion), economic and political systems, militaries and social…
