Escaping the internet

begging for a mass migration offline

a few newcomers recently, welcome and thank you for reading me <3

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I have a theory, I don’t have much expertise but, from my observatory, a little tower on top of a blossoming tree, I see movement up close and far away. It looks like a shift, society - or at least a fringe of it - is changing direction, a migration offline and into the real world.

A boiling desire for a better world is rising against the dark corners of the internet, which have multiplied in the last few years and are no longer staying in the shadows. Invading the mainstream with their hatred and despair. My theory is that society is at a crossing between a decaying ultra-online world and the desire to leave it behind and live offline.

It could be my luddite tendencies or the algorithms playing me nonetheless, something is happening.

Being online is no longer fun. A plethora of articles attest to it and I am a witness. The pocket of good websites is shrinking, social media are fucking up with our brains rendering us addicted to screen dopamine, trolls and bots spit venomous comments by the litre, it all feels very doom and gloom. Lately, I have kept my phone away from me, on do not disturb for hours. I have reduced the noise of instagram, deleted facebook and twitter last year, I’m keeping pinterest my last bubble of fun. Most of the time I read.

Then there’s the increasing computerisation of life where screens are needed to navigate day-to-day activities. Not everything needs to be an app or an interaction with chatbots. Combined with the fast rise of artificial intelligence, which flabbergasted me in ways I cannot explain.

Seemingly unthreatening filters and fun art pieces (I don’t want art created by a computer system, I want to be the artist and AI can fill in my excel tables), and believable pictures and videos and articles, a war of misinformation. Why AI is seen as the solution to every problem is a mystery. I’m all for robots and AI doing our job, but if it does not mean we have more time and the resources to enjoy a promised freedom, what’s the point? Unless there are strong social policies in place (like I don’t know, reduced working hours, universal basic income, affordable life and healthcare and better infrastructure and and and), it does not make sense to advance technologies to help/replace a human.

Another concern is the impact on relationships. As emphasized in a Rolling Stone article on AI in porn, deepfakes are used to cater to every fantasy or plotted revenge, while harming women in brand new disgusting ways. I am lowkey terrified. Pretty much anyone can use an AI. Whether to modify their image beyond recognition (living online as a different person), create a perfect partner (online with an unreal person), using chat gpt to get a degree (faking intelligence, one that stays online). Maybe we are becoming robots and I would rather not.

Sorry, I went on a rant.

A fundamental issue with our overly online persona is the false sense of connection it provides while hiding genuine loneliness. The surge of conversation about third place¹ shows a need to connect in the flesh, but with every meeting place becoming so expensive, what are we left with? Spending 26£ on a couple of coffees and two sandwiches seems a bit over-the-top in this economy, it is not normal that I feel privileged to be able to afford two fucking coffees and some bread.

The pandemic made it easier to live our lives online, to meet friends on a screen and the economy makes it impossible to escape. Slowly we are waking up from this dystopian dream, thirsty for more because surely that’s not all life is about. Connecting to the tweet above, a lifestyle with no phones, walkable communities and the ability to eat out for every meal is almost utopic. I can relate and I hope we’re heading that way.

/extra notes/

• there is a lack of media literacy, everyone is swallowing content like ice cream during a heatwave, attention span shortening so much that we cannot sustain it for more than 60 seconds short bites of nothingness

• misinformation and bland lies are serving as a compass for a large section of society

• we knew about it. if it’s free you’re the product, but recently the overdose of ads and the push to buy on the fyp is sickening

• i don’t want to be an online brand, reduced to a single aspect of personality by social media, but that’s what we are taught to be with the professionalization of the online presence

Sources and resources:

• AOC’s personal experience with deepfake AI porn inspired her to act by Lorena O’Neil in Rolling Stone (08 April 2024)

• AI is coming for our jobs! Could universal basic income be the solution? by Philippa Kelly in the Guardian (16 November 2023)

• Anti-loneliness club offers friendship for 200$ a month - and thousands have signed up by Matthew Cantor in the Guardian (21 November 2023)

• It’s obviously the phones by

  Magdalene J. Taylor
  (05 March 2024)

• The end of the extremely online era by

  Thomas J Bevan
  (23 October 2023)

• We can’t compete with AI girlfriends by

  Freya India
  (14 September 2023), and also this article that went kind of viral which totally supports my theory

• Algorithms hijacked my generation. I fear for Gen Alpha. cross-post from Freya India and

  After Babel
  (10 November 2023)

1. A third place is defined as a readily accessible location facilitating social interactions outside of work or home.

post scriptum: une traduction française devrait suivre prochainement mais le brouillon n’était pas dingue