Enthralling and depressing piece. I found this point particularly pithy: “Every time we reward the sensational over the substantive, the inflammatory over the informative, we are voting—with our attention and our wallets—for a darker future.”
This was visible in pop culture even before the internet, as everything has become infotainment. MTV, which used to unironically stand for “music television,” slowly evolved from a music video channel into a reality TV channel. CNN lost its gravitas. The History Channel and Learning Channel became nothing of either sort. Entertainment capitalism simply leads to brain rot.
Mr. Finnegan, Thank you so much! I have been waiting for an article like this. You are so right. You pull out the essential substantial arguments, but I believe there are other aspects to the internet and personal communication devices that are insidiously stealing our independence. I now wake up in the morning hating that I MUST respond to texts immediately, and emails within a day, or two at most. I hate that I don't really own the thousands of dollars' worth of music that I carefully added to my laptop via an external CD drive. Apple can easily without warning change its algorithms so that my own music disappears from my library. I hate that my photographs, too are now subject to the whims of software developers whose capricious "updates" have wrought havoc on my pictures, from turning them sideways, to duplicating them, to changing the colors. I hate that all my writing is now controlled by not just one, but two tech behemoths; In fact I concluded the other day that the family history will only survive if I print off hard copies.
More important, computers flatten and dull experience, depriving it of the texture we enjoy in an analog world: when reading a book, paying bills, watching movies, shopping for clothes, buying groceries, writing letters, and on and on, all require the same physical activity - looking at a screen and typing on a keyboard - we have lost a lot of the stimulus and variety of everyday life.
I'm 75 and I've been using computers for business, for art projects, for research, and yes, occasionally to buy clothes, since the desktop version was produced. It has to be nigh on 30 years. I was never starry-eyed about the digital life as I could see the problems coming - cyber crime for one - but I've come to a point where the bright lights, bells and whistles are merely irritating, and the uselessness of help bots infuriating. I am ready for a reset.
I hear you! When I watch anything that is set in pre-digital times I’m just steeping in the sheer wonder of being literally just one person in one place at a time, experiencing the sights and smells and textures and conversations of the moment. Like a reconstituting dream.
Appreciate this—and you’re right. The diagnosis came easy; the prescription is harder. In part, because the structure resists easy fixes. This wasn’t meant to be a manifesto so much as a signal flare: something’s wrong, and the collapse is designed. But I take your point seriously—and I’m working on the next piece now that tries to wrestle more directly with: So what now? If you're still here when it drops, I'd love your take.
The last time we had a revolutionary change in communications technology, with the development of the printing press in Europe, it was followed by censorship, witch hunting and 12 million deaths in the Wars of Religion.
In a more atomized world, social media is the echo chamber that keeps polarizing. Less a marketplace of ideas than an algorithmically curated diet of red meat for the faithful.
We need thoughtful commentary and rebuttal. We also need to regulate the algorithms so that people are at least presented with alternative points of view.
Mr. Finnegan, a most enlightening essay. Read it twice. The first step to providing a solution is to define a problem, which you have so eruditely done. Other readers comments say it all. You quite rightly laud Substack as a vehicle to be part of the "solution." However, like all other preceding platforms, how is the Substack voice, not gonna follow on along the lines of all those platforms you have mentioned in your article? As a counter weight to a "solution" or part of the "solution," there are those who just say "you can't change human nature." Corral it yes, tame it, maybe, but change it? We all know that Humankind are social animals. We are tribal, that's why we have survived as a species, surely? It is this instinct that is deep down in the areas of our lobster brain that has brought us this far as a dominant species. Quo vardis? You are right, the future is murky for sure. There are no quick fixes. Perhaps there has to be nuclear Armageddon? Perish the thought.
When you write part 2 - the solution, focus on the consumers, not the purveyors. Too few of us can determine who is trustworthy and intelligent. Teach people how to be skeptical and not be duped. Good luck with that.
Read twice. Sadly, quite true. We've allowed it to be done. But, that's capitalism. Everything has a monetary motivation and we get lost in its many entertainment arms. I have a question for you William: Since January 18th, I've been funding and constructing what I call "a third way" online internet "home" website for independent thinkers (like yourself and I hope a few million others). I would love to have your critical feedback and offer a remunerative participation if you decide that you like what you see and to join as an periodic contributor. The name of the site to be is EthicalGovtNow.org My email is petermorrell29@gmail.com. ET of site's launch date is June 15. Email me please and I'll get you immediate pre launch access. Cheers!
It all began with the wheel. People could expand war and go off and have sex in the back of a cart.
The internet was the mechanism to exploit our failed political structure. Democracy. Vores for paybacks, money food stamps, healthcare tax loopholes, subsidies etc, added to a Christmas tree so that no politician could be accused of voting against something that might diminish political power and lose votes in the next election. Politicians the people hired to restrain themselves have become the worst propagators of the very traits the article abhors. That will always be the end product of unrestrained democracy, as every thinker since Plato has written. The only solution is to repeal the 17th amendment and replace it with the election of Senators by the state legislators but with a change to the original Constitution, the person elected must be a then duly elected member of that legislature. The passions of the democratic mob can have some restraint on their self-serving individualistic desires, while preserving the basis of democracy. Without that, tear it down and start again is the historic outcome that is inevitable.
Enthralling and depressing piece. I found this point particularly pithy: “Every time we reward the sensational over the substantive, the inflammatory over the informative, we are voting—with our attention and our wallets—for a darker future.”
This was visible in pop culture even before the internet, as everything has become infotainment. MTV, which used to unironically stand for “music television,” slowly evolved from a music video channel into a reality TV channel. CNN lost its gravitas. The History Channel and Learning Channel became nothing of either sort. Entertainment capitalism simply leads to brain rot.
Mr. Finnegan, Thank you so much! I have been waiting for an article like this. You are so right. You pull out the essential substantial arguments, but I believe there are other aspects to the internet and personal communication devices that are insidiously stealing our independence. I now wake up in the morning hating that I MUST respond to texts immediately, and emails within a day, or two at most. I hate that I don't really own the thousands of dollars' worth of music that I carefully added to my laptop via an external CD drive. Apple can easily without warning change its algorithms so that my own music disappears from my library. I hate that my photographs, too are now subject to the whims of software developers whose capricious "updates" have wrought havoc on my pictures, from turning them sideways, to duplicating them, to changing the colors. I hate that all my writing is now controlled by not just one, but two tech behemoths; In fact I concluded the other day that the family history will only survive if I print off hard copies.
More important, computers flatten and dull experience, depriving it of the texture we enjoy in an analog world: when reading a book, paying bills, watching movies, shopping for clothes, buying groceries, writing letters, and on and on, all require the same physical activity - looking at a screen and typing on a keyboard - we have lost a lot of the stimulus and variety of everyday life.
I'm 75 and I've been using computers for business, for art projects, for research, and yes, occasionally to buy clothes, since the desktop version was produced. It has to be nigh on 30 years. I was never starry-eyed about the digital life as I could see the problems coming - cyber crime for one - but I've come to a point where the bright lights, bells and whistles are merely irritating, and the uselessness of help bots infuriating. I am ready for a reset.
I hear you! When I watch anything that is set in pre-digital times I’m just steeping in the sheer wonder of being literally just one person in one place at a time, experiencing the sights and smells and textures and conversations of the moment. Like a reconstituting dream.
Beautifully written as a diagnostic piece. But the prescriptive piece is merely an ephemeral coda.
Appreciate this—and you’re right. The diagnosis came easy; the prescription is harder. In part, because the structure resists easy fixes. This wasn’t meant to be a manifesto so much as a signal flare: something’s wrong, and the collapse is designed. But I take your point seriously—and I’m working on the next piece now that tries to wrestle more directly with: So what now? If you're still here when it drops, I'd love your take.
The last time we had a revolutionary change in communications technology, with the development of the printing press in Europe, it was followed by censorship, witch hunting and 12 million deaths in the Wars of Religion.
In a more atomized world, social media is the echo chamber that keeps polarizing. Less a marketplace of ideas than an algorithmically curated diet of red meat for the faithful.
We need thoughtful commentary and rebuttal. We also need to regulate the algorithms so that people are at least presented with alternative points of view.
You’re so right! Enshittification is destroying society! I’m outraged!
Now write me another article just like this one, quick!
With 20% more AI-enabled mythmaking images, I presume?
Mr. Finnegan, a most enlightening essay. Read it twice. The first step to providing a solution is to define a problem, which you have so eruditely done. Other readers comments say it all. You quite rightly laud Substack as a vehicle to be part of the "solution." However, like all other preceding platforms, how is the Substack voice, not gonna follow on along the lines of all those platforms you have mentioned in your article? As a counter weight to a "solution" or part of the "solution," there are those who just say "you can't change human nature." Corral it yes, tame it, maybe, but change it? We all know that Humankind are social animals. We are tribal, that's why we have survived as a species, surely? It is this instinct that is deep down in the areas of our lobster brain that has brought us this far as a dominant species. Quo vardis? You are right, the future is murky for sure. There are no quick fixes. Perhaps there has to be nuclear Armageddon? Perish the thought.
When you write part 2 - the solution, focus on the consumers, not the purveyors. Too few of us can determine who is trustworthy and intelligent. Teach people how to be skeptical and not be duped. Good luck with that.
Read twice. Sadly, quite true. We've allowed it to be done. But, that's capitalism. Everything has a monetary motivation and we get lost in its many entertainment arms. I have a question for you William: Since January 18th, I've been funding and constructing what I call "a third way" online internet "home" website for independent thinkers (like yourself and I hope a few million others). I would love to have your critical feedback and offer a remunerative participation if you decide that you like what you see and to join as an periodic contributor. The name of the site to be is EthicalGovtNow.org My email is petermorrell29@gmail.com. ET of site's launch date is June 15. Email me please and I'll get you immediate pre launch access. Cheers!
It all began with the wheel. People could expand war and go off and have sex in the back of a cart.
The internet was the mechanism to exploit our failed political structure. Democracy. Vores for paybacks, money food stamps, healthcare tax loopholes, subsidies etc, added to a Christmas tree so that no politician could be accused of voting against something that might diminish political power and lose votes in the next election. Politicians the people hired to restrain themselves have become the worst propagators of the very traits the article abhors. That will always be the end product of unrestrained democracy, as every thinker since Plato has written. The only solution is to repeal the 17th amendment and replace it with the election of Senators by the state legislators but with a change to the original Constitution, the person elected must be a then duly elected member of that legislature. The passions of the democratic mob can have some restraint on their self-serving individualistic desires, while preserving the basis of democracy. Without that, tear it down and start again is the historic outcome that is inevitable.