RBuzzMar 13
JA Westenberg
All we did was give stupid people faster access to other stupid people and now we act surprised when the stupidity compounds
Mar 13 at 10:16amTypefully
Show threadLoohoosaherMar 13
@Daojoan internet access should start with 1 year of reading Wikipedia followed by 1 year of Talk pages followed by 1 year of contributions. Then another year of reading, then Talk, then contributions (it just keeps repeating—no one leaves Wikipedia).
Show threadMegatronicThronBanksMar 13
@Daojoan Bang on
Show threadmossmanMar 13

@Daojoan and yet... back in 1990 I was thinking that everyone would connect and be exposed to all the *good* info/culture/ideas.

Why did all the crap get boosted when all the good was there for the taking?

It can't be coincidence that I can pinpoint the moment I thought things were suddenly heading suckward - it was when everyone wanted to join Facebook, closely followed by Google buying up a bunch of services and merging all my accounts on them.

I was heavily into internet-enabled phones before "smartphones" became a thing, and again saw my hopes dashed when everyone jumped onto WhatsApp.

Show threadSveinn í FelliMar 13

@mossman @Daojoan "Peak internet" was when only informed/clever people managed to make web-pages and the label "content creator" was yet to be invented as a job title (blame the MBAs).

At that time I recall the stream of late Friday [dirty]-joke faxes, spending rolls of expensive thermal paper, from the people who hadn't figured out the Internet...

Show threadCleoMar 13
@Daojoan they can have the stupid. I just want their backend and protocols.
Show threadDreyMar 13
@Gh0stlyM0use @Daojoan - And give them the biggest boot in the rear as they get kicked out of the building
Show threadShantaraMar 13
@Daojoan There was a very appropriate quote in the original Terminator novelization (IIRC) that went along the lines of “Skynet is dumb, but it’s dumb very very fast”
Show threadHacker Mar 13
@Daojoan 
Show threadlucaMar 13
@Daojoan When you lay a cable you can't control the level of stupidity that drives the electrons up and down of it.
Show threadFace ThumbMar 13
@Daojoan stupidity²
Show threadInnocuous In Innisfil Has MovedMar 13

@Daojoan

I think I've been sub-tooted...

Show threadJoe BrockmeierMar 13

@Daojoan Indeed. I've been saying something like that for years. When I was young, or at least pre-30s, I marveled at the internet and the possibilities of connecting people for learning or just discussing fun and/or weird shit. Every small-town kid into some weird indie band would be able to connect with other kids into the same stuff and feel less alone.

Unfortunately... it's also worked out the other way too.

When I was in college, before the internet really caught on, I worked at a television station news department in a small Missouri town. We had a local crank that would occasionally send letters that were really, really unhinged. He was mostly harmless (TM) and solitary. I'm sure that his neighbors and other people he encountered were put off by him if he talked to them for any time at all -- so the "blast radius" of his crankery was limited to local media that got the occasional unhinged letter.

The internet has helped form support groups for all the local unhinged cranks. They get validation and encouragement from other cranks. They conspire on how to torment the people I hoped the internet could bring together for support.

Show threadDavid RenaudMar 13
I used to think Idiocracy was satire
Show threadnoplasticshowerMar 13
@Daojoan and we will accelerate the problem with AI https://berryvilleiml.com/2026/03/12/on-beigification/
On “Beigification” | BIML

Lets face it, beige has a bad name. Maybe it was the omnipresent Docker khakis of middle management 20 years ago, or may

Berryville Institute of Machine Learning
Show threadMelloMar 13
@Daojoan reminds me of Chuck Nice stand up comedy
Show threadBrosylMar 13
@Daojoan a singularity, but for dinguses. A dingularity, if you will.
Show threadRyek DarkenerMar 13

@Daojoan

What I find troubling is that most people aren't surprised by this. Instead, they accept it.

Show threadderptronMar 13
@Daojoan Thing is, we also gave intelligent people easier and faster access to other intelligent people and the intelligence did NOT compound; we all got stupider.
Show threadFaraiweMar 13
@Daojoan you ain't joking.
Show threadFietser SteveMar 13
@Daojoan I see it as, we gave scammers access to stupid people.
Show threadgrrl_aexMar 13

@Daojoan

oh! This must be a thread about the internet!

Show threadDonCCMar 13
@Daojoan
they far outnumber us... just go to a big box store to see the evidence... i try to avoid them much as i can, and more and more thoroughly as time goes by... but today i was there... it was not encouraging.
Show threadchris actualMar 13
@Daojoan We should have never shared the internet with hayseeds
Show threadErik JohnsonMar 15
@Daojoan And, we gave smart people access to stupid people but rephrased the stupid people's output to make it seem smart and applicable, and branded it "artificial intelligence"