I was an adult when the Internet started happening. I first used it in 1996.  I was amazed by it, and I thought here was the next step in human intelligence.  Within a couple of months, I had built my first website.  I thought people I know, maybe even people I don't know, could read my thoughts and we could start on a process of mutual intellectual upliftment.  This, I assumed, would go on all over the world, and we would build a smarter, better society.

However, as a sometimes cynical, political man, I know that another direction might happen.  The mantra of the early internet, when you couldn't do much on a website beyond images, text and some colour and placement, was that no matter your resources, whether you were a huge corporation or an individual, you could still build the same website.  As someone who tries to include history in any discussion of ideas, this technical equality seemed like a temporary stage of development.  I assumed, as had happened with movies, music, newspapers and other media, that monied interests would eventually produce content of a much greater quality and consistency than any individual could.  We knew that networks and computers would get faster, so I figured that the technical limitations of the early, simple Internet would not last.

Once the Internet enabled much richer experiences, I couldn't see how the lone coder working away in their basement was going to compete with the resources and marketing of multi-national corporations.  Even just keeping a website updated is much easier if you can pay a team of 20 people to do it, rather than have some individual keeping it updated in their spare time (ie E.A.R.T.H.). The old age of Internet equality is past, we are now passive consumers of yet another media technology.

Cory Doctorow has also been watching this process play out, but with a much more central and engaged position in the process. If you are concerned that the Internet isn't living up to its promise, you have to listen to Doctorow talk about Enshittification. The problem is of course, with the Enshittification of our shared media space, has come the Enshittification of our dialogue on ideas.  We must reclaim the Internet for good, and listening to Doctorow will help you diagnose the problem, which is essential in dealing with it. 

The main thing I would ask people to do, is not to accept mediocrity from your media, the moments of your life are worth more than that.