Who remembers when the internet was free?
It might be argued that the internet is ruining everything; accelerating civilization’s rush to the abyss of extinction. It, and cell phones. Never has so much ignorance spread so far so fast.
It didn’t need to happen this way. The internet was a scholarly not for profit project in the beginning. Just ask Wikipedia, which is still fighting for that cause: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercialization_of_the_Internet
I remember clearly the day it was announced on the radio that the Internet consortium had decided to permit advertising. Out loud I cried, “Oh no!”
This article about ad blocking is about as naïvely charming as those early twinking banner ads:
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/04/the-first-ever-banner-ad-on-the-web/523728/
Today’s internet is a pain to surf. Social media, in their gambit to become the primary interface for users, so manipulative that one wants to hide.
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