I say the day Mozilla bends the knee to advertisers and do what Chrome did by phasing out ad-blockers with Firefox. That'll be the day when I look around my apartment and realize "man, I need to start getting into some hobbies now."
I think the moment it becomes impossible to be annonymous on the internet.
I wouldn't want all of my internet traffic to be directly associated with my IRL identity. For me the internet has always been a way to explore oneself without having to worry about your school or job learning what you do in your free time.
I have been using the internet less and less because of this, but there are still cool places left, like the Fediverse.
I don't think I'll ever be done with the internet. But it's becoming clear to me that the kind of internet experience that I want (no ads, free and open source software, minimal mega-corpo investment in said software) will necessarily require more from me (more technical understanding, more configuring, &c).
Realistically i dont think the internet is going anywhere. But in the future i may spend less time on it.
However some freinds have been building a meshnet (not meshtastic) thats just a bunch of house nodes. Its been fun and theres already tangable benifits:
No wierd pings from 3rd parties
We host whatever we want
We pay next to nothing
No survalance
Early internet vibes
No copyright
Its pretty much the old internet but with housevto house. Im loving it.
Depends on what in using it for. There is no way to fully avoid the Internet anymore. You can't interact with businesses or government without it. So, for that, we're stuck with it.
I work in IT so I'll be stuck with it there. I already have no expectation of privacy at work, though.
For entertainment and engaging with communities like Lemmy, I think losing anonymity through mandatory online id would be the nail in the coffin.
I already moderate myself on social media, but I have an outlet in these communities. I would simply stop using them if I lost that.
I would guess underground networks would rise up to replace them, but I would not want to put myself at risk. I don't trust VPNs enough for that.
At some point, the internet will take a back seat in most people's lives. The younger generations are already disconnecting from many of the once very popular platforms. They really don't like where this AI agenda is headed. Just like booze is now more and more unpopular with them, so will all things tech take a very serious and irrevocable dive.
The younger generations are already disconnecting from many of the once very popular platforms
Source? The kids are still nuts about TikTok. If they're leaving popular platforms, are they leaving them to read books and join bands, or to join another platform?
Source : Pay very close attention to the younger generations. Listen to what they have to say, and observe what they're doing.
Times are a changin', and tech is dying out . . . 😊✌😎
I quit Reddit because cause of the increasingly draconian censorship by mods, and the growing preponderance of AI accounts and AI shills. I looked recently and it’s gotten even worse. The few mods that are resisting the AI account surge are fighting a losing battle, and this will be imo the final nail in Reddit’s coffin.
If that should happen here, I think that would spell the end of any social media presence I have anywhere. And the day that the internet becomes mostly bots, few humans, and it’s hard to distinguish between the two, I’d be done.
If it makes you feel better, bots will be much less of a problem when they have to start paying their own way.
The second thing I'm thinking is that smaller communities will always be both less attractive to bots and harder for bots to infilitrate, so you'll likely be able to find a group of real people to talk to.
To be honest I think I’m nearly already there in terms of using any service that requires interaction with other meat bags. I find having personal opinions that differ (even slightly) from the echo chambers (even when stated as being just an opinion) makes it a constant battle to stay civil, and I’m not sure it will ever get better. Add in all the spam, constant battle against advertising, bot accounts etc and I really can’t be bothered as I don’t really feel like I’m missing out on much.
And the same goes for the offline world too. People need to unplug more.
I'm not sure. It might take a lot. Even if they introduce passport verification for internet access and for every website you access, I think people will find a way around it and for example just move to an anonymous network like something on this list
I’m not sure you can. Most forms are emailed or filled out directly on a site. No job application is submitted on paper, security would likely escort you out of most businesses if you tried to deliver a resume in person.
Filling out benefits “paper”work for a job, also purely digital.
What’s your plan for streaming? A smart tv? That’s just as bad as any browser without ublock.
probably when I have to show ID. at that point, I'm just going to read books and work on hobbies. I mostly use the internet at work anyway. when I'm at home, I'm usually working on something else.
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