Yesterday, I stumbled upon an obscure video that resonated deeply with thoughts I’ve been having for a while. One idea in particular stood out:

“Creators create videos for the algorithm, not for the users”.

I had never thought about it that way before.

The video in question State of The Dead Internet explores the current state of the Internet and how it has changed. Some key takeaways:

• The Internet feels increasingly empty and artificial.
• Content is shallow, corporate, and often devoid of real passion.
• Many things used to be created for love of the craft, not just for money.
• Bots are everywhere, shaping discourse in unseen ways.
• Social media has become a tool for political manipulation rather than real discussion.
• Instead of dialogue, platforms encourage echo chambers where people just shout their beliefs.
• Billionaires shape the digital landscape, often with hidden agendas.
• The Internet is used for the exploitation of human attention and psychology.
• The sheer volume of conflicting information leads to demoralization, making it difficult to discern truth.

Watching this made me realize that the creator and I must have read or listened to many of the same things. These ideas aren’t appearing in a vacuum—there’s a growing awareness that something about the Internet has fundamentally changed.

Works that made me more aware about society

• Noam Chomsky - Manufacturing Consent. Looking at media is never the same again
• Unabomber - Manifesto (via Luke Smith’s channel), about oversocialization
• Luke Smith’s channel
• Yuri Bezmienov lectures / interviews
• Jordan B. Peterson early lectures, work, interviews
• Voltaire - “tend your own garden”

I asked AI to suggest something for me to read or listen. It wrote:

• Edward Bernays - Propaganda → Bernays, the father of public relations, explains how mass opinion is shaped.
• Christopher Lasch - The Culture of Narcissism → A critique of modern culture’s obsession with self-image and external validation.
• Theodore Dalrymple - Life at the Bottom → Essays on the consequences of cultural decay and victim mentality. Julius Evola - Revolt Against the Modern World → A highly controversial but interesting critique of modernity from a metaphysical angle.
• James Burnham - The Managerial Revolution → Explores how power is shifting from traditional rulers to bureaucratic elites.
• Michel Foucault - Discipline and Punish → How systems of power control individuals.
• Jacques Ellul - The Technological Society → How technology dictates society, rather than the other way around.

At the beginning The Internet was developed often by people. There were also small companies there.

Now the Internet is guided by big tech. It decides what happens there.