I don't enjoy the Internet any more

I grew up on the Internet. I spent a significant proportion of my childhood, and later my adult life, on message boards, blogs, social networks, chatrooms, and other online communities. I made friends, found jobs, and was exposed to so many new concepts thanks to the Internet. Many of my core beliefs were sharpened by ideas and discussions I followed online. It's been a huge part of my life. But today, the joy is largely gone. This wasn't a sudden change: my experience with the Internet has been getting worse over many years. As it became increasingly monetized, thoughtful knowledge sharing and new ideas started being replaced by an ever-growing volume of attention-seeking, low-quality content. And today, largely thanks to LLMs, the ratio is so skewed that it doesn't feel worth it. I'm reminded of the video game Disco Elysium (spoilers ahead). In the game, the world is made up of distinct regions called isolas, separated by a nothingness called the pale. The pale is a gradually…