The open web is under pressure from AI companies and large platforms, but its troubles did not start with AI. We also chose convenience over control, and we will have to change that if we want a better web.
The issue that seems insurmountable to me is that convenience will always be the path of least resistance to the great majority of users because they DO treat web usage as consumption, because they themselves are economic units that have been trained in their economic conditions to be consumers.
To 90% of users instagram might as well be magic. The tech doesn’t matter. Authentication, identity, security, these things are MEANINGLESS to the average user. They see security as something that’s burdensome and forced upon them my their IT department, and that actually materially affects their real lives in a big way. Open internet? They couldn’t be bothered.
Until open web or fediverse or whatever can be as absolutely frictionless as signing up for instagram, they won’t use it. They already have complicated lives, they aren’t going to give a fuck about “stewardship” of the web.
The issue that seems insurmountable to me is that convenience will always be the path of least resistance to the great majority of users because they DO treat web usage as consumption, because they themselves are economic units that have been trained in their economic conditions to be consumers.
To 90% of users instagram might as well be magic. The tech doesn’t matter. Authentication, identity, security, these things are MEANINGLESS to the average user. They see security as something that’s burdensome and forced upon them my their IT department, and that actually materially affects their real lives in a big way. Open internet? They couldn’t be bothered.
Until open web or fediverse or whatever can be as absolutely frictionless as signing up for instagram, they won’t use it. They already have complicated lives, they aren’t going to give a fuck about “stewardship” of the web.