Is the internet dying?

[bucolic_frolic]

Seems to me that traffic has lightened up on just about every site I frequent, even DU. eBay I can't find what I'm looking for. Twitter is fading. Maybe America is fatigued from 4 years of MAGAt lunatics? Or is it back to work and life?

I'm puzzled too .... plenty of jobs but no workers, yet the economy is still not fully recovered. Lagging spending but inflation? And not as much travel to work as 2019, for example, but gasoline use is down and prices are up.

[Shermann]

1. I'm not sure about the "internet" but eBay has been in decline for many years nt

[bucolic_frolic]

11. FeeBay is comatose, a moribund skeleton of nonsensical rules and obligations

that diminish sales to the point where it's not worth it, and delivers junk to your mailbox that you never should have bought.

[milestogo]

13. I bought something on eBay the other day

and when I received it, the seller had included a sheet complaining about eBay fees driving prices up, and directing me to their website for lower prices.

I appreciate it.

[RandySF]

2. The internet is more than the web.

If you stream programming, you're using the internet.

[soothsayer]

3. It's spring, there are vaccines, people might be venturing outside

Or like me they read the entire internet during lockdown. Hee.

Also, less to rant about here cuz... Joe is pretty solid. So, maybe it’s healthy if indeed it’s lighter.

But obviously idk. Guess we need stats to see if it’s indeed in decline.

[Eyeball_Kid]

4. IMO, the internet is the main conduit of commerce and communications.

Dying? You have to be joking.

What's dying is cable TV, since folks figured out how to use STREAMING for all of television broadcasting, movie rentals, and sports. That's how it is. If anything, it's growing by leaps and bounds. A big part of "infrastructure" is upgrading the internet grid BECAUSE the physical components are reaching their limits of operational efficiency.

[Binkie The Clown]

5. I've always felt that the Internet was a passing fad. :) nt

[Scrivener7]

7. * Snork *

[Binkie The Clown]

10. No joke.

As soon as global warming gets bad enough and civilization collapses, it's definitely the end of the Internet. It will be just like Homo Sapiens; brief blip in the history of the planet.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

6. That's a dumb question.

What in the world would you think would replace the internet? Different specific websites or companies might go away, but the internet as a whole?

[d_r]

8. check this link from the 90s

http://hmpg.net/

[bucolic_frolic]

9. Thanks, I needed that back then

While I'm glad of the breadth of knowledge and expertise I've gained, it's been costly in time and money. But I guess I'll have to live with it.

[ShazamIam]

12. I think one reason internet use has faded is the cancelling of many of the propaganda and

highly manipulative AstroTurf and bot generated comments and posts. The big dominate sites have been forced to remove this kind of traffic in particular for misinformation about the Big Lie and COVID, such as facebook, twitter, reddit and even those news provider sites with large comment content such as thehill, politico, WaPo.
But yes I also agree, there is a lot of disillusionment with any purpose for posting and participating, burn out.

In other words I see less of the constantly repeated conservative talking point lies and and what used to look to me like posts to make liberals and progressives seem as stupid and uninformed as the conservatives. By that I mean the posts that aren't liberal or progressive ideas but match the talking point attacks about who and what a progressive or liberal is.