All the while, the internet itself is significantly worse to use. Apple and Google’s App Stores are full of “free” apps that are really full of microtransactions and horrible advertisements. Digital advertising has become outright abusive to customers, especially on the mobile web, where a quarter or more of your page is filled with ads or callouts to subscribe. And even those that don’t oftentimes ask for your email address, guaranteeing you a sludge of growth-hacked marketing missives that at times keep coming even when you unsubscribe (and services claiming to help often don’t). Google search has become a sludge of affiliate marketing and SEO content, and even reputable websites are now stuffed with content like “when does this show start?” as a means of tricking Google into sending them traffic. Facebook has become a mess of forced video content and algorithmically-driven nonsense, Instagram no longer reliably shows you your friends’ posts, and Elon Musk has turned Twitter into a steaming pile of crap. Data brokers are literally selling people’s addresses and phone numbers to anybody with a credit card, which is why you keep getting random spam calls all the time. And it all happened in service of pumping their public valuations with eternal growth.

“All the while, the internet itself is significantly worse to use. Apple and Google’s App Stores are full of “free” apps that are really full of microtransactions and horrible advertisements. Digital advertising has become outright abusive to customers, especially on the mobile web, where a quarter or more of your page is filled with ads or callouts to subscribe. And even those that don’t oftentimes ask for your email address, guaranteeing you a sludge of growth-hacked marketing missives that at times keep coming even when you unsubscribe (and services claiming to help often don’t). Google search has become a sludge of affiliate marketing and SEO content, and even reputable websites are now stuffed with content like “when does this show start?” as a means of tricking Google into sending them traffic. Facebook has become a mess of forced video content and algorithmically-driven nonsense, Instagram no longer reliably shows you your friends’ posts, and Elon Musk has turned Twitter into a steaming pile of crap. Data brokers are literally selling people’s addresses and phone numbers to anybody with a credit card, which is why you keep getting random spam calls all the time. And it all happened in service of pumping their public valuations with eternal growth.”