There’s been a lot of news on AI, and a new book about “enshittification” has been launched. Where is the internet, social media, websites, and blogs headed? Is the endgame a digital decline into mediocrity?
This post isn’t for those who take no interest in what is happening in our digital world. It’s for those who ask pertinent questions. The dominant narrative is about AI taking over jobs, but a deeper, more pressing issue is emerging: the very quality of the internet itself.
Let’s go back a few steps. Remember the early days of browsers like Netscape? It was a frontier. You’d search a few keywords and a list of websites would appear. You’d click, explore, and often get lost down a rabbit hole. It was a hit-and-miss adventure.
Today, that adventure feels different. AI can instantly answer your query, summarising and packaging information for you. It’s efficient, but something feels lost. And there’s a new, worrying statistic: nearly half of all online content is now generated by AI.
Why is this worrying? Because AI could eventually begin to feed on itself. The endgame, as some fear, is a kind of digital “inbreeding” where models train on their own output, leading to a decline in sense and substance—a superficial, hollowed-out web. This is the core of the “enshittification” argument.
But this isn’t the whole story. The internet is evolving, not dying. To understand where we’re headed, we need to look at the bigger picture.
The Great “Enshittification” Debate
The term “enshittification,” coined by author Cory Doctorow, perfectly describes what many of us feel. Platforms start by offering a great service to attract users. Then, they shift to exploiting those users for the benefit of advertisers, flooding our experience with ads. Eventually, the platform becomes a shell of its former self—a miserable experience for everyone.
We see it everywhere: YouTube, Facebook, and news sites like Flipboard are so saturated with ads that the core content is buried. It’s becoming difficult to have a pleasant viewing or reading experience. This commercial pressure is the engine of enshittification.
And AI is now fueling this engine. The rush to generate vast amounts of “content” at zero cost threatens to flood the web with generic, low-quality text, further polluting our information ecosystem.
The Surprising Revival of Blogs and Human Authority
In this coming storm of AI-generated sludge, there is a beacon of hope: authenticity.
Blogs and independent websites are poised for a surprising comeback. Why? Because as AI churns out content, the premium on verifiably human, expert-driven, and trustworthy information will skyrocket. Google’s algorithms are already shifting to reward “Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness” (E-E-A-T).
Your blog’s value will no longer be measured by page views alone, but by its authority. Influencers, social media platforms, and even AI assistants will need to reference authoritative, human-written sources to ground their answers in reality. Your unique perspective and lived experience will become your most valuable asset.
What Comes After the Internet? (Spoiler: It’s Still the Internet)
Will the internet disappear? No. It’s too embedded in everything from our phones to our fridges (the Internet of Things). But it is changing form.
We are moving from a web of documents to a web of interactions. The future interface will be conversational—you’ll talk to an AI assistant rather than type into a search bar. The internet will become an ambient, invisible layer of our lives.
Alternatives are being researched, like the decentralised “Web3,” which aims to give users back control of their data. But for now, the key battle is between the centralised, ad-driven models of today and the quest for a more human-centric web.
The Human Antidote
It’s important to keep asking questions and not get swept up in the hype. The digital landscape will keep changing.
The endgame is not predetermined. The cycle of enshittification is a real threat, but it is not inevitable. It is a choice. The antidote is our own human curiosity, skepticism, and creativity. By valuing and creating authentic content, by supporting platforms that respect our attention, and by demanding better, we can steer the internet toward a future that serves humanity, not just algorithms.
The great sorting of the digital age has begun. Which side will you be on?
Sources and Further Reading:
- Cory Doctorow, The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation
- “Tipping Point: AI to Account for Half of Internet Content by 2025,” Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.
- Stanford & Oxford Research, “Model Collapse in Large Language Models,” 2023.
- Google Search Central, “March 2024 Core and Spam Updates.”
- Doctorow, Cory. “The Enshittification of TikTok.” Pluralistic.net.
