The Internet Has Become a Very Different Place

The Internet is a much more frightening place than it used to be.  We have become divided between crazed uber-liberals and crazed uber-conservatives.  I look for Websites with moderate points of view and find fewer and fewer of them.  This polarization leaves me wondering what will happen next in the world.  I am not sure we are ready for that.  Part of this dangerous slide into political extremism is reflected in the transition of the Web itself from a broad medium for expression to a platform for business.  You can see it everywhere.

Old Web directories like Yahoo and DMOZ are now gone.  They were once regarded as the fairest of Web resources.  Now we have to depend on Google to guide us through the Web.  And I really don't like the way Google works any more.  You can sometimes find links to old Web directories but I'm not really sure if anyone is updating them.  It takes a lot of work to keep a directory going.  That is why Yahoo invested millions of dollars in its directory.  But they fell behind and shut it down.

Without unbiased Web directories to follow who can we trust to tell us about all the wonderful Websites that must still exist somewhere?  Google is the playground of spammers and con artists.  I don't really trust the sites I find in the search results.  It's always some site that is loaded with advertising.  I understand that people want to earn money but why can't Google show us sites that are just getting started?

There are service like Tumblr and WordPress and Blogspot that host a lot of small blogs.  You never see them in the Google searches any more.  What does Google have against these sites?

I think if you like a blogger you should link to their site from your own.  That way it's not all about Google.  People can still surf the Web the way we were supposed to.  Google has a mind of its own.  I'd rather follow my intuition.

This shift in perspective has also hit the news industry hard.  I used to love reading the Washington Post but now it seems like every article they publish is an opinion against Donald Trump.  I don't like Donald Trump.  I don't trust him.  But I want my news to be just news and not someone's political diatribe against the President.

Even CNN seems like a hotbed of liberal bias.  Everything the Republicans complain about seems to be coming true.  It's a shame they are so terrible at governing the nation.  Their latest health care proposal is DOA as far as I am concerned.  But have you noticed that the Democratic Party hasn't even made an effort to write a new health care law?  What a disappointment our leaders have become.

The malaise that affects the Internet also affects our leadership.  Our society has lost its way.  I hope in the coming months more people will agree with me and work to bring about some real change.