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The internet died in about 2018, and again in 2020.

Looking through photography sites I see so many "new" uploads that are just reposts of shoots originally done years ago, until about 2018, its weird.

Also on YouTube, I've been looking at kids shows for my offspring and noticed that so many channels are existing by constantly reposting episodes from again, before 2018, or up to 2020 sometimes.

I see it over and over again in many different areas, websites abandoned around 2018-2020, bands that stopped posting music, I would even say, there's been very little really groundbreaking content anywhere since 2018, games, films, anime, tv series, music (though that died around 2003 at best).

I could be imagining all this, and just seeing patterns where none really exist, but I'm convinced there's something going on. Even so far as most western cultures stalled and then went into reverse from 2018 onwards, weird.

I know the "pandemic" had something to do with 2020 onwards, but I think that just accelerated what was already going on, deliberately or otherwise.

Any thoughts?

ynniv 4mo ago 💬 2

Analysis from Claude. Always to be taken with a grain of salt, but maybe some leads in there.

"... venture capital funding contracted, digital advertising consolidated into a duopoly, platforms prioritized algorithmic engagement over creative diversity, regulatory pressures drove risk-averse policies, and educational systems abandoned arts programs—all while audiences developed shortened attention spans in an oversaturated content environment"

https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/0eb4062e-7fd0-43fe-b933-00bd8d889123

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ynniv 4mo ago

"Understanding these precursor conditions reveals that creative content stagnation wasn’t an unexpected development but the logical endpoint of policy choices, technological implementations, and market dynamics that prioritized short-term engagement and revenue optimization over long-term creative sustainability. The “writing on the wall” was visible to industry observers by 2017, but the systemic nature of these changes made them difficult for individual creators or even individual platforms to resist. Only by recognizing how these structural forces interconnected can we understand both how creative stagnation became inevitable and what systematic changes would be necessary to reverse it."

AmberSky 4mo ago 💬 1

Thank you, that's really interesting :)

ynniv 4mo ago 💬 1

Most of the time it's hard to tell whether AI is bullshit or not, but isn't that life in general? I like to ask deep questions, and then keep the parts that seem legit. In this case the consolidation of ad networks and their focus on a smaller set of high engagement content seems right

AmberSky 4mo ago 💬 1

Sounds reasonable :)

ynniv 4mo ago

The way I got to this document was:

> Did novel content die ~ 2018? Let’s see if we can identify any trends

(Deep Research clarifications)

> Following up on this idea: (your post)

(initial analysis)

> Let’s define a window ENDing in 2018. What trends may have foreshadowed this shift? Were there systemic financial or political changes suggesting a departure from the norm?

(document that I posted)