The Internet Is Dead. Ads Killed It.

A love letter to what the web used to be — and a middle finger to what it’s become.

funeral dirge playing

Remember when the internet was an endless playground of human creativity, a great library of Alexandria . . . with lots of cat videos to boot?

Do you remember when it was a digital commons where you could wander endlessly, stumble into strange — and brilliant — corners of thought, and leave with your mind bigger than when you arrived?

Yeah.

That internet is gone.

It’s been murdered.

The corpse is stuffed in a shallow grave behind a flashing banner ad for discount cremations.

What happened?

Ads happened.

Not a few. Not the polite, sit-in-the-corner-and-wait-your-turn kind. I mean the all-you-can-eat Vegas buffet of ads.

Ads squatting in the margins.

Ads doing calisthenics across the top of your screen.

Ads that conspicuously fade in for two seconds before leaping directly into your face.

Websites are carnival sideshows where the content you want is chained to a post and ads are pelting it with discount codes.