I don’t think people, especially younger ones, understand why so many of us were drawn to the early internet. It was a new frontier, free from advertising and corporate influence. People just shared things. There was this powerful push to end information scarcity to make knowledge, art, and ideas freely accessible, without paywalls or subscriptions. There were 3 hour podcasts with people actually interested in sharing things with no fucking ads. The idea of making any money with any of it was silly stuff. Everybody thought it was silly when we started seeing ads show up. It was laughed at and people were embarrassed to do ad reads. But we ignored it. We’d soon find out how tragic a mistake that was.

Then came the musicians, the content creators, the artists and all their lawyers and with them, the advertisers. We lost everything. What started as a space for free expression was gradually reshaped into a sanitized, corporate-friendly landscape. Influencers played a huge role in that shift. They helped turn the internet into a marketplace, paving the way for brands to blend seamlessly into our lives under the guise of content. They helped create the enshitification we have today. Without them, the advertisers and lawyers wouldnt have been able to profit.

I genuinely hate what influencers have done to the internet. They don’t get enough blame.