>I remember so many just everyman viral videos. Our culture seems to think they still exist. TV shows still occasionally feature a trope of someone trying to go viral on youtube. But when was the last time we actually saw it? The mechanism for it seems to have been obliterated. No more Star Wars Kid, no more Numa Numa Guy, no more Francis flipping a table, no more Leave Brittany Alone.
>The youtube algorithm has basically decided real people, in all their weird, quirky, idiosyncratic glory are dangerous and need to be suppressed. They can't be monetized, and since they can't be monetized, they are the bottom of the barrel in terms of discoverability. Facebook has decided people shouldn't see the posts of the people they follow unless someone has paid them for advertising. Twitter has decided that they need to sort your feed according to what they think is important, and put a few quality filters on it to boot.
>It seems something wonderful has been lost. A symbol that the internet was for "us". We were all a part of it, and we all belonged on it. That everyone was a little bit weird, and that was wonderful. Now it's wonderful, wonderful billboards reaching as far as the eye can see. And it happened hardly without anybody noticing. I also can't help but think it's reduced our tolerance of each other, having this weird corporate doppelganger replace what we used to think was a reflection of the public.