Internet Capitalism

Yes, this blog has been brought about by my recent defeat in the war against pop-ups.

The internet is no longer what I remember it to be. Sadly, I am the last generation that knows what life was like before the internet was made publicly available. I've seen many wonderful things come out of the internet. Flash animation good enough for television broadcast, online gaming, worlds of different people from different social backgrounds and educations.

I've also seen a lot of bad things come out of the internet. In fact, I've seen more bad things among the good things, as you probably can already tell.

The "dot com" at the end of my blog means that I am a part of a commercial website. If this was a "dot org," then I would be a part of an organization. If this was a "dot gov," I would be associated with the government.

The thing is about having a dot-com is the fact that it has now translated into a site used for commercial reasons. Having a dot-com means having a business of some kind. Neopets is a dot-com, but they don't run a business. They run a game site who's target audience are the kids between 10 and 14. While on their own, these children don't have enough money to support the services of the site, and they shouldn't. They are just kids. Therefore, the site is free to use. The only reason that it is free is thanks in part to sponsorship from McDonald's and Disney's Motion Pictures. Oh, and of course the products found in Limited Too.

See what I mean? That entire last paragraph is an example of what has happened to the internet. What started out as a good idea turns into a corporation hell-bent on making money. Call me anti-capitalism, but I don't think that's right. While I do support internet shopping, I don't like how most every well-meaning site has to put out some kind of product just to keep their servers online and their bandwidth stable. I don't like how even the most simple and non-profitable site on the internet has to have banners and pop-up ads just so they can stay online without charging their users, thereby pissing them off.

The internet, as I see it, was originally designed as a way to communicate with people over great distances instantly. It still is, but now we have to wad through porn ads, spyware, RealArcade games, viruses sent through e-mails like it was anthrax, money scams, lag time, Shockwave and Java only sites as if it was some kind of racist club, and so on. We can still communicate with each other, but several thousand of people with money choose to communicate to the masses in the most annoying way of all!

I was told once that advertising on the television and radio was nothing new and people accepted it. When they started advertising in the movie theaters, people hated it. Now, people are used to it. Hell, when I went to see Harry Potter and Shrek 2, they had a commercial-only show running in front of the previews called TheTwenty! Society, as a whole, has generally accepted this kind of advertisement. Does that mean that eventually, banners and pop-up ads will be accepted as the norm even though some ads are evil and install software in your computer you didn't ask?

How would you like it if you went to the grocery store and a General Mills representative snuck in a box of one of their cereals into your cart as the check-out guy was scanning your milk? Okay, that example is a bit extreme since you will end up paying for it, but you get the idea. You didn't want that box of cereal, so you didn't buy it. Someone put it in there. The same deal with some of these ads I've come across. I don't want to make them my homepage, but yet they do so anyway. I don't want to download their program, but yet they do so anyway.

All this in the name of advertisement, the very backbone of how capitalism works in some cases. Get the product out there so you can make money. Supply and demand.

Well, guess what? I demand you stop supplying me. I demand that you stop supplying anyone else that doesn't demand a supply from you! Get your ad out of my face, get your product off my computer, and get the hell out of my sight!