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1---
2link: https://kneelingbus.substack.com/p/the-brazilianization-of-the-internet
3tags:
4 - article
5 - cozyweb
6published: 2024-04-12T12:00:00
7author:
8 - Drew Austin
9title: The Brazilianization of the Internet
10---
11
12> Talking to no one is the near future of social media, the digital equivalent of warming your hands over an oil drum bonfire in an abandoned city
13
14> As we retreat from the toxic, cluttered social media clearnet to the newsletter-and-messaging [[cozyweb]], this is closer to the real future of the internet: Each of us armoring our digital selves with a carefully constructed array of filters to let in the good and keep out the bad
15
16Clearnet here is actually [[dark forest]] theory, where the open or “clear” internet bombards us with things we don’t want. Whether that’s spam, irrelevance, ads, or active toxic responses from other humans.
17
18> <mark>humans themselves will have a harder time competing for attention and access</mark>. In a landscape that feels increasingly noisy and polluted, this challenge is heightened even further, as the stabilizing elements steadily retreat from it, creating a vicious cycle where the spam and fury become ever more concentrated.
19
20Here’s where the title of the article came from:
21
22> Another 2021 essay, [The Brazilianization of the World](https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2021/05/the-brazilianization-of-the-world/) by Alex Hochuli, describes how “the fate of being modern but not modern enough now seems to be shared by large parts of the world: WhatsApp and favelas, e-commerce and open sewers.”