I thought that the internet was supposed to bring on a new information age, but it sure doesn’t feel like it. It truly feels less like an age of information and more like a grand age of messaging. Our habits lead us away from discernment out of a profound desire for convenience. And it feels like there are predators all over the interwebs looking to take advantage of our laziness.

You try to search for information, and your query get compromised by SEO tactics, to where all you find is sponsored content that meet the needs of advertisers rather than your own. You go on Google and feel like your needs are secondary, and they are, since you are not their customer. You query a brand on Amazon, and they pop up sponsored content for competitors, because they clearly don’t think you want the brand, but the product the brand makes. Search engine optimization does little to optimize your search. You find yourself working your way through links and thumbnails that aren’t helpful to you.

It’s hard to trust the gatekeepers of the internet. I find myself looking for new employment, and the online job boards are horrendous. It’s not like you have much option outside of the internet to look for work opportunities, as print media isn’t really there anymore to check the classifieds of your local paper. I don’t know what happened in the decade that I hadn’t looked for a job online, but online job boards are landfills of suspect postings of scammers looking to tell you about an “ideal” opportunity to get your information. The bogus remote work postings feel about as credible as those emails you would get back in the day from a rich African prince that would like to give you money, except those emails back then were one in a thousand and these remote work scams are a dime a dozen. I have been wasting my days unfortunately reading incredulously these scam postings hoping that maybe, just maybe, I can stumble on a legit posting. I don’t want to be sold on a dream; I just want a job.

At least with the job scams, they just mess with your soul temporarily with their messaging. And it’s easy enough to work through Google SEO to see if a potential employer has a physical address and contact information.

It’s the belief systems that get you the most in trouble when it comes to internet messaging. You can work your way around the inconvenience of messaging when it comes to shopping or job hunting, since shopping and employment are not a matter of faith. Politics are the most brutal of the belief systems, since they can just spam their messaging over and over on social media and on traditional media to suck up the time needed to gather information to debunk the messaging. The messaging doesn’t have to be tethered to facts or reality as long as the messages keep coming. The gatekeepers of social media are even less interested in gatekeeping than search engines or online market places. If there is a steady flow of messaging, that is more than enough for them. It is what makes the Trumpism of the republican party since 2015 so effective. Their folks are always on message, even if the message is “derp.” News organizations would put in all this time for longform journalism to illustrate that it’s not derp, only to be drowned out by even more “derp.” Derp economy, derp public policy, derp immigration, derp family values. Derp, derp, derp, derp, derp. And you can’t find your way out of the echo chamber with “derp” ringing in your ears to hear something real.

Soundtrack for the day on Spotify, 08082024:

1. Need A Favor – Jelly Roll
2. Reunited – Wu Tang Clan
3. Day Dreamers – Adreya Triana
4. River Of Deceit – Mad Season
5. Everyday People – Sly & The Family Stone
6. Time After Time – Cyndi Lauper
7. spring kiss – GOOD BYE APRIL
8. PROVENZA – KAROL G
9. IZ-US – Aphex Twin
10. Unreal – UNKLE
11. The Jaunt – Makaya McCraven
12. Sur l’autoroute – Miles Davis
13. Little Child Runnin’ Wild – Curtis Mayfield
14. The Sweetest Taboo – Sade
15. Mayonaka no Door/Stay With Me – Miki Matsubara
16. She’s Gone – Daryl Hall & John Oates
17. Black Connection – Camp Lo
18. Easy Fraction – Breakbot
19. Sweet Refrain – Perfume
20. Just A Friend – Biz Markie