What it was meant to be. What it became. And what comes next.

The internet was supposed to be a space for everyone—a shared digital commons where knowledge, creativity, and opportunity could flow freely. The idea was simple: make information accessible to all, create a world where ideas could be exchanged without borders or barriers.

Instead, what we have today is something vastly different.

A handful of corporations have seized control, turning the internet into a profit-driven machine that extracts value from its users while giving little in return. What was meant to be open has become centralized. What was meant to empower has become exploitative.

The costs of this transformation are enormous. And whether we realize it or not, we are all paying the price.

The High Cost of a Broken and Monopolized Internet

A System Built on Engagement, Not Truth

The internet was supposed to be the great equalizer—a space where information could flow freely and empower individuals. But the platforms that dominate the digital world today are not optimized for truth. They are optimized for engagement.

Algorithms do not prioritize well-researched journalism or balanced discourse. They prioritize whatever keeps people clicking. In a world where attention is currency, misinformation spreads faster than facts, and outrage is more profitable than nuance.

As a result, political discourse is shaped not by informed debate, but by whatever content provokes the strongest emotional reactions. Sensationalism wins, and the consequences for democracy are profound.

The Erosion of Independent Journalism

Traditional media outlets once served as the primary check against misinformation and corporate power. But the rise of ad-driven digital platforms has gutted independent journalism.

Social media companies now capture the vast majority of online advertising revenue, leaving news organizations to fight over scraps. To survive, they have had to conform to the same engagement-driven model—sacrificing depth for virality, prioritizing headlines that provoke over those that inform.

The result is a news ecosystem where investigative journalism is struggling, clickbait is thriving, and the public is left with fewer sources of reliable information.

A Business Model Designed for Addiction

Social platforms are not neutral spaces. They are engineered to be as addictive as possible.

The infinite scroll, the carefully timed notifications, the algorithmically optimized content feeds—all of these features are designed with one goal: to maximize the time users spend on the platform. The longer they stay, the more ads they see, and the more revenue the platform generates.

But this relentless pursuit of engagement has side effects. Studies have shown that excessive social media use is linked to rising levels of anxiety, depression, and attention disorders. The platforms that were meant to connect us are instead contributing to a crisis of mental health and social isolation.

Creators Are Powering the Internet—But Seeing None of the Rewards

Every major platform—YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Spotify—owes its success to one group: its creators.

Yet the vast majority of those creators see little to no financial reward for their work. Musicians earn fractions of a cent per stream. Writers produce content that fuels engagement but are rarely compensated beyond exposure. Artists see their work buried beneath algorithmically boosted trends.

These platforms extract immense value from user-generated content, but they return almost nothing in exchange. The people who make the internet worth using are treated as disposable, while the platforms profit from their labor.

AI Will Make Everything Worse—Unless We Change Course

If the internet is already dominated by monopolies, artificial intelligence will only accelerate its worst tendencies.

AI-generated content is flooding digital spaces, making it harder than ever for human creators to be seen. Misinformation is being produced at unprecedented speed, with deepfakes and AI-written propaganda threatening to erode trust in even the most basic facts.

Meanwhile, AI-driven algorithms are becoming even more effective at manipulating emotions, ensuring that platforms can fine-tune their engagement strategies with even greater precision.

Unless something changes, the future of the internet will be one where real creativity is drowned out by automated noise, and where monopolies use AI to tighten their grip on information, culture, and commerce.

The Fundamental Truth: The Internet’s Value Comes From Its Users

The platforms that dominate the internet today do not create value. They extract it.

Their business models rely on content generated by users—writers, artists, musicians, thinkers, and communities. Without these contributors, the platforms would be empty shells. Yet, for decades, they have profited from this collective effort while offering little in return.

That era is coming to an end.

The Shift: A New Internet Built by the People, for the People

For years, Big Tech maintained its dominance because building a platform required vast amounts of capital, infrastructure, and technical expertise. That is no longer true.

Two technologies—AI and blockchain—are fundamentally changing the economics of the internet.

AI is dramatically lowering the barriers to platform creation. Anyone can now build a social network, a streaming service, or a marketplace with a fraction of the resources that were once required. The monopolies that once seemed unshakable are now vulnerable to competition from individuals and small teams.

At the same time, blockchain is redefining how value is distributed. Instead of allowing platforms to extract wealth from their users, blockchain enables decentralized systems where creators, communities, and participants receive fair compensation for the value they generate.

This is more than a technological shift. It is a transformation of power.

Why This Changes Everything

A new internet is emerging—one that is fundamentally different from what we know.

• Creators and users will be compensated fairly for their contributions, rather than being exploited for engagement.
• Platforms will succeed based on the value they provide, not on their ability to lock users into walled gardens.
• Decentralized models will prevent monopolies from controlling digital spaces. Unlike traditional companies, blockchain-based platforms cannot be acquired and centralized.

The internet will no longer be owned by a handful of corporations. It will belong to the people who create, engage, and contribute to it.

The Future: An Internet For All of Us, Without Monopolies

The internet was never meant to be a tool for a few corporations to hoard wealth and power. It was supposed to be an open, participatory space where anyone could create, share, and connect without barriers.

That vision is not lost—it is simply waiting to be rebuilt.

The next era of the internet will be different. It will be decentralized, equitable, and open. It will empower creators instead of exploiting them. It will enable financial inclusion for billions of people who have been locked out of the digital economy.

Most importantly, it will restore the internet’s original promise: a space that belongs to all of us, not just the corporations that seek to control it.

The tools to make this shift exist. It’s time to use them the right way.

#wearemaany