Right, so I did something mental a few weeks/months back.
Deleted all the apps. Cold turkey.
Not because I’ve become some internet based monk who’s discovered the ancient art of mindfulness.
Just because I was tired of feeling like my brain was being slowly liquidised by an endless stream of… well, nothing, really.
12 weeks. That’s how long I lasted before curiosity got the better of me.
You know what I found when I came crawling back to the glowing rectangles of perpetual distraction?
The exact same bloody content. Same videos, same takes, same manufactured outrage cycles spinning like a washing machine stuck on the same setting since 2019.
It’s like the internet pressed pause while I was gone. Waiting for me.
But here’s where it gets properly weird…
And this is going to sound like I’ve been reading too many conspiracy theories at 3am (guilty as charged)
That content wasn’t just similar. It was identical. The algorithm hadn’t moved on. It hadn’t learned anything new. It was just… there. Waiting. Like it knew I’d be back.
You’ve heard of the dead internet theory, yeah?
The idea that most online content is now generated by bots, for bots, with us real humans just caught in the crossfire of synthetic engagement farming. Used to think it was paranoid nonsense. The kind of thing you’d dismiss after your second pint.
Now? Not so sure.
Think about it. When was the last time you saw something genuinely original on your feed? Not a remix, not a reaction to a reaction, not another take on the same twelve topics that have been cycling through the content machine since TikTok learned how to monetise our shortened attention spans.
I’m talking about something that made you stop scrolling and think:
“God damn, I’ve never seen that before.”
Can’t remember, can you?
Maybe that’s because there’s nothing new. Maybe we’re all just watching the same performance, over and over, while the bots in the audience clap politely and the real humans slowly forget what original thought looks like.
Or maybe I’m just overthinking it because I spent 12 weeks in the real world and forgot how to speak internet.
Either way, I’m keeping the apps for now. But I’m watching differently. Looking for the glitches in the matrix. The tells that remind you there are still actual humans behind some of these screens.
You should try it too. Take a break. Come back. See if anything’s actually changed.
(Side Quest: it hasn’t)
Anyways.
I’ve got a Stephen King book that needs finishing.
And if you’re new to these here parts and want to go read past emails…
They’re on the site here: https://stphnwlkr.com/
Also feel free to tell people to go sign up there, cause that’s what all the cool people are doing.
Stephen Walker.