How The internet is headed for a ‘point of no return,’ claims professor 2012

Eventually, the disadvantages of sharing your opinion online will become so great that people will turn away from the internet. This is the argument made by Geert Lovink, Professor at the Amsterdam University of Applied Science (AUAS) and University of Amsterdam in his new essay Extinction Internet. While Lovink’s previous research focused on critical counterculture and possible alternatives, such as fairer social media platforms, he now sketches a future in which the internet (partially) disappears and we are forced to give up our tech addiction.

Lovink has retained his reputation as an internet pioneer ever since his involvement with The Digital City, a precursor to the internet. Its founders envisioned it becoming a decentralized network, maintained by citizens, for citizens. “We lost that battle in spectacular fashion,” Lovink sums up. The fact of the matter is that the internet and addictive apps are in the hands of Big Tech, which cares little for individual rights or society as a whole.

In his essay, Lovink shares insights gained from 30 years of critiquing the internet and researching counterculture, a time in which he has worked with art historians, artists, creative researchers and meme makers. He has researched Wikipedia, search engines, social media and cryptocurrencies and their profit models—always from the perspective that the internet is broken, but can and must be fixed (as also argued by Waag founder Marleen Stikker in her book).