Has the internet gotten less fun since COVID-19?

Content Corner

Over the weekend, I was doing a pre-interview chat with comedian Rose Callaghan — more on her in the Content Corner section below — when she mentioned something that grabbed my attention. The internet, she said, seems a lot less fun than before the pandemic.

This instantly felt true. The COVID-19 pandemic has not been a good time for reasons that I doubt I have to go into (I’m not expecting much pushback on this). Three years later, most people have returned to their pre-pandemic behaviours, for better or worse.

So, why hasn’t the ~vibe~ gotten better? People have always lamented the internet becoming “less fun”, but it felt like something real has changed since 2020. Is this just the hangover of the pandemic that will change soon or is it here to stay? I asked a few smart people from different corners of the internet whether they felt this was the case. They all immediately agreed.

Host of the Australian tech culture podcast Down Round, James Hennessy had a few ideas about why we were feeling this way: the escalation of culture wars, which are now predominantly fought online; the relocation of most public discourse to the internet; a general exhaustion (“low-level psychosis”) from living in a pandemic; and the cumulative effect of having our lives play out on platforms ruled by business models that prioritise engagement and time spent online.

Also, “I am older and less hip with it (this could be up to 90% of the reason),” he said.

News Twitch streamer Pixelsmixel also believes COVID-19 generally amped up the polarisation of online culture, which made it a more unpleasant place. “Voices are louder because it was one of the only sources of physically safe interaction.”

Pixelsmixel spends hours every day broadcasting herself reading and reacting to the news and her audience. During the locked-down part of the pandemic, her streams offered a way to stay connected with others. But, she reflected, it also made her realise the importance of physical community too — and how its absence affected everyone.

Host of the TikTok trivia quiz TikTok10 Miles Glaspole found that the pandemic forced people to develop internet rituals for practical and mental health reasons that persist today. He thinks that those ingrained habits now remind people of the trauma we all went through.

“I find a lot of those remind me of COVID-19 times, so now I try to minimise it where I can.”

Comedian and presenter Gen Fricker saw the pandemic speed up the transformation of normal people from content consumers into “creators”, something she thinks has made using the internet less fun. Funnily enough, Fricker said she’s seen this malaise infect the real world too at events run for online creators, such as influencer parties.

“There’s such a gaping hole between the ‘fun’ that’s posted online and the actual experience of being in a room of joyless people shuffling through activation after activation and not making eye contact with anyone,” she said.

“I don’t like the culture around it but I’ll probably never give it up lol.”

Hyperlinks

Sex, hate and Trainwreck: Aussie gambling billionaire’s links to Twitch’s controversial competitor

My deep dive into a mysterious new platform with hidden links to an Australian crypto-gambling billionaire. (Crikey)

Who is winning the war of words on WeChat in the NSW election?

WeChat is one of my social media platform blind spots so I’m always interested to hear how it’s being used domestically. (AFR)

ACCC takes aim at the expanding ecosystems of digital platforms

Australia’s consumer watchdog’s digital platform inquiry has informed tech policy around the world (look at Canada trying to implement its version of the news media bargaining code now). I await its latest instalment with bated breath. (AdNews)

Replika users fell in love with their AI chatbot companions. Then they lost them

File this one as the latest in the category of “dystopian stories that wouldn’t be out of place in a science fiction film”. (ABC News)

Christian Lives Matter: inside the Facebook group endorsing anti-LGBTQIA+ vandalism and protests

A case study on how a figure can foment and focus a movement without directly leading it. (Crikey)

Content Corner

I’ve been trying to get more into LinkedIn, for my sins. It’s always been a mysterious place. Despite the fact that a quarter of working-age Australians are on the platform, few people I know post anything on it other than the occasional job update.

My LinkedIn feed has the vibe of an industry networking event combined with a Facebook comment section. It’s both stilted and stale and unhinged and manic, depending on where you look and who you follow. I see high-powered executives interacting with life-hacking, brand-building, self-styled entrepreneurs boasting about their insane morning schedules or telling moralistic anecdotes in the style of Broetry. The platform’s power users’ tone typically falls somewhere between “uncomfortably earnest” and “insane”.

Australian standup comedian Rose Callaghan’s recent posts on LinkedIn have been a breath of fresh air. It all came about because she was updating her profile’s settings, which, unbeknownst to her, superimposed over her LinkedIn profile picture a graphic that said “#opentowork”. This cringe-worthy addition gave her an idea.

“I was like, how funny would it be if I made other ones? I’m going to figure out how to do it. Honestly it took hours and hours and I wrote all these stupid ones and I came up with so many of them,” she said.

The subsequent post went viral on LinkedIn — yes, that’s a thing! — and has been viewed 8 million times. Beyond causing an influx of messages and connection requests, Callaghan has received job offers from companies such as Apple and Tesla.

Callaghan attributes the success to bringing a “Twitter mindset” to the normally buttoned-down platform.

“A lot of people have to be on LinkedIn because they have to be there for work. So much of the content is cringe and what I’ve been posting is the opposite, it’s taking the piss, so it just stands out,” she said.

And while it has worked out in her favour, with Callaghan having accepted one of the job offers, it has left her (only half-jokingly) worrying: “Is the LinkedIn version of me my authentic self now?”

(Psst.. if you want to join Callaghan’s professional network, she’s touring later this year.)

Thank you for reading this edition of WebCam! I’ll be back in your inbox in two weeks. In the meantime, you can find more of my writing here. And if you have any tips or story ideas, here are a few ways you can get in touch.