--- title: "Professor Predicts That This Whole Internet Thing Will Soon Blow Over" description: "At a certain point, everyone's gonna get tired of being online — or so goes the argument of one Dutch professor." date: "2022-12-21" modified: "2022-12-21" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/professor-internet-extinction" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "internet" - "social media" - "the digest" - "web3" --- # Professor Predicts That This Whole Internet Thing Will Soon Blow Over ![At a certain point, everyone's gonna get tired of the internet — or so goes the argument of one of the people who pioneered the web.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Ugh, Internet At a certain point, everyone's gonna get tired of being online — or so goes the argument of one Dutch professor who thinks that eventually, the bad is going to outweigh the good and we'll all finally get to log off. In a paper titled "[Extinction Internet]()" with accompanying illustrations that would be at home in an old copy of *Adbusters*, University of Amsterdam professor and media theorist Geert Lovink poses a question for our age: "Can today’s internet culture withstand entropy and overcome infinite capture while facing its never-ending ending?" ## Disenchantment As the baby boomer aged Geerts writes in the paper, which was published by the school's Institute of Network Cultures, his generation "found out early that the internet... is both toxic and curative." While his cohort marveled in fascination at that juxtaposition, subsequent generations have become increasingly disenchanted, he argues — and, perhaps more importantly, have become more and more convinced that the internet cannot be fixed. "There may come a point when that’s no longer possible, after which time the adverse consequences can no longer be controlled," Lovink said in the [school's press release](). "The internet is headed for a point of no return, and Big Tech is probably already aware of this, too." "Mark Zuckerberg has moved away from his social media platforms and launched Meta," he added, "as if nothing’s wrong and we can just start over again, but it’s clearly already broken." ## No Turning Back Geerts holds that such a point of no return — a "peak internet" moment, if you will — is steadily approaching because, as the release notes, "even 'ordinary' users increasingly have to pay a price for our far-reaching dependence on the internet and addiction to social media and apps." Ultimately, Lovink says that he believes "people will begin to shun technology" as these prices, which are primarily psychological," begin to cost too much for the average user. It's a tempting theory, to say the least. In reality, though, it's tough to imagine any serious number of people ever unplugging themselves from something so addictive, no matter how harmful it gets. **More on the internet:** [*Senator Introduces Bill That Would Effectively Make Porn Illegal*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()