Bryan Lehrer explores the question of what happened to the ‘New Internet’ movement, which emerged in the early 2010s as a reaction to the perceived brokenness of the internet and the dominance of big tech:
In hindsight I think my experience with the new internet can be broken down into three phases. As a wide-eyed, recent college graduate, my first exposure to the new internet was defined by angst but ultimately romanticization. There were tall aspirations for technological reform, be them naive or not. From here, my romantic ideals were channeled into action throughout a period of professionalization. I had to get a job, maybe even a career, and compromises to early aspirations needed to be made in order to achieve this. Most recently, the new internet has been defined by disorientation. The movement feels more fractured than ever and it’s not clear who my allies are, nor what we collectively desire in the first place.
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