Knicks In Four

Ryan Broderick, Garbage Day: 'The Clear Channel Internet'.

All of digital video — and by extension, all of social media — is poisoned. There’s been so much written about the Dead Internet theory lately, but that’s not what this is. It’s closer to the Clear Channel internet, where everything has been so thoroughly corporatized that nothing ends up in our feeds by accident anymore. At least, not when it comes to the truly viral content. It’s either being directly bankrolled by a company like Kalshi or downstream of some weird payola agreement a bunch of influencers made with random clippers on Discord. But unlike TV or the radio, our social media feeds continue to look like — and market themselves as if — they’re still powered by real people.

Broderick's newsletter is sometimes incomprehensible and extremely online, and it makes me feel ancient, but it is essential to understand what the internet now is.