Similarities between the Internet, corporations and the virus
(It's been a while since I last watched the show but I was thinking about it and noticed something.)
(Also, I don't really think this is only because of the Internet. I feel like this problem has existed for a long time but now it has set deeper roots.)
The Internet is similar to the virus in a way that it makes us lose our cultures, traditions and quirks, but it doesn't make us undivided like the Plurbs.
The internet causes us to lose our individuality, all our cultures slowly become amalgamated into one whole. I've personally seen that the way non-English people speak has become sort of anglicized, not just through borrowed vocabulary, but also speech patterns themselves tend to stick to those closest to "Internet English". I call it Internet English because the English spoken on the Internet can't really be categorized, it too is a global amalgamation. Our politics, traditions, values are all either overtaken or mixed into this giant melting pot and seeing as a lot of people spend 6 hours a day on the Internet, they lose their culture and start belonging to this weird "Internet Culture".
It reminds me of >!Kusimayu joining the hivemind and going somewhere else as the village she used to love on gets abandoned and the songs stop being sung.!<
Also, something creepy about Internet Culture: Right now, it's mostly being curated by algorithms.
I'm not saying everyone has the same opinions, that is clearly not the case. I'm saying that everyone is losing the little pieces of personality and values that they gain from living in their region of the world and instead reshape and form their values around what the algorithm shows them.
Our knowledge is no longer specialized depending on where we are, a person from a thousand kilometers away knows that what you know is trending as the Internet has formed along the giant social medias that everyone uses. All children know what a "67" is. 90% of artists follow techniques not taught to them by their local teacher, but techniques they learned on YouTube. The majority of people listen to the same songs. Everyone's heard of a keto diet. We all have the same problems on our minds.
The Internet has made us all behave so similarly and think of similar things. It's like some sort of proto-Hivemind where we're all joined together and can somehow know what a person from the opposite end of the world is thinking. We're all being exposed to the same materials, same ideas. Nothing is special anymore.
It feels like cultural exchange, but from everywhere to everywhere, and at incredible speeds.
No one is causing this happen, no one is doing this out of malice. It just is. However some people do benefit from it. Mainly businesses seeking to make money.
This whole slow "globalization" of the world is great for profits. It reminds me of a quote I read online:
>India's diverse breakfast preferences have long presented a significant challenge to Kellogg's. However, the company has been happy to play the long game as it patiently works to educate the market about its healthy food options.
If we all have no individual, special views on life and no region is different than any other, then that's really good for businesses looking to expand.