Why is the Internet no longer like it used to be before? Leading explanations attribute the death of individual, personal and free expression to the rising popularity of the Internet, commercial/corporate influence and centralisation. Without doubt, these are the most significant factors. But is this the whole story? One frequently overlooked factor is simply that the modern and more accessible internet culture has de facto destroyed self-expression.
Large masses of people often converge to blobs formed by simple addition of homologous magnitudes, much like potatoes in a sack form a sack of potatoes. In such a setting, the individual lacks identity. The concept of "cringe" has destroyed the concept of self-expression. Irony, the most popular defense mechanism against being considered "cringe" changed the landscape of the Internet.
Authenticity necessitates vulnerability and vulnerability attracts dead-eyed, far gone, meta-ironic magnitudes that project their aversion to vulnerability as "ironic shitposting", i.e. shunning expressions of authenticity until everyone is many layers gone into defensive irony.
