From Neighborhood to Panopticon: The Internet We Lost

The article contrasts Web 1.0's place-based internet—where users intentionally visited and explored—with today's ubiquitous, algorithm-driven environment that erodes our ability to disconnect. This shift from intentional exploration to constant engagement matters because it reveals how design choices like infinite scroll fundamentally reshape our autonomy and wellbeing. To recover a healthier digital culture, we must reimagine the internet as a place we choose to enter and leave, rather than an inescapable surveillance environment.