Something feels different about the Internet. It’s getting boring, normal, everyday. I see fewer things that surprise and excite me like the old days.

Large corporations are solidifying their power and control. Where once there were many businesses to choose from now their are few. Google controls search, facebook controls social networking and Amazon online stores. They grow and they buy up smaller business shutting down products and merging in the talent.

Entrepreneurs are making less risky moves. Where once they were going to take over the world now they are only going to help you with something banal a trite. The Internet used to be a place of boundless possibilities with no rules. Now we have learned the rules, and operate within them without even knowing it.

We visit the same old sites everyday pumping out the same old content. Business has dug it’s meathooks into the Internet and wont’ let go. Fearing it and embracing it at the same time. All the while longing for the good old days when nothing changed, and and yet scared they’ll be left behind in this new world. Corporations flood the Internet with the same boring old content from it’s print properties. A flood to entice and ensnare you into it’s web. An Eternal September for the intellectual middle class.

My hope is that rebellious creatives have crawled off to hide in the shadows and dark places of the Internet. Like so many beat poets in their smokey cafes and Islamic punk bands in their basements. Hiding from the light of persecution, hate and fear. Like blind fish in the black underground caves they live, and survive, and are content to let the world ignore and then forget them.

Who are our blind fish. Where are our underground caves.

Where are the risky websites. Where are the new ideas, the rule breaking and chance taking.

We have millions of facebook users all saying nice things about reposted kitty pictures. Where is this years LOLCats? Remember when it took time and energy to make a meme, now memeGenerators make it so simple. So easy we can all play.

Has the corporate hegemony succeeded in corralling us into their pits, their cul-de-sacs of content. Their movie star trivia, and war on terror position pieces. Is it so hard to find the “little guy” website full of relevant information and not just another landing page full of ads masquerading as that which our heart desires. Have we learned the “rules” of how website work and blind ourselves to any other paths. Has our ever shrinking choice made life boring?

Something feels different about the Internet today. Excuse me while I find an underground cave to hide in.