The Future of the Internet

It's complicated.

View in browser|nytimes.com November 15, 2019

The internet hasn't lived up to all our dreams for it. But neither, perhaps, does it conform to the nightmares (of misinformation, of alienation, of exploitation) that so many people spin around it now.

In our Tech & Design special issue, we've tried to see the internet and its likely future as best we can, from as many angles as we can, in the hope that we might finally begin to see it for what it is, which is a set of powerful technologies in the midst of some serious flux.

TECH & DESIGN SPECIAL ISSUE: Read about how the internet is changing Photo illustration by Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari   So the Internet Didn't Turn Out the Way We Hoped. Now What? It was supposed to be a utopia. Instead … it's complicated. Here's a guide to our online future — with maps, graphs and cats. Photo illustration by Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari   Online Cesspool Got You Down? You Can Clean It Up, For a Price A new "luxury internet" is poised to make the online experience even more unequal than it already is. By Kevin Roose Photo illustration by Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari   We're Stuck With the Tech Giants. But They're Stuck With Each Other. What used to seem like a fight for world domination has now become an uneasy stalemate. By John Herrman Photo Illustration by Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari   China's Internet Is Flowering. And It Might Be Our Future. What most Westerners don't know about China's highly integrated approach to mobile apps: It's amazing. By Yiren Lu Photo illustration by Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari   What Do Teenagers Learn Online Today? That Identity Is a Work in Progress The popularity of makeup-tutorial artists like Antonio Garza speaks to the power of self-transformation in an era when everyone is on display. By Elizabeth Weil Photo illustration by Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari   Even Nobodies Have Fans Now. (For Better or Worse.) Online fan culture clings to everything. Case in point: podcasts. By Jamie Lauren Keiles Photo illustration by Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari   Finding Truth Online Is Hard Enough. Censors Make It a Labyrinth. Under President Erdogan's censorship regime, Turks can easily find everyday information. But they never fully know what they're missing. By Suzy Hansen Photo illustration by Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari   The Internet Dream Became a Nightmare. What Will Become of It Now? In trying to foresee the future of an internet that's already changing, the only certainty is complexity. By Bill Wasik

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