[echelon]

> net from being just a more privacy invasive form of television.

This is such a great analogy.

The Internet has become a dopamine fix. Platforms are generic and inflexible. (Remember when you could change the HTML?) Content is watered down or demonetized for the sake of ad money (Youtube, Tumblr). You can't read the news without getting a video ad shoved down your throat. Commercial video is DRM'd. Browsers (read: Chrome) enables websites to prevent you from copying text or viewing source images. Your every move is tracked to better target ads and sell your profile.

[madars]

re: being prevented from copying the text -- one can just use Stylus + the following stylesheet

    * {
      -webkit-user-select: text !important;
      user-select: text !important;
    }

+ others for saving Instagram pictures, removing hangouts.google.com background, etc

It is incredible how much more palatable the web becomes with uBlock Origin + uMatrix + Stylus. Not optimistic for the web in the long term, though.

[throwaway-9320]

There are websites which can and will manipulate the text you are copying. I am aware of at least one news site which will replace the copied article text with a short summary and a link to the article.

Example: https://www.ghacks.net/2016/05/24/chrome-copy-text-manipulat...