The main prophetic thing in there is the notion of people watching media until they die. I've been dealing with a sixty something recently who has managed to become dehydrated and malnourished from watching too much YouTube recently. He has back trouble from inactivity and his back has made him yet more inactive. All he does is watch ragebait on YouTube now.
This is such an interesting story, and very much in line with DFW's writing in IJ.
I think this reality is something many folks are still in denial about. Like, how many times do you see an add depicting some translucent person's distorted cervical spine, referencing 'devices' in all their various forms as the cause. The entertainment / devices we use every day are literally causing morphological changes in our bodies. That's so dark, and I think loads of people simply choose not to think about it. Is ignorance bliss? Maybe for those hypnotized by the various 'entertainments' in their lives. But for people like yourself, who actually witness it, I'd say Infinite Jest is a useful, cautionary tale.
I see people hunched over the phone all day. I use mine too often but I take time out as well. They aren't even enjoying what they are experiencing judging by the constant swiping etc.
Then there is the narcissism. I witnessed a beautiful sunset from the bus over green fields last week and I presumed a woman was filming it... Then I realised she was photographing herself. Oh dear.
So in general, I'd say there's maybe 1-2 spoilers, but nothing major. If you want truly 0 spoilage, I wouldn't read it, but if you can tolerate some very minor stuff, you're likely safe.
If you're on page 600 though, there's no spoilers.
Edit: and yes, DFW presaged a lot with this book! Especially around how entertainment has evolved and the negative impact it has. The 'doom scroll' feature is literally called 'infinite scroll' in the software industry. Scary stuff :-/
A more solid prophecy would be InterLace and the teleputer (analogous to streaming and smartphones, respectively).
I do think the Entertainment is a solid prophecy of doom scroll / infinite scroll, which is now showing up in basically every application.
The videophony chapter is also especially prophetic when you consider the prevalence of things like filters. I actually noticed the other day on a Google Meet that there is a 'touch up my appearance' feature. Wild.
This one is a lark, but one funny thing, although very different from ONAN (Mexico + USA + Canada), is that we're kind of witnessing an 'ONAN' world cup (all the matches are in these exact three countries). Again, obviously different from ONAN in Infinite Jest, but I thought that was funny.
I'm not sure he predicted the internet, as you mentioned, as the internet was invented in the 60s. If you meant the world wide web, that was created in 1989, popularized in 1990. IJ came out in 1996, so my instinct is that DFW knew about the internet/www when he wrote the book.
The world wide web only started gaining serious traction in the mid 1990s, and I would say '97 was when it began to become part of normie culture as opposed to nerds. Even by the 2000s, there were many people who had never been on it.
Yes, he was definitely prophetic about filters. I remember that bit.
(On an unrelated note, I saw a thread elsewhere about whether Kurt Cobain was a frequent internet user. He could have been since he lived long enough, but he never left much trace if he was.)
Don't forget the giant hamsters and wheelchair assassins.
Two of these things were already on the go. Or kind of...
The Québec independence movement has been mainstream for a long while and is fairly successful despite attempts to scupper it, such as installing completely bilingual prime ministers etc. Maybe one day it will reach its ultimate goal.
The "sponsored calendar" is probably Wallace's parody of various dedicated years, days and months we have. We do have World Mental Health Day, Black History Month, Gay Pride Month, the International Year of Whatever. We had a "Year of Gaelic" in Scotland which I only heard about half way in. The difference being that these are not generally purely advertising initiatives, although many corporations have tried to hijack them.