Internet Orthodoxy

The established, institutionalized set of beliefs about the internet that dominate digital discourse—the often-unexamined assumptions that the internet is liberating, that it democratizes knowledge, that it connects people, that it's inevitable, that more connectivity is always better, that the current internet (corporate, surveilled, centralized) is simply how the internet is. Internet orthodoxy includes commitments: that access solves problems, that digital natives understand technology, that platforms are neutral, that algorithms are technical rather than political, that the internet's problems are growing pains rather than design features, that alternatives (decentralized, non-commercial, community-owned) are impractical. Like all orthodoxies, it shapes how we understand digital space, but it functions as ideology—making particular internet arrangements seem natural and inevitable, obscuring how the internet could be otherwise, and delegitimizing visions of alternative digital futures. Internet orthodoxy determines what online spaces are "realistic," what digital policies are "forward-thinking," and who counts as "tech-savvy" versus "nostalgic."

Example: "He dismissed concerns about platform surveillance as inevitable—'that's just how the internet works.' Internet orthodoxy had made corporate control feel like the nature of technology rather than a choice."

by Dumu The Void March 17, 2026