I remember my first time entering the magical realm of the internet. It was overwhelming, over even before I got a chance to become familiar with it. It was paid for by my friend in a shady internet cafe. I confess, curiosity had gotten the better of me.

Subsequent days on the internet were such a rush that I couldn't get enough of it. Looking up my friends, making new friends, and then discovering and rediscovering the magical world of storytelling of the weird, fictional, and factual world. It was utopia. There was one email service known to us all, one messenger service connecting us all, and probably niche forums that never understood why someone with a username goweb2005 was so passionate about the story arc of Spider-Man to stay true to the comic books. It was the early 2000s, and I had a childlike enthusiasm to explore the interweb and then go back to the real world to bitch and brag about my exploits on the internet.

Fast-forward to a quarter of a century ahead, and we are talking about the effective ways to use algorithms to serve the algorithm so that it notices our efforts and rewards us.

The bleak dystopian future is here, and we didn't even realize it.

Why Am I Blabbering about the Old Days of the Internet?

Back to reality, it is 2025, not for lack of any adventure, I am trying to build a consulting business with my partner to help the very folks who are curious about using AI, sort out the meat and bones behind it, their data.

When it comes to data management, engineering, and governance for any organization, there is still a lot of need to spread awareness on the topic and subtly guide them in the right direction. You can read all about it here in our official publication -

Bytes from EtherionInsights. AI enabled Systems. Stories from people dealing with data — One Byte at a Time.By Shwe N

While you are at it, please do subscribe to it and check our website -

So, in an effort to make the business successful, not only do I need to polish my data engineering skills, but also acquire a lot of marketing skills to actually attract clients willing to work with me. I didn't think through the whole business plan, but then, how tough can a little marketing be, right?

It turns out, the whole internet is now the playground of marketing folks, and they run the whole show with fancy terms like impressions, engagement, click-through, and conversion metrics. While the terms can be learned with the help of tutorials available on the internet, implementing them successfully into the business is a completely different ball game altogether.

To the drawing board, I listed down all the platforms that will help me drive traffic towards my website and company website, so there is engagement and eventually potential clients. It was overwhelming to see the way each of these platforms has developed its ecosystem and rules that needed to be adhered to, to be successfully accepted as part of their community.

I began to question the present and the future of the internet if we continue to go along with whatever the plans these platforms have for the internet.

In utter helplessness, I remembered my new friend who is always eager to help, so I reached out.

ChatGPT will help me figure out the universe of interweb

As it is with everyone and everywhere, if I run into any confusion about anything, I go running to the ever-helpful AI models, in this case, ChatGPT.

In the old days, we would call it forming a sentence to be able to communicate effectively with another human; in today's age, we call it prompt engineering, as we have given up communicating with humans and only talk to AI models.

After some rigorous prompt engineering, I was able to get all the information I needed to be able to run a successful marketing campaign for my business. ChatGPT also offered to help me run the campaign with the help of its Agents, so I don't have to lift my finger at all. If ever I was tempted to look for Morpheus, it was in this moment, I regretted ever doubting the Matrix.

A million tutorials later, I was able to understand AI Agents and successfully connect my social media accounts together to run a few social media posts created by ChatGPT.

It was exhilarating to experience the utter emptiness with which a task can be completed and have no sense of accomplishment at all.

A day and a half of running with the market trends and keeping up with everything that is needed in today's world to run a successful business, which includes a handful of social media accounts, subscriptions to services to create bots, and willingness to run every good, bad and ugly idea through the social media funnel supported by the bots, & voila the business is on its way to flourish.

What are we even doing to ourselves?

We are celebrating the creation of a world where every trait of human consciousness is being slowly ripped out of us to dumb us down to the level of emotionless robots, so we all work in harmony.

A present where we doom scroll our days and nights into oblivion instead of making plans to meet each other and explore the world that we are hell bent on destroying to build technology like AI.

It annoys me to even think that we consider these AI systems to be our allies, and the big corporations as genius innovators who are making the world a better place. They may very well be doing that, but it is surely not for us.

Being part of the business that is building products to monetize human attention, where each user's glance, tap, and click is carefully studied to serve them with enough temptations that they drown in their desires. I think I am going through buyer's remorse, since I bought into this world of technology, and with each Data Pipeline that I design and maintain, I realize, the cycle is never ending, and each one of us is eternally trapped.

While I was ironing out my marketing strategy for my business, I realized the extent to which we are bought into this pyramid scheme of social media and technology. We use the tools to make more tools, which in turn are monetized, so that we can afford to subscribe to more tools.

My head starts spinning whenever I try to imagine the dead end to all of this mess.

Slow Down, You Crazy Child

To start my business, I had to take a few steps back from the rat race of the corporate world. It allowed me to look at everyday things differently. It allowed me to gain a new perspective.

The Analog Perspective is not to ditch all technology, but to slowly accept only those that fit into the purpose of your life.

I started this newsletter at the end of this lengthy break, which gave me a new perspective. I was sure I wanted to get out of the usual race and build something that I can truly call my own and drive it with zeal in the direction that I may please to drive in.

Every day, when I sit with a new problem to solve affecting my business, I learn something new about myself. I also learn something new about this world, which is headed at a rapid pace towards something that none of us are aware of and frankly, most of them don't even care.

We are driving on the freeway with no speed limits at a rapid pace into the oncoming headlights, yet we all rejoice at the blinding lights and accept it as our new future.

It is time to slow down and think whether the technology is really improving our lives or slowly driving us in a fancy car with blinding lights into a pit of despair. Next time I use ChatGPT, I will ask this question and I will keep the answer to myself. Maybe it's time for all of us to figure out our own truth regarding the age of AI.