Well, as of right now, this is just an empty space on the Net. A nice, peaceful 2.57 kb of blank canvas. I'll be using it mainly for writing and learning web programming.
The funny thing is, just by being that - an empty personal web page with no functionality other than beautiful Hypertext - it carries something deeper. I almost want to call it a protest, but that word has an aggressive connotation that doesn't quite match up with the intention behind creating this site. Still, to even dare to create something that isn't a soul sucking social media brand burned into my ass... to even allow people to breathe for a second online... to leave any pixels unanimated, any space unadvertized, or any post untagged is basically a political action. I hope to make that action in a way that is not beating people over the head. Instead, I think a better internet, or at least better spaces on the internet (and, even more important, in meatspace) can be created in a way that is appealing and welcoming to people in general. But, the kind of space I'm looking for is inherently radical, simply because the shitstorm of Web2.0 is considered normal. I wish it wasn't, but it is, so I won't try to pretend that my website isn't radical. But, I think I can be radical without being militant.
I'm so tired of Web2.0. So, so tired. And you are too, I'm sure. At least, I don't think I have ever heard someone say they were excited to get back to scrolling through a feed. They still do it, and some pieces of content within that feed might pique their interest or prompt them to share, comment, like, subscribe, throw my virtual body off a cliff PLEASE. But they are not excited. Who is? People don't get lit up at the end of the day because they can finally stop whatever life they were living and get down with the socials. Younger kids might have a bit more spark if it still feels new to them, or because it is at least more fun than being dragged around by their parents. That will wear off. Continuing to do the idle and convenient thing doesn't mean you love it. It just means you are human. I mean, I've been seriously critical of the new internet for at least a year now, and still they put feeds in front of my eyes and my finger begins to swipe. It's like trails of crunchy leaves that you just can't help but step on.
I saw a youtube comment recently that nicely wrapped up my frustration with the new web and my reason for rebelling in any small way. They said, "The internet used to feel infinite. Now it feels like a city block." The paradox is that while this comment is extremely relatable, it is also very misleading. If you read it for what it really is, it isn't wrong. The internet FEELS like a city block. Does that mean it IS a city block? No, not at all. The internet is actually BIGGER than it used to be. But it feels smaller for most of us because most of us are only visiting those chosen few sites, and the mission of those sites is to keep you scrolling (i.e. stay on their block) rather than surfing.
Imagine a large plaza with many different stores. You could go to any of them, but Walmart is closer to the entrance, so you just go to Walmart. Day in and day out you shop at Walmart, it is easy, convenient, cheap. You save a little bit of time and effort by not perusing the other stores. They are smaller and they don't offer e v e r y t h i n g the way Walmart does, so your shopping trip might require that you visit multiple stores to get all the items you are looking for. However, despite saving a small amount of time, you're gaining a large amount of mediocrity. You don't really enjoy shopping at Walmart, you just do it because it is familiar and fast. You start to forget that the other stores actually carry stuff that Walmart does not.
This is how I envision the internet, and how people use it, today. Everyone's bored at Walmart. Some of us remember the Good Old Days of surfing, but even we oldbies have a hard time breaking out of the monotonous habit. Surfing was not spoon-fed to you, with your only input being the swipe of your finger. You had to search, and I mean really search. Not just type something into Google and accept whatever sponsored BS it feeds you. Sometimes you could only find a website through means other than a serach engine, such as via a webring, a list of cool links, or talking with other Netizens. In the same way you can't find a farmstand by driving straight to Walmart. You have to put in a few extra minutes of actually LOOKING. You might even hit some dead-ends. That was OK before. Surfing didn't have to result in heaps of content. Just poking around was fun in its own right. When you did find something cool, it was also rewarding in its own right, without the desperate need for social media brownie points. Sharing with others meant literally telling other people "hey, I found this cool site." You did it because you wanted other people to enjoy the thing you found, not because you would receive some likes or +1 or any other vapid validation. The validation was simply others saying "thanks, this is cool."
But to get back to the plaza analogy, and the comment that hits so hard while also being sort of wrong: this scroll-fest is NOT the whole internet. There are other stores. Some have gone out of business, but definitely not all. SEO just wants you to think they don't exist. As soon as you step into a place like Neocities, or just use a non-SEO search engine, you will realize the Wide Web is really still out there. I had this epiphany quite a while ago when I discovered a hand-written website. Basically, someone posted about it on my favorite forum, and when I visited it, I felt like I had finally touched grass after being stuck inside a warehouse for 15 years. It wasn't even the content of the site that made the impact for me. It was just the fact that it existed and that it wasn't trying to sell me anything. It was really an Old Web kind of site, and it was even part of a webring, something I really missed about the old net. But there it was, a personal website, a webring, suddenly I was surfing beyond the shores of Facebook hell. I was missing that stuff because I was simply not venturing into those fields. Kind of depressing, but then exhilirating as the realization crawled over my thickened head.
So, the point is, I want to start participating in the part of the internet that I like, and reduce my engagement with the part I don't like. Thankfully, I was never really attached to the Nu-Web. I might look at FB for a few minutes but it just doesn't pull me in. The most zombie-consumption I do is on Youtube, and at least there I watch mostly worthwhile stuff... music, comedy, nature science, independent news. Anyway, the internet was never a venue for pure consumption - it is for creation as well. And not just bits of content that you toss in the great river for people to enjoy in passing before it floats away forever. We can also create with depth. We can take our time, write in long-form, leave space. Not worry about trending. Connect slowly.
(written 7/31/24)
(updated 8/21/24 - minor edits)