The Web, but actually.

why working on this site is so much fun

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This is the first blog I'm making on my site, and I'll be honest: I'm doing it just to have one up. I'm thinking as I am speaking here, although I do have things I want to share.

I'm sure I don't need to remind the kinds of people that visit a rando's boomer site that the web has undergone a severe change of purpose, somewhere around the dawn of the 2010's. This, however, is what this post is about, for those who either haven't thought about it, or who just want to listen to me go off. This change of the web was one from a network of information to a framework for services. The most commonly used "websites" are websites in the same way that American streets are streets. While that is what they are and they haven't changed physically at their core, the way they are used has been flipped on its head. For our "streets" this refers to the takeover of cars that turned a once social space into a lifeless one, and for "websites", this refers to the takeover of our screen time and search engine results by monetized and advertised services. To use a real extra analogy, services like Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram have replaced the web and are wearing its corpse.

People no longer "browse the web", they browse YouTube, Twitter, Tumblr, etc.

So why is this at all a problem?

It entails a significant loss of freedom, both in a trivial sense, and in a very, very serious sense. I'll be using Twitter as an easy example in this paragraph. On the trivial end of things, I simply can't customize a Twitter profile as much as I like. 2 images, a bio, a name, and 200 characters. That's all the individuality I get. My website, however, is whatever I want it to be. On a slightly more serious note, a website is more concrete. Twitter loves deleting accounts for no reason, for example. Even if you are one of most safe people, your popularity (if that is something you care about) is determined by an algorithm that no one -- not even those who designed it -- truly understands. These recommendation algorithms are often discriminatory based on your known (or guessed!) innate attributes. And then comes the most serious note: politics. Are you a socialist? Although they seem to love Twitter, Twitter doesn't always love them back. Remember when Danny DeVito lost his checkmark for supporting unions? Are you a "conservative"? Twitter really doesn't like you, but good luck finding a trustworthy, secure right-wing equivalent! Gab and Parler sure are not. I use the latter example due to Gab and Parler's particularly embarrassing security, not out of any amount of respect for "conservatives".

The web became so wonderfully versatile around the late 2000's, but instead of being used for self-expression, this versatility was used to create non-versatile, simple environments. People flocked like pigeons to these environments. Many would argue that this was necessary due to accessibility issues with hosting and creating a website, but services like Neocities make getting started trivial -- and more importantly, free -- to someone with an ounce of patience.

Wordpress also exists for people who rightfully find HTML5 damaging to their mental health.

I don't want to come off as condescending or proselytizing to people who use social media and web services. I use a lot of them myself, and who doesn't? There is nothing deeply morally wrong with it. My language is a little strong in this post because it's simply staggering to look at what the internet once was, and see it fading away. I don't want anyone to delete all of their online accounts and live in a cabin, I only wish more people would experience the joy that I did in my early childhood of discovering hidden web gems, and the experience of building their own cozy little place that the entire developed world can see.