so, why did i make a website?
being born in the 2000s, i was not around for what some consider the "peak" of the internet, but i was part of the first generation that had no idea what growing up without it was like. and oh boy, did i watch it change and evolve in the short period of time that has been my life.
my father, a programer, had gotten me my first computer probabally when i was around 4. i became deeply fascinated with the way i could enter a digital world and explore everything within. i vividly remember putting in my barbie as the island princess cd and hopping onto the now defunct mmorpg pixie hollow. to me, it felt like i was expereincing real life magic. soon, with the way my parents relationship played out, the computer wasnt just another toy, but rather my safe space, and not too long after the world wide web as well. througout my younger years i found comfort in escaping to digital worlds and talking to total strangers online. looking in retrospect i shouldn't have been out in the wild west of the interwebs. but hey, it was the 2000s-2010s, okay?
long before i knew it, my family, friends and peers had begun using social media. it wasnt long before it piqued my intrest as well. i made my first ever facebook account somewhere around 8-10 years old with the help of my mom. it started out harmless at first but for better or for worse, i slowly spent more and more time on social media and less and less on the web i once knew as i got older. constantly moving around as a kid didnt help as it soon became the only way to keep in touch with friends and family far away. now, i hadn't stopped using the web in its entirety, but my relationship with it had soured. not only had the web become seeming bland out of nowhere, but everything began to centralize into a couple of platforms and websites. it felt like there was a lot more on social media, so i focused my attention there. afterall, how bad could it be?
the answer is pretty bad. as i matured and the digital world progressed, i found myself troubled by many things. cyberbullying and internet "discourse", a lack of online privacy, excessive and predatory advertisments everywhere, hostile web and social media design, and more. if it wasnt the culture on these websites and apps, it was the websites and apps themselves. deep down i logned for somthing better but i couldn't seem to come up with a solution or an alternative. quite frankly, the internet made me depressed and even though i could step away from it for a little while, in our digital age you can never really fully leave it (or at the very least, that wasn't an option for me).
my tumultuous relationship with the internet continued thoughout my teen years, but post highschool i knew somthing had to change so i decided to seek out answers. i watched productivity yotube videos and took advice from people i knew to to try and take steps forward, but nothing quite clicked until i discovered the web revival/indie web (ironically though a tumblr post of all things). i came to realize one fundemental thing: the problem isn't "social media and interent bad" but rather that social media isnt very social anymore and the internet is more about making profits than promoting intrests or sharing knowledge. the problems i was seeing were just symptoms of a bigger shift in the web itself, and the solution? it's to not only dream of but partake in making a better web for us all, one which puts the focus back onto people and passions. so, here i am, making a website. i'm now part creating the worlds i once jumped into and using the magic of html to make my dreams a reality. i think i'm happier because of it.
so, you may be asking, what's the purpouse of sharing this story with you? i promise it isn't just here to try and convice you to delete social media and talk to people though forums only or something (unless you want to, of course). rather, its to give you a snapshot into one of the hundreds upon hundreds of lived realities that has led people like myself and many others to spending their time learning to create something we don't want to make money off of and can't even guarantee anyone will see. my story is far from unique or the only one, and you can find dozens of personal manifestos across the internet just like this one. personally, i strongly feel the goal of the web revival is to create a better web by combining old web values (like sharing knowledge, creativity, genuine social interaction, etc.) with new web spaces. its more than just creating a website or deleting social media. rather, its about wrestling with the web itself. here, we challenge the notion that the internet can't be different that it is today. here, we subvert the preconcived notion of what it means to be part of the world wide web. and ultimately, here we do more than just uncovered the hidden gems of the past, we make something new with it.
this is why this website existis, and this is why you should make one too. i acknowledge we can't go back in time and change what the internet has become, nor do i really want to, but together we are building our web futures here and i think thats something worthwile.