WRAETH'S BLOG

PERSONAL WEB MANIFESTO 8/7/23

The internet's soul is dying.

Currently, it exists solely for profit against our best interest. It seeks to sanitize, commodify, and sell - preying upon an earnest desire for connection just to cultivate addiction through endless cycles of negativity and relief from the same source. Character limits kill longform discussion while algorithms disincentive nuance in favor of extremes. Through it, we are made reactionary. Anything for more clicks, attention, and, of course, personal data. Outrage is profitable. Non-marketable expression is scrubbed. If it can't make money, it can't exist for long - all so corporations can spoon-feed us "content" like passive, gullible children and round the corners of their UI like a toddler proof kitchen counter.

But it wasn't always like this. I was lucky enough to have been online for the tail-end of the older web, where forums and personal pages reigned supreme. Sites were less polished, but there was color and expression—signs of life and passion. This place was built by people looking for a place to be themselves. The internet had heart. What does it have now?

I miss that old web charm. I miss gifs upon gifs and tables within tables, default Times New Roman and tiled photo backgrounds. More than anything, I miss a web with people at its core. As much as I lament the loss of quirky, hand-coded layouts, the root issue is something greater than aesthetic: Soul.

What's the point in a web made for advertisers instead of people? Why make content instead of art? Don't you want to be something other than a consumer? Aren't you tired of increasingly worse user experiences, higher prices, and social media platforms killing themself for a quick buck—chasing profits for investors until they burn alive, like Twitter, Reddit, Tumblr, and more are doing now? Can't we do better than this mess?

The old web had problems. I'm nostalgic but not blind. Despite my persona, I don't call for a return to better times which never actually existed - but the memory of what we used to have proves there are other options. Moving backwards won't fix anything. Companies want us acting like nostalgia-blind kids so they can sell us back bastardized versions of our childhoods instead of making anything new or actually fucking changing things for the better. We should be moving forward in a different direction, branching off the past in a better way, one that we choose—that we make for ourselves. One where self expression is more important than the profit margins of some rich asshole you'll never meet. If sleek and simplistic modern design is what you want, I support you... but shouldn't that be your choice instead of the CEOs? And, shouldn't there be other options? If you need to be on other platforms to make a living, I get it, me too... but don't you want a place of your own? Why are you settling for less when you can have more?

To phrase my point more accurately: The internet's soul isn't dying—it's being killed, and the ones doing it would sell your soul for a dime.

So, I ask you this: If corporations are killing the internet's soul, what will you do to stop it? Or will you sit idly by and watch it die?

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personal web manifesto