Being online
It’s happened. I’m officially one of those “good ol’ days” people, at the ripe old age of 35.
Quicksand
I hate how we exist online: a stream of isolated thought-bytes (and thot-bytes) taken out of context and embedded in an algorithmically knitted tapestry from across our acquaintances, crushes, IRL celebrities, tapestry-celebrities and “I-don’t-remember-why-I-started-following-them"s.
When I was 13, I wanted nothing more than to exist entirely online. Sadly, our dialup internet cost 200bz per hour — about $0.85/hr in 2023 money, not accounting for the economic disparity between the US and Oman where I grew up. Combined with my parents’ dictatorial restriction of 90 minutes of computer time a week (regardless of the aforementioned financial consideration, a story for another time), I had to sadly exist extremely offline until I moved out at 18.
Since then, I have been mired in the same boggy quicksand as everyone else and their mother (definitely my mother, at least) of feeding the endless feeds with my posts, scrolling the infinite scrolls with my time, and eyeballing the ads with my eyeballs. I hated most of the experience: being full of hope (for what?) when posting; getting that dopamine hit when I noticed a notification; realizing it means nothing real; still being unable to control my body from clicking on it, and then refreshing a few times in case it went up again; disagreeing with all the other out-of-context thoughtbytes; expressing said disagreement with copious dunks; reviewing others’ dunks to add or lower the clout.
Respite
Occasionally the social media walled-gardens *cough* prisons *cough* would parole me to an oasis like a wonderfully passionate personal blog or interesting project on a personal site. And I am hit with a wave of relief and joy, faintly nostalgic in flavor, like feeling an ocean spray from the beach I grew up next to. I feel like I am engaging with a human being, simultaneously next to me but also infinitely far away, as I see not just a disembodied thought, but the contexts within which those thoughts were formed. The “dunks” are out of sight, the “hot takes” are more like well thought-out essays. Thought-out, what’s that like in this era?
How did we get here?
It’s simultaneously harder and easier than it’s ever been to pitch your own internet tent in a healthy wholesome way. Easier, fact, because the hardware, know-how, and supporting infrastructure to set up a site is a lot more robust and accessible than it ever has been.
Harder, opinion, because there’s so many other avenues and platforms with massive gravitational wells trying to suck all your thoughts and attention into them like black holes, with their own niche know-how that distracts and detracts from the above.
Personally, I feel pretty strongly that the “takeover” of mobile touch devices (smartphones of course, but tablets almost as much) as the dominant window through which we access the internet has been a bigger culprit than social media for why this has gotten harder. Simply put, mobile touchscreens are not an interface or platform designed to participate in the internet in a healthy manner. But it is designed to maximize participation by humankind-hours. The perpetuation of this priority is a natural outcome of the ultra-capitalist powers that be behind those afore-mentioned blackholes.
Yet I am also a believer that the maturity of all the good technological advancement could have only come hand in hand with all the “bad” progress. I also do believe the worst part of bad progress is cultural, and can be corrected.
Ask me!
For a flat $200 I will set up a blog or site for you using proven technology (like this site).
I will leave you with full control over it’s administration.
I will give you a summary of documentation for adding content or changing the site, locally testing your changes, and basic administration.
I will logs of everything I did in this process in case you wanted to learn from it.
I will point to official source documentation for all services and technology used wherever relevant in the above.
I likely will not be doing any fancy web design (thought I’ll try implement your proposed design as effectively as I can!), responsive site implementation, or custom JS. I’ll just set up your tent on the internet, answer your questions, and if you’re interested, mentor you through a bit more.
Find my contact somewhere on this (waves hands about) site.
List
Here are some of my favorite “old-style” pages (even if they look modern) and when I found/added them.
- bopspotter @ 2024/09/30
- something pink @ 2024/04/15
If you have a similar list send it to me. If I vibe with it, I’ll link it here or add some entries and credit you.