The web you want
Brent Simmons wrote a thought-provoking post in response to comments that the web has been destroyed by large platforms. Comments such as "RIP blogging" and "so much of the joy has been sucked out of the internet."
Yes, platforms like Facebook have largely taken over. Yes, many sacrifice privacy and control for convenience but, as Brent says "You choose the web you want."
Just because you're using platforms or social networks it doesn't preclude having your own space on the web. You just have to put some effort in: "You have to do the work."
The platforms aren't going away any time soon; we have to accept that. Still, we don't have to use them exclusively.
Brent's right.
It's up to us as individuals; if we want a web beyond the Facebooks of this world then we have to support it, we have to participate and, maybe, even help build it.
That can be as simple as creating a blog and sharing your thoughts with the world.
Although Brent quotes criticism that "hardly anyone is playing around with form or even just trying to entertain" what does that even matter? We can do whatever we want on our own sites but what's more important is that we actually have our own sites.
Admittedly, the more you put in the more you'll get out but making a start is the most important thing, a base upon which we can build.
I've been enjoying getting back to basics over the past few days, not trying to do anything special. What I have written, however, is here on my own site as part of a body of work for want of a better term.
And that will do for me.
Colin Walker follows up on Brent Simmons’ reaction to Molly Lambert and Charlie Warzel having declared blogging dead, but it’s important to note (as I keep doing) that they weren’t critiquing the rise of Facebook or Twitter but lamenting the fall of paid, professional blogging. Luis Gabriel Santiago Alvarado finds resonance with Chris Wilson’s declaration that he’s “happy to be an unprofessional blogger” after wanting to be a professional one. So did Alvarado, who now confesses, “Little did I know that blogging goes beyond just that.” It not only goes beyond that it began beyond that—and then the professional class of bloggers sucked all the attentional oxygen out of the room with their “VC-backed content websites” (which now are the only things anyone remembers), and then social networking took off and vacuumed up the non-professionals.
Today will be an annual reminder to myself to keep choosing the web I want. Brent Simmons wrote his post "You Choose" on 29th October 2019 so maybe that could be "TWYW Day" but today, the 30th, will be my own personal reminder, flagged by "On this day" and I intend to re-post each year. Ownership, both physical and moral, of our spaces, words and actions on the web are important and we have a responsibility to build and use things the way we want them to be.