why even have a website? (taking your brain out of the jar)

as of... whenever the date i put here, this big, long page of text is up on my page, for you to read, on my own webpage, and not on any social media and not shown to you by an algorithm. and i think that's a little cool.

...in an age where everything we see is fed to us and every thought we have regarding what we want to see is also fed to us, i think you deserve to be a little proud of going on websites without algorithms, reading and exploring and seeking knowledge and fun. that's what motivates me to have my own little "corner" here, on my own website: doing what little i can in the movement against the consolidation of the internet.

on that, as convenient as a streamlined experience consisting of a few one-place-for-everything apps or websites can be, that convenience isn't for the good of everybody. monetarily, sites like twitter and youtube are free but the real cost is our time and attention - which, really, is money. the internet used to be known as a big wide place where you can find all of the information you could have ever dreamed of - where did our concept of "surfing the web" go? (hint: the algorithm killed it.)

the algorithm... present in pretty much all of the, like, four or five websites or apps we reguarly use and also the killer of the desire to explore in the age of the internet. in big tech's conquest of your attention, algorithms are their favorite weapons: we are fed what we like over and over again, forever... which is to say that the task of finding what we want to see is handed over to a machine. wouldn't you like to put your brain in a jar and be fed slop for the rest of your life? because with the upcoming storm of ai and the internet being taken over by ai-generated imagery, "writing," and even videos, that does seem like the future we're quickly veering into.

but anyways, all of that begs the question of... what are we supposed to do about that, though? what really am i meant to do about the rapidly shrinking internet?

• do read and explore when it comes to things you like.

being able to navigate the internet is exactly the skill we're losing right now. find websites and articles about things you like from reputable sources or even wikipedia. just read. it's fun! but the thing is,it's also exactly what google, for example, doesn't want you to do: going to websites in the first place. most people use the internet without clicking on a single thin (this is called the zero-click internet) - especially with the implementation of ai search results - and this hurts the people who own websites a lot.

• do share your own creations and have your own spaces.

now i'm finally circling back to the whole website deal. take advantage of the freedom you have, even if it seems a little daunting at first. don't let yourself be limited to 140 characters anymore, because you deserve the ability to think and write and foster your thoughts and opinions that big tech seems to want to suck away.

• if you're a part of fandoms or other primarily online communities, do interact in ways other than social media posting.

okay, besides the obvious fact that fandom on twitter and instagram and whatnot is annoyingly negative all the time forever, and that getting off of social media will make you feel a lot better, places like forums and entire websites dedicated to communities and fandoms are withering away right under our noses! the basis of online fandom as a whole! at least familiarize yourself with the ways of forums. (this also means venture outside of discord groups every once in a while.)

• don't use generative ai.

i don't want to write more than a paragraph about this one. that's hard for me. i can tell you that generative ai isn't actually meant to help you, for one. like all companies, the ones selling you generative ai don't actually care about you, let alone the efficiency with which you go about life, but they care about money! jaw-dropping, i know. i'm sure you know at least one person who uses chatgpt for anything, and can't seem to do stuff without it. the truth is, leaning on ai to learn and create for us will let us simply forget how to learn and create ourselves. and who does that benefit? not us, that's for sure... (i think i'll just have to write about that later.)

that's just a little. there's also things you could do other than be on the internet at all, but of course, i also want the internet to impprove and be fun and not a soul sucking constant stream of slop and advertisements like it's already become. if you retain nothing else i say at least retain the idea that you CAN have fun on the internet even when it seems like everything is either trying to make you mad or make you spend your money.

when i started writing i intended to introduce myself, and i decided that i'd rather talk about this, instead, because how better to introduce myslef than give you my opinions on current life-changing discourse? :p