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content/blog/2026-06-27-internet.org → content/blog/2026-06-29-internet.org renamed +13 −13
| @@ -85,14 +85,14 @@ whether the evolutions have been good or bad. | ||
| 85 | 85 | |
| 86 | 86 | As you read on, *please* (*PLEASE!*) send me an email if this post sparks a memory |
| 87 | 87 | or you have thoughts. I genuinely enjoy hearing these stories from anyone, and I |
| 88 | push for you to send me them as you think of them. | |
| 88 | push for you to send them to me as you think of them. | |
| 89 | 89 | |
| 90 | 90 | * 2001: The Family Computer |
| 91 | 91 | |
| 92 | 92 | The family computer. What a throwback. Perhaps you even had a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_place][third place]] |
| 93 | 93 | computer you visited. Wherever, whatever that computer was - think of that |
| 94 | 94 | computer as you read this. I will be speaking from my perspective and I hope it |
| 95 | resounds with someone out there. | |
| 95 | resonates with someone out there. | |
| 96 | 96 | |
| 97 | 97 | I recall coming home from school, getting through required chores, homework, or |
| 98 | 98 | anything else first. Perhaps you had siblings with which you shared the computer |
| @@ -114,7 +114,7 @@ graphics. This was the epitome of 2000s technology and people loved it. | ||
| 114 | 114 | *Side note*: We owned a heavy, wooden CRT TV set from the 1970s or 1980s that hid |
| 115 | 115 | all buttons behind a fake, black "speaker" that you could press to pop open. A |
| 116 | 116 | decade or two after we had tossed this TV into our barn for disposal, my brother |
| 117 | an I took turns hitting the glass screen it as hard as we could with a baseball | |
| 117 | and I took turns hitting the glass screen as hard as we could with a baseball | |
| 118 | 118 | bat. |
| 119 | 119 | |
| 120 | 120 | It never left a mark, regardless of how hard we hit it. Why don't we produce |
| @@ -155,7 +155,7 @@ At this point, there was no ritual to the internet or even to the computer | ||
| 155 | 155 | itself. The computer was a tool used for specific tasks, such as my mother |
| 156 | 156 | designing pamphlets in some obscure program for printing, or for fun. |
| 157 | 157 | |
| 158 | Often times, you would sit down with no particular destination. You were | |
| 158 | Oftentimes, you would sit down with no particular destination. You were | |
| 159 | 159 | *exploring*. I use that word specifically because it's how I truly felt. Whenever |
| 160 | 160 | I turned on a computer, I was exploring a digital universe that had not been |
| 161 | 161 | charted before. |
| @@ -166,7 +166,7 @@ much as you'd like. | ||
| 166 | 166 | |
| 167 | 167 | * 2004: Exploring the Web |
| 168 | 168 | |
| 169 | The internet stopped feeling like a software. | |
| 169 | The internet stopped feeling like software. | |
| 170 | 170 | |
| 171 | 171 | It became its own world. |
| 172 | 172 | |
| @@ -196,7 +196,7 @@ internet was endless, borderless, and expansive. There was always a new rabbit | ||
| 196 | 196 | hole waiting for you. Even if you had to watch every image slowly appear one |
| 197 | 197 | horizontal line at a time. |
| 198 | 198 | |
| 199 | Before moving on to the next section, do you remember the [[https://www.spacejam.com/1996/][1996 SpaceJame | |
| 199 | Before moving on to the next section, do you remember the [[https://www.spacejam.com/1996/][1996 Space Jam | |
| 200 | 200 | website]]? What a modern marvel. Honestly one of the world's wonders. |
| 201 | 201 | |
| 202 | 202 | * 2007: Living There |
| @@ -254,7 +254,7 @@ minutes later, you could have your own site. There were few, if any, | ||
| 254 | 254 | restrictions on what you could publish online. |
| 255 | 255 | |
| 256 | 256 | This could lead you to learning HTML and CSS, as many users wanted to customize |
| 257 | their sites, which generally leads to users discovering the freedom of ownining | |
| 257 | their sites, which generally leads to users discovering the freedom of owning | |
| 258 | 258 | their own sites. This included things like mail signatures, avatars, |
| 259 | 259 | forum-specific usernames and more. |
| 260 | 260 | |
| @@ -314,11 +314,11 @@ descent into a disregard for the users. | ||
| 314 | 314 | To me, that 2012 era was a turning point. You may personally love a different |
| 315 | 315 | era (1980/1990s gamer, anyone? Any former phreaks out there?), but to me, it |
| 316 | 316 | felt like we kept making leaps in technological capability until we reached the |
| 317 | point of economical profitability in the 2000s-2010s era, where corporations, | |
| 317 | point of economic profitability in the 2000s-2010s era, where corporations, | |
| 318 | 318 | investors, and governments took a serious interest in controlling the internet. |
| 319 | 319 | |
| 320 | 320 | From here on out, the digital landscape seems to have a more sinister appearance |
| 321 | and affect on us. | |
| 321 | and effect on us. | |
| 322 | 322 | |
| 323 | 323 | * 2026: Logging On Today |
| 324 | 324 | |
| @@ -337,7 +337,7 @@ Fast forward to today: 2026. You want to check the latest headlines in your brow | ||
| 337 | 337 | thinly-veiled advertisements. |
| 338 | 338 | 9. If you searched instead of typing the URL directly, your browser (most likely |
| 339 | 339 | Google) will show you an AI summary loosely related to your search but not |
| 340 | really what you were looking for you. Somewhere in the distance, a tree | |
| 340 | really what you were looking for. Somewhere in the distance, a tree | |
| 341 | 341 | wilts. |
| 342 | 342 | 10. Below the AI "summary", which somehow takes half of the page space, results |
| 343 | 343 | are loaded. However, the top 3-5 are promoted results, which means they may |
| @@ -345,7 +345,7 @@ Fast forward to today: 2026. You want to check the latest headlines in your brow | ||
| 345 | 345 | 11. *FINALLY*, below all of that, will be the "real" results. These have been |
| 346 | 346 | predetermined by Google's search algorithm. At this point, you'd suspect it |
| 347 | 347 | would be consistent or at least transparent, right? Wrong. It's a black |
| 348 | box - don't ask anymore questions. | |
| 348 | box - don't ask any more questions. | |
| 349 | 349 | 12. You may click one, or maybe thirty, results before you find what you're |
| 350 | 350 | looking for. |
| 351 | 351 | 13. Great, a website with a real answer. But wait! You're not trustworthy |
| @@ -395,11 +395,11 @@ scrolls. | ||
| 395 | 395 | I'm going to yell at clouds now. Be prepared. |
| 396 | 396 | |
| 397 | 397 | I miss the /old/ web, the indie web. Where websites were authored by humans, even |
| 398 | in capacity underneath a corporation. | |
| 398 | in some capacity underneath a corporation. | |
| 399 | 399 | |
| 400 | 400 | We had rudimentary tools to solve the riddle of discovery, but they were tools |
| 401 | 401 | nonetheless. Want to discover and explore new sites? You had search options, |
| 402 | such as early Google or Jeeves, or third party tools. We had web rings, | |
| 402 | such as early Google or Jeeves, or third-party tools. We had web rings, | |
| 403 | 403 | blogrolls, link lists, and other manually-curated pages to discover top-tier |
| 404 | 404 | content. |
| 405 | 405 | |