symliablog ʕ •ᴥ•ʔゝ☆

from the drafts: thoughts about the web

i've been trying to keep a habit of not having a bunch of drafts. so, ever so often, i routinely go through and delete or post them! i only have 2 left >:D
this is one of those ones where i said 'i'll get to it later' because i wanted to be thoughtful when writing it. its been 2 years, i dont wanna come back to it, but i definitely do think that it's still worth posting! so i'm gonna post it now, placeholders and all!
i still do believe the things i said, though i think i would have went more in depth about each point i already elaborated on.

Mar 07, 2024

i've kinda been going back and forth recently, and this probably isn't gonna be the only time i do it, but i wanted to kinda put somewhere tangible my thoughts in regards to the state of the web— and where i'd like to hope we can take it

as it stands now— everything kinda. is a mess. i'd say "everything sucks", but i know that's not necessarily true. i want to see good in some of the web things that are going on right now.

i think people are more and more rejecting the social media space, and wanting to return to a 'web 1.5' type space. i'm hesitant to call it a 'web 3.0', since it's already been claimed by the tech bros, in a way. but, i do think that the ideology of having the power back in the hands of the people and communities is one that's VASTLY important. i think collectively, we're at a place to make the change, it's just hard because no one quite knows what to do, or people have figured out what they want for themselves and have broken off to their own thing.1

i just don't want to see my loved ones, friends, acquaintances, and web neighbors feel so bogged down by the state of the web all the time.

unfortunately, considering everyone and their mother is trying to see financial gain2 from the web, i think that it would be better for us to pivot. a lot of it would just be collective conditioning and supporting, but i think we could accomplish it on a large enough scale!

here's what i think we should do3 :

ignore bad faith actors, trolls, and advertisers
the web is SO littered full of people who don't have our best interests at heart. they're doing things for attention, and are counting on your anger to continue maintaining relevance. i've definitely already seen on places like bluesky that people are refusing to repeat their twitter days, and add ammo to people who are looking to fight, upset, or who are only willing to sell you something, and not participate in the conversation. we need to prioritize people who are willing to engage in the community, not tear it apart. and as new decentralized places crop up, starving them out by ignoring and refusing to engage is the best way to maintain the peace. they can't fight with the air. we also just need to stop allowing people to do stupid or intrusive things for clout. people who throw food on their counter and mix it up with only their hands, or people who harass retail workers for videos are only doing it because we keep publicly giving them attention, even if its to mock them.4

have your own space
having your own space, separate from social media is always a plus. whether that be in chat circles, forums, blog sites, or your own website! you need something as your digital third space or home, where you can interact and engage with people without too much fuss. it would be your anchor, where you can go to when the vast sea of socials stresses you out.
we all kinda know social media as a whole isn't going away, so its up to us to curate those spaces, and turn it back into a social first space, and media second.
furthermore, i know i'm not the only one who finds out about a new platform, and then immediately thinks about making an account. this is primarily due to the fact that most of the spaces we initially had on these social media sites are no longer serving us, and because they suck eggs, you're gonna feel inclined to just. jump ship and hope this site is the NEW site that has everyone on it and you can be okay. if you have your own space, there is no hopping, you interact in places at your leisure.5 this is just a personal aside for me, but, please make your own website if you can. it enables you to be so free and creative, in ways that you'd never get to on a rigid social media account.

link to each other

curate information to be shared

we don't need to get rid of social media entirely

*link to other places with info about ways to do this, from other webplaces about how 'the old web' still exists, etc etc

  1. and that's fine! every single person does not have to bear the responsibility of helping the masses, but it is important to do your part.↩

  2. referring to people who are looking to gain clout or a platform or companies— not the hobbyist or artist who wants to live making what they want, or the small business owner who wants to gain an audience to do something they're passionate about.↩

  3. mind you, i'm just a 24 year old kid (27 now at the time of posting) on the internet, i don't have the whole scope of everything, but i definitely can see some things that do and don't work.↩

  4. there's definitely discussions that can be had about these things, but the collective outrage and quote-retweet dogpiling is only going to give them more attention, as social media sites see negative engagement as regular engagement.↩

  5. however, i do see why a freelancer or someone trying to keep their business afloat would have their hands in every bowl— they HAVE to in order to keep the lights on. we're getting to a point where everyone is becoming more scattered, and more people are becoming less inclined to keep moving around, so being on Every Site is almost necessary. obviously this isnt a catch-all rule, people are free to do what they want across the board, BUT, it would be beneficial to have your own space to go home to, to save from the stress of *gestures to all of the internet*.↩

#rambles #thoughts #web