I write things. I write things about the internet, on the internet. Occasionally I write about the band No, Really, but I save most of it for my youtube channel. This specific blog is about my writings on internet history and communities from before, and what I have learned in the months since I've begun posting blogs in similar vain to "how the hell did we get here?" and "The Modern Internet and the Return to a Bygone Era."

First things first, a pretty clear fact if you've read the blogs that I refer to as "Smart Blogs":

I do not know everything, I only know a smidge of things about the older web.

When I wrote the blogs "Is the Internet getting meaner?" and "How Far Are You Willing to Go?", I thought that I had a grasp on the bigger picture of what it was like to be on the old web. However, my biggest issue is this: I was born in 2006, about the tail end of the "Wild West" era of the internet. My main sources when writing those were the easy-guessed youtube videos (think Whang!, Internet Historian, maybe a few GamerFromMars videos here and there), twitter posts that glorify that era or have screenshots from around the time, and basic archives of threads from imageboards or forums. So when using those very flimsy sources I wrote down what I believed was the best of my knowledge. 

And while "How Far" did get people talking about what their preferences would be when I gave the dilemma of the unmoderated Old Web or the clean Neo-Y2K experience, it was "Is the Internet getting meaner" that really got people talking about how we have it better than what came before. To me, that was a tiny bit of a reality check because I imagined that modern social platforms had opened the floodgates to the worst people that the digital landscape had to offer, but people were educating me on how things were truly in the days that I had only a small finger dipped in. And I think that's also another thing that kinda tramples my flowers when I write these blogs.

Despite my small knowledge, I'm prone to romanticize and praise what I perceive as necessary.

I think one comment I got under "How Far" really got me thinking about this. In that blog I describe modern 4chan as "a crazed shell of its former self", but the commenter criticized that description and said that there is no difference between yesterday and today's 4chan. And honestly, looking back on it? I agree with that commenter, even with their rant about the vileness of anons on there. When I see 4chan, I see the home of anonymity and closed communities. And I love that, From my narrow view of the chan, I developed a belief in what I called "internet isolationism", an idea where the internet should've kept to itself. It's essentially gatekeeper extremism and it's kind of a stupid idea now that I've wrote what it means. But others don't see it that way, others see it for what it is. A hive of raving people who would probably gut you up the second they see you're not their specific type of human. The shelter for some of the most depraved people on the internet. Something that should not be held as a place of honor. And what was my major negative opinion on 4chan again? Oh yeah. Anons being too weird with Azumanga Daioh characters then and now.

So what do I plan to do now? Do I plan to stop writing these "smart blogs" entirely?

No.

Do I plan to continue on with my small knowledge and use that still?

Not exactly.

Do I write too long for what it's worth?

Debatable.

What do plan on doing is at least learning more about what I want to write about when it comes to the internet and branch more into newer sources than just the simple youtube search or twitter greentext. Now it's not gonna be perfect, maybe my bias will slip and praise something uncool or whatever. But I want to at least know I've improved from what I have put out here on SpaceHey in the future.

With that, see you eventually, reader.

"Strawberry Fields Forever..."

- Ayumu "Osaka" Kasuga (1984-2079)