Some of you should commit more to the "old web revival", and ditch modern social media

This is a blog post about a trend I've seen take place here on Spacehey.

I've browsed many blogs and profiles, and noticed that a good amount of users bring up wanting to "bring back the old web" as part of their reasons to be on this site. That's obviously good in itself... But, how many of these people just use a copy and pasted  layout that hasn't been modified, because they can't be bother to learn how to? And how many of them don't actively browse the platform, and don't want to spend time reading other people's blog posts? How many of them have, somewhere in their profile, something that reads "I don't use this app much, follow me on [mainstream social media app]"?

Now, this is not a callout post, nor it is a blog complaining about Spacehey as a platform: I love this site, and I'm not bothered by the portion of the userbase in question. This is a "free yourself from the shackles of the corporate web" post. This is intended to help those users. Most of them are very young, some even below 15. Others are a bit older, but started using the web only somewhat relcently. And I think that's part of the reason why they are so lost on what the "old web revival" looks like: not only they did not get to experience the "old web", but they didn't even get a glimpse of it.

I was born in 2004. So I was not online during what most users regard as the "golden age" of the web. However, the web when I first started browsing it still was, at large, very similar to the one of the previous decade. There still were plenty of independent sites in the top search results, forums were the main source of information on many topics (and with "forums" I don't mean exclusively Reddit, like it is now), and Flash was.. still alive. However, I have to also mention that my experience was different than most of my peers. See, where on the web you ended up also depended on why you were on the web, and my "why" was fandom. And fandom led me to some very niche places that used to still run on the type of structures and communities that characterized the old web. It admittedly also lead me to some pretty weird places, but that's a story for another day.
All this to say, that although I did not experience the authentic "old web", I was still on the web at a time and place were it was pretty damn close in spirit. And I want more people to have a chance to experience it.

I've noticed a significant shift in the web in, let's say, the past 5-7 years. The internet quickly became more centralized and less user-focused. I think Covid and the consequencial lockdown quickened a process that was already in motion: companies massively changing the landscape of the web to make it more monetizable. There are several major events that led us to where we are now: Google further solidifing itself as the main search engine, Facebook becoming Meta and buying Instagram, Elon Musk buying Twitter (I refuse to call it X lol), Musically dying and being rebirthed into Tiktok,  Reddit selling out ot Google, Generative AIs like ChatGPT becoming available to the public. I will not go into detail about how each of these events negatively impacted the web, but they are at large responsible for how the surface web is today.
The internet landscape looked vastly different just 5-7 years ago, which means most kids nowsays willl have only experienced the post-Covid web.

And these changes in the main platforms of the web lead to changes in the attitudes of the users. I'm being so earnest when I say this: social medias are not good for you. See, this is a sentiment that I violently opposed in my early teenage years. And, for the record, I did not change my mind just because I'm older now: I still think that social medias at large were, back then, mostly a positive element in people's lives. See, there was a lot of harmful content on the internet (the infamous ProAna community on Tumblr, for example). But this content existed despite the platforms: the companies main fault was simply not moderating it well enough. Nowdays, however, the negative aspects of social media exist because of the patforms, by design. Think about apps constantly trying to get your attention to keep you on them as long as possible. Tiktok (and before it, musically) unfortunately made the discovery that the combination of short videos and an infinite "for you" feed worked incredibly well to retain user attention. What happened after Tiktok surged in popularity? Almost every other social media implemented a similar feature. YouTube launched youtube shorts, Instagram came up with Instagram reels, and Twitter, Facebook, and even Tumblr tried to replicate a similar feed where you can scroll through endles short videos. None of these apps had a real reason to do this, if not purely to try to retain user attention for longer, and this is a perfect example of a new feature that does not serve the user. I don't what every single app to be a "short videos" app. It's what I call the "tiktokification": a process that, ironically, TikTok is not at fault for, consisting in every other social network attempting to copy their success. 

The case of the enshittification of Instagram is one I'm particularly familiar with. Instagram used to be entirely focused around photo-sharing until a couple of years ago, and it was a great way for artists like me to display their work. It was one of the apps I had been on the longest, until I quit it a couple of months ago. Back in the day, the Instagram main feed was made up exclusively of people you were following. The only way to find new users would be to scroll through the hashtags (which displayed posts in chronological order), or to check out someone a friend had tagged in their post. At this time, Instagram was used mostly to follow people you already knew, or to find users with similar interests through hastags. At some point, a feed showing popular posts from random users in the "search" tab was added. It was a good addition in itself, but with it also came the first real algorithm. Users could now browse posts tailores to their taste to find out new accounts, but most of them still spent the majority of the time on the home feed. After that, a series of changes altered the landscape of the platform completely. The "home" feed, which showed followed accounts, started ordering posts in popularity rather than chronological order: now the feed was mostly made out of posts form influencers and other popular accounts, not people you actually knew. Then, Instagram Reels, the new format of content mimicking Tiktok videos, launched. And it was... Underwhelming. It was not a bad launch per se, but it was not decisive either. I cannot stress this enough: there was no actual demand for Instagram reels at the time, and their success was totally manufactured by Instagram management, who believed they would be more profitable than the classic posts.
To aid reels in becoming more popular, instagram completely removed the "recent" tab from the hashtags, which now showed esclusively popular posts. Users had seen the interactions on their posts being artificially cut down by these changes in the app: with both the home feed and hashtags now ordering posts by popularity, there was no way at all to see recently posted pictures. This meant that, for your average user, the only way to have any sort of interaction with others was to post on Instagram reels. And this had an interesting effect: a new massive body of users that did not post at all. After all why would you post, if noone would see what you shared? Those who posted because they enjoyed sharing pictures slowly stopped, and those who posted for the numbers started making Instagram reels. This phenomenon of a large portion of users not actually "using" the platform is not unique to instagram: many people nowdays treat social media like something to consume. They use the platform passively, like how one would use a tv or a radio, rather than actively sharing their stuff and genuinely interacting with others. And I think this attitude definetly seeped into Spacehey, as I keep getting more and more friend requests from users with no blog entires.

On that note, actively sharing something on the platform does not necessarily imply genuinely interacting with other users. This is what I typically refer to as "posting for numbers": people that make content to see the number of likes/kudos/comments/whatever go up rather than to genuinely share their ideas with others and form community. Now, do not get this twisted: this type of mentality is as old as social networks themselves, not really a product of modern social media. However, I find it way more pervasive nowdays. Almost any platform has countless tutorials on how to get as much engagement as possible on it: what hashtags to use, what are the trending topics to talk about, what thumbnails and titles to use on youtube, how to make tiktoks that catch the user attention and do well in the algorithm, etc. It's honestly exhausting. I understand that there is a place for this sort of things, and that there are small businesses which rely on social media for their sales. But let's not kid ourselves: most people following this advice are just regular users.
Here's the thing: you are not a brand. You don't have to make yourself marketable or appealing to others. Be authentic. Do not treat yourself like a product.

Mainstream social media platforms nowadays are littered with content farms,  advertisements (often undisclosed), and rage-bait content. They are often lacking when it comes to moderation, and do not have the user's best interest in mind. Many of them are also in the hands of tech monopolies or tech oligarchs, including (but not limited to): Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Youtube, and Twitter.
Awareness of the flaws of mainstream platforms, along with knowledge of the downsides of a centralized and commericalized web, are at the center of the web revival movement. It is not a movement born out of nostalgia or aesthetics alone.

So, if you have made it this far, and want to truly take part in the old web revival, what should you do? First off: reduce your presence on mainstream social media platforms. You don't have to quit them altogether if you do not feel ready, but at least don't make them your "main" presence on the web Join forums (I've currently been using Melonland, but there are many to choose from) that match your interests, support independent sites like Spacehey (either through donations or word-of-mouth). Actually get involved with other users by joining groups, or by contributing to zines or other initiatives.
And, if you really want to commit to old web revival and to the indieweb, you should make your own website. 
The only reason why I'm bringing it up only now is that, unlike the rest of the things I've listed, this will actually require effort and a significant time investment. This does not mean that making a website is inaccessible, however! Learning is fairly easy, and you can make a website completely for free if you have access to a PC. There are many easy-to-use free website-hosting services, like Neocities (the one I use!) and Nekoweb, and plenty of tutorials out there.

This is only scratching the surface of everything I dislike about the corporate web and everything I like about the indieweb... and it's already my longest blog entry to date! So thank you for reading this far.
If this made you rethink your position on the modern web.. for one, I'm glad!!! It's what I was hoping for when writing this. If you want somewhere to keep reading about this stuff, I recommend "Intro to the Web Revival #1: What is the Web Revival?" by Melon. It's a great place to start, and it will also point you to an introduction to websites and how to make your own!
As per usual let me know what you think! ^_^