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Hello, World. I have a solution to the internet problem.

The Problem The current state of the internet is so normalised that people don't remember a time before corporations and advertisement ruled the web. Social media is all about self-gratification and political bias is rampant with minority voices suppressed on most social networking services; just look at the mess that was once Twitter where its owner, Elon Musk, uses the platform to amplify right wing opinions. Search engine algorithms often push oppressive opinions and have monopoly over the sites that show up. People don't run the internet anymore. The reason this is such an issue is because you can't really exist in society without using the internet; we are completely dependent on it. The next stage of this has been pushed by tech bros for the past couple of years now under the label Web 3.0. The age of AI, NFTs, cryptocurrency, the complete monetisation of something that is such a big part of our lives. The internet is dying, and capitalism will kill it. So much of the internet is now just bot activity, corporations using the web to sell their products, political bias being pushed by the rich that can afford to control the content the masses see. Have you considered how much of the internet you've never seen because you only browse the same couple of websites?

The contemporary internet also lost on artistry. Social media holds us to the same boring pages under the moderation of corrupt rich people. Sure, you can change your profile picture but that's typically the most customisation you can take part in. The web should be another medium to represent the spectrum of diversity of human culture. Imagine if every street you walked down looked the same, every building, etc. That isn't what our world looks like and the internet, as our second home, should reflect that. The Solution I find that we're told that social media is bad all of the time (which I agree with) and our solution to this is often simply to stop using the internet for social reasons. I don't believe that the way forward for us is to abandon one of the most impactful technologies to ever exist and reserve the internet as a tool for purely professional purposes. And frankly, not many people are going to just log off for the rest of their lives.

I believe the way forward for the web is to reject social media, corporations, all that is wrong with the internet and embrace the IndieWeb. We should own our own websites, own our data and undo the adverse effects of centralised social networking services. As a netizen you have the right to shape the space you exist in, just like a citizen of the physical world. This anti-corporate sentiment should extend to the way we consume technology. Refuse to overconsume new technology, embrace the obsolete. This also helps the environment by creating less waste, electronics are difficult to recycle and mass consumerism creates so much waste and pollution. Creativity is also so important to this movement. We will avoid perfectionism because it limits us. No matter how small, broken or incomplete the digital space you create is, it is encouraged.

I’m still an optimist, but an optimist standing at the top of the hill with a nasty storm blowing in my face, hanging on to a fence, we have to grit our teeth and hang on to the fence and not take it for granted that the web will lead us to wonderful things -Tim Berners-Lee