I always see people going on that the Internet is dying, but is it really?
If you're reading this most likely you are seeing this online whether its through my site or as a photo shared on social media, or a private chat. Wherever you are seeing this essay, blog, thing? (As of the time of creating this I have no idea what to name these.) I have one question for you. How much do you enjoy the modern internet? Every time I see people talk about the modern internet I always see the same conclusions being reached which is that it absolutely suck! Of course I'm not surprised why this conclusion is always reached. Take one good look at modern social media site or use google as a search engine, and you will see that it filled to the brim with slop, AI generated images, and Advertisements. As for me I kind of disagree on the idea that the modern internet sucks there is so much good in the internet that I would even say out weight the bad. The main reason I say this is that every time people say "Modern internet sucks" it always without fail the same 7-8 sites being named, and while yes those 7-8 sites (Most being social media) are in a bad state it is not the entire internet. Of course I know why the same few sites are always mentioned since as this point those sites are basically used by everyone with an internet connection. But the internet as a whole is not those same few sites its a giant world filled with so many creative individuals, incredible sites big or small, passion for the things they do, and create, its filled with boundless free knowledge about the world no matter how weird or bizarre, the internet is this big wonderous place, and we shouldn't just give up, and let a bunch of bad faith actors, and AI just take this great thing, and run it into the ground. We should be doing everything in our power to make sure the internet remains this great thing for as long as possible. This brings up the question of how exactly we do so? I don't have concrete answer, but I do have some ways you can make using the internet better. One of the biggest things I think you can do is to create a personal site or browse a bunch of indie sites. Of course I understand that it is pretty daunting to create a site from nothing especially coming from social media where everything is just a few mouse clicks away. To a space where you are expected to just create everything yourself, but don't worry there are so many free resources out there that can help you especially free site hosting (The biggest 2 I'm seeing is Neocities, and Nekoweb), and easy to understand site templates as well. Of course if you can't or don't want to that's more than fine since you can also just be a viewer and see all of the sites being created there are a lot of them being created everyday with a lot of stuff on it, so you will never really run out. There are also many other sites out there that is outside of the main social media format. Fourms like Something awful, Squidboards, and the bell tree are good for connecting with people about a specific thing, Art sites like Itaku, Sheezy, Cara, and Comicfury are great for sharing your artwork. There are most likely more sites out there that are great, but these are the one I got right now (You can check out my cool sites tab that I got to update one day for more sites). Of course I should point out that not everybody can just easily up and leave the same 7-8 sites because for some people they depend on these sites for stuff like businesses, commission, or talking with people even me with discord, and that is understandable. But what I'm trying to get at here is how we can make the internet enjoyable for us again and that there is a big world out there outside of social media and the same 7-8 sites of course its hard to find this stuff since most of it is pretty hard to find, but it's out there, and that we must not give up any hope on the internet because underneath all of the crap there is a beating heart still bustling with creativity.