Random long rambles

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.

Alright so I got this genius idea for this software, and I need you guys to hear me out. So basically you get a service that gives ok/decent quality for stuff. In return you give me 20$ a month, all of your personal information, all your data, constant ad spam, impossible to quit when you want, and in general an experience that is a notable downgrade to the original, except for being more convenient. Now that sounds like a bad deal, right? So someone explain to me why this is so common, with so many forms of media? We are living in what I honestly consider to be a horrible time to get entertainment. Subscription services across the world are just getting worse, more ads everywhere, quality is more crap, it keep bugging you for money, my privacy doesn't matter, my data keeps getting sold everywhere, I don't own anything! It's is frustrating to say the least. With all of these subscription services dipping in quality, I been getting this thought what if I were just go back, and I don't mean time travel to like the 90s or something like that. I mean go back to more physical forms of media like instead of using Spotify I use a MP3 player, instead of streaming tv shows, and movies I get a DVD player and collect box sets for shows, and movies I like. Now that isn't to say that I dislike subscription services I believe that it can work. But I feel what separates a good subscription service from a bad one is a lot of factors. For example Netflix it's incredibly convenient/easy to use in fact in some cases you just have to press a single button, and you're on Netflix, but all the downsides of Netflix just outweigh the benefits for me. Yea it's convenient, but when I have to keep worrying about the stuff I like getting taken off the platform for no good reason, or having to pray that my data/personal info doesn't get leaked does the convenience matter anymore? Another thing to note is exclusive shows stuff you can't get anywhere else except for the specific platform, honestly I'm fine with living without it Now I should note that my dislike for the majority of subscription services isn't the main reason why I want to switch back to more physical forms of getting my media fix. I feel that it's more personal when I use more physical media. My grandma used to use a DVD player, and I remember when I pick out a case, and put the DVD in the player it felt more personal. Like yea everybody watch Fat Albert, but I (actually my grandma) owns him. The silly DVD menus that feature bonus content to add on to the experience, which makes it more fun. This is not even getting into music! I listen to music, a lot of music, probably an unhealthy amount of music, but that's something future me have to worry about. As such I use a lot of music apps that left me unsatisfied, and the ads we can't forget about the ads. That was until I had gotten an old MP3 player it was way more inconvenient to pull it out, and hook it up to the computer just to put music on. There was also no Bluetooth on the thing so I had to get used to using a cord again for the first time in years. But I be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it! Similar to the DVD player, the music felt more personal to me using it, as such I didn't skip around as much since doing so would require me to much more time than me pressing one button. Of course I unfortunately lost it so I had to go back to using my phone (Here to hoping I find it one day as I know it's somewhere in my home). This could just be a phase for me, but this thought of going back to more physical media had been in my head for about a year now, and I feel more strongly about the idea with each passing day. So much so that I might go all in when I get a job.