The internet

The internet may be becoming increasingly threatened and completely controlled by large, privatized corporations, but it’s still ours:

Not just mine, not just yours, ours.

It’s a place to be weird, yourself, not nobody. It’s a place for you to be whatever you want, wherever you want. Whether in elaborately constructed animal character, or a silly JPEG. It’s a place where communities can gather, and cultures can connect,

It may seem like a hedge maze controlled by only 30 or so groups, but it does have exits. Exits that lead to wonderful places. And when one place crumbles, a new one can form just as easily from someone else. And the cycle continues when the same happens, much like life itself.

Running a spot on the Internet may not be the easiest task, both mentally, with all the security measures, updates, and constant maintenance that needs to be done. And financially, acquiring the right hardware to host, paying out monthly fees for hosting an infrastructure, finding the “right” internet, as well as registering and renewing domains. But when you have the ability to reach a large amount of people, it can feel breathtaking to see. Especially without the beauty filters of engagement bait.

Even as robots patrol the tubes, fibers, and radio, snagging whatever data they can for themselves. And then flood them back with hastily crafted sludge. But amount of what they do can ever completely drown out those that make it possible.

The right connections make a large difference, and while big tech may have warped the masses idea of the web with large, free playgrounds that are hard to compete against. It can still be taken back. It’s not easy, but you don’t have to take back all of it.

I have to think about the kids ’90s guide to the internet, and the amount of naivety it shows. Well it still shows a lot of massive corporations in groups highlighted, the ’90s internet still looks like it had a vibe to it. That was fresh, and new. I can’t say for sure, because I didn’t use it at the time, but that’s at least how it looks.

Now that I’ve gotten on the internet, I’d rather be on my computer than doing just about anything!

It’s strange to think, because today, this quote sounds like something of addiction. But I’m willing to wager in the ’90s, when the internet was still new, The internet truly felt like somewhere that was enjoyable to spend hours on.

And in many cases it still is. Though I sometimes wonder if slow downloads and having your connection cut off by the phone would be more enjoyable than trudging through hours of crud.

The fact that the internet has made communities visible, ones that have been seen as taboo (and still might be) or otherwise nonsensical can strive without as much fear is astounding. Groups that a normal person would not bother to think of or necessarily tolerate like Otherkin and Plurals can have a community where they can gather. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be free from those wanting to disrupt it. But the internet also isn’t necessarily a place that everything can be changed on a whim on it at once. No one has to agree to the changes others put up. And as they said, the competition is always just a click away.

The boom in the exchange of ideas has lead to those with a fear of change to cower at everything new coming in. Everything seems alien to them because it’s not what they had when they were young. .

So overall, if you’re on the internet (which you probably are), keep being weird, keep being rad, keep being kind, and if you can, do look into making your own place on it. Whether that’s through picking up the essentials of HTML and CSS, or using an off the shelf solution like WordPress. And if you can’t do that, at the very least, branch yourself out on the internet. Because you never know what’s going to happen on this crazy world.