On the Internet, Art, and Creativity as a whole (and more)

I've been on the internet for long enough to see sites rise and fall, sites fall into obscurity, and see some lie dormant as the webmaster stops updating. It is the way of the world, and I don't see that changing any time soon. The sites that have stayed in relevancy have become ad filled, algorithm hungry machines that eat away at it's users and steal their data.

The internet now:

These large sites thrive on user data, selling it to make a quick buck, and pitting users against eachother with arguably shitty rules and automated enforcement of them. The algorithm is made to make users fight with eachother to appease it, and if you're left in the dust, you are told it's not anyones fault other than your own. It's a never ending rat race in which there is no winner.

In this age of web 2.0, there is little to no customization of pages to be seen on the centralized web. All of the social medias look the same to keep up a "brand" for the company. Creativity as a whole has been labeled as "not marketable" (Unless the company is trying to pander to a certain audience for a quick buck, and even then they're the most run-of-the-mill and basic items you can get.)

The increased monetization of the internet is a double edged sword. By using sites like Ko-fi and Patreon, creatives are able to get money for doing what they love and be able to make their passion their main source of income. By using these sites and sites like them people are finally able to get money for what they love, but there's a catch. With sites like YouTube adding the monetization ability (IE putting ads in the beginning/middle/end of videos) that make their creators very little (iirc less than a dollar for every thousand views on a video) with the Partner Program launched in December of 2007, people were able to make some money on doing what they enjoyed. On the flipside, the Partner Program now is a finnickey, rather broken system that flags a video for no reason, (mostly due to some videos not being ""Brand Friendly"") it ruins the livelyhoods of many creators who do this for a living.

I've been on the internet unsupervised since at least 2007 (if my memory serves me correct.). I was a regular on sites like icanhaz.cheezburger.net and Newgrounds during the late 2000's and I saw firsthand the growth of many new ""Social"" Medias rise. At first, all of these websites were quite fond of customization, letting users make their page their own. Browing pages was like a treasure hunt- seeing what cool gif's and custom colors people had on their websites was always a fun experience.

I made this site for the sole purpose of making it my own. I deeply miss the creativity and personalization of websites that aren't just the 100th bootstrap site you've seen this week. I feel no need to be in the rat race that is social media anymore- It's a futile fight to get big and make content like that, especially since I battle with quite a lot of roadblocks in my life that stop me from creating constantly- Ones that I won't delve into here. I create for myself, and that's where I'm happy. I love creating stories, writing, and other things like it in my spare time where I'm able to take as much (or as little) time as I need for pieces.

I also made this site to archive things. I love music and video games, and many of my favorite older games are lost to time, or incredibly expensive to buy the original cartridges or discs. Archival is important (see: the Internet Archive) and I would like to host things of my own for people to enjoy- for free. I also intend to archive my art here as well, with no need to shove it into the algorithms of today, and just to look at them, and give my own view of them.

I've grown to hate social media, (as seen above) and I believe that the true internet experience has nothing to do with social media as a whole. I've been asked by my peers if I have a Snapchat, instagram, and the like, and I simply say no. Social media breeds a certain type of person in which I grew distain towards. The pandemic and subsequent lockdown made people far more dependent on social media and have lost their human connection. I've noticed the longer people are on social media and the internet as a whole, people don't see the person behind the screen and have become more and more aggressive and mean towards others, and forgetting the beginnings of the internet, which was to foster connections with others across the world. Social media breeds misinformation, which is usually left to fester like an old infection, which is rarely fought. I've seen some companies try to fake the "Here's tips to fight misinformation online and how to spot it!" ((cough) Google) when the companies truly don't care what they're feeding to their users. All that matters is for them to get more money in the end, no matter what.

Too Long: Didn't Read

I know this became kind of a word soup, so here's a shortened version of it all.