The Web That Was

I read a couple of blog posts recently that got me thinking. Or, rather, got some thoughts to congeal after years of stewing in the back of my head.

You can (and should) go give them both a read if you haven't already:

• The Old Internet from Pete Davison
• It's Time To Rebuild from Emma Newman

They both resonated with me. They gave words to a feeling I've had since 2017 - not-so-coincidentally, perhaps, a year similar to 2025 in some very big ways.

In 2017, I started unplugging myself from megacorp-owned, algorithm-driven Internet services (Gmail migration still in progress 😅). On January 1, 2020, I deleted Facebook and Twitter. And a couple years later, did the same for Reddit.

In the past seven or eight years, I've been trying to find what "healthy and fulfilling" looks like on the Internet for me. I've tried a lot of stuff in pursuit of that - Mastodon, the Gemini protocol, a Discord for a retro gaming console, Bluesky, and now blogging again. Some stuff has stuck, and some stuff for sure hasn't. But really, I'm still trying to find words for what I actually want.

I know that it will be constant work to remain vigilant and to ensure I never resume the death march down the infinitely-scrolling feed. But the two posts above helped me realize that I could and should take a more active role in (re-)building my online life. And one way to do that is to cast my mind back and find what worked for me in The Before Times so I can use that to inform what I'd like to see in the future.

So I started thinking about The Web That Was. And, yes nerds, I'm taking a very broad read on "web" here because "The Ways I Used To Interact With Networked Technology Services" doesn't have the same ring to it.

As I was thinking about these things, it occurred to me that others may find this exercise useful, too. It seemed like Pete and Emma already had, anyway. And I have been seeing more and more people recently nostalgic for the way things used to be. Though that's probably just a symptom of me getting older.

And after a brief thought, I realized that some might not be able to look backwards because they've never known the Internet any other way. People who - due to things like age, geography, or socioeconomic factors - haven't known anything else. I mean, people who are 24 now, were 6 and 7 when Facebook opened for public sign-ups and the first iPhone launched, respectively.

Anyway, all of this was a long-winded way to say that I'm going to be writing about some of my fondest memories of how the Internet used to work for me when I was a younger lad. This is not intended to be objective, scholarly research but rather moderately hazy and rose-tinted storytelling. To help me remember how things used to be in order to imagine how I'd like things to be in the future.

But I'm just one man with limited experiences and a very poor memory. If you feel the same as I do here, I'd really love your help. I'd love to hear how the Internet was "back in the day" for you and in your part of the world. This could take any shape you want: a quick Bluesky post, a link to an existing documentary or video essay on YouTube, a post on your own blog, a Wikipedia article, anything you feel comfortable sharing.

And perhaps you could even share it on Bluesky or Mastodon with #thewebthatwas so others can find it and learn from the past to imagine the future.