Back in the 2000’s, I was decently involved in the tech world, especially privacy and following/using FOSS. I fell off in a major way as the strain of work and college took over and I just didn’t have the energy to devote to the cause and maintenance of my own resources. During the pandemic, I deleted my Facebook account as I watched friends and family become hateful. I stopped using Twitter as well and finally deleted it when the Musky Boy took over. Reddit was still a community I had trust in as it was relatively anonymous and the user experience was customizable so I could avoid the worst parts. With Reddit’s anti-user and especially anti-accessibility moves I woke up. Y’all at startrek.website gave me a safe starting point to the Fediverse, and I dove back into taking control of my computing experience. How has the upheaval of corporate social media changed your online life?
It’s all a thing again among some young people. Depending on who you ask, it’s called the web revival, the yesterweb, the indie web or retro internet.
Check out SpaceHey.com for an active social media site replicating what MySpace was at its peak, including a big scenemo userbase. Look at Yesterweb.org, look at Melonland.net and its forum, look through webrings, and especially look at Neocities.org and what people are building there.
We all still have web counters, guest books, webrings, shoutboxes, chat rooms, and terrible (and awesome) design, just with the quality of life of modern bandwidth and internet technologies. :)