💾 Why we’re nostalgic for the early web

In October 2014 the online journal GIZMODO published an article heralding The Great Web 1.0 Revival. Its author Kyle Chayka observed: The booming size of today's mainstream social networks and the constant level of noise we have to deal with has inspired a sudden return to a time when the internet was quieter, safer, and more intimate… We're nostal... See more

So much of the web now is sanitized, copy-cat, and a bit scared. I think we are nostalgic for the early internet in part because anyone could curate it, and it was full of wonderful human flaws as a result.

So much of the web now is sanitized, copy-cat, and a bit scared. I think we are nostalgic for the early internet in part because anyone could curate it, and it was full of wonderful human flaws as a result.

Social media had not yet standardized our online experiences, and content wasn’t algorithmically manicured. The internet felt, somehow, more human, more real. A hodgepodge of self-expression, creativity, and human connection, punctuated by amusingly tacky GeoCities animations and early memes.

Still, I think something more fundamental has been lost for all of us as social media has evolved. It’s harder to find the spark of discovery, or the sense that the Web offers an alternate world of possibilities. Instead of each forging our own idiosyncratic paths online, we are caught in the grooves that a few giant companies have carved for us al... See more

Compared with the fragmented, D.I.Y. Web I knew, social media felt strangely predictable. User profiles on new sites like LinkedIn or Flickr were templated and surrounded by ads. They offered preset options from categories and drop-down menus—age, location, institutional affiliation—and quantified influence through friend and follower counts. The n... See more