dreaming of a better internet

self-hosted networks like Mastodon are an alternative that more people than ever before have experienced. There is more awareness that running these servers and instances in a way which meets the minimum bar of reasonableness costs time and money. And not an insignificant amount. These small communities that are safe, welcoming and adaptive require

... See more

AMANDA MONTELL: I really appreciated this video from Kurzgesagt, which articulates how the current hyper-connected state of the internet has destroyed our collective mental health. The video suggested the glory days of social media were actually the early 2000s, when like-minded users could gather in niche, siloed forums to discuss common... See more

One woman described the world today as “scam or be scammed” — a phrase that got murmurs of agreement. As people talked about their jobs, school, AI, and clout-chasing, the scam or be scammed idea kept returning

If you’re posting on social media or any platform with an algorithm, the real question is: do you work for the algorithm or are you committed to working for the people who want to go where you hope to take them?

The URL bar is perhaps the most fundamental part of browsing the internet, and yet it’s something I haven’t thought about in at least five years. That’s because I’m often just going to one of four sites that autocomplete the moment I type the first letter, and because I’m a Chrome user, the URL bar is interchangeable with the search bar, so when I... See more