Posted on 27th January 2025

The web of the (near) future

I think I'm forming an idea of what could become of the internet in a post 'rot-economy' world. I can envisage a point in time where some of the social media giants fall. I can also see that different paths for people expressing themselves (in terms of creating and building things) are emerging as alternatives. We may well see a resurgence in outlets that have existed for a long time, and some may be relatively new - such as decentralised and federated social technology.

People are starting to show serious interest in ideas like building 'protocols not platforms'. Many in the tech industry and beyond have also reignited their creativity in the form of technology and media they control; like self-hosted, self-owned personal websites. We're starting to rediscover that publishing things and connecting with people doesn't have to rely on large corporations, and that avoiding them can offer different qualities to our social experience.

There's an appreciation that physical media has a place and value of its own, too. It's not about rejecting technology out of principle, but choosing how we incorporate it into our lives.

I feel like we're missing a sense of permanence and there is a longing to create and participate in forums that help our creations and interactions have endurance and greater meaning to us.

Could it be that clicks and likes are starting to become an outdated currency?

If so maybe we have the opportunity to replace them with values based on people being more genuine, authentic and ultimately, making life more meaningful.


For those following along: I know my blog has seemed somewhat 'esoteric' of late. Rest assured I'm still interested and actively working in tech, perhaps even more so than ever before. I'll probably have some more 'contenty' things to post in time, whether that's about programming, user experience design or stuff going on in my life... There's a lot of day to day stuff like work on my car and our property ongoing to talk about too.

I also realise this blog would benefit from being broken up with some nice visual elements which it has been lacking in lately and eventually more interaction via a commenting mechanism. I think there's lots more writing and developments to come here.

But also it's all kind of connected: I'm trying to make some observations and glean findings about the direction things are going more broadly in the world, so I can discuss, think about and bring some of the interesting and useful developments to my own life, this blog included.