Do you think Web 1.0 will make a comeback? 👀

I've been noticing a growing movement of people who are getting fed up and sick of big tech platforms like Facebook, Twitter, etc.

When Elon acquired Twitter, I remember there was a big exodus of people leaving the platform for Mastodon. I've also been trying to break away from big tech for years. It's my desire to leave that lead me to finding this site, the indieweb, and the Fediverse! I think the only thing that really keeps me tied to big tech platforms, is that Facebook is most useful for its Marketplace and Messenger to keep in touch with friends, and Twitter is still most useful for acquiring news/information quickly because so many people are on it and news tends to spread fast. But I definitely notice a shift in people the last few years and people starting to diversify to other platforms.

What do you guys think? Do you think Big Tech giants like Facebook and Twitter will eventually crumble? Will people ever be able to break free of these platforms? What are your thoughts on this?

Well, that rather depends on what you mean by that. By some definitions, there's already been a comeback :) At least, I've seen a lot more people on the smallweb in recent years.

What I don't think will happen is for the Fediverse or some other technological solution to lead social media into a new utopian age. Even if it doesn't become corporate all on its own, there's always someone who wants to Embrace-Extend-Extinguish it. But there just might be a shift in the entire way people interact with social media and the web in general, with an explosion of smaller networks replacing the whole 'next big thing' system.

One thing, though — for this to happen, there would need to be something to make 'the small web' more accessible for random people — maybe a push for general computer literacy, too. Building a personal website, say, just can't be both near-universal and supposed to be somewhat hard and complicated to do — like a kind of rite of passage, of the sort that any niche hobbyist community has.

Another problem is that right now, a lot of people depend on corporate social media for income — because however much of a hellscape it is, a lot of people are on there, in a very reachable way! I'm not sure how they'll deal with that exact thing, to be honest. The nexus might shift to Mastodon or something like it, though, but I don't think that'd really mean much in retrospect.

For one example, though — I think — there'll be much more non-web protocols! There's already Gemini, with a goal of being more usability-focused — and maybe easier to work with — than Gopher, but still way simpler than HTTP. So, there might be more interesting things in that department :)

A select few will find their way back to the reboots of the old web or their variations. Gopher, Gemini, Nex, SDF, Scuttlebutt, Twtxt, Blips Club, SpaceHey, Retrobook, DaMeDaNeSpace etc

The rest will remain stuck on the large corporate platforms because they're either unaware of the small web, or they're unwilling to make the sacrifices that come with leaving the mainstream platforms.

The small web isn't for everyone. As in, there is no quick way to accumulate followers, or gain hearts and likes and popularity.

Even celebrities would find the Fediverse, Gopher world and Geminiverse to be quite intimidating. Because there is no special treatment. Everyone starts from scratch and builds their rep through time and dedication.

Due to the decentralized nature of these platforms, it's also harder to find people. You need to know exactly where to look if you want to find someone. Or leave it up to chance to stumble upon them.

Last edited on 2023-08-07 14:46:20

don't forget Bitview!

Oh my god thank you guys for sharing these sites! I had no idea SpaceHey existed, or Bitview, or Retrobook, and it just all threw me back into the early 2000s all at once. If you guys know of any more please feel free to share them here!

I think as long as capitalism's a thing, the internet will keep getting shittier

but the smallweb gives me hope

I recently read an article on this exact topic! It was written by the person who coined the term "enshittification" and I can't find it right now but he basically said that yeah these large corporate social media sites will eventually crumble. They will, in the meantime, get even more annoying and intrusive. One of the things they will constantly try as they start dying is pivot towards new trends in tech (most recent ones being AI and blockchain) but since their interest is in keeping all the value for themselves, it's unlikely the actual users or even the businesses on their site will actually like them.

Also, the reason most people are on social media today is because all of their friends are on social media. This is one of the reasons why these giants are so hard to kill, but it's a double-edged sword. If all your friends are leaving social media, then there's no reason for anyone to stay. This is what I think will eventually happen. No idea now what everyone will be migrating towards, though, but I hope it will be self-hosted websites and old school forums kinda like this one :3

For me personally, I've left most mainstream social media platforms. I'm still clinging onto my tumblr account, but it's the very last one. I've made a website on neocities that I try to update when I can and I'm thinking about adding a blog to it ^-^

Last edited on 2024-02-25 21:05:26

[On Feb. 25th 2024 pim wrote]

> I recently read an article on this exact topic! It was written by the person who coined the term "enshittification" and I can't find it right now but he basically said that yeah these large corporate social media sites will eventually crumble.

heres a link

>> https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys

honestly with more people getting into actual web3 (No, not that crypto shit, I'm talking about the frediverse here), I kinda see stuff drifting in in that direction for the people who really care about it, but people still relying on big corps for most things still, AWS and other big services sites will never die, and honestly self-hosting is a rabbit hole and solution nightmare in itself to tackle, at least in my experience.

I don't really see "social" media dying out as its kinda like (and excuse the elon mention here) city center of the internet, with stuff like smallweb being more like the specific streets and avenues that are like houses that you bring your friends to, the subdomains being different rooms and floors of your house, with no regulations, then you have itch.io, steam, and epic which are like the gamestops of the internet, and then the verge, kotaku, and (for lack of a better example) the onion as the "news" of the web, with all of its falacys. when you think about it the web is one big country sized metropolis, with the vains of google and bing as your transport companys of the world wide web.

also i hope that if facebook / meta dies oculus is spun off into it's own company again. we need affordable vr headsets.

IRC, USENET AND EVEN THE ARPANET STILL EXIST

>IRC, USENET AND EVEN THE ARPANET STILL EXIST

we just need to go back to it. i find mailing list

are even pretty good to browse. i usually use cpunks

and source hut for information.

IRC is still around? Yall got any IRC recs then?

libera.chat and rizon.net are good servers

I checkout Usenet every now and then. If you don't want to download anything you can create a free account with Eternal September. (not affiliated)

IRC is pretty cool, and you can message me with XMPP as well!

Last edited on 2025-03-31 05:46:07

yeah the fediverse and indieweb is a good start to get away from big tech. I think most people will stick to social media because it's what easy to use and the algroithm that keeps feeding you content to stay on the site longer.

web 1.0 loads so fast

@shockbs even if it didn't, I like that it's hostile to corpos

it seems like it's making a comeback! but, i think there is a time and place for social media as it currently exists...i treat it more like a rolodex than a place to socialize. it helps me figure out who to contact and how to contact them about things, then i can quickly move those interactions to email or text so i don't have to stay on the sites.

nope

most people (or at least most young people) can barely use a computer because they're just too used to mobile devices, I don't think they will be ditching instagram to make their own website anytime soon... maybe web 1.0 would become a thing if tech literacy starts getting pushed, but otherwise I think the indieweb will still be a small niche

fashionably late to the party. as since i work an IT-oriented technical school, i have some serious thoughts™. sadly i have to agree with @hottopicwannabe and share some of my other (less optimistic) thoughts on the issue.

obviously, i'm not speaking about all teenagers/young people and i don't teach computer-related subjects, but even during my classes kids don't know much about computers. making a power point presentation or using google is often something they don't know how to do. they know how to use their smartphones, but that's it. some of my friends at work teach IT and programming, and from talking to them i've learnt that trying to use a computer by tapping on the non-touch screen is sadly more common with younger kids than they wish it was. an example? a few days ago one of my friends told me that a girl in his class started to cry because she had no idea what to do with the computer mouse.

and finally, social media... yeah, i doubt people are gonna ditch them because of the politics or people behind them. social media are easy to use, free, and require no skills/effort. the companies owning them have sadly no reason to worry about their empires crumbling. and yeah, i've mentioned effort, right. i'm not trying to say that people on the indieweb are the most sophisticated folks alive, and i won't lie if i say that majority of us is pretty basic, sorry. but also we enjoy putting some effort into what we do, even into making a shrine for something we find neat and want to share this joy with a handful of people who come across our site. in the time of social media where the number of hearts under a picture or a tweet matters, i doubt younger people are going to put work into something that won't give them the validation social media conditioned them into looking for.

Last edited on 2025-09-04 04:41:11

Considering that a lot of (younger) people yearn for the past, some aspects of it might come back.

Some people have grown frustrated with limited customization from most social media websites and website builders such as Carrd and Strawpage leading them to create websites of their own (which was what happened to me LOL).

Web 1.0 or even 2.0 never really went away but was less prominent and got more commercialised. Most bloggers and services that I know have become marketable products (with the services becoming less niche and more generic).

There is something that nobody touches on and it sort of terrifies me. People are starting to put a firm division between online vs real life and it makes sense as humans thrive on having different and distinct categories to work in so let's say: personal vs school. We made a giant melting pot of commercialism from the internet so professional web vs private use got all blended together.

With people reasonably cutting back on their online time, most focus on just keeping a general presence for their friends or for their jobs. We're all barely surviving and we're dead exhausted so again - it is a rational consequence.

However, it leads us to people treating anything online less seriously and looking at content from a more detached angle. Leaving mass social media usually means joining networks catering to your niche and dwelling there. People don't really browse them if they are unfamiliar with them.

Another problem arises with connections - people being more detached and isolated means that they are less likely to treat whatever they post or however they interact personally. I saw many folks closing comments or being overly vague. Forums are long dead and nobody is really genuine and sharing personal things on their websites. Chats are the same and often on Discord which has so many rules that you might as well remain silent and they are usually private so joining one to be social is gruelling.

Real life has exactly the same problem with the rise of hyperindividualism, hyperindependence and us being barely mentally holding it together. The web is simply a mirror to all of that.

Why is it all terrifying to me? I'm physically disabled. The online world is where I meet people. I can't even recall when I last spoke to a person in any context and when I tried - I quickly learnt that I am like an ancient alien relic who writes gibberish. As a contrast - I was always surrounded by people and active both online and offline a decade ago - I never had any issues meeting or talking to people. Unfortunately, I do not know anybody in real life but I gave up. It became too hurtful to look for folks like me to connect to and I'll just wait a decade until sarcasm, autoirony and being a mess are back in fashion.