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.