Reliving the Good Old Days of the World Wide Web
The good old days of the Internet, around the mid 1990s, were a heady time. Every day was an adventure, falling down rabbit holes, uncovering new websites, finding kindred spirits, being superglued to the screen until the wee small hours.
It was the era of the blogger, blogrolls and a sense of community. I loved it. Before long I had a blog of my own, initially hand coded in HTML, later moving on to sites like Blogger and then WordPress.
I can’t remember the exact words but one of my blogs was described as quirky and eccentric by a reader. I was flattered. That was exactly the style I was aiming for. Random jottings, highlighting moments from my life, and sharing the things I loved to do.
It’s been bubbling under for a while but I miss those days. Before everything became commercialised, about business, or selling stuff. Those early blogs were creative, inspiring, and personal. I still remember many of those bloggers.
The End of an Era
I came across this post recently, surfaced for me by
:
Written in October 2023, it reflects a feeling that I’ve experienced, on and off, for some time.
I think that this whole smartphone scrolling, content consuming, ubiquitous posting, Extremely Online thing is going to go the way of the Fedora, or the Marlboro smoked at cruising altitude in economy class. In the end it is all going to fade. This may not happen for a good number of years, but I truly believe it will happen. I think we’ll look back on this time decades hence and shake our heads at how ignorant and naive we all were to collectively torpedo our attention spans, our social lives, our decision making, our childcare, our dopaminergic reward systems and our environment with these pocket-sized touch screen pacifiers and all that they contain and imply.
Thomas J Bevan
This will sound like a contradiction. I love tech and what it can do. I just love the energy suck, and the lack of meaningful content less and less.
I don’t think it’s just me.
I hanker after those early days when I first got online. I’m trying to replicate them with simpler ways of spending time on the internet. I call it the tiny web1. It’s my version of pared down, minimalist tools that help me create, share and publish but without the noise, fanfare and hurrah.
Inspired by the Early Internet: The movement draws inspiration from the early days of the internet, before the rise of the large, commercialized web, where personal websites and small online communities were more common.
Increasingly, I just want to write. Whatever I fancy. Not in any particular way but based on whatever occurs to me and piques my interest. I’m craving some peace and quiet in my little corner of the World Wide Web.
So, I’ve gone back to blogging. I’m using tiny tools to do this. Indie websites that I’ve been using in the background. Not part of a huge network where you’re a small fish in a big pond, but tiny communities of others who are also paring back.
The Paul Jarvis Way
In many ways, this is the internet I connect with Paul Jarvis (now no longer online - he was always ahead of the curve) and author of Company of One. He was low key. His website was minimal. Lots of white space. Mostly text. His weekly newsletter was about storytelling, freelancing, growth. What I loved was that he never sold to you. Just a P.S. at the bottom of the email - oh, by the way, I’ve written a new book or I’ve created a course. And you clicked on the link and bought it. You already knew and loved him because you’d been reading his emails forever.
Of all the people I miss online, Paul is number 1.
When I worked in Manchester, one of my connections also read Paul’s writing. She was the first person I’d come across, offline, who had heard of him. We both rated him very highly.
In October 2014, I had a one to one with Paul. I still have the notes and recording.
All this to say … I’m satisfying the yen to return, in some small way, to those halcyon days.
To see what I’m up to, read some blogs or sign up for some tiny newsletters, just click the button below.
Tiny Tools
If you want to create your own small space, here are the tools that you might like to try:
Scribbles - blogs
Public.me - micro blogs using iMessage
Alto.so - Apple Notes blogs or websites
Recuremail - newsletters
All of these options are inexpensive and minimalist but do the job.
I believe it will end, this so-called way of life. Not through the Silicon Valley oligarchs spontaneously developing a conscience or being legislated into acting with a modicum less sociopathy. I don’t believe people will be frightened into changing how they act or suddenly shamed into putting their phones down for once in their lives. Such interventions don’t work with most addicts and more and more people are legitimately hooked on their devices than we are currently willing to countenance. No, I think this will all end, as T.S Eliot said, with a whimper. People will simply lose interest and walk away. Because the internet now is boring. People spend all day scrolling because they are trying to find what isn’t there anymore. The authenticity, the genuinely human moments, the fun.
Thomas J Bevan
The "tiny web," also known as the "small web," is a movement that pushes back against the trend of commercialized, centralized online platforms (like social media giants) towards a web of smaller, often personal websites that prioritize individual expression and information sharing rather than commercial gain.