This is the beginning of an experiment in reshaping the way I interact with the internet.
I love the internet! I like reading/watching/experiencing all sorts of media. I like learning, asking questions, and following curiousities. And I like sharing th experience with other people!
Unfortunately, I think the current shape of the internet landscape is not well suited for these activities. By that, I mean that t feels difficult to engage with the internet in a positive way. The interfaces we have in the browser, search engines, and social media websites are… well they just seem… bad. The “space” that exists behind the screen just feels flat, limited, but in a way that is entirely the result of bad design. The spaces we move through do not give us the power to control our experience. Companies engineer our interactions with information in a way that optimizes for their own profit, not the quality of our experience, or the power that these tools can afford us as individuals.
All I ever do on the internet is consume. That’s the behavior it is designed to enable. When I’m online, I’m floating around in space, things are moving all around me, and I can’t orient myself. I don’t know where I am really. History sucks, tabs suck, they don’t allow me to effectively know where I’ve been. Recommendation algorithms ensure that I have little to no agency in deciding where I’m going. There is no context, no map, no ground for me to stand on. It’s just a firehose pointed in your direction. We’re not surfing anymore. We’re being swept away in a current. The tools we have right now, in our operating systems, in the browser, and in applications, are not strong enough to protect us from the overwhelming information environment we’re living in.
I have an Instagram, a Youtube channel, but those spaces don’t belong to me. I’m like a renter, given the privilege of occupying a room which I cannot modify to my own specification.
In their space, I comport my behavior to the shape of the platform. The actions I can take are predefined. The forms by which I can possibly express myself are not entirely in my own control. The platforms control control the land, the building, the interior, the furniture, the fixtures, the appliances, everything that defines the experience. By inhabiting these sorts of digital spaces, I surrender my own will to that of the cyber-lords at Meta and Google and whoever else. I just need my own space. Even if it’s shitty, at least it’s mine. I think that’s a healthy first step in reshaping my interaction with computers, in taking control of my experience.
This site is a first step, a simple place that I can post text, just to feel like I’ve staked a claim in digital space, that I’m here, I exist. My real goal is to make my own pages, my own interface — space. I don’t really know how to do that yet, but I guess I’m just gonna figure it out.
kwhitman.me