"We Need to Rewild the Internet" and other small web recommended reading

[matsushima]

If you were born around the 1970s, you probably remember many more dead insects on the windscreen of your parents’ car than on your own. Global land-dwelling insect populations are dropping about 9% a decade. If you’re a geek, you probably programmed your own computer to make basic games. You certainly remember a web with more to read than the same five websites. You may have even written your own blog.

But many people born after 2000 probably think a world with few insects, little ambient noise from birdcalls, where you regularly use only a few social media and messaging apps (rather than a whole web) is normal.
We Need to Rewild the Internet by Maria Farrell and Robin Berjon

I've been slowly working my way through this article during my lunch breaks at work this week.

I thought of the smallweb community and wondered what other books, articles, etc. you would recommend as a sort of "small web syllabus." (I have tech, digital literacy and social media tags in my bookmarks that others might find interesting to peruse, although the media diary is mostly for my own recordkeeping and, thus, incomplete.)

Comments

[alaterdate]

I think what I like about it is the privacy - a lot of digital gardens that I've seen, and the people who tend to talk the loudest about "learning in public," are often about coding or business, which seem like low-stakes things to mess up?

That's true! A lot of the personal sites I come across are usually run by somebody who codes for a living and while they do put up some personal stuff it's often a site they clearly want to use for networking. Privacy is definitely a concern. I've seen people make locked journal sections on neocities, but they are so easy to get around. I definitely appreciate the ability to make locked posts on Dw.

I was thinking mostly of using digital gardening for reviews that I post, because I tend to revisit things and realize that I am often harsh on the first pass. Tables of contents is a great idea! I like to micro-organize things, but don't want a million tags so I should try that out.

I don't mind at all! The characters page is one of the reasons I even tried making a website in the first place. It really is a lot of fun! I like trying my best to design pages and make them pretty or themed. I hope you can have fun making one too!