The Web's Divergence: Two Dimensions of the Modern Internet

 

Splitting the Web

By Ploum 

ploum.net

4 min

August 1, 2023

View Original

There’s an increasing chasm dividing the modern web. On one side, the commercial, monopolies-riddled, media-adored web. A web which has only one objective: making us click. It measures clicks optimise clicks, generates clicks. It gathers as much information as it could about us and spams every second of our life with ads, beep, notifications, vibrations, blinking LEDs, background music and fluorescent titles.

A web which boils down to Idiocracy in a Blade Runner landscape, a complete cyberpunk dystopia.

Then there’s the tech-savvy web. People who install adblockers or alternative browsers. People who try alternative networks such as Mastodon or, God forbid, Gemini. People who poke fun at the modern web by building true HTML and JavaScript-less pages.

Between those two extremes, the gap is widening. You have to choose your camp. When browsing on the "normal web", it is increasingly required to disable at least part of your antifeatures-blockers to access content.

Most of the time, I don’t bother anymore. The link I clicked doesn’t open or is wrangled? Yep, I’m probably blocking some important third-party JavaScript. No, I don’t care. I’ve too much to read on a day anyway. More time for something else. I’m currently using kagi.com as my main search engine on the web. And kagi.com comes with a nice feature, a "non-commercial lens" (which is somewhat ironic given the fact that Kagi is, itself, a commercial search engine). It means it will try to deprioritize highly commercial contents. I can also deprioritize manually some domains. Like facebook.com or linkedin.com. If your post there, I’m less likely to read you. I’ve not even talked about the few times I use marginalia.nu.

Something strange is happening: it’s not only a part of the web which is disappearing for me. As I’m blocking completely google analytics, every Facebook domain and any analytics I can, I’m also disappearing for them. I don’t see them and they don’t see me!

Think about it! That whole "MBA, designers and marketers web" is now optimised thanks to analytics describing people who don’t block analytics (and bots pretending to be those people). Each day, I feel more disconnected from that part of the web.

When really needed, dealing with those websites is so nerve breaking that I often resort to… a phone call or a simple email. I signed my mobile phone contract by exchanging emails with a real person because the signup was not working. I phone to book hotels when it is not straightforward to do it in the web interface or if creating an account is required. I hate talking on the phone but it saves me a lot of time and stress. I also walk or cycle to stores instead of ordering online. Which allows me to get advice and to exchange defective items without dealing with the post office.

Despite breaking up with what seems to be "The Web", I’ve never received so many emails commenting my blog posts. I rarely had as many interesting online conversations as I have on Mastodon. I’ve tenth of really insightful contents to read every day in my RSS feeds, on Gemini, on Hacker News, on Mastodon. And, incredibly, a lot of them are on very minimalists and usable blogs. The funny thing is that when non-tech users see my blog or those I’m reading, they spontaneously tell me how beautiful and usable they are. It’s a bit like all those layers of JavaScript and flashy css have been used against usability, against them. Against us. It’s a bit like real users never cared about "cool designs" and only wanted something simple.

It feels like everyone is now choosing its side. You can’t stay in the middle anymore. You are either dedicating all your CPU cycles to run JavaScript tracking you or walking away from the big monopolies. You are either being paid to build huge advertising billboards on top of yet another framework or you are handcrafting HTML.

Maybe the web is not dying. Maybe the web is only splitting itself in two.

You know that famous "dark web" that journalists craves to write about? (at my request, one journalist once told me what "dark web" meant to him and it was "websites not easily accessible through a Google search".) Well, sometimes I feel like I’m part of that "dark web". Not to buy drugs or hire hitmen. No! It’s only to have a place where I can have discussions without being spied and interrupted by ads.

But, increasingly, I feel less and less like an outsider.

It’s not me. It’s people living for and by advertising who are the outsiders. They are the one destroying everything they touch, including the planet. They are the sick psychos and I don’t want them in my life anymore. Are we splitting from those click-conversion-funnel-obsessed weirdos? Good riddance! Have fun with them.

But if you want to jump ship, now is the time to get back to the simple web. Welcome back aboard!

*Title:* The Web's Divergence: Two Dimensions of the Modern Internet

*Subtitle:* Commercial Monopoly-Driven Web vs. Tech-Savvy Enthusiast Web: Feeling the Divide

*Introduction:*

The modern internet is splitting into two irreconcilable sides. On one hand, there's the commercial, monopolistic, media-adored web that has one sole objective: to make us click. It counts clicks, optimizes for clicks, and generates clicks. It accumulates as much data about us as possible and bombards every second of our lives with advertisements, beeps, notifications, vibrations, blinking LEDs, background music, and flashy headlines.

This web boils down to Idiocracy in a Blade Runner landscape, a complete cyberpunk dystopia.

On the other side is the tech-savvy web. It's inhabited by people who install ad-blockers or opt for alternative browsers. People who explore alternative networks like Mastodon or, heaven forbid, Gemini. Individuals who mock the modern web by crafting pages using true HTML and minimal JavaScript.

Between these two extremes, the gap is widening. A choice must be made. Browsing the "normal web" increasingly demands disabling at least some of your anti-feature blockers to access content.

*Blogs:*

Tags: Web's Divergence, tech-savvy web, investigation, monopolies, advertising

SEO keywords: modern internet, web divergence, ad-blockers, alternative networks

*Social Media:*

Hashtags: #WebsDivergence #TechSavvyWeb #Investigation #Monopolies #Advertising

*Conclusion:*

The Web's Divergence has become a battleground of choice. Remaining in the middle is no longer an option. You either dedicate your CPU cycles to running JavaScript that tracks you, or you distance yourself from the big monopolies. You either get paid to construct massive advertising billboards atop yet another framework or you manually create HTML.

Perhaps the web isn't dying. Perhaps it's merely splitting into two.

Have you heard of the infamous "dark web" that journalists love to write about? (At my request, a journalist once explained to me what "dark web" meant to him: "websites not easily accessible through a Google search".) Well, at times, I feel like I'm a part of that "dark web". Not for buying drugs or hiring hitmen. No! It's just a place where I can have discussions without being spied on and interrupted by ads.

But increasingly, I feel less like an outsider.

It's not me. It's the people living for and by advertising who are the outsiders. They are the ones destroying everything they touch, including the planet. They are the sick psychos, and I no longer want them in my life. Are we splitting from those click-conversion-funnel-obsessed weirdos? Good riddance! Have fun with them.

But if you want to jump ship, now is the time to return to the simple web. Welcome back aboard!

***

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