Parallaxen-Blog

Blog entry #2 - 2024.10.05

One of the aspects that has almost completely disappeared from the web is interactivity (the amount of stuff you can do, interact with and discover has been reduced to basically nothing). Websites used to be "fun", and that's something most people who remember usually agree with.
Surfing the web was in itself an interactive endeavor, as one needed to search for something, then click around for a bit until they landed on a page that satisfied their needs. Once there, the site invited the user to explore: click on the menu, click on the links, go through all the content, play some games, watch the animations, interact in the forum section, find the little easter eggs, check out everything, visit this, take the quiz, answer the poll etc. Now, this experience was, at times, frustrating. The lack of a solid and standardized layout made navigating some sites feel like an headache inducing maze.
I get it, I know, I was there. However, the times when I actually had fun exploring far exceeded in quantity and quality those others. Getting content as a reward for exploring is pretty much a thing of the past. Every website is now a boring and dull landscape where the extremely limited menu gives access to just a few pages of mostly barebones content. Even online spaces aimed at kids have reduced the animations and interactivity to basically nothing. You enter the site, you click on one of the three things you're allowed to click on, stuff and ads get shoved in your face passively, the thing you were looking for is paywalled (paywalls were a thing from the beginning but they got more ridiculous over time) , you exit the site. Repeat ad nauseam, they all look the same.
I'm not necessarily criticizing the minimalist aesthetic approach to web design of the last years. It can look fine and doesn't necessarily have to sacrifice the user experience to achieve a polished and sleek feel, but unfortunately it has become synonymous with corporate conformism. In most instances the minimalism is actually helpful and more accessible, and it can be just as unique and personal depending on the execution. Interactivity isn't a cluttered site exclusive. My critique here is more about the trend of getting rid of this interactivity, consequentially reducing choice and agency, and effectively converting everyone from user to helpless consumer.

Blog entry #1 - 2024.08.30

I've started this blog section to document about the creation, expansion and management of this website. As many other people on the indie web, I've decided to leave the mainstream social media platforms. However I still wanted to create a space where I could share my interests freely, rediscovering the web for what I had known it to be: a place for exploration, connection and learning.
As nostalgic as I can be, and as pissed I am with the current landscape dominated by corporations, I am in no way naive enough to misremember the old web as being perfect and safe. To avoid dangers, you really had to learn some netiquette and know where to click. There were viruses, shady people, shock and extremist content, trolls, disturbing stuff and predatory practices in the old days too. But there were also interesting niche sites, lots of resources, smaller communities with healthier interactions, more user agency, no algorithms deciding what you could and couldn't see and places made specifically for different demographics and groups.
Now, everyone is pushed onto those few platforms, where everyone is forced to share the same spaces. There is barely any personalization left. Most interactions are from bots. Most content is rage bait. To find the content you're looking for you either have to dig or give up. It has become a frustrating experience. But there are still good aspects even in the modern web: accessibility has improved, opportunities to make a living using the web have increased, new tools have been invented, and good stuff hasn't disappeared, of course, and is just waiting to be discovered.
My dream would be to combine the best aspects of the different eras of the web, keeping the good and limiting the bad. It is, unfortunately, extremely hard to achieve. But without an idea and goal to strive for, no improvements, no matter how small, can be done. So, while I share these feelings with a lot of indie web surfers, I also think a good chunk of the current internet can be saved.
It's never going to be perfect, but it can be better. We can find compromises and try to make this an experience of higher quality for everyone. The first step for me was to create this page for myself, and if you haven't yet, I would recommend you to do the same.