Splitting the Web

Is his website in pure HTML? It’s got that 90s nostalgia.

The blog post talks about choosing a side, but the average user doesn’t have the know how or desire to move away from the default enshittifying web. The generation growing up with smartphones are fed targeted advertisements as a steady diet. To be fair, I see the kids just flipping through the obvious ads. But it’s harder to ignore when their favorite influencers are advertising stuff as part of a bit.

And for that reason I think we’re moving rapidly towards that dystopia we see in sci-fi movies and shows, like Wall-E.

While I'm on the ad-blocking, alternative-browser-using side of the divide, I don't really think it's just two distinct experiences. It's a whole range. I'm not going to disable JavaScript; it's useful. I'm not going to never make accounts. I'm not going to eschew online ordering. Privacy and security are always a spectrum; it's not binary.

So we have techno-luddites deciding that we have to shun all browser advancements because they can be used for evil? Seriously? You can use a car for evil, you can use money for evil. JavaScript and CSS are perfectly cromulent technologies that serve perfectly useful functions. Let's see an HTML-only site build a custom pizza order or let's see an HTML-only site crop and fit an uploaded picture into a profile picture.

We shouldn't be condemning technology, we should be condemning the uses of it that create the hellscapes that we all hate. If anything, the creators should be advocating for some means of truce with advertisers so that regular users can get some peace from disruptive ads.

I understand the frustration being leveled at general web pages though. And I'm not a moron and I understand that there is no way to speak to advertisers in general, like there is no way to seek general consensus on what users (both power and technical) want from their web experience. But I feel like we've all gone into our separate camps and assumed that there's no way to reach common ground.

Maybe we need another standard.

I definitely feel this happening for me as well. The weirdest/hardest part for me has been getting used to not being able to answer everyone’s questions. I’m less familiar with the facebook/twitter/amp webpages side of the internet now and having to learn to cope with not being my friends one stop shop for everything on the internet