A Quieter Web Experience, Revisited

Back in 2021 I wrote about a quieter web experience, where I complain about the state of the internet, with ads and tracking everywhere, popups forcing you to choose between things that don’t matter or to subscribe in order to “get the scoop”, and generally just noise.

Things have only worsened since then. Some service providers have updated their terms of service, giving them more control over your data and content. Others have shut down, leaving your data locked in or making it impossible to transfer it elsewhere. Social media and similar platforms have become increasingly toxic with no way to escape, and in general, everything you create, consume, or interact with is being used to "train" the AI models these services and providers now rely on.

It’s getting harder and harder to find quiet.

But there is a way, at least for those that would like to do something about it: build it yourself and keep your data, yours.

Do you want to write and publish your words? Do you want a blog? You can learn how to code simple HTML and CSS and create a quiet and minimal website, where you post your content and truly own everything in it. You can decide what happens to that data, it’s your data. Do you want to showcase your art or photography? Again, learn how to build your own website, or how to code software, and build your gallery. Yes, it will take time, but it’s time well spent. Once you know how to do it, no one can take it away, and no one can change your “terms of service” on you.

Additionally, if you write it yourself and something breaks, well, you can fix it. You don’t have to wait for someone else to do it for you, which maybe they will or maybe they won’t. When you build it yourself you stop depending on others for your stuff. You become more resilient and creative, and you learn to control what you can control: the decision to use one piece of technology or another rests solely on your hands. That’s a lot of power, right there.

Build it yourself and own your data. Keep it simple, clean, and quiet. Don’t add to the noise and trash that the Internet has become, bring a piece of zen to your readers, or, like me, to yourself.

As an example, here’s how I host 47nil. I’m not stuck with this, though. I can move this to anything else, or even host it locally, on my servers at home. I can choose. I can decide. The data remains mine.

And it’s quiet.