The internet has gone through a lot of changes in the short time that it's been around. These days, people spend more time than ever online. We carry surprisingly powerful computers with us everywhere we go, connected to the internet at almost all times, and its easy to get lost in the same three or four big social media sites.

A common feature of the internet as it is today, is the all consuming algorithm. For viewers this can mean content you want to see gets hidden or buried under content the algorithm thinks you want to see, or what the website has deemed more "advertiser friendly." It can mean getting stuck in echo chambers, and it can mean owners of big social media platforms deciding what they want you to see. For creators, it might mean fluctuating viewership, or even overall deplatforming. It can mean censorship by site owners, shadow bans and other frustration.

Don't get me wrong, I think there is a time and a place for social media, and the sites as the are, owned by big tech, do have a place in the landscape of the internet, but more and more, the power to drive the internet is being pulled away from the people using the internet, and being taken up by just a handful of companies. Things weren't always this way. Some of you might remember, and some of you might be too young, but there was a time when the internet seemed more personal, and users had more options.

The internet used to look very different. Of course there were stylistic differences. Animated star backgrounds, rotating planet gifs, "under construction" signs, unprompted 8bit midi music, and so many wild, disjointed flashing colors with design choices that were so bad, they were good. But what I mean goes beyond style choice. Users had much more say over their experience of the internet.

All of those old sites, when the internet was still a wild west of tech geeks, were personal websites. Much of them started out as perosnal websites hosted through the internet provider. There was nothing quite like the social media networks of today, people had to host their own sites, and that meant average people making whole sites from scratch. That's what lead to such wild looking sites, but each of them had the personality of the owner. Sites were dedicated to people's favorite TV shows, games, music, or anything else the owner was passionate about. Eventually progress was made, and making your own website became a bit easier with sites like Angelfire, or Geocities. Still people were making custom pages about every topic you can imagine, and each site looked as unique as the person who made it.

Sites like Friendster, and MySpace rose up as some of the earliest social media. Even Myspace allowed its users to edit their pages to an extreme degree. Wild animated images, and clips of our favorite music blaring on our profile page. Eventually, corporate minimalism set in with the rise of Facebook, and the near infinate customizability slowed to the standardised formula of profile picture, banner image, bio.

It really is true to say the internet used to be an escape from the real world, but now, many people feel the need to escape from social media, doomscrolling, brain rot, and whatever the latest trend is on any given week. But things really don't have to be this way.

The internet really can be the interesting, hand-made, personality filled escape that it used to be. We can let go of the algorithms, and have a user driven internet again. We don't have to take things in the exact same direction as the old internet. For those who are nostaglic for it, go all out, but even if you're not, having a corner of the internet that belongs entirely to you, with your rules, your style, and about what you care about is extremely freeing.

You, whoever you are reading this, you should make a website. I'm not telling you to hire me, if you want to do that, I'm more than happy to help, but you should plot out your own corner of the internet. It doesn't matter if you think it will look good, it doesn't matter if you don't think anyone will care about it. Make a place to express yourself fully and freely, to make art, not for the sake of being "good" but art for the sake of art. And you might be surprised by how many people will connect with it.

You don't need to be a professional in web development, or have any impressive tech skills to make your site. Trust me, the college students making x-files fan pages in 1999 weren't tech geniuses. The leading analog to Geocities today, clearly inspired by Geocities, is Neocities. Here, you can make a personal website on any topic, for any reason. Sky's the limit. Below, I'll link some Neocities sites that I think are fun, either because of the topic, or the style, or both!

If you feel inspired to make one of your own, and I hope you do, there are tons of tutorials online for how to make and run a Neocities site, and if you run into any questions on how to do something on your site. Something you want but don't know how to do, send me a message! If I can help, I'll be happy to. That's really what I think the internet should be about anyway.

Full warining, some of these sites may not work well on mobile, some are intended to be experienced on a computer. If you're on a phone, the experience might not be the best.