The web is not dying

The current AI chaos is prompting people to write all sorts of posts and articles about the imminent death of the web. The current debacle surrounding the TikTok ban (forced sale?) in the US is making journalists believe that the internet as a global town square where people can interact is over if governments start banning these huge platforms.

I don’t believe the web is dying. Not for one second. Maybe this specific version of the web is dying, that might be true. Let’s imagine we ban TikTok. And Facebook. And Instagram. And Threads. And all the other huge platforms. There would still be one global town square left. It’s called the web. The web itself IS the global town square.

Sure, it’s a lot harder to reach a million people if you have to start from your own little corner of the web. But you know what? Tough shit. Some things in life are hard. And maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe being able to instantly become viral is not a good thing overall. Maybe we do want some friction in the system.

The web is not dying. People won’t stop creating because silly AI tools will flood the web with generated crap. Photographers won’t stop taking pictures because Midjourney exists. Filmmakers won’t stop creating videos because Sora is now available to everyone.

Creative people are driven by the passion for creation. Writers write because they love writing. Bloggers will keep blogging away because that’s what they do.

The web is not dying. I started People and Blogs last September. I post one interview a week. I almost completely stopped searching for new people to interview because my list of potential guests had enough entries to last a few years. And yet I’m still finding new blogs daily. Ooh.directory has more than 2200 blogs listed. The Kagi small web dataset contains more than 12000 entries. I have more than 1400 sites listed on theforest.link. You could click on a new link every day and have enough new content for the next 40 years. And I am 100% certain that those sites will contain links to other new sites you can explore.

The web is not dying. The web is huge. The web is ever-expanding. The fact that the web is just the same 5 big websites is a fucking lie. It’s like saying the restaurant industry is the same 5 fast food chains. It is not. It’s up to you to decide to stop visiting those 5 sites and stop ingesting their fast food content.

The web is not dying. Start clicking around. Be curious. Follow random links. Search something on Marginalia or Wiby. Make a blog on Bear Blog or Micro.blog and start creating. Join a Webring. Write something for the IndieWeb Carnival. Connect with others.

The web is not dying. The only thing that’s slowly dying is the spirit, the mindset that made the web such a wonderful place to begin with.