Web 1.0 - A time before social media

I’m in my thirties, I remember a time before social media, I miss all the quirky blogs that you can happen upon and the early days of Youtube.

I remember being in high school when Instagram started becoming popular, I did not understand why people were willingly posting themselves on a platform in order to get their likes / comments. Nowadays I do understand why people are willing to do it… It’s addictive. People are hooked on it to get their dopamine fix.

This brings me to the two beliefs that I’ve held:

1. Social media has a net negative impact on the well being of our society.
2. Having algorithms consistently feed us content is not a good thing

What gives me hope though is to see there are movements out there that promote the idea of a more open web, one that is not controlled by a few big companies. I think the IndieWeb movement is a great example of this, where people are encouraged to own their content and have more control over their online presence.