Welcome to The Neocene
You've stepped into the new age! The Neocene!
~The old net is dead, long live the old net!
The Neocene is look forward towards the revival of the old ways the internet and how it used to be before corporations took over. Enshitification has ruined small, independent, websites and driven the masses into a pit of addiction; the ultimate goal being to drive their never-ending desire for profit and growth. Organic content is hard to find; and creators have to play the algorithm's game to be seen or heard. News isn't organic; metrics focus on clicks and advertiser revenue rather than journalistic ethics.
At the center of it all is us. Our attention spans, our eyes, the content we create for these massive and centralized platfoms. Our time. In the capitalistic hellscape that we call the modern age there is no currency more important than people's time. The more time spent on a platform, more ad-revenue is generated for that platform. The more time spent interacting with others on a platform is time spent being directed by an algorithm's best guess at what it thinks you want to see. The more time spent scrolling endless cards of posts that have no source, the less time is spent engaging with creators in spaces that don't force them to curate their content according rules and community guideline.
What is the solution? I believe that is a question with a very personal answer. While we, as residents of the net, have control over the websites we visit and where we spend our time currency; that does not mean that everything we want to accomplish can be done outside the purvue of these mega corporations. My family, for example, will never communicate outside of iMessage, Facebook, or X. That is something that I have to come to terms with and decide where I allow my communications with them to happen. I will never be able to distance myself from Microsoft, either, as I work for an enterprise that relies on it heavily for its day-to-day operations.
In every other facet of my life, however, I have control over the platforms I use and the content that I ingest. This website is a shining example of that control as I am choosing to keep the content I create within my own domain and not allow it to be monetized by anyone. The way I communicate has drastically changed over the past year due to some actions being taking on the platforms I used that I do not agree with and will not participate in. I have replaced voice communication with a self-hosted TeamSpeak 3 server. My chat communication has migrated to IRC networks and Matrix Communities. Most recently, I have rediscovered dedicated forums and this wonderful thing called the IndieWeb.
One thing that people often forget is how powerful we all are as a unit. While corporations stand as a testament to consolidated power and control, groups of individuals coming together stand as the antithesis fighting against it.
This is all to say: Welcome. Welcome to the start of your indieweb journey and learning how to take back the power from those that seek to control us.
~neo