When I decided to create this blog and finally launched my first post two weeks ago, the only motivation was to reclaim my personal space on the web. I have been talking to my late Millennial/early Gen Z friends and we all share the same thoughts on social media: we are all sick and tired of it. We all miss those times when the internet meant freedom, the online spaces allowed us to be more creative, no algorithms were used to define what we should or shouldn’t read, etc.

Shortly after that first post, I did what I always do: I browsed the web to see if more people were doing the same thing. I found this video by Luvstar Kei where they tried to convince viewers to create a website. I saw their website, and it immediately gave me lots of inspiration. I’m not really an artist, but I knew I wanted a blog. And then I saw something I hadn’t seen in ages: A LINKS SECTION! And then I clicked on some links, then more, then more… and then I fell into this rabbit hole of personal websites and haven’t gotten out of it.

My husband showed me the Indie Web manifesto, and now everything makes sense to me. There is a whole community of people who also sensed a problem with how the internet is set up these days. And these people are actively trying to change it by creating their own websites. They took their dissatisfaction to the next level, and it became activism against big corporations and data ownership.

I know there is no consensus on how and why internet freedom should be achieved. Some might want this movement just because they miss the late 90s and early 2000s aesthetics. Some might relate to minimalism as a movement, and their motivations behind leaving social media have to do with more productivity, fewer distractions, or a fun environment where they can express themselves without judgement. Some might have political reasons behind it; hence, decentralising media and building open-source communities are all ideas deeply rooted in left-wing concepts.

I’m not new to blogging: I created my first blog in 2004 and, although I have lost track of how many blogs I created throughout these years, you can definitely expect more than ten. Some were personal diaries, some were focused on pixel art, some were fashion and makeup blogs… And the list goes on. My last blog was a failed attempt to take blogging seriously, like those people who make money online do. The blog’s name was my actual name. The layout was all black and white and professional. I had a strict posting schedule and I would post twice or three times a week. I had collaborators who would write in their personal columns. And, of course, I desperately tried to play Google’s game and include as much SEO as possible in my posts.

Posting was fun, but it became stressful because people would say “Your blog is nice, but I don’t read blogs anymore, I want videos”. Then I created a YouTube channel. Then the same people would say “Your videos are nice, but I don’t have the patience to watch long videos anymore. You should post on Instagram and TikTok”.

If my experiences in this post resonate with you, I invite you to share in the comments how you feel about these communities and what aspects of them you feel connected to. I would love to read your thoughts.