The Open Web Dies When We Give Up

I keep reading this thing, repeated as if it's fact: "The Open Web is Dead". At first I agreed, maybe because I also felt bummed out by what's happening, but I have since come 180° on this viewpoint. The Open Web cannot die. As long as there is one person believing in it, it will be there. It's not a thing that you can "turn it off", "fence it in", "exclude it", or whatever else you want to say. The Open Web is what you, as the user, do with it. It will only die if we stop believing.

It's Your Web That Counts

You have all the agency to shape how you interact with the web. Publish your own blog, use Medium, use Bear, use whatever you want. Nobody can force you to use their platform.

In the same vein, you have 100% freedom in how where you want to spend your attention. Read your friends blog, look on the orange site, browse bears feed, go on LinkedIn, read Mastodon, BlueSky or Twitter. It's on you, not them, to choose what you read.

I choose to write my own blog, not because it's easy, but because I believe that this is how I want the web to be. I read some of my friends blogs, if they have blogs, I listen to some podcasts, read the orange site, read some news articles, and watch some YouTube. I read movie reviews of another friend. Most of this is published from within "Walled Gardens". But I don't have to take an absolutist stand. I host my own things on the Open Web because I want to, and I hope other people do the same. But I can always consume things from within the walled gardens, as long as they let me in.

Social Networks don't need to be huge. They can be the size you want them to be. You can stick to smaller, low-throughput communities and enjoy the slow life. There is a lot of FOMO connected to leaving the larger social networks, but honestly, whenever I quit one it never felt as bad as I thought it would. Most stuff still registers through other means, and the stuff that doesn't? Well, why care about it?

I stopped looking at most of my friends reels. And nothing really changed.

When Walled Gardens Close

I don't have a twitter account. Never had. Once twitter made their website hostile to people like me, I stopped using it. I never really managed to convince people to switch to open alternatives at that time (the great switch came much, much later), but the loss was very short-lived.

Instagram is even worse now, video posts can only be played once, and always start muted. So it has become impossible for me to watch them. But missing out on these videos is alright with me.

Being content with what I have has made me enjoy it a lot, and I cherish my local area of the web. And maybe you should too.