Back in the early internet, I remember how visiting a message board was exciting because there was always going to be something new there. Some new comment, or new thread.
Then I discovered blogs, and was like, woah, the message board is THE FRONT PAGE. Only it’s curated by a single person, or a small group of people (this is how my first music blog came about).
See, there was just soooo much music out there on the internet, and us “bloggers” (for lack of a better term for someone who sets up a site, manages the domain name, edits posts, schedules posts, trys to sell ads, etc) highlighted the best bits. Sort of like when Yahoo had actual people managing the directories… search algorithms weren’t up to snuff yet, so humans did some of the best sorting, but the problem was… money.
Ya gotta pay people! And wow, companies really don’t like doing that – not at the expense of giving the execs a few more million in bonuses!
But that blog thing was a cultural movement. Sites like Pitchfork and Stereogum and Engadget and Gawker were fun to read, and made an impact.
Until they didn’t.
Bloated, promoted in an ode to pomp and style
‘Motherfucker’ by Faith No More
Moistening the feed while we choke upon the bile
This song came out almost ten years ago, and we’re still choking on the bile of the internet.
“But Seth,” they say, “no one visits websites anymore.”
No, no one visits your website.
Social platforms convinced everyone to dump all their writing, art, photos, and various “content” onto their websites, where we all believed “Everyone” could find it, and like it.
No one visits your website, but they visit a few websites that aggregate everyone’s website content and sell ads against it. We call that the internet now.
No thanks.