Videos
For those unaware the 'Small Web' (sometimes called 'Yesterweb' or 'Indie Web') is a generalized term for websites outside of Big Tech Social Media, and which operate outside of or deliberately in opposition to common Social Media standards. These can be old websites, created before the social media era, like
Fanart Central
http://www.fanart-central.net/
or
SomethingAwful
https://forums.somethingawful.com/
or they can be newer sites like The Melonland Forum
https://forum.melonland.net/
or
Heyuri
https://heyuri.net/
There are several reasons why I think smaller websites like this will start to take off as time goes on:
-
This trend dovetails with the 2000s revival:
Before social media took off in the mid-late 2000s, browsing lots of small websites was literally just how people used the Internet by default. You would check out links given to you by your friends or posted on forums, or you would browse around on someone's site until you found a link to somewhere else. You could end up in lots of crazy, unique places. People are growing nostalgic for this kind of variety.
2. Greater control over your Internet browsing experience:
One benefit of this movement to make and use smaller websites is an element of control. Apart from avoiding things like algorithmic echochambers or ads people have more freedom about how they can post. When you use Social Media platforms you are kind of operating out of someone's backyard. There are a lot of things you can't do. The Indie Web gives people the ability to completely customize the look of their websites, with as much glitter and as many obnoxious gifs as they want. On the intellectual side, people are much freer to post whatever kind of fringe ideas they'd like to espouse, in whichever words they'd like to use without being deplatformed. Webhosts and ISPs are generally pretty permissive; in some cases the only thing they will put a stop to is the spread of government secrets or child porn. Even if you're not into making your own website, there are a variety of sites you can post on, sites which won't screw over the userbase to appeal to advertisers or Big Tech ideals.
Actually, a lot of people who got into the Indie Web did so because they were banned/deplatformed from social media, (like many right-leaning users) or because Social Media decided to crack down on the kind of content they liked, (like Tumblr users after the porn purge in 2018)
Additionally there is a certain 'privacy' here. There is that easy assurance that what you post on Indie Web sites will never go 'viral' and thus affect your real life. It's a small, close knit community,(with many sites being anonymous), where people can express even their weirdest opinions.
3. Escaping polarization/identity politics
Despite how political some of the motivations here sound, many sites in the Indie Web scene were created as, or evolved into, places where people could avoid all the cancerous politics of Social Media and foster reasonable debate. That doesn't mean that they're apolitical, precisely (some bill themselves as safe space for queer folk, bipoc etc, some are about refusing modern degeneracy and excess etc, others just let you do whatever), but you can have much saner conversations in many of these places. You know how people talk about how Tumblr has quietened down since the Porn Exodus? Well all of these sites are like that.
Some argue that the way that Social Media is built actively encourages polarization;
The algorithm feeds you content that will engage you-->
content that shocks and angers you engages you (even apart from SocMed, this is why stuff like Jerry Springer was so popular in the 90s)-->
said shocking content makes you more judgemental and makes you hold to your beliefs about life more strongly-->
this leads to polarization.
Meanwhile the Indie Web has no algorithms or engagement farming techniques at play, thus it can be considered healthier.
Even big YouTubers like Kurgtesatz have been promoting the Small Web using this same reasoning. He advocates decreasing polarization by returning to the 'forums that old people probably remember ':
https://youtu.be/fuFlMtZmvY0?si=UgBiNyagNX6OXcYN
On my part, Ive been into this 'Small Web' thing since 2019, when I got into y2k aesthetics and started looking for old websites or anything that approached the feeling of such sites, so of course I've got kind of a vested interest in getting people on this wave. (You've probably seen me talking about this kind of stuff already, or not-so-subtly mentioning it.)
I figure I ought to do my part by recommending a few sites:
Agora Road's Macintosh Café:
https://forum.agoraroad.com/index.php
(A vaporwave forum, however at this point they discuss so many cultural topics that many newbies don't know it's about vaporwave.)
Our World of Text:
https://ourworldoftext.com/
(A sprawling, anarchical text site; like 2b2t as a website. You can type literally anything literally anywhere, plus copy/paste whatever you want. Lots of cool pixel art.)
The Cidoku Network:
https://cidoku.net/gb/
(An archetypal Indie Web personal page lots of interesting writing, music, and OCs. My favourite part of this website is the Guestbook, which looks like an imageboard. Lots of interesting characters pass thru here, from crazed fan girls to music enthusiasts, to people giving writing advice.)
B3TA:
https://b3ta.com/
A two-decade old British message board with a penchant for creating comedic images. They in fact set themed challenges for creating memes. If you've got Photoshop skills this is the place to flex them.
Wiby:
https://wiby.me/
This is a search engine for the small we. No SEO here. You can find countless old buried websites, and some new ones, on various topics , from sites all about men named 'Bob' to forums for people with an addiction to chewing ice. There is even a randomizer button.
Search Marginalia:
https://search.marginalia.nu/
Like Wiby but much broader. It has various easy to use search modifiers that let you decide the specific time period you want results from, and a randomizer button that gives you a dozen random sites, as opposed to Wiby's one.