SNACKPACK'S BLOG

8/9/2024 First Post

I've been unhappy with the state of the internet since facebook overtook myspace. Corporate consolidation of the online space has steadily made it less diverse, less personalized, more alienating, cursed with the same affect as millenial gray. You have to make the effort to find sites and communities outside of the pervue of corporate owned social media. It's not THAT hard, you'll still be sitting on your ass or laying in bed afterall, but the effort is there.

I used to draw on this Oekaki board called Eevzy Place when I was a kid. I was pretty active, crudely piloting my mouse to the best of my ability for hours to render shoddy art and share it with the community there. I didn't know what a tablet was yet and struggled to get my lines as straight as the other artists using the site. I was impressed and inspired by what the other users were creating.
Oekaki boards are practically nonexistant these days. PaintBBS has been replaced with Procreate, Krita, and Photoshop. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, all things come to an end. People are still sharing their art online. I can't help but feel like something was lost though.

I'm getting old I guess. Reminiscing about the good ol' days when things were simple and made sense. Am I just nostalgic for a past colored by the rose tinted smog that is lost time? Whatever the case, I can't help but yearn for an internet shaped by the users. Fact of the matter is the internet WAS more intimate, less dominated by mega-conglomerates that profit from the personal data they leech off their "customers." We all know by now that we are, in actuality, the product.

I started this website for a few reasons. First, I admit I am nostalgic and felt a glimmer of that childhood wonder while perusing Neocities other hosted personal sites. I want to make something cool for others to randomly stumble upon. Second, I like learning new skills, and HTML seemed like something I would enjoy picking up. It's not as difficult as I had expected it to be, and I'm having a lot of fun. Third, I think it could be a cool jumping off point to exploring more of the so called "indie web." Perhaps I may be able to find some sort of community and contribute a little to making the internet cool again. Maybe not. I don't really know.

If you read all this, thank you. I hope you got something out of it.