One of the key markers of Web 2.0, in retrospect, was not the adoption of mobile, though that is certainly part of it. It was, instead, the intermediation of most interactions by algorithm. Before social media, going viral was much harder; actual people had to pass your site or video along, via email or chat usually. Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and — later —TikTok made it child’s play to suddenly become famous, so much so that people started filming strangers in public for clout.
At first, it was fun! Because most of these sites were more concerned with scaling than monetization, there were few ads. And that made it feel better than the regular web, where pop-ups and pop-unders were a scourge, and banner ads were everywhere. But then, of course,As social media undergoes convulsions, I want to address my fellow Too Online sickos.
in every online community we’ve joined. More people than ever are online and have the kinds of rudimentary skills they didn’t at the beginning of Web 2.0. Maybe it’s timeGoogle’s rotting? Bring back the webring. Broadcasting to the entire world sucks? Fuck it, group chat. Facebook? Baby doll, it is easier than ever to build your own website, and you don’t even need to know the basics required to rip someone else’s code.One of the big things the platforms offered was an audience.
There is certainly a shift happening, and it’s not yet clear how this is going to play out. The retreat to group chats looks — from where I’m standing — like a return to messaging and ye old-fashioned chat room . Mastodon and Bluesky are pretty niche, Threads is probably DOA, and it looks likeIf there’s one thing I’ve learned from observing Silicon Valley, it’s that you don’t have to be smart to be a programmer; anyone can learn how to code.