The Web Revival is defined as a movement to restore the creativity that once went into the World Wide Web against the movement of rapid automation and corporatocracy that we are all influenced by today.
What exactly does that sentence mean?
Well, just look at how much time you spent just on your smartphone. Chances are you spent a lot of time on "social media" platforms. Those, despite potentially noble intentions, aren't designed to foster creativity anymore.
They are ideated, designed, adapted and programmed for just a couple Big Tech companies to make money!
False notifications and selective algorithms trap you in a 'bubble'. Monetization requirements prioritize placing ads around the works on the website, derogatorily called 'content', over actual human creativity. So much so that a stochastic parrot can have more outreach than actual human beings. Worse still, they are designed for a 'uniform experience' placing the works over a field that may not neccessarily support them, more look like something that literally fills up a white or dark void. A void, completely devoid of inspiration.
But back in the olden days, this was ALL radically different. Turning on your computer felt like an adventure all on its own. When my Mom got a Casema Broadband Internet modem and I learnt to read a little while later, I came across all sorts of little websites, complete works each of their own. Mostly little games, but there were a lot of personal pages as well at this time. Not to mention the goldmine I found when I came across the website or video of a consumer representation organization. Yes back then you actually had potentially interesting videos instead of "influencers" a while later. I even for a short while had a website, pretending to be the CEO of an all-encompassing MegaCorp of my own. :) That website was unfortunately removed by hosting provider Webklik due to the commercialization of the Internet.
Where is the Web Revival present in all this?
Well, it's not one thing but an all-encompassing movement of wild, creative and positive people all interested in returning back to the internet of the 1990s and 2000s. Common statements include:
Creativity and fun with Code and Art/Design (projects have to have no reason to exist other than entertainment;
Open-source and anti-Capitalism (Corporations Cripple Creativity, against stochastic parrots and NFTs);
Togetherness as the First Value (Supporting each other in their creativity);
A Broader Context
At least for me, taking part in the Web Revival isn't one thing to do either, but a broader resistance against the corporate tyranny created by Big Tech. I do not see myself merely as a "content creator" working for a platform or platforms, but as a master: a master of my own creative thoughts and my own online spaces. This leads to senses of fun, freedom, naught, rebellion and overall a sense of self, like that what is currently being stripped by the false perfectionism the social media bubble unfortunately made.
I epically and creatively thought up the term "Cyber Revival" as the overarching term of bringing back the classic technological spaces: human-centered, ad- and tracker-free, open for us all.
In that fits the use and promotion of:
Retro and secondhand tech: 2000s-2010s digital cameras, physical media for music and video, retro gaming...
Traditional methods of expression, most notably drawing
....
Some of this I never really noticed. I was, since Day One, a rebellious spirit against everything and anything that stood in my way of learning, self-expression and togetherness!
Click HERE for a full list of Web Revival manifestos from Web Revivalists like me. This concludes my manifesto for the Web and Cyber Revivals.
EMERGENCY RETURN