Recently, I've been thinking about my relationship with software. I had noticed that I tend to spend a significant amount of time looking at empty "content" on my phone, media that neither exicted nor inspired nor bored me, media that just kept me looking. I was bothered by this. There's plenty of media that I know of that does excite me, that does inspire me! Why not spend time looking at them? So, that's what I'm doing, but I couldn't leave my phone the way it was. I knew I would go back to my old habits if I left it in that state. I needed to take a critical look at it and trim away those pieces that kept my eyes glued!
I muted every notification I reasonably could. I removed every app that I could endlessly scroll on. I started using RSS again and became intentional in what feeds I follow. In a word, I made my phone boring! There's no reason to pick it up every few seconds now. I have no infinite feeds to scroll my time away. I don't have notifications ping, buzz, dinging throughout the day. I have silence. I've slowed down!
Slowing down my digital life and removing sources of infinite information has led me to reflect on how software can be made to not treat its users as commodities, as raw materials. It's possible to create software that is truly useful to people, not capitalists. It's possible to create software that evokes delight, not dread. It's possible to create software that makes us think, not dull our senses. And there's already software like this.
On one of the feeds I follow, I found a link to a search engine, search.marginalia.nu, that “focuses on non-commercial content”. In other words, sites that are on the so called Small Web. Browsing the Small Web reminded me of the sense of wonder and magic I felt when I first started browsing the Web. Each site being completely different from the last. Each page written by the person who runs the site. Discovering the uniqueness of everybody. This is what the Web should be used for!
After browsing these small sites for a while, I started to get an itch to write my own site. I've made websites in the past, but they've always used some sort of UI framework, usually Bootstrap. While this did make creating the site easier, as I didn't have to think about how the site looked, it did lead to them all looking the same. I didn't want to do that for this site. I wanted my spirit to shine through, both in the content of the pages and in the presentation. I wanted to take my time with the pages I write, handcrafting them with care and love. I wanted to tend to my website like a digital garden, clipping and pruning, watering and nurturing, planting seeds just to watch them grow. I wanted a digital self-reflection.
And so, here I am. This is me, in digital form. Each page is a snapshot of the person I was when creating it. I hope you enjoy browsing my snapshots, and that it allows you to slow down for a moment and visit. Be sure to come back again sometime to see how I've grown, how I've changed. Perhaps you might even be inspired as I was and start writing your own site. I can tell you that it's a lot of fun!
Sylint