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| Remember when websites actually looked like this? I do. When I began my Internet journey in 2002, most websites looked either like this one, or were forums. Back then, the Internet was a more free and open forum, with many people having their own personal websites. Watching videos online at this point was still very much in its infancy, after all, Google Image Search had only been introduced a year prior. Videos were generally very short, low quality, and downloaded to the computer, not streamed online. Anyway, back to the topic at hand, the Internet. Despite constant improvements to the framework of the Web, improvements to the design of webpages, and increased security (remember, never click the blue "E", use Netscape!), I believe that something has been lost along the way. Sure, old websites may look cheesy and a little crappy, but they looked real. You could tell that someone had created the site, and that it was not simply one profile among millions or even billions that all look the same. Even early social media such as MySpace allowed for an unbelievable amount of customisation unseen in today's Internet. If you discount the various media outlets such as The Huffington Post, the BBC, Buzzfeed, The Washington Post and the rest, you really only have TikTok, Amazon, Google (including YouTube and other services), Facebook, and perhaps eBay and Fandom. LinkedIn if you are in business. But other than that, how many different websites are used as frequently as these? Perhaps you go to some other websites, but these are the biggest sites on the Web now. 7 websites. Out of the creativity of the old Internet, these are pretty much the only sites that are widely used on a daily basis. To use a metaphor, in the days of Web 1.0 and the early Web 2.0 (now referred to by some as Web 1.5), the Internet was like a public market, and everyone was invited to set up shop. In the current Web however, that has been replaced with a single megastore. While the Web has become ever more accessible, convenient, and easier to use, there is very little room for personalisation left. The quirks in the HTML, distracting GIFs, background music, custom scroll bars, guestbooks are almost never encountered in current websites. However, there are still places on the Web where customisation and personalisation are not only permitted, but encouraged. NeoCities springs to mind, as does SpaceHey, which does a very good job of recreating the MySpace experience. I do believe that there is still room for a personal Web, it simply needs to be promoted. On this website, I am hosting all of my artwork, as well as some other things that I thought would be fitting for a website of this style. Feel free to suggest things in the guestbook, submissions for 'You Know What Sucks?' and 'You Know What Rocks?' will be accepted from there. If your submission is accepted, the name that you sign the guestbook under will be credited to your submission. In the future, I may include a 'Featured Artwork' section, so that I can feature pieces from other artists around the Web. Lastly, I am including links to my profiles on Twitter and Reddit. 480lines on Twitter 480lines on Reddit |