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Name: Ella

Currently playing: Palia

Currently watching: The Boys and House of Dragon

Currently reading: The Miniaturist

30/07/2024 - The necessity of websites like these

Out of the pure necessity for a space to share without being fed brain trash I believe we need websites like these

The internet has changed drastically over the years and I have seen most of it. I remember I used the internet for the first time when I was 8. It was 2003 and my brother told my family about this website called "Google" where if you input a word, it would show you images of that word. He demonstrated how to use it and let me have fun. The first thing I searched was "The Beatles" (I was a very beatlemaniac child). I remember seeing the images and not even saving any of them. At the time I didn't even know that was possible. I was just having fun looking at images of The Beatles playing in concerts, in music videos, 60s merch with their faces on it, and other bits that would appear. I got to page 18 and thought to myself "Tomorrow I will continue where I left off". Thinking that I would eventually reach the end of the pictures. But I never returned to the 18th page. The next time I used the internet was to look for different things.

Then came the Barbie website, Dollz, and different blogs about different things. I remember being into magic and witchy stuff so I would look for blogs that would tell about stones, spells, etc. And they would all be so personalized. They would have floating gifs. Different fonts. Comments for other people visiting. I even created my own blog(s) at that age. I was just a kid trying to have fun online. Not looking for fame or attention. Just someone to connect with. And then came my first social media. As a Brazilian, everybody who was born before 2005 will remember the name that came into everyone's computer: ORKUT. That was a social media website that was mostly used in Brazil (even though its creator was Turkish). The first version of the website required an invitation from an already existing user. Following the tradition of being the person who introduced me to the computer world, my brother was the one who invited me into it. And I loved it!

Orkut let you have your profile page; communities which were essentially small forums where you could talk to people; messages that would appear to everyone except if you deleted them after reading; testimonials where your friends could tell you how much they loved you in public (or send you private messages without anyone reading it). It was the best of times and it was the worst of times. Orkut was sort of a no man's land in its beginning, which would cause many problems to arise as well. However, I still see it as a teacher in my early internet days. A brutal teacher who taught me well. Its teachings were about how to deal with internet bullies; trolls; nazis and even how to avoid sexual predators.

This is all to say that I know the internet of the past wasn't a pure and happy place as we would like to believe. But it was freeing. Not to mention you weren't being advertised every single second while using it.

There are many reasons why websites like neocities are important for the internet today. Or not just important but necessary as well.

To me, the internet used to be a place of exploration, now it seems like a huge avenue with billboards every step of the way.

I hope to start using this website to share most of my thoughts and ideas as well as make some of them a reality. Not with the intention of fame but hoping to connect with people as much as I can.

I hope you are in it for the ride as much as I am.