Intro

I have a rather extreme perspective that many disagree with, but many here will probably agree with (at least somewhat).

We will move to a new form of the world wide web. This will happen sooner than we think.

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Reasoning

The internet will still be on the current infrastructure but I don't see us using the current world-wide-web for much longer. The general public is starting to realize the situation for what it is. Heavily corporatized, filled with AI slop, prioritizes engagement over quality, and lacks any form of real privacy protection.

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It's hard to get the "mainstream" focused on these issues, but as of late there's been A LOT more focus on privacy. I was talking to an 80-yr old man who was incredibly educated on Flock Cameras and the issues they bring. All this to say, the message is spreading farther than you'd think.

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We've seen small protests by creating new communities that harbor a culture that is against the grain of the modern web (see: cyberspace, bluesky*, mastodon, e.t.c). These are proof that the motivations are there, and the seed has been planted.

Additionally, dead internet theory has had a massive increase in relevance in the current zeitgeist. People have become jaded to the web overall.

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The way things are going, we will be verifying our identity by sending government documents to third-party private tech conglomerates. I expect a lot of push back there, but it's inevitable unfortunately. People are already up in arms about this.

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There is only one way forward in my mind, complete decentralization and opt-in identification. It amazes me how little thought has been put into things like age verification. There are ways to do this while never forking over your government ID to Google, Discord, and Facebook.

We have practices and protocols built on top of the web that we've used to ensure privacy while guaranteeing identification for decades. There are many technologies out there approaching these ideas in their own ways (tor, I2P, e.t.c) which all have a major priority in privacy. These practices should be engrained into the protocol of the new web, not just built on top of it.

I don't necessarily think the web has to be anonymous per-se, but privacy seems like a huge oversight of the current web. Users should have the choice to identify, and choose what information they want to identify with.

The "you are the product" business model has to die, it is dying, but it'll take a huge shift to do kill it completely. I believe it's currently impossible with the way the web works today (even going as far down as the browser).

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What's your take?

• Am I overvaluing the mainstreams perspective of the internet?
• Would something more user-centric even work? (businesses may not subscribe to the idea early enough for success)
• What are some ideas you'd have for a new web?

Let me know what your thoughts are!