Surfing the Internet

Lately, my friend Andrew has been sending me a series of enigmatic emails filled with cryptic riddles, links to obscure websites, newsletters, and blog posts from sources entirely unfamiliar to me.

One of the blog posts he sent, How I Search in 2024, was such a compelling read that, unbeknownst to him, sent me on a long rabbit hole to figure out what exists beyond my typical field of vision of the internet. I would like to take you with me on this journey I went on and show you the slightly different way I interact with the internet now.

First, I think it's important to ask: what is the internet* to you?

For many, the internet is a platform where you can search for any information you want. More often than not, the internet serves as a stage to find limitless entertainment, opinions, and content. This primarily comes from a couple platforms: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Reddit, Medium, News App, Google, and TikTok - a cohort dominated by social media corporations or search engines. Sprinkle in a couple more niche products catered towards specific interests, and you've roughly covered 95% of the internet traffic an average daily user would browse through.

For us Gen-Zers, those platforms pretty much sum up our internet experience. We missed out on the blogging era (think Tumblr) and the early days of internet culture and content, either because we were too young or simply unaware. Despite being dubbed the "tech-native" generation, I've realized that only a fraction of us truly comprehend the sheer volume of content on the World Wide Web. No longer do people “surf the web” and hop between pages based on what interests them at the moment. Instead, it seems (even more so with the rise of short-form content and large media platforms) that the internet we are served is algorithmically determined based on screen times and public engagement rates. Given the internet's vastness, it's crucial to leverage platforms that tailor content to our interests. However, with that comes sacrificing the potential for some great content being lost in the noise, increasingly overflowing with clickbait, profit-driven, and advertisement-laden material. Genuine discourse, compelling narratives, and authentic perspectives are harder to come by amidst the noise.

Articles and posts like the ones Andrew shared with me are particularly captivating. They contain opinions and perspectives about topics that often lie beyond the usual scope of my generation (Andrew, being a bit older, deserves my thanks for introducing me to these articles). One such article that made me think a bit more critically about internet content was Fix the Internet by writing good stuff and being nice to people. It's an engaging essay that follows how internet content has changed throughout its history. Yet, “fixing the internet” raises questions about what precisely needs fixing and what its ideal state should be.

If we consider browsing the internet as "surfing the web," I'd argue that many internet users today are not surfing but rather getting swept away by the currents.

I'm definitely guilty of finding myself in those currents myself, but every time I fall, I try to get back on my board again. In my opinion, it's the most fun exploring all types of currents, and shredding different types of waves with different types of boards when your surfing the interwebs.

LOL at the surfing metaphor, but I hope you get the point. The internet is huge and there are a lot of fun things on here that are engaging, thought-provoking, out of this world, and sometimes way more entertaining and fulfilling than stuff that's on these larger content platforms.

Here are some interesting blogs I've stumbled into:

• People who live off-grid in Alaska
• This guy who loves tea and cruises
• A Japanese/French couple bikepacking the whole world with their 6yo daughter

There's something special about taking a peak into a life outside your own little bubble.

There are tools I use to find websites like these - most are already stated in How I search in 2024. I also like to use SearchMySite occasionally to get some random and interesting blogs to read. I've also been subscribing to authors more often and those often lead to other interesting reads or videos.

Ofc Twitter and Instagram have interesting and funny things so I try to find a happy balance between everything.

I may have made some generalizations about my generation, so please tell me your thoughts! This is also a biased opinion that comes from a guy whose job is to make things on the internet, who writes blogs, and who hates TikTok 🤣. Overall, it's not that deep with how you want to interact with the internet.

Thanks for reading!