The World Wide Wild West Web
The internet used to feel like a place where you would intentionally go. You logged on, and when you logged off you were back to reality. When you ran out of credit on your mobile phone, all you had left was to log on when you got home, sign into MSN, and hope your friends were online too. It was a space to meet people, have fun, explore. It felt vast and limitless and exciting, the Wild West. Now it feels hollow, cluttered, lifeless.
Once the internet became something that people could monetise, it all changed (note that I have no doubt that the internet was always monetised, I’m not in denial of that, but it definitely feels different and far more invasive these days).
The internet is everywhere now, floating in the air, we carry it with us everywhere at all times. Everything is accessible, instantly, via our smartphones. Unlimited data plans mean we have constant access to the internet and each other.
I feel grateful that I got to grow up before this time. During my childhood, you'd need to pick up the landline to get in touch with someone. Then came texting, having credit, and social medias like MSN, MySpace, Bebo. I remember getting Facebook some time in 2007/2008, but I didn't really use it. I only signed up because a classmate sent me an email invite. I don't know at what point it all changed, I was still using MSN Messenger while I was in college, so until around 2011. I think 2012-2013 is when I got my first Smartphone, that's when I stopped using MSN Messenger probably.
Physical Media & Ownership
I have several projects/lifestyle changes that I've become very passionate about - and they all have one thing in common; physical media.
The importance of physical media has been a huge topic of discussion recently. Events like the Sony store removing access to films that people bought digitally, and assumed they had ownership of but now suddenly had no access to.
Digital licensing is everywhere now; music, film and TV, gaming. All over the entertainment industries. Physical media had become something seemingly unnecessary. Why would I need to buy a physical CD when I can buy an album on iTunes, or stream it on Spotify? Why would I need to buy a film on DVD when I can just wait for it to be put on Netflix? Why should I have to have all this physical stuff take up space in my home?
There are a couple of major problems with paying for a licence to view/listen/play:
- You never truly own the content, you are only paying for the licence to it.
- When you pay for digital content, you have no way to sell it on second hand/lend it to friends and family. The once social aspect of borrowing stuff from people has gone.
About 5 years ago, I made the mistake of selling all my physical media. My favourite boxsets of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Lost, The Office. My steel book editions of the Alien trilogy. I did it at the time because I didn't think I needed it anymore. Throughout my university years of 2012-2015 I had developed a huge collection of physical media that I was so proud of, and then I sold it all for cash at a CeX because I didn't think I needed it anymore. I was so shortsighted, but like many people I was caught up in the convenience of the streaming frenzy.
Luckily, I kept most of my prized childhood CDs and PlayStation 2 games.
In early 2024 I started a new job in broadcasting, which means I can afford to start building my collection again. In order to future proof, and to make it more convenient, I have been digitising any media I have purchased. CeX sell DVDs for £1, and some boxsets are as little as £10. I have a large hard drive, and I digitise all the discs to rip the video files, and I put them onto the hard drive which gets plugged into my TV. I will go into more detail about this on a dedicated page of this site, but that is where my journey began.
Now, with this website, it was like a lightbulb moment. I was working a nightshift and decided to start learning HTML coding. The idea came to me out of the blue. So I took a free online course to learn the basics on that same nightshift, and immediately I was able to start writing the code.
It's something that will be treated somewhat as a journal, where I will share my collections, and create a space where anyone and everyone who is a nostalgic millennial lie me, can enjoy a piece of the internet we loved as kids.
I want it to be a treasure trove for hobbyists, nostalgic millennials like me, and perhaps it will inspire others to take ownership of their content and break out of the always-online, doom scrolling cycle (the irony of doing this via an online website is not lost on me).
I hope you enjoy it as much as I'm enjoying creating it.
-S