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Why a Website?

I want to make a quick first post as a placeholder, so I'll use this website as a topic!

Why did I choose to make a NeoCities site? I'm not a huge fan of coding, and I'm a little too young to remember the days of MySpace and GeoCities, although I was an avid Tumblr user. It's not really nostalgia or an interest in web development that got me here. I'm just tired of social media. I was a latecomer to Instagram, but meeting friends online and abroad as I got older meant I had to find more ways to keep in touch, and Instagram was the platform most people were on.

I tried to control my algorithm for a while, but regardless of how much I told it I disliked certain content and banned certain words, it kept pushing my friend's pictures down the feed and trying to push content rife with misinformation and alt-right ideas that were baiting people into responding. I indugled more than I'd care to admit.

Eventually I got tired of it. I now only use Instagram on my computer, where I can Ublock the reels and unpleasant content completely away. But, I still wanted a place I could talk about projects, post pictures and essays, and interact with other passionate people without digging through scores of digital slop.

A website does all of the things I need it to without ads, without payment, and without intrusion of "content" I have no interest in. I still use social media in moderation, but the only thing keeping me there are friends, artists, and journalists that I want to hear from. I would love to see more people embrace alternatives like this.