Things Can Only Get Better?

Websites and social media platforms are getting aggressive in the monetizing of their services because- who knew that providing a platform for free is not sustainable? No one wants online advertising either and we all live with it because these web developers have to have money to buy shoes too, right?

The truth is, the WWW will never get better. It’s too far gone to think we’ll get it back. The netizens have lost the war to the platforms. I am very close to tucking my head into my shell and shut down all interest in the whole thing. I’ll use my current tech toys for more creative and less consuming matters. After the tech toys have outlived their usefulness?  Analog everything. That’s how fed up I am.

I don’t know what’s going to come out of those moments but I do know there will be bright spots out there. It’ll be more difficult to find underneath the search engine optimized BS, the invasive advertising and the algorithmic feeds forced on us. But they are out there.

For now, we still have the capability to set up our own homestead on the WWW, do our own thing and choose to connect with whoever you want.  The orginal web 1.0 tools are still around because they are the foundation of the internet- and still the best. E-mail, text, RSS, blogs, forums, etc. You are in control. Stop sharecropping on social media to make them rich and start building on your own land.

🎶
And do you feel scared, I do
And I won’t stop and falter
And if we threw it all away
Things can only get better -Howard Jones

The Infinite Web

From the short story of Jorge Luis Borges’ “Book of Sand,” there is an ancient book with no beginning and has no end. The narrator discovers this simple-looking book contains endless volumes of information that was good and evil.

“I realized that the book was monstrous. It was cold consolation to think that I, who looked upon it with my ten flesh-and-bone fingers, was no less monstrous than the book. I felt it was a nightmare thing, an obscene thing, and that it defiled and corrupted reality. I considered fire, but I feared that the burning of an infinite book might be similarly infinite, and suffocate the planet in smoke.”

He quickly deposits the terrifying, infinite book to the National Library and vows never to go to a library or bookstore again.

It’s strange to me to think that we open our very own Books of Sand every day without thinking of the consequences. The sheer infinite volume of the WWW is too difficult to imagine. It is our nightmare and distorts our reality. Like all tools, it can be used for good, but we humans do a frightening job of perverting even the best intentions.

The Wild Wild Web

Speaking about personal websites, I just screened this video about the early web. I can thankfully say my website was NEVER this cheesy but there was a sense of ownership back then. Much more so than we do on today’s social media platforms where there is zero control. The WWW is much worse as a result.

I wish personal websites were just as popular nowadays, the web sure was a fun place to be when they were.

Anti-Censorship

Four years ago today I decided that I wasn’t having fun using Google anything, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram anymore, so I downloaded all my content from those platforms and promptly deleted those accounts. No Google products and no social media. If you’ve DM’d me, then apologies. It was unseen. Send me an email or text instead.

It just so happens that I have a lot to say so I’ve posted here and my micro site instead. My thoughts, my images, my words, no censorship.

These are the benefits of posting to a site I own for over twenty years..

I believe the more people that talk to each other is good and that the 280 character limit on those platforms rewards creativity. Buying and hosting your own website and email address should enable you to have your voice heard- just like it used to be on Web 1.0.

The Internet Is Broken

Anyone else noticed that today’s WWW is insufferable? I don’t specifically know when it turned, or why most users became jerks, but I’ll go ahead and guess about 2010. Making money off of content became more important than the content itself. This is a long post, but in short, the best way to fix it is to write good stuff and to be nice to other people. As the WWW was intended.

In the past, we got to enjoy content-rich websites created by people from all walks of life. They built and hosted their websites and networked with others to share their stuff, and it worked. Internet = interconnected. We learned from others, and we benefitted from other’s unique knowledge. Nowadays, there are advertisements everywhere, clickbait headlines as well as the tracking and selling of your private data and browsing habits. Where did all that good stuff go? To Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. etc.

Content creators, webmasters, and anyone with a hobby blog generally gave up and went the easy route of 180 character tweets and generic posts about what they ate and where on Facebook. Boring. People used to write, or photograph, or paint stuff that others would want to read. People used to write blogs, whether they were read or not, no one knew. Aficionados of every imaginable topic would research and post their findings for all to see.

When the tech conglomerates started to gather and consolidate web properties, the content was squeezed out. These platforms were nicknamed Web 2.0 as if version 1 needed upgrading. Version 2 was not an upgrade in my mind, in fact, it made the internet worse.

Ad-driven content became a thing. You had to pay to play. The more eyeballs and attention on your stuff can be monetized to the widest possible audience. The internet became deceptive and, oddly, less social. Users became mean and divisive because now there was perceived competition.

It is almost impossible to find good content on the WWW now. Type a topic of interest on a conglomerate-ran browser, and you’ll have to sort through at least two pages of the search to get to anything that isn’t ad-driven and would be relevant to your search.

When you do come across an interesting link, you are bombarded with sneaky and not so sneaky tactics to get your attention and your data. Web windows will pop up blocking the content, asking you to submit your personal info and subscribe. Pleas to purchase something that is offered. Advertisements litter the site with most, overwhelming the content you want to see. “Like me on Facebook”, Comment! Subscribe! Retweet! That is just what we see, but goes unseen is the amount of personal data that is collected and distributed to the tech conglomerates. Did you do a search on a medical symptom? Well now, the next website you visit will have a pop-up advertisement on a specific cream to help remedy that. It’s disgusting, invasive, and intolerable.

Where are people writing now instead of their own homegrown webpage? Social media. If you write on Facebook or post images to Instagram, the only people who can see it our the users on the platform. Have a business and your “website” is only a Facebook business page? Half of your potential customers cannot see it unless they are a Facebook user. No, thanks. Instead, people are writing out their limited thoughts on a limited platform that does nothing to further a conversation. That is, if you can actually see it on the FB platform. Facebook’s algorithm guarantees your content will be buried in favor of something they claim is more interesting (read that as attention-getting and therefore more potential ad revenue for them.)

I won’t continue on about how the political and social media outlets combined are divisive and spiteful. I stopped both after the 2016 election, and I am blissfully ignorant.

All this wasted time, effort, content, and energy spent on these proprietary platforms do nothing for the individual except to make themselves money.

What’s the fix?

Create your own website. WordPress has free (with ads) hosting options as a start. Or you can use WordPress on your own hosted site. Web hosts and your domain name makes it yours and on the cheap.

Write or post anything you’d like. It’s yours to do with as you please.

Network. Reach out to other like-minded people and build each other up.

If you must use social media, put your content on your site first, then distribute to those outlets. Add a link back to your website and point potential followers there instead. POSSE: “Post On Site, Syndicate Elsewhere.”

Send the website owner an encouraging email.

Comment on a post of theirs.

Subscribe to their RSS feed and don’t miss a thing.

Use ad-blockers, browsers that promote privacy and mean it, and a VPN.

And finally, make good content to share for anyone who may take an interest and be nice to others.

The Ideal Life

Lately, I’ve been thinking of the optimal lifestyle and how to get the best out of life.

How can I better my existence?

An ideal lifestyle is one you have to define for yourself. So if I wanted to focus on creativity and photography, I will need to build this up for myself. Surround myself with the proper tools and investing into this lifestyle. I currently have a great home office, but I need a studio in which to set up and host portraiture somehow. Something simple, minimal and easily accessible. For now, it isn’t feasible, but it is certainly a goal of mine. Truth be told, I really want to double down on this idea, but unsure of how to progress towards it.

I need to be active. To create, act, explore and this involves time outside my home office, whatever that looks like such as- on the streets, at the pub, hiking, road trips, etc. I am at my happiest when I am out and about with a camera, trying to maximize fitness at the same time. Everything improves for me with this, including more thinking, more problems-solving and more idea creations. The more mobile for me, the better.

Now and in the future, I need to invest in myself. I can invest in the future, but what about right now? What can I do to make my world better today? What can I attempt or pursue today that will pay off immediately, as well as the future?

I must become more focused on the self and prioritize my needs and wants before it is too late. I’ve been focused on pleasing others that I may be missing out. Time to make myself and my creativity a priority.

For years, I have been sharing and publishing my craft and my words to the WWW, with varying results. In the past, there was interaction and engagement but with the invention of social media, the interaction has been limited. Weird how that works – social media without the socializing. I need to find a way to bridge the gap and start interacting with others again. There are three ways I have created here that can do just that – subscribe to the newsletter (see below), subscribe to the RSS feed and email (say hello@chrisdenbow.website)

A Few Thoughts On…

  1. Creativity and imagination needs to be constantly fed.
  2. Reading is an anytime, anywhere pastime
  3. Slow down.
  4. Excuses delay the inevitable.
  5. Make time for good conversation.
  6. Apply what you know.
  7. Chase the knowledge.
  8. Organize your desk.
  9. Make yourself so good that they don’t want to let you go.
  10. You are only as good to them as your last quarter.
  11. Do or don’t.
  12. Try.
  13. Your best effort wants to come out. Give it a go.
  14. Essentialism > minimalism
  15. Personal development > formal education.
  16. Learning > formal education
  17. Moderation in all things (sugar, salt, social media, alcohol, spending)
  18. Let the tools do their job. Your brain can take care of the rest.
  19. Pen to paper > fingers to keyboard.
  20. What is your origin story? Document your progress.
  21. Change is good.
  22. Willingness to change is even better.
  23. Laughing is a habit-forming drug.
  24. No one told you because they didn’t know either.
  25. Asking is free.
  26. Doing > over-analyzing how to do it.
  27. Your thoughts are clouded and stuck in high fructose corn syrup.
  28. Youth is a feeling, not an age.
  29. Call your loved ones.
  30. Forgive yourself.
  31. Forgive them.
  32. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and faithfulness > whatever else you are doing instead.

Aggregate Your News

One of the pillars of the internet , next to e-mail, is the personal, humble blog. You know, the social internet, not social media. Creators, writers, photographers, video hosts, and podcasters all need to put their works on a site that they own and fully control as opposed to posting on restrictive social media outlets. These personal websites will then generate what is called a feed for syndicating their works out to the internet (RSS or Really Simple Syndication).

That is step one. Step two is reminding their followers, their fans and their audience to embrace RSS aggregators, or feed readers so they can continue to enjoy the creator’s content. Sounds simple, yeah?

These RSS readers pull the website owner/creator’s latest articles into an easily readable format that the individual controls. Not some algorithms that are driven by social media control or advertising. RSS has no advertising1unless the creator mentions their sponsors, that is.. You are in charge of what you want to read, who you want to read it from and to save it later for reference- or discard. You are in charge of your intake.

A screenshot of my feeds from Reeder.

Start by adding sources you know and trust. A source is a place where information comes from. When you add sources to your feed reader, you’ll be able to monitor them all in one place. By sources, I don’t just mean news sites. Sources can include:

  • RSS feeds

    Subscribe to the RSS feed of any source or publication.

  • Magazines

    Follow everything from major industry publications to niche magazines.

  • Blogs
  • Get new posts from industry thought leaders, medium authors, or personal interest blogs.
  • News publications
    Follow major news publications or local news sources.

  • Research journals

    Keep up with the newest literature in your area of study.

  • Twitter Pull content from Twitter accounts, hashtags, Lists, and searches into your feed reader. No ads!
  • Newsletters
  • Get email newsletters delivered to your reader so you can declutter your inbox and read without distractions.
  • Reddit

    Get posts from subreddits and searches in your feeds.

  • YouTube

    Subscribe to YouTube channels or playlists and get new videos in your feeds.

  • Podcasts

    Follow podcasts and never miss out on new episodes of your favorite programs.

Which feed reader should you use?

Start simple and free- try Feedly ( no, this is not a paid endorsement) In fact, I started to use Feedly a long time ago but opted for a cleaner, more personal aggregate called Reeder and FeedBin. These are one time purchases for me. Feedly has iOS, Android and web apps so you can access your feeds. Your news, your way.


It is way past time to delete your social media accounts and rejoin the social internet, like we used to do. The World Wide Web is a much better place and it starts with all of us taking control of our websites and consuming them our way.

And of course I would appreciate being one of the first web sources you add to your new RSS feed reader. When you do, drop me an email to let me know. It is the social internet after all. If you have a website, I’d be happy to subscribe to it in my feed as well.


My web feed is simply http://chrisdenbow.com/feed

My email is hello [at] chrisdenbow.com