Manifesto

Manifesto (man·i·fes·to/mæn əˈfɛs toʊ): a written declaration of the intentions, motives, or views.

The first post on this website was an attempt to put into words what feelings I've been experiencing about what the internet has become. I guess one way of putting it would be media fatigue, but I think a better definition would be what I'm going to call "Internet Fatigue". I'm still struggling to put into words what exactly I'm feeling, and this page will shift and change over time to conform to my views.

To put it briefly, the internet has been pumped full of garbage. Within the last few years, a place of escape and freedom has become something that I actively despise. To me, the internet is a place where real people are able to communicate, learn, and express themselves. At the moment, it feels like everywhere I turn, there's either an advertisement, A.I.-generated nonsense, or just general toxicity. Everything is just so much all the time.

I'm a child of the internet. I grew up playing weird flash games, exploring websites I definitely shouldn't have been on, and talking to people all over the world. I still do that to this very day and it's the best part of my day. Playing games with friends, hanging out in more modern chatrooms, and posting on my own websites. When Facebook first started hitting the mainstream I remember asking my mom if I could make an account back in 2010. I don't know when exactly websites like Facebook and Twitter became the enemy, but they weren't always. These used to be places where I could talk to friends, people who I knew in person, and ones that I met across cyberspace. I've maintained some of these friendships for over a decade, fallen in love with people worlds away, and have become someone that people I've never met in person before can rely on.

I miss the days of Web 1.0 and early 2.0 where people did stuff because they were passionate about it, not for money, the fame, or for the clicks. A world wide web where everything felt new, one that wasn't as connected and as vast as it is today, but in a sense felt even more expansive than it is now.

I want to take things slow. Life moves incredibly fast now with information bombarding from every angle. While I'm thankful for how much has changed in the past couple of decades, I miss the disconnect of being completely unreachable sometimes. I can't overstate how grateful I am to have a small little magic box in my pocket that's able to connect me with my best friends who are all across the world in fractions of a second, but I do yearn for the time when information was scarce. A time when you didn't have access to the collective sum of all human knowledge just sitting in your hand. A time when you weren't concerned with what strangers on the internet thought about the photo that you just posted.

— Can we just slow down for a sec?, Me

So Why A Manifesto?

To me, a manifesto is a mission statement. The first manifesto that really struck me was The Holstee Manifesto. It's probably been over a decade since I stumbled across it, and I still feel like it's one of the best things I've ever read. More recently I came across Sadness's Manifesto as well as Yesterweb's and those really inspired me to write my own. Ironically, the same day this manifesto went live, the sadgrl.online site was archived and adapted into goblin-heart.net.

The Rick Vagabond Manifesto

The Internet Should Be Free As In Beer, And Free As In Speech

The internet has become an essential resource to daily life as we know it. It's become the way to do pretty much anything. I'm not saying that we shouldn't have to pay for gigabit speeds, but basic internet access should be an essential utility. Not as important as food, water, and shelter, but it's pretty high up there.

The same should be said for software. There's nothing wrong with using paid and proprietary software. Discord has changed and revolutionized the way I communicate with so many people in my life. There are a few companies that shove their software in your face like Microsoft, Adobe, and Intuit. Pedaling their software as industry standards, and treating those who design and use GNU software as the enemy. Software should be free to use so people are able to create, share, communicate, and express their ideas. We should use both the internet and software as ways to improve humanity. Giving people the ability to easily access tools to do as they please.

People Are People

It's easy to forget that on the other side of your screen, there are actual people behind pretty much everything that you interact with on the internet. Social media has a weird way of stripping away one's individualism, becoming a cog in a machine. The almighty algorithm likes to push so many advertisements, scammers, and corporations in your face because that's how money is made and it sucks. There are some incredible people who post content on sites like Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, Reddit, Facebook, and so many other places, but it's so hard to block out the noise and focus on the amazing stuff. It doesn't help that A.I. is becoming more and more rampant, being used for what feels like just to make a quick buck. A.I. can be used for some wonderful things and yet all you hear about is A.I. art or A.I.-generated articles. The fun is being stripped out of the internet and it's horrible.

Many of these social media platforms also manage to dehumanize interactions, stripping things down to just a "like". It takes a lot more effort to have a real interaction with someone and that's something we should strive to do. We need to re-humanize the internet and make it a place where people can converse with people.

Preserve Everything

We live in a time where the total sum of human knowledge is sitting in everyone's pocket, only a few taps away. And yet many things are becoming inaccessible because they're not being properly preserved. I am a huge advocate for game and media preservation, but also for preservation in general. Future generations should be able to experience as much as possible with as little resistance as possible so that they may learn and experience what something was like before they were alive.

Not everything on the internet is permanent, websites will cease to exist in fractions of a second if not properly preserved. Even the website that you're reading this on may not exist tomorrow. And yet, here you are, reading these words. Do your part and help not only preserve the internet but the world around you. Digitize those family photos and videos, and make copies of important documents. Make sure that years down the road, you're able to experience what life was like today.

More sections will probably be added over time, and these sections are subject to change.

With that said, I'll leave you with this mantra.

Be A Real Person