The Internet was Supposed to be a Community

August 8, 2026

The internet nowadays has become saturated in influencers. Whether that's the people we typically call influencers — TikTok and Instagram stars — or other people who basically maintain the same social role — like big YouTubers, or other big accounts on literally any other social media platform. To me, an influencer is just a person on the internet who has a sufficiently large enough follower so that they're interactions form a parasocial relationship, rather than a standard social interaction. The only caveat I'll add to this definition is that they need to be famous because of their online personality on social media. Thus, Jimmy Kimmel — with his 4 million followers on Instagram — wouldn't be an influencer, but Hank Green — with 3 million YouTube subscribers — would be. That's because Jimmy Kimmel has a television show that makes him famous, whereas Hank Green is famous specifically for the work he does on various social media platforms.

Additionally, Cory Doctorow would also not really be an influencer, since even though he is famous for online work (blogs, webpages, etc), he isn't particularly well-known for things that he does on social media platforms (although he does spend a good amount of time talking about those platforms).

Here's the thing, it's really weird how centered our online platforms are around influencers. It's weird that we've created an amazing technology called the internet, a technology that allows us to engage in easy, many-to-many communication amongst ourselves with practically no friction. A technology that subverts the old model of only having a small number of "thought leaders" and creators. A technology that enables anyone to publish their ideas and works, enables us all to be part of the global conversation. And yet what have we coalesced around? We've re-invented the damn thought leaders! We've organized our entire online ecosystems to focus on influencers!

We've created convoluted social networks, and reduced the friction for any user to create a relationship with another. The original idea about all of this was that it would uplift the significance of the average user. Make each voice more powerful. Get us to understand what the true will of the people was. And somehow, what we've ended up with is a system that obsesses over the most-followed users on the networks — often neglecting all of the users who follow them.

Not to say that those influencers are in a position of power per se. Sure, being well connected gives them a certain level of influence (an influencer having influence? Wow, what a concept), but it's not like they're the ones who built the platform. Both the followers (who have been converted into consumers) and influencers (converted into producers) are helpless to the changes that the platform undergoes. The owners of YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Bluesky — these are the people who are driving the changes. And these changes are often done in service to increasing their own wealth — not as a way to improve the social network.

Returning to the indie internet

I've been considering what the internet might look like if we moved away from a centering on influencer culture. I love Hank Green and many other "high influence creators," but surely this isn't the only fruit that the internet could yield? Take the indieweb, for example. This is one of those few places online that really do exemplify what I'm talking about. Lots and lots and lots of different individuals all learned how to make a website, and put something that they created out onto the internet. Some websites involve a lot of effort, some involve a bit less. Regardless, all of them exist and get seen by various people. None of these website owners become celebrities. There's no algorithm that gets them millions of followers. They made the website for the same reason that somebody might crochet a scarf, or paint a sunset — because they're a human. These people aren't after anything. They're creating for the act of creation. They're not chasing an audience in the way that an influencer would.

What if we imported this approach to other areas? Web design is a very particular type of medium. What if we brought this approach to social media? Replace the small number of big influencers we have today with a large number of small artists, all just creating for the love of creation. I wanna see a video platform like YouTube where people post fun little vlogs about their day to their 200 or less followers. Not those overly polished vlogs, the ones that the algorithm props up. I'm talking about the kind of vlog that made vlogging popular in the first place — a regular person, speaking to the camera, being honest and open, not performative and perfect. Sometimes with a shitty camera and microphone, showing off the typical parts of their day. And it wouldn't be to build an audience or a brand. It would literally be because humans have an intrinsic need to create. You put a human in the worst situations imaginable, and they will still create art, because art is part of the human experience. I want to see the internet become a place that it's normal to create art for, without needing to expect fame and massive engagement from it.

According to the very rudimentary analytics that I employ on this site^[1], I get maybe 20 people or so to read my articles, if I'm lucky. I've had 2 articles blow up and reach a few hundred viewers, but it's not common. I would love to get more readership, but I'm not milking the algorithm day after day to chase after that. Unlike some of the things you might hear from other people in the indieweb community, I don't necessarily want to see more people making personal websites. Like, yes, okay, I totally think it should be easier to do (we need better tools for it), and I think people who are drawn to it totally should come join us. But also, I wanna see the people who aren't into web design go do the same thing we're doing, but in a new medium! I wanna see the film and photography people making videos or sharing their images. I wanna see visual art people sharing their pieces, maybe even showing their process. I wanna see writers posting to easy blogs they made without needing to learn how to code. I wanna hear music that people recorded in their bedroom on their cellphone.

I know that there are already people doing this, but the thing that upsets me is that our social platforms make it difficult to find these folks. The fact that the platforms are designed to orbit around the large creators means that it's hard for people to actually prioritize smaller creators in their feeds. This is especially true if the small creator isn't making an active effort to climb the engagement ramp to become a big influencer. The algorithm punishes casual users. In order to be seen at all, you have to be trying to be seen by everyone.

I'm tired of it.

Can it be done?

Well, the question is, can we create this indie culture that I'm advocating for, and if so, how? I think it is possible, but we can't do it on the corporate platforms. Those platforms are designed to increase "engagement", and casual indie creators aren't exactly useful towards that end. Instead, we should form these communities on the Social Web. The Social Web is like if social media wasn't owned by a corporation — instead being controlled and owned collectively by the community. The Social Web is up and running, and has lots of users already on it. One of the early things you'll notice while using this network is that the influencer culture is largely gone. It turns out, when you don't have an algorithm constantly trying to convince you that the producer-consumer relationship of influencers and their followers is natural, you don't end up falling into those categories.

Sure, the Social Web has bigger and smaller accounts with varying degrees of influence, but even the biggest accounts don't fall so hard into the parasocial weirdness that goes on on Instagram or Twitter or whatever else. And a lot of the accounts that people tend to follow are smaller accounts. It's common to follow someone who has 200 followers or less. The moment you remove an algorithm that prioritizes parasociality, people stop creating those dynamics.

There's still some work to be done, though. The biggest problem on the Social Web is that there's only a few types of dorks on there, still. Mostly, it's computer dorks. We desperately need more enthusiasts across the spectrum of interests. History dorks, art dorks, film, photography, music, sound design. We need you here, because we can't find your stuff when you're on Instagram, and there's not enough of you on the Social Web yet for us to get our fill.

If you're somebody who creates art — that is to say, if you're human — you should come share it on the Social Web. It isn't so parasocial and weird over there as it is on literally every other part of the interactive internet. I've got a short guide for how to get started on the Social Web that you can check out. There's also plenty of other resources you can find with just a simple web search.

The internet of today often feels dead and hollow, but a better alternative is possible — we can switch to tools that enable community and trust, instead of those that destroy it. The Social Web is far from perfect, but it's one of the better options available, given the current bleak situation.