The Web We Know Is Going to Disappear

Every generation of computing believes the interface it loves will last forever. It never does. I saw information move from floppy disks to BBSs, from BBSs to the Web, from the Web to Flash, from Flash back to open standards, from websites to mobile apps, and now from search engines to AI chat interfaces. The Web will not vanish overnight, but the Web as we know it, the open place where people search, click, read, browse, publish, and discover, is already being replaced by something more convenient, more centralized, and much harder to escape.

Another Drama Rant, With Modem Noises

I am 48 years old. I started using computers in 1990. Back then, I did not have access to networks. Everything was local. Information moved physically, usually through floppy disks. It sounds primitive now, but at the time it felt like magic with a plastic shell.

Every week, I exchanged what felt like an insane amount of information for that era. Maybe 20 MB. Today that is basically one screenshot from a modern phone, but back then it was treasure. People gathered with bags full of disks ready to share video games, text magazines, software, weird utilities, manifestos, manuals, books, and things nobody could properly categorize.

I remember collecting legendary articles, technical texts, strange essays, and digital magazines like they were sacred objects. You did not "bookmark" things. You physically had them. You labeled them. You protected them. You prayed the disk did not die.

The Web did not exist in my life yet. Search did not exist. Social media did not exist. There were no feeds, no timelines, no notifications, no "like and subscribe," and no algorithm trying to guess whether you wanted to buy shoes because you once looked at a chair.

Information still moved. It just moved through people.

The First Network That Felt Like the Future

My first real encounter with a network was a BBS, a Bulletin Board System.

Around 1995, I started one with friends. Our modem was 14,400 bps. Yes, bits per second. Not megabits. Not gigabits. Not fiber. A 14.4 kbps modem that screamed like a tiny robot being tortured by a fax machine.

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