A Sort Of Re: I Want To Leave The Internet

27 Aug, 2026

After reading chupacabra's and ¡Olé! Computer’s posts I found the thoughts I had been discussing with others captured in words that I couldn’t string together myself. Though, I also wanted to take two ideas I had been reading on and mash them together into some sort of entry here.

I don’t think I want to leave the internet itself. Places like Bearblog have reminded me that there are people online with a variety of experiences that I can learn from, empathize with and grow alongside, giving me the same feeling of wonder and fascination I experienced when I was younger online. I found myself nodding my head in agreement when reading actualspine’s bearblog is not social media, since I find it is the best of the internet distilled into a minimalist discovery feed that won’t chase you through app notifications and ease of access as you go about your day. You have to make the conscious effort to log in, tinker with your blog or click on an entry to read and if you don’t enjoy what you’re reading you can click off and go about your day. There’s no discourse that appears, the activity of others doesn’t influence what I see and I engage with what I wan’t to engage with.

What I want to leave is the "Dead Web"¹.

After stumbling across punkthefrog's and bearlyadiary’s reflections on the bleakness of the internet, I once again found a perspective I agreed with. Over on the Dead Web, things are certainly desolate. I find no matter how much you try to “curate your algorithms” the dead web wants to keep your attention on the things that will spur the most emotional interaction from you and more often than not stir the negative feelings within you loose. While I have not completely deleted all my accounts, I have been mindful about limiting my time, engagement and association with some of those platforms. In some cases, I have completely abandoned accounts in this pursuit of digital peace. I also related to and empathized with bearlyablog’s note on the pursuit of “internet fame” as this was a feeling I had also chased for a while until realizing, I don’t think notoriety on the internet is what it was when I was young anymore. The IRL impact of internet celebrity status (while big, niche or micro) has real life consequences that will remain in your digital footprint forever.

I want the internet to be the corner I continue to retreat to for the communities and topics I find interesting since it has always been a make-shift sanctuary for me throughout my life. I think all of us need to take the steps to find and maintain the corners of the web that we find important, weird, quirky or safe for our own spirits. The Dead Web and it’s bleakness will continue to creep into any crevice it can find and drain the life out of the digital ecosystems that were thriving there as an opportunity for capital generation at the cost enshittification and soullessness. We must not allow that to happen or I fear the internet as we know it will cease to exist.

I don't want to imagine the Dead Web future we seem to be hurtling towards, nor do I want to continue to contributing to that online reality.

#blaugust #internet #thoughts