A love letter to the Internet of old

[Vasilisa]

Hundreds of Geocities Images Organized Neatly

Cameron’s World

In an age where we interact primarily with branded and marketed web content, Cameron’s World is a tribute to the lost days of unrefined self-expression on the Internet. This project recalls the visual aesthetics from an era when it was expected that personal spaces would always be under construction.

 

[Luke O]

Hundreds of Geocities Images Organized Neatly

Cameron’s World

I scrolled right to the end

 

[Galena]

When I come across websites that still have this vibe, I save them into my collection.

 

[93JC]

“I think a lot of internet has become a mall in terms of our off-the-shelf conformity,” he said. “These days it feels like the most room we have to define ourselves online is our choice of profile and cover pictures on social networks like Facebook or LinkedIn. They’re controlled environments that iron out many of the wilder intricacies of personal taste that used to define self-expression on personal home pages.”

Reminds me of something I tangentially posted about a while ago:

Sometimes, choices can paralyze us with anxiety and exhaust us. But sometimes, choices reduce anxiety by making us feel like we've searched exhaustively -- and now we're ready to buy.

Bringing it back to social media, I wonder if that's one reason why Facebook quickly eclipsed Myspace. Myspace was comparatively open and allowed users to customize their pages with gifs and music and backgrounds and all sorts of other virtual baubles, whereas Facebook is a relatively closed space by comparison. What Facebook did wasn't so much a novelty as it was taking the Myspace model and "dumbing it down", making stylistic choices on behalf of the 'consumer'. And yet they still offered enough choices that the user never lost the ability to sell themselves. They dialed back the number of decisions left up to the users just enough that people flocked to it and left Myspace to wither on the vine. I wonder if Facebook's delicate balance between decision fatigue and single-option aversion was deliberate or coincidence.

Funny how more and more of us are becoming adept at creating websites but the prevalent style has become more and more simple and in a way "sanitized".

 

[chickpea]

I feel that I can define stages of my life through the popular personal websites/social media with me. I came of age along with the Internet. And I'm so glad instagram didn't come out til I was a (somewhat) adult.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I feel that I can define stages of my life through the popular personal websites/social media with me. I came of age along with the Internet. And I'm so glad instagram didn't come out til I was a (somewhat) adult.

Same here.

 

[93JC]

I feel that I can define stages of my life through the popular personal websites/social media with me. I came of age along with the Internet. And I'm so glad instagram didn't come out til I was a (somewhat) adult.

https://web.archive.org/web/1999110...ties.com/Heartland/Bluffs/4157/hampdance.html

 

[Qlip]

I love this stuff. Maybe it's pure nostalgia, but I'm always drawn to the rough beginnings of things. To be reminded of the internet before it learned to internet.

 

[BadOctopus]

Those are the kind of websites I would make, if I had any interest in web design. Except I would use Comic Sans everywhere.

Does anyone else here remember trying to connect to the Internet using Juno? Those were the days. I remember it showed how many minutes you'd been online, and I'd be like, "Crap, Mom's going to know I was on the computer all day playing Acrophobia!"

 

[93JC]

A sound forever seared into the memories of many of us:

 

[Qlip]

A sound forever seared into the memories of many of us:

I used to be able to know what bps I was connected at by sound alone. I hope I was able to reclaim those brain cells.

 

[hamzadon99]

Watch Online Full HD 720p Movie Online @ 99 Homes (2015) Watch Online Full Movie - Full Movie2k

 

[Mal12345]

Potato

 

[Qlip]

Potato