In the past 19 years, the Internet has changed. Creating a website is more accessible, but most people don't do it. It's much easier to stay close to one of the major platforms where the people are. It seems everyone recently discovered that websites can't exist on ad revenue alone and that tech workers cost a lot of money. Will this continue to centralize content and reduce diversity?

Content itself has changed as well. In order to attract people, we've reverted to emotional tactics. Everyone is stuck in personalization echo chambers. Deceptive headlines grab people's attention and most article text is about instilling a reaction. This has filtered down into how we react with each other in comments as well. It's more common to find personal expressions of rage rather than interesting contributions to topics. You also can't trust if a comment thread reflects the actual sentiment of the population due to the fact that most of the comments might be fake due to bots. We need to gauge ourselves continuously against the unfiltered and unpersonalized sentiment of the world in order to make effective personal decisions, and it is becoming much more difficult to find a reliable source for that information. Where will this information come from in the next 19 years?

At the same time though, new AI technologies like stable diffusion (like midjourney) and large language models (like ChatGPT) have made it much easier for more people to express themselves. I feel like most of our problems come from people's inability to communicate effectively with each other and simultaneously understand whether they are being influenced, and these tools show a lot of promise at changing that. We are at the cusp of having oracle machines and automated assistants. These personal companions, kind of like a fiduciary, will care about us at our most vulnerable and malleable stages in life and help us navigate the world without the threat of being taken advantage of by unscrupulous grifters and malicious actors. To have someone (or something) deeply care about each of our circumstances will be game changing for mental health and personal empowerment. That is a future I want to subscribe to. 👍

Thank you everyone for your continued patronage. The world has changed significantly in that time and websites have come and gone. I'm happy that we have been able to last this long. I hope to see you all in another year!