Websites as a catalyst for personal relationships
• 554 words • ~3 min read ⏲
Manuel host this months indieweb carnival on the topic of Digital Relationships. He also, nearly one year ago, happens to have started an initiative in which among several others I have followed suit in: an offer to become regular reader of your personal website. I'll take this as an opportunity to reflect on relationships that were initiated through this and the potential of the digital medium to create genuine personal connections.
While some soulless traffic metrics might indicate otherwise, the independent, non-commercial personal web is what I consider to be the most important and exciting part of the web. One of my favorite Alan Kay quotes goes along the lines that having perspective is worth 80 IQ points
. And I'd be hard pressed to come up with many better ways to gain a broader perspective, than through a well-curated feed reader. Of course, curation of and, as a prerequisite, discovery of people to read are important ingredients that still are in need of more sustainable solutions than we have currently. The personal web sadly is being drowned in a sea of commercial noise with orders of magnitude bigger volume, which is induced by the major search engines and the digital dopamine slot machines (which I neither seriously nor ironically want to call social networks) that attempt to sell our eyeballs to the highest bidder.
Henrik Karlsson called blog posts complex search queries to make fascinating people route interesting stuff to your inbox. And I can attest that there is truth to that. Joining the "readers club" was the most successful query I wrote so far. I am certain that nothing I would have entered into BingoogleGPT would have sent me to Rodrigos tech journalism, Yaidels points of view, Kimberlys commonplace book, or Stephanies takes on popular culture. I would also have missed out on many delightful conversations that were initiated as a reaction to something written in public - and I'd be poorer for it. These connections that were initiated through the simple act of reading blog posts and writing a mail are something that I cherrish.
And when I look at the overall state of the personal and independent web, I am reminded of a pre-digital phenomenon that is known as the "republic of letters" (a term, mind you, coined by those who participated!). In the 17th and 18th century philosophers, scholars, university teachers, mediated by the regular exchange of personal correspondence, formed an intellectual long-distance community all over Europe. I find it remarkable that while the lands overwhemingly where governed by absolutist monarchs, which only knew of subjects, the intellectuals of their age considered themselves citizens of a republic. I can't help but to draw a parallel: On the dominating platforms of today, nobody will ever be a citizen, not even a customer. We're only good enough to be a user. But outside of the walled gardens, there are still ample opportunities. We can form relationships, participate in debate, cultivate a corner of and shape the digital medium. All these verbs - nota bene - have in common that they are active.
To conclude: the personal web is designed and destined to be a two-way street. Being part of it is a choice I would love to encourage many more people to make. Long may flourish the republic of mails.