Taking Back the Internet: Why the Corporate Web Isn't Your Friend

Introduction

Hi everybody! If you're here, I'm assuming you're here from my language arts class. Meaning... you are now my captive audience! Mwahahahahaha! If not, howdy, you're totally welcome too. Go on, take a seat! Mind the cat up in the corner, she'll chase you if you give her attention. Come and have something to drink!

Alright, now that you have a little somethin' in ya, let's get to talking. I know that the title is particularly intimidating. What the hell does "corporate web" mean, anyway? Don't worry! It's actually a lot simpler than it appears at first glance. All that's gonna happen to you here is a little bit of learning about the internet--as it exists today, how it existed yesterday, and how you can help build a better internet moving forward. To start, we're going to need to talk about what the corporate web is.

What is the Corporate Web?

Put simply: you already know what the corporate web is. It's the big stuff like Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok. Those guys are the worst offenders mentioned by the term "corporate web", but sites that are less social and more cosumptive, like YouTube and Pinterest, count by extension. These are all websites that are not, by and large, owned by the people who use them, nor are they customizable to user specifications. They're owned by companies that set all of the groundwork down, creating identical spaces for their users to "borrow" in exchange for accepting their terms of service. Your preferences are quietly mined by corporations for better, more streamlized advertising programs, all while they develop stronger and better algorithms to keep you engaged for the maximum amount of time possible. The people who frequent these sites often have little to no say about what their homepages look like, what content they see in what order, and what kind of content--especially copyrighted content--is allowed to be displayed on their profiles. Monetization rules on certain platforms dictate what kind of things creators can and can't discuss without sacrificing their visibility or even monetary gain. Most of the user interface is designed around making sure that you see advertisements, whether through sponsored creators or prominent brand accounts being centered on front pages. This lack of tact from corporations gives the corporate web its name. Instead of being focused on fun user experiences, everything is designed for longer, unhealthy engagement with the platforms' content in the name of boosting business' reputations and online presences. This makes browsing the internet and navigating social media frustrating for the average user, and nearly intolerable for people who dislike advertising.

This wasn't always how the internet was designed. Back in the early days of the internet, a lot of people had their own websites that they hand-coded and used for themselves in a number of different wacky ways. Some of them may seem purposeless to you if you aren't used to that kind of content. I know of websites soley for documenting every time someone in Kingdom Hearts says the word "darkness", while there are others only for listing pokemon type advantages and weaknesses. Some of it is flashy and hard to look at, but there's charm in these sites that simply doesn't exist on Instagram or Facebook. For one, each weird forum created by 12 people to talk about some niche Finnish comic strip is owned and operated by said 12 people. It's custom-made just for them to use. And you can really tell how much heart goes into it! There are personal blogs and how-to manuals and little gaming sites that people offer entirely for free, just for fun. These places are custom. They're ugly. They're ad-free. However useless or odd these sites may seem to you, they were made with a love of programming and a love for free content, which is commendable in today's world of profit-driven content being valued above all else. The modern web lacks the creativity and individuality that used to be its selling point. Look at what it's been replaced with! Ads, ads, and more ads; ads for paid subscriptions to remove the ads. Personally, I feel like this isn't what the internet should be about. It should be about people, so why is it only for companies?

The Main Issues, Part 1: Advertising

Alright, so here's my case about ads. They suck. None of us like to be told what to buy or when to buy it, but this is far from my only grievance about advertising online. These days, ads are more personalized than they've ever been. How is it that you can be talking about a show with your friends, only to find that your phone is now showing you an ad for their new merch drop? Why do you get recommended cool shoes or a cute oufit the day after you started considering buying some new clothes? I'm not trying to say that your phone is recording you. I'm saying that corporations are selling the data that you forfeit to them by accepting their terms of service. Through the history of videos you've seen, ads you've viewed and/or clicked on, or even the interests of people whose contacts you use frequently, they predict what kinds of things you like. It's predatory marketing designed to make you interested in what they sell. Don't feel bad if you've ever been duped. You're not stupid! The algorithm is literally made to produce irresistable deals for you, and you specifically.

"Okay", you say while stirring the tea that I so graciously provided you with, "but what if I don't care about corporations vying into my personal life to deliver me targeted advertisments of products that may or may not even be of decent quality if I buy them?"

Then you're weird. But whatever, let's move on to the next reason why ads suck: they affect the way that search engines display your results. Don't believe me? Try searching for anything without getting recommended an obviously sponsored result. I tested this with the search term "carrots", and no less than 4 links down, encountered an ad for a t-shirt with carrots inexplicably placed in its product description.None of the results on the first search page had any kind of information supplied by people. Sure, there was Wikipedia, but there were absolutely zero blogs or websites run by farmers, hobby gardeners, cooking enthusiasts, or anything of the sort. The closest results to the top are always run by companies. Even the recipe blogs tend to be one of those trashy "sign up here for our weekly newsletter!!" sites, which give you an immediate notification that they want you to accept cookies. This is an ineffective way to search the web. Where am I supposed to find the little websites run by grandmothers who've been gardening for 50 years? Their input is just as valuable--if not more valuable altogether--than anything the first page of google search results could get me. This applies especially to skills like sewing, baking, or even metallurgy. Why wouldn't I want to find an article written by a country blacksmith about the tools necessary for his craft if I was doing a project on modern ironworking? The internet connects so many of us from around the world, and yet we can't even use the most popular search engine on the planet to connect with a single human being behind a screen. What gives?

Well, the answer is simple. Companies want you to connect to them instead.

It's impossible for Google to give us results that aren't popular unless you search by a very specific URL, and this is because Google is optimized (in the loosest sense) to display pages in a way that will generate the most views. They want your time, your clicks, and your constant, unwavering attention on advertisements. Almost every online space created by a large company will have the intention of selling something to you, whether it's a product, a subscription service, or just the idea of a corporation being your friend. Once you trust a brand, you're more likely to buy what they have to sell. Even free things offered by companies online tend to be for the purpose of manipulative marketing. Innocuous actions, like brands being funny on Twitter, aren't safe from this concept. If you connect Wendy's with having cool comebacks to random people online, you're more likely to see Wendy's as a human being that you can like, have fond memories of, and trust to deliver you safe, quality products. But none of those feelings are proof of quality--they're just feelings instilled in you by companies preying on your natural tendency to form bonds with the people around you.

Once you know about it, you start to see evidence of predatory systems everywhere: Endless scrolling features, while supposedly invented to curb boredom, actually serve to keep you engaged for as many hours as you can stay awake. That ill-informed, opinionated thread you saw on Twitter didn't rise to popularity because thousands of people came to the conclusion that it was an engaging discussion--it was likely boosted by the algorithm for its inflamatory nature, since arguments are proven to hold attention for long periods of time. YouTube isn't putting rants about new movies and songs to the forefront of your page because you were really that interested in learning about Disney's latest controversies. It's all about time and exposure. More time online means more chances to see advertisements, and more eyes on advertisements means more money for the companies that run the place. This kind of marketing fosters terrible relationships with media you consume and the platforms you spend time discussing them on. If all you ever do is argue about your favroite TV shows online, then when are you ever going to take time for yourself to genuinely enjoy the content you love? And when will you take a break from it? Presumably, right after you've finished arguing with some idiot in your notifications.

Right?

While you think on it, watch these three unskippable ads!

The Main Issues, Part 2: Personalization Pitfalls

Now, this may be preferential, but I absolutely adore the garish, tacky look of homemade HTML websites. It's so much fun to see how many terrible color combinations you can come up with, how many eye-searing gifs you can sandwich into one area, and how many buttons and banners from other websites you can collect just for the fun of it. I love how basic my websites look and I adore how beautifully complicated they can be in the hands of a more experienced coder. It's seriously tragic to me how the majority of social media sites don't even have the decency to let you customize your own homepage.

Many people who grew up with the internet remember MySpace, but for the sake of those who don't, I'd have to ask you to imagine a very simple layout for a social media... well, actually, I don't need to ask you to imagine anything. If you go back to the 2006 front page of MySpace on the Wayback Machine, you'll find a page that looks exactly like the current homepage of SpaceHey. Check out any of the blogs listed (or you can just look at mine) and you'll see terribly chaotic layouts that are almost cancerous to the eyes. Now, I love this kind of stuff. If I was better at programming, I'd make all my websites look this awful, but I'm still too new to fix all the bells and whistles myself. SpaceHey is just lucky enough to have a lot of great techies who were willing to share their code with me. Either way, having full control over layouts is great fun! Almost everything about SpaceHey (and the MySpace it was based off of) is fully customizable to the users' preferences. Nowadays, you'd be hard-pressed to find a social media that allows you to add gifs of Kirby and Sanrio characters or little spinning stars on the buttons and navigation bars. That doesn't mean that nothing of the sort exists at all--like mentioned earlier, Tumblr still offers a certain amount of customization on its homepage, rarely used though it is.

"Why is it rarely used?" you ask. I notice that your teacup is empty and push a number of small pastries in your direction.

You fool. It is no use trying to refuse food in my household. Now sit down for more essay.

The reason why people don't tend to use customization features already available in the spaces that they do exist in is because, and I timed this on a stopwatch, figuring out how to stack all those sweets gifs took a whole 27 minutes and 54 seconds. It's not even done properly! I was trying to figure out how to use "float/clear" elements in CSS and eventually just gave up when I realized it was easier to let the code do whatever it wanted. Any self-respecting HTML/CSS expert would shoot me in the foot if they had to read over the code for this website. Basically, coding isn't easy. It requires a certain amount of dedication that you just can't get around--sort of like how you HAVE to slog through vocabulary lists and conjugation worksheets when you first start learning a language, even if all you want or need to use is the basics. I'm not very good at all at designing websites. CSS only barely makes enough sense to me to make my website purple, and I'm more than interested in learning more! What about people who don't like or understand how code works? Will they get left out of customization?

Well, not necessarily. Like I mentioned above, I borrowed the code I used to customize my SpaceHey profile; all I needed knowledge of in order to bring my website into all its horrible, blinking pastel glory was where and how to insert code into a customizable space, which does not take incredibly long to learn. You will have to do a little bit of reading, but if you're willing to sacrifice an hour or two, a whole world of possibilities opens up for what you're able to design. People who love the old internet like I do are usually plenty willing to share fun bits of code for anyone to use. One in particular that I can point out on this very page is Rose the cat, who you may or may not have awoken in her little home at the top of my site. She was a bit of code originiating from Webneko. If you understand the very, very barren basics of HTML, you too can cobble together your own website. You might even be able to add Rose the cat to your site! She is a cat of her own whims after all, belonging to no one and wandering to wherever she may wish to go.

But in all seriousness, one of the issues with the new web is that personalization is intentionally harder to implement than it was in the past, mostly due to companies wanting easily controllable conformity in their userbases. Many websites do not want you to be going through their code to take out things you don't like, such as predatory algorithms (or add things you do like, like gifs of copyrighted content), nor do they want you noticing how little control you have over your online presence while using their services. It gives you too much power over curating your online experience, and what will they do if you, say, figure out how to apply an easy program to your browser that removes advertisements or data trackers? (wink wink, more on that later.)

It's unfortunate, but it's true: even though it can be difficult, we need to start teaching people more about internet history, how to safely curate their own online experiences, the basics of programming and web design, and most importantly, how to keep yourself anyonymous and your information out of the hands of data sellers.

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