I run the Bear Blog platform. The discover feed on Bear has become a social hub and community space for many. There’s something quite charming about slower interconnectivity via RSS, email, and replying via posts.
We are sick of the current digital world. There is a trend of people writing about it.
By viewing it from different angles and reflecting on it in their very own ways, people are organically finding ways to heal from the dopamine trap, by escaping from the endless scroll cage, canned algorithms, and fast-food short videos."
I like the idea of some sort of gated "small web". I know this would be an inevitable rabbit hole of meta trying to define it, but simple sites, built by humans directly, authentic sites. ...
This already exists. You’re talking about the gemini protocol and websites built as gemtext instead of html and hosted as gemini: instead of https:. They are invisible to google, and that is a feature, not a bug.
I've been working on a small web index for some time now, the gating criterion is almost exactly your phrasing - "authentic". It's surprisingly easy to look at a page and decide hot dog/not hot dog.
It's sad to know that sobriety groups use addictive tech for check-ins.
> Replace scrolling with building - building out my RSS reader, my website, my personal link connections, my skills in using a static site generator, etc.
I've personally found that this approach is just not enough. Sure, I might be "building" something with distracting stuff just a click away, all the while I'm still sitting, staring at a screen, and, fundamentally, in denial that life is possible without the Web.
Took me a couple of years to come to this realization, I went through the whole schtick of getting off doomscroll portals by deleting accounts and using alternative frontends, using addons on my browser to limit and then block those sites, using screentime limits, removing apps, reducing colors on my phone, getting into static websites, web publishing, audio editing, etc. – all of this effort to end up here, commenting on a VC-backed forum during my working hours, because it requires me to sit in front of a screen.
It's like strapping yourself into the chair from A Clockwork Orange (and managing/maintaining each strap) just to pretend that, for many of us, this tech is not a clear net negative, and that those negatives don't come from all sides, i.e., it's not just particular apps or sites we use, it's the tech itself that makes us stationary, distracted, obsessed, overstimulated, etc.
There's something fundamentally wrong if I'm picking up my distraction device because of a "touch grass" notification, much like trying to fix radiation poisoning by trying a different isotope.
Then again, those that make a more radical shift and get off the web don't waste time publishing blog posts about their framework to get off the web. Of, for that matter, comment on said posts...
Once I got out of the house and starting doing stuff all of this sort of came naturally to me. The only "big web" I use is Instagram, and I don't regret my time spent there because most of it is engaging with my friends anyways.
I made a Hacker News UI that allows you to filter for only the small-web stories on the frontpage. It uses Kagi's list of small-web sites[0]. It's been a great way to discover new, timely content and a lot more manageable than an unfiltered RSS firehose.
Thanks, I'm glad to hear that! I've continued to get feedback on the site since the post and it's help keep it sharp. I've got more stuff in the pipeline I think you'll like.
SaaS companies pay me to write documentation and blogs (hopefully that aren't too corporate!). So I can't join you as much as I'd like. But coincidentally, I did delete web browsers from my phone last night. I've tried a bunch of other digital wellbeing stuff but it never really sticks. Came to the conclusion that it's because nothing blocks just surfing the web, which is where I waste the most time. Now, if someone messages me an interesting URL, or I think of something to Google, I just add it to Notion and check when I'm on desktop. More power to small web July, though!
I started doing most of this in 2017. Perhaps I am just unusually sensitive to social media, but I discovered that whenever I used Facebook I just ended up angry or depressed. I deleted my accounts and expected about a week of FOMO. There was zero FOMO and I basically don’t think about social media anymore. It’s been all RSS and NPR on an actual radio for many years. I 100% do not miss it because by the end very few of the interactions I was having were worth my time.
EXCEPT: I post on HN and some other tech sites occasionally. I do enjoy tech topics and it’s pretty easy to steer clear of topics that don’t interest me (eg, cryptocurrency). I also text frequently with a network of friend-nerds about tech news. Is texting social media?
Admittedly I have a weak spot for YouTube. Their algorithm consistently gives me stuff I love: woodworking videos, gardening videos, science and math videos, and a lot of music I don’t think I would be otherwise exposed to. I basically never read YT comments because most are incredibly low value. So it does not really feel like social media to me.
Beyond that, I spend a lot of time outside. Sometimes with friends, sometimes alone. I went through a phase of work that was grueling and dealt with family health issues at the same time. Being able to get into the woods for a trail run on most mornings usually gave me the calmness and patience I needed to get through a lot of long days.
I am looking forward to trying the Kagi lens people posted about here. I added the “enshittification” Kagi blocklist people mentioned a few days ago and it made a good search experience even better.
"small web" often feels like sorting through magazines at the doctor's office. Random, low quality, and outdated. I think going for "small community" can work well. Either people you're close with in real life, or people that you share an interest with.
I just tried the Kagi smallweb link someone posted above and it immediately brought me to a Jon Skeet article about the quirks of C# records. Holy cow! I haven’t read a Jon Skeet blurb since like 2013 when I was writing a lot of weird (ie, compiler-y) C# and needing to ask a lot esoteric questions on StackOveeflow.
So for me, it’s 1 for 1. The pile of magazines appears to be good :)
(It’s possible I also just like different stuff than you. I loved reading dusty old National Geographics at my grandparents house when I was a kid. Definitely out of date!)
I didn't mean to imply there isn't anything worthwhile on the small web, but you simply have so much more on the big web. Hacker News, Twitter, TikTok, etc. and it's usually sorted by how interesting it is. Unfortunately random people post random crap on their blogs and my RSS feed doesn't algorithmically filter it for me.
> you simply have so much more on the big web ... and it's usually sorted by how interesting it is.
Getting away from that is a good thing. You shouldn't be interested in everything that is put in front of your face. You don't have the time for it and it's unhealthy to devote your time to consuming it. You should be aiming towards finding what you need, when you need it. You should be the one in command, not some algorithmic feed that is designed to capture and hold your attention.
> random people post random crap on their blogs
I have mixed feelings about blogs. While there are some excellent blogs out there, but it is also one of those formats that are meant to capture one's attention then have them come back for more.
> my RSS feed doesn't algorithmically filter it for me.
I haven't tried looking for it, but there ought to b feed readers that filter based on keyword.
I struggle to phrase it in a way that doesn't feel cruel, but I often find "small web" stuff too personal to interest me.
Oftentimes it seems the content between such sites can be somewhat interchangeable. Similar film photography, cycling, hobbies, retro video games, some esoteric programming languages, whatever. Then, the only utility left per each individual site is the assumed specificity of the author themselves, which I usually do not care much about.
To your point, that last bit might matter inside a community.
That's ironic given that when stuff like Facebook and Twitter came on the scene, a lot of the derisive commentary was exactly that it was too personal. "I don't want to hear about every time you picked your nose", etc. And there's still tons of that stuff on those platforms.
It’s well worth checking out: https://bearblog.dev/discover/
By viewing it from different angles and reflecting on it in their very own ways, people are organically finding ways to heal from the dopamine trap, by escaping from the endless scroll cage, canned algorithms, and fast-food short videos."
A google search for that would be fun.
https://marginalia-search.com/
https://wiby.me/
https://seirdy.one/posts/2021/03/10/search-engines-with-own-...
https://kagi.com/smallweb
I'm afraid I don't quite understand the meaning of this; authentic with respect to what, the world wide web of 30 years ago?
It's sad to know that sobriety groups use addictive tech for check-ins.
> Replace scrolling with building - building out my RSS reader, my website, my personal link connections, my skills in using a static site generator, etc.
I've personally found that this approach is just not enough. Sure, I might be "building" something with distracting stuff just a click away, all the while I'm still sitting, staring at a screen, and, fundamentally, in denial that life is possible without the Web.
Took me a couple of years to come to this realization, I went through the whole schtick of getting off doomscroll portals by deleting accounts and using alternative frontends, using addons on my browser to limit and then block those sites, using screentime limits, removing apps, reducing colors on my phone, getting into static websites, web publishing, audio editing, etc. – all of this effort to end up here, commenting on a VC-backed forum during my working hours, because it requires me to sit in front of a screen.
It's like strapping yourself into the chair from A Clockwork Orange (and managing/maintaining each strap) just to pretend that, for many of us, this tech is not a clear net negative, and that those negatives don't come from all sides, i.e., it's not just particular apps or sites we use, it's the tech itself that makes us stationary, distracted, obsessed, overstimulated, etc.
There's something fundamentally wrong if I'm picking up my distraction device because of a "touch grass" notification, much like trying to fix radiation poisoning by trying a different isotope.
Then again, those that make a more radical shift and get off the web don't waste time publishing blog posts about their framework to get off the web. Of, for that matter, comment on said posts...
Here's small web Hacker News: https://hcker.news/?smallweb=true
[0] curated at: https://github.com/kagisearch/smallweb/blob/main/smallweb.tx...
EXCEPT: I post on HN and some other tech sites occasionally. I do enjoy tech topics and it’s pretty easy to steer clear of topics that don’t interest me (eg, cryptocurrency). I also text frequently with a network of friend-nerds about tech news. Is texting social media?
Admittedly I have a weak spot for YouTube. Their algorithm consistently gives me stuff I love: woodworking videos, gardening videos, science and math videos, and a lot of music I don’t think I would be otherwise exposed to. I basically never read YT comments because most are incredibly low value. So it does not really feel like social media to me.
Beyond that, I spend a lot of time outside. Sometimes with friends, sometimes alone. I went through a phase of work that was grueling and dealt with family health issues at the same time. Being able to get into the woods for a trail run on most mornings usually gave me the calmness and patience I needed to get through a lot of long days.
I am looking forward to trying the Kagi lens people posted about here. I added the “enshittification” Kagi blocklist people mentioned a few days ago and it made a good search experience even better.
So for me, it’s 1 for 1. The pile of magazines appears to be good :)
(It’s possible I also just like different stuff than you. I loved reading dusty old National Geographics at my grandparents house when I was a kid. Definitely out of date!)
Getting away from that is a good thing. You shouldn't be interested in everything that is put in front of your face. You don't have the time for it and it's unhealthy to devote your time to consuming it. You should be aiming towards finding what you need, when you need it. You should be the one in command, not some algorithmic feed that is designed to capture and hold your attention.
> random people post random crap on their blogs
I have mixed feelings about blogs. While there are some excellent blogs out there, but it is also one of those formats that are meant to capture one's attention then have them come back for more.
> my RSS feed doesn't algorithmically filter it for me.
I haven't tried looking for it, but there ought to b feed readers that filter based on keyword.
Oftentimes it seems the content between such sites can be somewhat interchangeable. Similar film photography, cycling, hobbies, retro video games, some esoteric programming languages, whatever. Then, the only utility left per each individual site is the assumed specificity of the author themselves, which I usually do not care much about.
To your point, that last bit might matter inside a community.