A Love Letter to the Personal Website

Escaping Social Media Zombie-ism

For the last few years, primarily since 2020, I've been on a quest to pare down my use of social media. It's been an up-and-down journey, but that's okay. I'm learning the line between using social media in a way that benefits me (staying passively connected with friends, accessing less filtered news content, entertainment within limits) and using it as meaningless filler activity that isn't actually enjoyable, just a well-practiced habit.

At the risk of sounding annoying, I really miss the early days of social media when people were just kind of posting to share things, not sell things. Luckily, there is still an online world where that sentiment is alive and well: ✨ the personal website ✨

People are inherently interesting

Something that I love about personal websites, which I feel is often lost when viewing people through Twitter/Instagram/etc. profiles, is how multifaceted people are. The format of a personal site (i.e., no prescribed format at all) gives space for people to fully express and share their multifaceted interests, thoughts, and work.

When I first started following along with some personal blogs, I was surprised at how invested I was in the thoughts of people who were essentially total strangers. There's a feeling of delight and genuine interest when I find out via a personal website that someone who I maybe followed initially on social media for software engineering reasons is also a hobbyist photographer, makes music, and is an avid reader. The commodification of hobbies that social media seems to push these days trained my brain to be surprised that people have multifaceted hobbies that they want to share and connect over.

A quick note on design

One of my favorite parts of exploring personal websites and digital gardens is seeing how people choose to design their websites. I love websites that look like a real person made them, in spite of their programming or design skills. Maybe they are a little rough around the edges and don't follow the best UI practices, but they're full of character. I love going to my friends' personal websites and seeing their personalities and aesthetic preferences reflected.

A few websites I like...

Here's a list of a few personal websites that I enjoy. I plan to make a dedicated area on this website to keeping a growing list of websites I find interesting. But for now, here are a handful:

• 100r
• Nathan Wentworth
• Maggie Appleton
• Ritual Dust
• Skybox
• SFPC Study (not a personal website for one person, more of a collective)
• Mrshll
• XXIIVV Webring (webring)

In conclusion

In my perfect world, we would all have personal websites where we could share our interests in whatever format we please, not just short-form, digestible, commodifiable bites. I want to read about your niche interest that I've never heard of before and learn something about it from you. I've found a lot of joy in engaging with long-form content about things that maybe I don't personally have a connection with but enjoy learning about from someone who does.