I f-word love the web
There is just no way to deny it, I love the web. I know this sounds plain and boring, but this is something I deeply mean. Sure, it has many, many problems, and I complain about these problems quite often. But guess where I am doing all this complaining? Yep, that’s right here, on the web.
This post originated as a draft started a few weeks back while I was listening to an episode of the Talk Show. John Gruber and Christina Warren talked about the newest MacBook Pros with the M3 chips and mentioned how a multitude of open tabs can affect performance, etc. Picturing a browser with dozens of open tabs, using up way too much memory, this is where my thoughts went, while I was smiling: I f-word love the web.1
Even if the web browser is the most frustrating app on my Mac, even if the “enshitification” of things happened on the web way before anything else, even if most websites behave like this, I still love exploring, reading, clicking, favouriting, saving, subscribing, scrolling, etc.
Some people like watching sports, some prefer watching movies or TV shows, some choose to play video games, some will even do some knitting in their spare time. I just browse the web.
The web isn’t just a destination or a medium, it’s a whole culture. Blogs, magazines, apps, catalogues, comments, it’s just never ending. But it’s not just what is on the web that I love, it’s everything about the web, from learning about all the potential business models for news organisations to appreciating the variety of website designs; I seem to love (almost) everything web-related.
When most people say they love books, what they mean is that they love reading books. They usually don’t care about cover design, the printing process, or the economy around it. A tiny percentage of people loving books will care about everything about books. I feel like I belong in this group, but for the web. Web-related things I don’t know make me curious, and web-related things I don’t understand make me want to learn.
I guess this passion also extends to the tools we use to explore, consume, or create on the web: web browsers, CMS software, apps, operating systems, computers, displays, etc.2
The word passion is an interesting one by the way: the word comes from the Latin word that means “suffering” and it makes the word “passion” a perfect word to describe this enthusiasm/obsession with the web. Indeed, if I love the web deeply, it doesn’t mean that the web is entirely great. In fact, in most places it hurts, it stinks, and this strong and unpleasant odour recently reached one of the favourite places I used to go to live this passion at its fullest.
I love the web too much to bother experiencing it the wrong way. It’s better to remove the bad apples from the crate before they spoil the whole lot, especially if you truly love apples. For that reason — among others — I deleted all my social media accounts in the last couple of years, to save myself as much as possible from the web I don’t like, to keep it a pleasant and enjoyable activity.
Like someone loving how music sounds would tend to favour vinyl records over streaming, like a driving enthusiast will always prefer a Mazda MX-5 or Toyota GR-86 over any electric car, I avoid social media and what the algorithms select for me. I enjoy using my RSS reader. I need to use my browser extensions so that my web browser doesn’t suck.3
To be able to experience the web that I love, and pursue my passion, I must take care of the machine and the tools I use to explore it. If I am not cautious and become negligent in how I use my computer, phone, and web browser, I may end up being frustrated with the web and end up lose my love for it. It does require some extra effort, but the truth is that I enjoy this additional work just as much as I enjoy the web itself. It’s similar to how someone who loves cars also loves washing them. Loving something involves taking care of it, and all the tools required to do so in the first place.