Once upon a time, when the Internet is new, a lot of people had a personal website. Some are blogs. Some are curated photos. People bookmarked their friends websites and visited regularly.
Then social networks are invented. Why build your own website if you can share your thoughts and pictures to Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram? So personal websites are gradually replaced by profile pages in social networks.
Then social networks morphed into social media. We gradually spend more time browsing short videos shared by influencers. Friends still share photos and writings, but those are mixed into the feeds controlled by the social media companies.
Now, after social media, the new thing is AI. People are debating whether websites and web browsers are relevant at all in the near future, because people can just ask an AI bot and get all the answers they need.
So, why did I still maintain this website?
To me, first of all it’s a space for myself. It feels good to look at a page of photos from a past trip, for example this one: 2024-11-29 San Francisco - Golden Gate Park and Twin Peaks. The presentation just cleaner than Instagram. No ads, no distraction, more organized, and I can put more photos on the page too.
Then it’s also convenient to just a link to a friend when a topic comes up. I have some notes on this website, and when there is a need I can easily share the link for a note I took. Sometimes I also share a photo link when I’m introducing a place or a type of animal I photographed.
I know that no one will regularly visit this website. But just like a journal, a diary, a sketchbook, or a photo album, it’s still meaningful. It’s for the art, for the precious memories, and for the fun of the creation process.
Do you have a website too? Do you have a lot of visitors? Have you been motivated to keep updating?
I enjoyed creating this website and keep adding content to it, even though I know it’s not visited by many people. So I’d highly recommend you to create and update your website too. If I know you and you can send me your website url, I will bookmark it and visit regularly.
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