www
Avery Kang
As of the conception of this site, the internet is only 31 years old, and it's everyone's tool of communication, entertainment, and utility. But this streamlined version of the world-wide-web had developed from what was once an unsophisticated hodge-podge of sites. Millennials that grew up with the earlier version of the internet remember unpleasant encounters such as porn ads, piracy scares, scams, and social media trolls. The look is all too familiar in hindsight, and maybe that aesthetic makes it feel as though it’ll stay in hindsight. But I argue that the aspects that make the internet as contemptible as it is has maintained those perverse qualities.
WWW lays out the evolution of the internet experience to show that internet vulgarities that were memorable to old-gen users have persisted in the experiences of the new-gen users. Individuals have unique relationships with the online world, and living through a virtual tunnel may make it seem as though our chosen internet subcultures are singular to ourselves, but many of those unspoken ugly facets are actually the common experience that isn't to be feared. By collecting and assembling these pieces from the past 30 years, we see the foundational skeleton of shock value and human-made cyber malfeasances that people today find familiar and honor the nostalgia despite the vulgarity.