Digital Gardens
When I was thinking about migrating to Bearblog, one term that I kept encountering was 'digital garden' - aka the personal website as a reflection of the owner, curated and handcrafted as much as possible/feasible. Much of this is in response to how increasingly impersonal online spaces are becoming, and how "personal" content is nowadays more akin to a showcase.
In a way, it feels like going back in time. I first went online in 1996, when the Internet was starting to rise in the public consciousness, and people would make these quirky little digital corners for themselves. I did, too. At one point, I did a deep dive into CSS and the semantic web and made designs for myself and others. I blogged my thoughts to the world.
Then life got in the way, and by the time I resurfaced, the digital landscape had changed. Things got slick. Content was about how to "market" yourself. I stopped blogging because I had no idea how to "market" my personal ramblings. My website became a digital business card with extra pages.
Now, we've even reached the point where you can ask AI to design entire websites. Which is frightening to think - how much content is from actual humans, with our imperfections and foibles? How much is just bland content, copied from other static pages?
Now, I get to work those very-rusty CSS muscles again with this site, and bring some more of myself into my corner of the web. It's my little way of breathing some humanity back into the digital space.
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