3 Matching Annotations
- May 2023
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maggieappleton.com maggieappleton.com
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However, even personal websites and newsletters can sometimes be too public, so we retreat further into gatekept private chat apps like Slack, Discord, and WhatsApp.These apps allow us to spend most of our time in real human relationships and express our ideas, with things we say taken in good faith and opportunities for real discussions.The problem is that none of this is indexed or searchable, and we’re hiding collective knowledge in private databases that we don’t own. Good luck searching on Discord!
Appleton sketches a layering of dark forest web (silos mainly), cozy web (personal sites, newsletters, public but intentionally less reach), and private chat groups, where you are in pseudo closed or closed groups. This is not searchable so any knowledge gained / expressed there is inaccessible to the wider community. Another issue I think is that these closed groups only feel private, but are in fact not. Examples mentioned like Slack, Discord and Whatsapp are definitely not private. The landlord is wacthing over your shoulder and gathering data as much as the silos up in the dark forest.
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We end up retreating to what’s been called the “cozy web.”This term was coined by Venkat Rao in The Extended Internet Universe – a direct response to the dark forest theory of the web. Venkat pointed out that we’ve all started going underground, as if were.We move to semi-private spaces like newsletters and personal websites where we’re less at risk of attack.
Cozy Web is like Strickler/Liu's black zones above. Sounds friendlier.
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- Oct 2022
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There is a clear shift in digital behavior happening where Gen Z are migrating from public podiums into the more intimate nooks and crannies of the internet
iow they are growing up.
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