Bringing Mae Flowers

I have a coworker who like to share obscure websites

Useless, fun, and entertaining corners of the web, all but forgotten in the algorithm age. They’re little tastes of what the internet used to be, before it was monopolized by Google and polorized by social media. Glimpes of what the internet could be again, if it wasn’t strangled by AI and algortihms.

Because the internet is dead now.

Once a fringe theory, it’s now an undeniable reality, AI-generated content has officially surpassed human presence online. The internet is a sci-fi ghosttown, where humans have disappeared and been replaced by bot. The question is, where did the people go?

Many of us are still here.

Some of us are maintaining our little corners of the internet, fighting as the machines threaten to devour it all. Most of us are trapped in algorithm prisons, force-fed AI slop like pâté geese. But some people have opted out of the machine altogether by leaving the internet entirely.

2026 is being harolded as an analogue age.

Many people have noticed the rise in independent bookstores over the last 5 years. In my area, we’ve also seen several retro-tech stores that specialize in selling older media. Two generations known for being chronically online are starting to pull the plug. Tired of streaming instead of owning, scrolling instead of controlling, young Millennials and Gen Z are starting to log out of the digital age. They are trading in Netflix for DVDs, Spotify for CDS, and Kindle for physical books- turning back the clock to 1999.

How long will it last?

The analogue trend may be just that— a trend, but I think it’s sparking some important conversations. What does “ownership” mean when it comes to media? What does creativity mean when AI gets involved? How important is it for you to control your media consumption? Those are debates I anticipate will continue long after the off-line trend ends.

Is this the end of the internet age?

Maybe we are witnessing the death of the internet and the resurrection of analogue. Or maybe we are witnessing the start of something entirely new. I’m one of the people who never gave up on analogue completely. I can’t deny that I’m excited to see it rise again. But I also can’t deny that I loved the internet and what it used to be, and I’m excited to see what may come next.