My tolerance for the vast majority of the web is so small now. It nearly completely eroded over the last decade. My trust, patience, and willingness to put up with the absolute hostility of modern websites is at an all-time low.

Just about every website and every app has seemingly given up on the goal of being actually good. Maybe designers don’t have the power they once held, ceding it to businesspeople who entered the industry only to squeeze it dry. Maybe there’s nothing left to solve and everyone’s moving things around for the worse.

To me, a core attribute of being a designer or an engineer is making things in service of the end user. But we know that most major companies in this arena are openly exploiting users and their vulnerabilities. Designers and engineers who facilitate that are accomplices.

But it’s not just the major companies. Individuals are following in those footsteps.

Personal blogs are now littered with newsletter popups before you’ve read a single article. Even small online shops you’ve never visited before put notification badges on icons while chatbots float in the corner. Login walls are being presented before any justification is made for doing so. We’ve fully lost the plot. Everyone has subscribed to proliferate this awful version of digital life.

I don’t believe this constitutes a necessary evolution, but it is unfortunately a very predictable outcome. What once was done purely for the love of it from the people who cared the most is now done by everyone in the whole world for the hopes of being wealthy or famous, even if for a moment.

I’m grumpy. I know. I’m becoming an old man at the young age of 36. But I know the web and software can be much, much better than this.

I have to say this out loud because I want to hold myself to it: I have no interest in that style of digital life. I do not want to push a mailing list or login before allowing someone to read my blog because I want everyone to be able to read it. I do not want to require subscriptions to access my downloads because I want everyone to be able to download them. I do not want to host my files on platforms I don’t control. I don’t want to operate a store via a third-party website. Because I don’t trust those things at all. I don’t trust any company to at some point not become totally awful.

It’s really sad we all know that to be true. Every company seems doomed to turn against their own principles when it becomes financially beneficial to. Designers and engineers who work at those companies have abandoned their own principles when they contribute. I’ve seen how many people are willing to make that trade, but I am not one of them.

So if I have a resolution for 2025, it’s this: I will learn how to do more things to become more independent.

The web can be better. But it will depend on people who don’t just reject its current state, but do something about it. We can spend lifetimes wishing. Or we can spend it making what we know should exist. I’m going down that path.

If you like this, you can make a one-time donation, donate monthly, or buy something from my shop.