Two Geoffs walk into the internet
Here's a thought experiment.
Imagine sitting down with a version of yourself, generations removed. Same person. Different operating system.
I tried it. First time ever. Seemed like it might surface something I'd been circling for a while: the cyclical nature of the internet.
So, I imagined a version of me born ~20 years later. Same instinct to disappear down rabbit holes. Completely different internet.
I grew up alongside personal computers, dial-up, the web browser and search. He grew up inside smartphones, recommendation engines and doom scroll.
We'd disagree on plenty. Funny enough, I think we'd land on the same conclusion: the internet hasn’t lost its brilliance. It’s lost its shared public square.
The weirdos never stopped building. They just scattered, trading the town square for many smaller rooms.
Our conversation went something like this…
A coffee shop somewhere outside of time.
One table. Two Geoffs.
One remembers the screech of a 56K modem, the other has never known a world without an algorithm deciding what comes next.
Both think they're right. Both are.
Gen Alpha Geoff: Yo, Legacy Build.
Me: Legacy Build?
Gen Alpha Geoff: Respectfully.
Me: I'll allow it.
The internet was never a utopia
Gen Alpha Geoff: You old heads talk about the early internet like it was some enchanted forest. That's nostalgia bait.
Me: Fair. But I also remember 4chan’s early boards existing alongside GeoCities, Flash games, and every beautifully-weird personal website you can imagine.
Gen Alpha Geoff: Exactly.
Me: Humanity shipped both features in the same release.
Gen Alpha Geoff: Kinda our whole brand, honestly.
The weirdos never left
Gen Alpha Geoff: Everyone says the internet lost its creativity.
That's low-key cooked.
The artists. The coders. The musicians. The hobbyists. They're still making incredible stuff.
Me: They just don't share the same ZIP code anymore: Patreon for the artists. Discord for the coders. Bandcamp for the musicians. Reddit for the hobbyists. Bluesky, personal websites, indie forums, RSS.
Gen Alpha Geoff: RSS? That’s open-source energy.
Me: That’s the nicest thing anyone’s said about RSS since 2007. Sad, since it’s TikTok's Following feed... if it respected your choices.
Gen Alpha Geoff: You’re cookin’. But, no cap, they're all running different servers in the same multiverse.
Me: The weirdos never disappeared.
Gen Alpha Geoff: You just stopped bumping into them.
Discovery broke
Me: The old web rewarded links. Today, it’s retention.
Every platform wants you to stay put.
Gen Alpha Geoff: TikTok barely lets you leave. Insta pretends links are radioactive. Facebook buries them.
Me: Twitter...
Gen Alpha Geoff: X.
Me: Twitter.
Gen Alpha Geoff: Fine.
Twitter trained everyone to stop clicking links anyway.
Me: That's the real shift.
The technical internet still connects everything.
The cultural internet doesn't.
Gen Alpha Geoff: Every platform has the same main goal: "Absolutely DO NOT click that."
The lost decade
Me: The 2010s feel weirder the more I look back. Platforms convinced millions to create extraordinary work: writing, videos, memes, friends, communities.
Then they converted all of it into engagement funnels and ad inventory.
All that work wasn’t portable, wasn’t archived. Worse, none of it belonged to its creators.
Gen Alpha Geoff: Digital Atlantis.
Me: That's... actually a great way to put it.
Gen Alpha Geoff: I have my moments.
Me: R.I.P., Vine. R.I.P., Periscope.
Gen Alpha Geoff: A plant, and a submarine app?
Me: I deserved that.
Something changed
Gen Alpha Geoff: My generation asks different questions.
Not "How do I beat the algorithm?"
More like...
"Why does the algorithm get to own the relationship?"
Me: That's a significant shift, one I had doubts I'd see.
Gen Alpha Geoff: Look around.
People subscribe. They pay creators directly.
They join communities. They support niche platforms.
That's aura.
Me: If Merriam and Webster could hear you, they’d sigh.
Gen Alpha Geoff: So would half the internet.
Algorithmic literacy
Gen Alpha Geoff: Everybody asks the same questions now.
Why am I seeing this? Who paid for this? Who benefits?
Me: Those are healthy questions. They spark digital literacy.
Gen Alpha Geoff: There’s even more skepticism with AI. Authenticity is under assault. People are finally asking if something’s authentic before clicking the share icon.
Took ‘em long enough.
Agency is making a comeback
Me: Algorithm chooses. Platform recommends. User scrolls. Repeat.
It wasn't long ago the pattern looked inevitable.
Gen Alpha Geoff: Now it’s flipped around. The user builds, curates and patronizes others who do the same. Tiny communities of people making, sharing and selling weird things for weird people are popping up everywhere.
Honestly...
Valid.
Me: That's a healthier internet.
Gen Alpha Geoff: Smaller. Weirder. Way better.
History rhymes
Me: Every communication breakthrough follows a familiar arc, from the printing press to GPTs.
There’s a period of abundance, followed by consolidation and then somebody inevitably asks why five companies control the conversation.
Gen Alpha Geoff: Monopoly—elite board game, terrible information architecture.
Me: History suggests those monopolies don't last.
They crack as people adapt and the web evolves. Again and again.
The move
Gen Alpha Geoff: So what's the play?
Me: Wander. Read somebody's blog. Pay the creator who made something you couldn't stop thinking about. Join the tiny forum with eight hundred members.
Try a search engine no one in your circle’s using. Click the weird link.
Gen Alpha Geoff: That's it?
Me: Always has been.
Gen Alpha Geoff: The internet isn't dying. It's decentralizing.
Me: That's my read.
Gen Alpha Geoff: Kinda hopeful for a Legacy Build.
Me: I'll take that as a compliment.
And here's the thing: the internet becomes more interesting every time someone chooses curiosity over convenience.
Every time someone builds instead of scrolls.
Every time someone remembers they're a participant, not a paltry user.
That's where the magic has been all along.
