25 Years, and What Have We Wrought?

"You bought what?"

It was 25 years ago this week. A month after the big Y2K scare. Some of us were still spot-checking the software our jobs depended on.

The business world didn't stop. The spice kept flowing. Orders in, product out. Back home, we emptied the bathtub of spare water, filed freshly-printed paper health records away, and put that extra cash back in the bank.

And, on a whim, I bought the boyink.com domain.

We were a single-income family with two young children. Money was tight. Domains are a recurring cost, so naturally MsBoyink wanted to know what I bought and why.

My why was simple. Boyink.com was available and I didn't want anyone else to have it. I also thought having my firstname@lastname.com for an email address was cool. Email addresses for all the Boyinks! (Spoiler: there aren't many.)

Boyink.com has been many things since then. A hobby website. A web development company website with a new-fangled blog. A content agency website. A portfolio website with a now old-school blog.

During those 25 years, publishing platforms have come and gone. The internet is a different place and I'm not convinced it's for the better.

The early days of the internet promised to "level the playing field" and give everyone an equal chance to have a voice.

The blogging heydays reflected that promise. People owned their domain and their content. Blog designs reflected the personality of the author. Conversations and connections didn't get lost to the scroll. Using RSS feeds and Google Reader, you shaped your own algorithm.

Since then it feels like we've all migrated back to being in one big Y2K bathtub owned by big tech social platforms. And the plug is getting pulled by the oligarch owners and politicians.

That giant sucking sound is our publishing freedom going down the drain.

And I'm scared to ask... what else are we losing with it?