Choosing Neocities in 2026

8/20/2026

Existing online in 2026 is a very strange experience for those of us who grew up online in the early 2000's. Though I wasn't quite conscious enough to experience the haydays of MySpace and AOL, I did live through the days of DeviantArt, Neopets, LiveJournal, AngelFire and Newgrounds. Back then, the internet very much felt like a place you visited. A nearly endless labryinth of exciting content, people and creativity that simply could not be matched in real life. In many ways, the internet felt truly like a personal Narnia that you could get lost in. The potential seemed unending, especially as myself and my peers watched the web take more and more of a foothold into everyday life. At the time, this seemed like an objectively good evolution. With the internet, the world would become more connected than ever. That was the sentiment at the time, at least.

In 2026, my opinion of and experience of the internet has changed. The modern internet feels like the antithesis of what we'd hoped. According to data from Semrush Traffic Analytics, as of June 2026 most internet traffic is largely dedicated to sites like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, ChatGPT and Reddit. These sites have replaced what I'd call the 'personal touch' of the old web. Forum websites are by and large now extinct due to Reddit. No one feels the need to have their own webpage when sites like Instagram and Facebook exist. Of course, congregation on certain sites have always existed, that is not the issue at hand. The problem I see is a lack of ability to customize or rather express oneself through the mediums provided on modern websites. There is precious little one can do to "customize" an Instagram or Twitter profile beyond a sprinkling of emoji and a unique profile picture or header. If you're really desperate, perhaps you can use a custom font (which is terrible for accessibility as these are mostly unable to be read by screen readers).

Though sites like DeviantArt and MySpace were large there was still ample room to play. Luckily, my 13 year old self had the werewithall to capture some screenshots of DeviantArt during this era (the Wayback Machine doesn't seem to have crawled any of my old usernames at the time, unfortunately). Even though I was a teenager with very little knowledge of coding, I was still able to show off some bits of my personality on my page through little illustrations, HTML boxes and various decorations. There's a certain charm to it; to me at least.
(The context of these screenshots were to capture "Kiribans", which were prizes offered by certain people if you managed to capture unique numbers on their page such as a 19,000 view count. Interestingly this seems to be a Japanese derived word, キリ番 which translates to "good digits". My younger self certainly had no idea what the word meant though, it was just one of those things tossed around you never really understood.)


My first fursona Accalia, posted to DeviantArt December 23rd, 2011

At the very least, there is a different vibe to the internet these days. The web feels less like a place to explore and more something to have served to you. Almost all modern, popular websites are algorithim focused. If you want to spend your day scrolling on your Twitter feed and doing nothing else, you can. Which indubitably brings up the topic of how these algorithims are tailored specifically to keep you there. Even worse, they're designed to make you angry, sad and distraught by pushing you content specifically tailored for your "buttons". I don't need to harp on this point, I think. If you're reading this, you've probably personally clocked thousands of hours into doomscrolling yourself.

I can personally say that the way I have used the internet in the past decade has been horrenous for my mental health. There was a point in time where I'd have nightmares and panic attacks about Twitter and Reddit. Of course, there is a great level of personal culpability in such cases and that is why I am working on this website. There is very little raw joy left on the modern internet to me. It feels like everytime I pull out my phone I'm indulging in a habit no better for myself than smoking. I'm visiting the Internet to numb. To forget. Not because I'm interested in expressing myself or exploring the world. Which, maybe is a little dramatic, but to me was a really sad and sombering realization.

Two friends of mine, Magnett and Nid, had brought up their Neocities projects sometime ago. Initially I was perplexed, but the more I thought about it the more I became enamored with the potential of such a project for myself as well. To be honest, working on this site has brought a level of joy to my life that was desperately needed. I'm deeply grateful to these two for introducing me back to the old web and I hope to continue to build on this site and encourage others to work on their own. For a time in my life where I'm stressed out to hell and back about university exams and navigating adult problems, it is very soothing to be able to return "home".