02/12/2026
As a millennial, I still remember the early days of AOL and that beautiful, blissful squeal that came right beforeĀ YOUāVE GOT MAIL!
There was the dark side of the internetāchat rooms, perverts, and the chain mail that I was terrified to receive but always opened. But there was also the beauty of something new unfolding right before our eyes. Neopets and Geocities and so much Flash.
But magic fades, and novelty wears off, and we adapt. Weāve gotten so accustomed to the World Wide Web that we canāt imagine a moment without it.Ā YOUāVE GOT MAILĀ is no longer pride, but punishment. And where we once agonized over which allotted hour weād spend online, we now canāt manage a twenty-minute power outage alone with our thoughts.
The problem is, the internet was supposed to bring us together and help us find our tribes. But actually, itās made it harder than ever.
I wrote about this on Substack and what indie musicians can do to counteract it. Full post is on Substack, linked in the bio.