Why it’s time to leave the infinite scroll and return to the small web
Let’s be honest. You are reading this for free right now, and that is exactly the problem. ““Free””has taught us to skim past what matters. The attention economy has convinced us that nothing is worth paying for except streaming services.
The feed picks us
We used to explore the web. We would follow links from a friend’s homepage and end up in a stranger’s diary. Now the feed chooses for us. The algorithm decides what we see, and we simply move our thumbs.
The problem is not that feeds show us bad content. Feeds show us content that keeps us around, and keeping us around is not the same thing as being good.
To be readers rather than products, we have to pick some things with our own hands.
A moving checklist
- Subscribe to a favorite writer’s newsletter, and support them if you can
- Install an RSS reader and choose what you read yourself
- Start a personal blog or a small website
- Read through links instead of recommendations, and a friend’s tip instead of an algorithm
No grand resolution is needed. Just swapping one app you open every day for an RSS reader changes the shape of the internet. The moment you decide what to read, you become a reader again.
Why not move in 2026 to an internet that is a little slower, a little smaller, and a little more human? The load is lighter than you think.
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