Gemlog: On The Internet Of The '20s
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\/ \/|__| \/ \/It should be no surprise to anybody reading this that the internet is not what it was even five years ago. Enshittification runs rampant, corporations and governments alike reap as much personal data as they can, and AI slop has apparently started spilling over to public libraries.
It could be worse: we could also be on fire.
However, I have not largely been affected by the horrors of the modern internet. In this blog post, I will outline how I use my computers, and how we can try to create a better internet.¹
For fuck's sake, use a decent VPN
If you were to randomly swipe someone's phone, you would likely find that either:
1. They have no VPN
2. They are using a VPN with tracking
3. They are using something along the lines of "BEST VPN ULTIMATE 2020 - Broews the internet privately"²
To the untrained eye, this doesn't seem that bad, but it can be detrimental to privacy and security. The lack of a VPN allows one's ISP to intercept, monitor, and censor packets; while the use of an untrustworthy VPN simply shifts this opportunity onto a company or group with less regulation (if any at all). The solution? Use. Something. Trustworthy.
There are only five VPN providers (as of 2025/02/23) I consider trustworthy. These are:
Most popular VPNs; such as NordVPN, Surfshark, ExpressVPN, and Opera VPN; are proprietary and, in many cases, are known to keep logs which can be given to law enforcement and advertisers alike.
A word on Tor
The technology behind Tor is good, and I use it myself for certain sites. However, several governments and organisations have discovered exploits that allow them to de-anonymise users; and there is, of course, the commonly-accepted theory that a large number of Tor nodes are run by the NSA. As such, I can only recommend Tor for accessing hidden services, avoiding detection, and for circumventing censorship.
In a similar vein, I also recommend I2P instead of Tor when available (I2P only supports .i2p addresses).
You need a half-decent browser, too
Another thing you would notice on the hypothetical phone is the browser. With only a few notable exceptions, everybody I know uses either Chrome, Safari, or Opera GX. Safari isn't the worst choice, but Chrome and Opera certainly are.
I would personally recommend a Firefox-based browser, though not Firefox itself due to the telemetry and management of Mozilla. On desktop, I'd say Librewolf is the best option for the average person, and Mullvad Browser is good for more paranoid users. On Android, IronFox is really the only game in town. On iOS, just stick with Safari.
Brave Browser does provide excellent privacy protection on all platforms. However, Brave CEO Brendan Eich is, to be blunt, a raging homophobe.
If you don't have an adblocker installed, I am honestly impressed with your ability to use the internet without committing homicide out of frustration. However, an adblocker is also highly important for privacy and security. After all, have you ever clicked on an ad on purpose? If so, did you get a virus? If not, it was probably the mid-'90s.
Anyway, on iOS, use AdGuard; on all other platforms, use uBlock Origin.
I would also recommend using Libredirect or UntrackMe to automatically redirect you away from heavy, data-hungry sites such as YouTube and Xitter, and to privacy respecting frontends, such as Invidious and Nitter.
For advanced users, you could consider a TUI browser. Lynx can still pull its own weight, and Links2 isn't too bad in graphics mode. There's also a new TUI browser called chawan, which is honestly impressive in regards to its modern HTML and CSS support. Chawan also supports displaying images using sixel or kitty, which is nice.
What about Gemini?
Gemini is a layer 5 protocol that sits somewhere between HTTP and Gopher, in regards to content. While Solderpunk, the creator of the protocol, does not intend Gemini to replace HTTP in any capacity, I personally feel that Geminispace is a worthy successor to the web.
The pages ("capsules") on Gemini are mostly text-based, and reminiscent of the internet of the early '90s. Thanks to the intentional limitations of the protocol, there are no ads, no scams, no corporations, very little toxicity, and a general opposition to AI across the entire protocol. There are interactive capsules, such as the microblogging service Station, the federated nanoblogging service tootik, and a few games on Gemi.dev Heavy Industries, but it's mostly personal capsules.
In fact, this website is mirrored (manually) on the protocol. Simply go to gemini://gem.hellfirehost.uk.eu.org in a Gemini client of your choice.
Speaking of which, you will need a client in order to access this amazing place. By far the best client available is Lagrange, but I also quite like Kristall and AV-98. I have heard good things about offpunk, but I have not yet tried it for myself.
Antisocial media
Social media is, for the most part, a misnomer. Facebook exists to spread hate and slop, Xitter exists for hate, Instagram exists to keep you addicted, and TikTok does that and more!
And don't get me started on the "influencers". People with gargantuan egos telling people how to live their lives from behind a scr- Wait a minute...
However, there is hope. In addition to the stuff on Gemini, we have the Fediverse at our fingertips. There's not much to say about it that hasn't already been said, but in a nutshell it's a family of interconnected social media, populated by some of the nicest and most fun people around. I would recommend joining mstdn.social to get started and explore.
It's not the only social media I use, but it's the only one that isn't mildly polarising.
Tumblr is cool.
This is the news
A phrase commonly tossed around is that we live in a "post-truth world". Take one look at almost any popular news site, and you will see why.
It doesn't have to be this way, though. I would suggest going to Media Bias Fact Check and finding yourself a few trustworthy news outlets to subscribe to.
The news services I currently subscribe to are Sky News (the UK one, which is not owned by News Corp.), Ars Technica, 404 Media, Gay Times, them, ProPublica, and WikiNews. I am also a fan of iNews, Channel 4 News, and BBC News.
You should also be sure to question what you see on the internet,³ as it's too simple to fake a situation or story without the need for deepfakes or anything like that. I myself have fallen victim to several plausible-sounding theories and ideas, mainly from social media. In fact, I had written an entirely different piece for this section, about the concerning ownership of the media, until I found out that Full Fact had debunked the theory.
But how should I find stuff?
Search engines have really fallen off in the last few years. I remember a time when Google and Yahoo! were the shit. Now they're just shit. Bing, of course, was awful to begin with.
DuckDuckGo, Startpage, Ecosia, and Qwant are out of the question, as they simply use indexes from the big three.
Brave Search is rather good, but its ownership bothers me (see "You need a half-decent browser, too").
Mojeek is a decent attempt. I found it tended to take me to interesting websites and blogs that weren't indexed by bigger engines. The catch? It isn't currently practical for work or academia. However, I can certainly see myself using it in the future, when I no-longer need to search for error codes and chemical formulae.
Currently, I use my self-hosted SearXNG instance, which rarely lets me down.
Mail Electronique
Your email should also be on the chopping block. Most people (at least in the UK) use Gmail as their email provider. However, one major thing to note about Gmail is that Google scans your messages in order to give you targeted ads, which is creepy as fuck. Yahoo! Mail and Outlook are no better.
I would recommend switching to one of the following email providers. These are all secure, private, open-source, and based in countries with pretty damn good privacy protections in place:
Tuta (free, with paid options)
ProtonMail (free, with paid options)
Mailbox.org (starts at €1 per month, with 30-day free trial)
More advanced users could, alternatively, self-host or use the email service provided by a tilde or pubnix.
Corporate killed the internet star
For those of you who remember the internet of the 2000s, you will likely remember much of it consisting of forums and blogs. When Reddit became popular and Discord became more mainstream, the forums moved there; when Facebook and Twitter came to town, a lot of blogs left with them, and it happened again with Medium and Substack; and when Wikia became Fandom and began buying up the wikisphere, there was very little resistance. However, we are seeing a resurgence of the old ways.
Very few places are still using phpBB, but as Reddit slowly eats itself, many users find themselves turning to platforms such as Discourse. For blogs, meanwhile, the change is a lot more logical, in that they are returning to their roots as independent websites.
There's still a long way to go yet, but there are places for discourse far away from these terrible sites. There are also browser extensions, such as Indie Wiki Buddy, which can automatically redirect you to independent services.
I don't use Spotify, or Deezer, Apple Music, or SoundCloud; nor do I use Netflix, Prime, Disney+, Max, or whatever the fuck people use these days.
I simply don't believe in paying a hefty subscription to consume media I can buy outright for less.⁴
For this reason, I still use CDs, and any music I can't get on CD I buy as a digital download on Bandcamp (or, on occasion, Qobuz). I also still use DVDs and VCDs and, well, let's just say I have a tricorn hat and a bottle of rum if I can't get a DVD... On the whole, I find physical media to be more ethical, as the creator gets paid more per purchase than per listen/view;⁵ and future-proof, as I have a hard copy of the media that is usually DRM-free and doesn't require internet.
In short: streaming bad, shiny discs good.
Artificial Stupidity
AI has it's place, but that place is most certainly not duct-taped onto every fucking app and website under the sun. Generative AI also requires a hell of a lot of electricity and water to produce fairly shitty content that practically nobody likes to see.
My advice? Don't touch it unless you have to.
Conclusion
So, you've modified your browser to hell, you've launched a relatively successful Gemini capsule, and your tinfoil hat is on tight. What now?
Well, that's up to you. Go about your normal business, and enjoy what the small web has to offer.
Or you could go outside, touch some grass, and maybe see your reflection in something other than a monitor.
Or, alternatively, feel free to scream, drink an entire bottle of bourbon, book a flight to rural France, and live out the rest of your days as a goat. Your call.
Sorry if this post seems a bit rambly. I started writing at 20:23 and finished at 01:57. Regardless, I hope you found it useful, inspirational, or just interesting, and I wish you a good day.
Footnotes
1: Yeah, like we haven't heard that one before.
2: The typo is intentional.
3: https://www.youtube.com/embed/NBfi8OEz0rA
4: In the long-term.
5: Unless, of course, I buy second-hand or set sail.
First Published 2025-02-14 02:48 GMT
Last Edited 2025-02-23 03:18 BST
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