Remember surfing the web, not scrolling through it? Before algorithms decided what we see online, the internet was an endless ocean of custom GIFs, cursors, websites, and chaotic creativity. As soulless uniform design and algorithmic feeds envelop the modern web, many users and creators are looking backward, not solely out of nostalgia, but also as a form of digital resistance. The re-emergence of early-2000s web aesthetics like pixel fonts, GIFs, and brutalist HTML layouts is more than a style trend, but a reclamation of digital space, autonomy, and personal expression in an increasingly dull, homogenized corporate online world.

Since 2013, the online social network Neocities has been a convergence of early-web-inspired sites with some modern social networking features. Like its namesake, GeoCities, the platform encourages users to code their own websites, free from the constraints of social media’s “one size fits all” approach to user profiles. Here, creativity thrives not because it's optimized for engagement, but because it's personal, raw, and unfiltered. Sites on Neocities often feel like digital zines with their imperfections and handmade charm, evoking a time when browsing online wasn’t a curated shopping experience, but unpredictable and surprising. Artist Michel Majerus, a painter known for blending digital aesthetics into his works, once observed that “The internet would lead to a great collision of styles and reference points—everything from Super Mario to Jackson Pollock coexisting in pixels.” Neocities channels this spirit, celebrating a web where disorder and experimentation are embraced rather than smushed out.

This resurgence of retro web design isn’t happening in one corner of the internet alone on Neocities. It's part of a broader movement that questions the increasingly standardized and sterile experience of the modern internet in places like Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Twitter. Where modern social media encourages users to perform for an audience shaped by algorithms, these alternative spaces allow for self-expression without metrics, likes, or feeds being at the heart of the entire operation.

One of Neocities' most essential destinations, Sadgrl Online, acts as more than just a website for the online community. Offering templates, graphic assets, and beginner-friendly resources, the site lowers the barrier to entry for anyone interested in building their own space online. Though the site is no longer updated, its tools and guides remain fully accessible, continuing to support new creators. Sadgrl Online’s manifesto is where amateur web designers can also build their ideas, reminding visitors that “there's more we can do to transform the internet that goes far beyond the act of creating a website.” The manifesto emphasizes that, in addition to taking back the individuality of the old web by creating websites, there needs to be an ideological shift in how we interact with social networking sites. Instead of rooting our brains in likes, views, or abstaining from social media altogether, an overall shift of focus from the core, robotic functions of social media back to human interaction, connection, and expression is a key way to resist the overcorporatization of the contemporary internet. A return to the early web’s grassroots connections would lead the internet to feel more “real”, similarly to how New Intrigue writer Joshua Krook puts it, “The chaotic nature of the early internet mirrored the chaotic nature of life.”

In embracing the aesthetics and values of the early internet, creators aren’t just basking in nostalgia. Instead, they have been carving out new online spaces where authenticity, imperfection, and individuality matter more than metrics. Neocities and the broader old web revival prove that a different internet is still possible, being one rooted in community, experimentation, and the joy of making something your own. As the digital scene grows ever more polished, predictable, and uniform, these DIY corners of the web serve as reminders that the internet doesn't have to be optimized to be meaningful. It just has to be “human.”