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There appear to be many people who lament the lack of personal sites on the internet nowadays, but I think that's a bit of a misleading stance. I think they've got it right that the internet is less reliant on, and no longer consists mainly of, simple personal sites but I would argue that there are just as many, and likely more personal sites made now than in the early days of the 'net. Indeed there is more competition - social media giants solve the problem of having a common and easy-to-use platform for all (not just the tech savvy) and provide more addictive 'feed' (which just so happens to be the same word, and nearly the same context for livestock).

The issue with those sites is that they lack creativity. I could never make a hidden link or konami code on a facebook page, or host my movie/music collection on Twitter. I'd even argue my website does a better job at showcasing my marketable skills than LinkedIn ever could. So there certainly are pluses and minuses to both.

I think if there were a way to monetize it, a platform that indexed personal sites and moved away from centralization could be extremely successful because it would be able to provide a way for a non-tech savvy individual to participate in engaging activities and follow the people they care about, while still maintaining privacy.

As it currently stands, advertising space is a huge economy on the internet today, now imagine that's how it is in real life: every street corner packed full of signs, every road packed with billboards closer together than the Jesus vs Adult Store ones. And each one targeting your preferences, because someone was following you around tracking everything you did, and speaking into his earpiece to his boss who works with those advertisers. Sounds a bit creepy, right? This is not a healthy economy, namely because at the end of the day, if everyone is buying advertisements from each other, no real goods get transferred, less money is transferred to the people creating actual products, and more companies can thrive on breathing down your virtual neck.

By continuing with this, I foresee another bubble that has the potential to cause large companies like Facebook, Google, and Twitter to collapse - or at least shrink considerably. Of course, that may be a pipe dream, but all dreams are based in reality in some form or fashion.

So at the end of the day, I'm a highly biased source, but I can for certain say that having my own site is like owning my own home: more work to take care of, but I don't have to listen to people yelling in the hallways or writing weird things on the walls.