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The internet as we know it today became prominent around 1993. I was 15 years old, and I started making my living from it just a few years later . . . which means that I’ve been working in this space for the majority of my life – over 30 years.

I used to enjoy going online. The connections I made with people were almost always positive. I learned new and interesting things. I witnessed creativity and beauty in so many forms. I spent many years building philanthropic communities, creating space for people to love one another. I think we really did change the world in some small way. I know we changed mine.

But now? Going online – which isn’t as much a thing that we do, so much as a thing that we are – feels like walking through raw sewage in bare feet. It’s disgusting. I’m not even being hyperbolic – I literally mean that one of the most common feelings I get when looking at my screen is disgust.

The nonstop anger, the fighting, the hatefulness, the venom . . . it’s a pervasive cloud you can’t escape. I say this even as someone who doesn’t watch news programs or political commentary! But it’s everywhere. And it’s changing us as people.

You don’t need me to tell you this. If you’ve been around for a while, I know you see it too. We’ve become mistrusting, disingenuous, abrasive, intolerant – everyone shouting and no one listening.

So what?

Well, I think we’ve lost, is what. Collectively.

We’ve taken the greatest tool for personal connection the world has ever seen, and we’ve squandered it. We’ve turned it into a poison, and we drink it in, voluntarily, all day every day.

I constantly have this battle of two conflicting pathways inside me: 1) Disconnect completely from the digital space, except where necessary, or 2) Wade in again, creating more communities of people giving back.

Option 2 keeps coming close to happening, but then I remember how hard it was even back in the day when the world was different. Today it could be an exercise in brutality and heartache to create those spaces, and I doubt they’d be nearly as appealing to people now as they were then.

Still, I believe that putting more good into the world is one small way I can fight back against all the bad in the world, so I haven’t ruled it out. But honestly it’s a major struggle with no good answers at the moment. I keep thinking that it may be too late – that we may have lost already.

So I’m not really sure where that leaves me, let alone us. All I know is that I’m pretty sad right now. But in the spirit of the older days of the web, let me share with you a piece of creative beauty I just discovered this week. It’s a couple years old now, but it was new to me, and it’s probably new to you.

When you have 10 quiet minutes, take a look, and think about the days when you could go online and regularly find stuff like this, instead of doomscrolling political outrage.

And hey, if you can, reply with something of beauty you've discovered recently. I wouldn't mind seeing some good things today.

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