Decentralized Playground:
Geocities, Zines, and Community
According to the Merriam-webster dictionary, community is a
unified group of individuals. The groups are unified because there
are common characteristics shared between the individuals, and the
shared characteristics can be various: common interests, common
history, common geographic location and so on.
Centralization vs. Decentralization is an interesting question in
technology and online communities. Many social media present as
decentralized platforms, where users are free to generate content
by themselves and explore whatever they would like to see.
However, those web traffic goes through centralized servers. The
feeds curated by algorithms only show the users the thing they
want to see, hence a one-sided view of the world is constructed,
which could probably lead to increased bias and polarization. In
this way, Centralized social media is not an effective way to
connect people to each other.
This publication explores two decentralized
communities—zines and Geocities—both unofficial publication with
unprofessional graphic expression. In contrast to the centralized
social media, by producing zines and networking with each other on
Geocities, people become producers instead of merely consumers,
creating their own spaces rather than living within the confines
of those made for them. No one is in absolute charge of the two
communities. Zine publishers and Geocities users created contents
and maintained their communities with love of expression, sharing,
and communication.
There are also interesting differences between zines and
Geocities. The most obvious one is that the zines have the
materiality the Geocities don't have, which helped people form
relationships rooted in physical realities easily. Geocities also
has its uniqueness: the neighborhood townships were analogous to
the township in reality. The community, while based online, gave
users a sense of geographical experience. There are users who live
next door and further off, and these features were represented
visually.
While the two decentralized communities are not perfect,
through these dynamic communities, we can see how people practiced
self-expression and responded to the heavily branded mainstream
media in the late 20th century.
This online publication explores two decentralized communities—zines and Geocities—and their history, social context, visual expression and ideology.
Decentralized Playground:
Geocities, Zines, and Community
According to the Merriam-webster dictionary, community is a unified
group of individuals. The groups are unified because there are
common characteristics shared between the individuals, and the
shared characteristics can be various: common interests, common
history, common geographic location and so on.
Centralization vs. Decentralization is an interesting question in
technology and online communities. Many social media present as
decentralized platforms, where users are free to generate content by
themselves and explore whatever they would like to see. However,
those web traffic goes through centralized servers. The feeds
curated by algorithms only show the users the thing they want to
see, hence a one-sided view of the world is constructed, which could
probably lead to increased bias and polarization. In this way,
Centralized social media is not an effective way to connect people
to each other.
This publication explores two decentralized communities—zines
and Geocities—both unofficial publication with unprofessional
graphic expression. In contrast to the centralized social media, by
producing zines and networking with each other on Geocities, people
become producers instead of merely consumers, creating their own
spaces rather than living within the confines of those made for
them. No one is in absolute charge of the two communities. Zine
publishers and Geocities users created contents and maintained their
communities with love of expression, sharing, and communication.
There are also interesting differences between zines and
Geocities. The most obvious one is that the zines have the
materiality the Geocities don't have, which helped people form
relationships rooted in physical realities easily. Geocities also
has its uniqueness: the neighborhood townships were analogous to the
township in reality. The community, while based online, gave users a
sense of geographical experience. There are users who live next door
and further off, and these features were represented visually.
While the two decentralized communities are not perfect,
through these dynamic communities, we can see how people practiced
self-expression and responded to the heavily branded mainstream
media in the late 20th century.
This online publication explores two decentralized communities—zines
and Geocities—and their history, social context, visual expression
and ideology.