In the age of Squarespace, why would anyone who isn’t a professional website designer be inclined to learn the archaic coding languages of HTML and CSS? It seems futile when pre-made templates and drag-and-drop interfaces not only have a minimal learning curve but are also often free.
Yet, this convenience often comes at a steep cost: the sacrifice of creative autonomy and personal identity. The ease of web-builders alongside a focus on increasing engagement and traffic has meant that the individuality and personality that made up Web1.0 sites now cease to exist. When starting with a website builder, you are provided with a variety of templates and design schemes, all of which maintain a clean, if not corporate, aesthetic and feel. Although there is the illusion of choice, you are coerced into building a website indistinguishable from thousands of others.
There’s a growing community that is trying to return to the roots of the internet by learning HTML and handmaking personal web pages. This isn’t necessarily just out of nostalgia but out of a longing for an internet that still had traces of human input. HTML allows users to have full control over the layout and content of their website without any external input from large platforms. This is critical when presenting a personal website that can act as a reflection of one’s identity.
One example of this is neocities.org, an open-source site that allows users to create and host free Web1.0-inspired pages built on HTML, CSS and Javascript. The websites found here are primarily homepages and websites built purely for personal expression. This approach to website-making is akin to zine culture: creating for the sake of it, with no monetary incentive, whilst maintaining a human touch throughout it.
This return to the source is not only driven by a yearning for less-than-perfect aesthetics but also a reaction to the monetisation and monopolisation of the web. We find ourselves dependent on a few big platforms to host our online identities, rather than owning our own websites where we have complete control over their contents. Platforms like Instagram and Wix will die, but HTML will live forever as the DNA of the internet, ensuring that handmade sites allow our identities to persist beyond the rise and fall of these platforms.
A significant voice in this community is Elliott Cost, cofounder of HTML.energy, a movement seeking to “reveal the raw energy of HTML” by running educational workshops and inspiring people to help “make the web more human and handmade.” In an interview, Cost describes the desire to “return to the source”, as HTML is still the backbone of modern websites and there is a power in returning to the fundamentals of what made the early internet so exciting.
This movement offers a more practical solution to the fatigue of the internet than simply going offline. Whilst it is unlikely that large platforms will be completely abandoned, there’s hope that more people will rediscover the gratification of hand-building personal and communal spaces online. By embracing handmade websites, users are reclaiming the web as a place for genuine self-expression and creativity, rather than passive consumption.