Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men.
Proverbs 22:29, The Bible
There are only 3 types of people on the web: web peasants, land chads, and Spider-Men. I have been privileged to live in each person's shoes.
Here are my experiences.
Life as a web peasant
I started as a web peasant. I had no home. I was a couch surfer; a wanderer on the web. I visited websites that didn't belong to me.
I had a lot of fun at these sites. They all welcomed me with open arms. Well, most of them. Some of them were horrible experiences.
But I had fun. It was nice to have a presence online and be known in the world, even if it was just by a few people.
I opened a Facebook account, then an Instagram account, then a Snapchat account. Pretty much all the social media platforms. These platforms became widespread and soon became an important way to communicate with people.
But then I woke up. And like Neo in The Matrix, I was asked to swallow the red pill or the blue pill. I chose the former.
I instantly realized that I was living in a house of cards. Everything may collapse at any moment.
All my data is owned by a few companies. I own nothing. They have the right to kick me off their platforms and sell my information at any time. Yeah, I use these websites for free, but at what cost?
I could lose it all tomorrow. And it would be fair. I would deserve nothing. Why? Because I'm a web peasant. I don't deserve better.
I voluntarily put myself in this position. As I make my bed, so must I lie in it.
But then the pill digests and I realize there is another path.
Life as a land chad
Instead of letting other people run my digital experiences, I could create them myself.
Owning real estate online is easier and more inexpensive than it's ever been. There are 2 requirements:
- The domain registrar, who is responsible for giving me a domain name that is available for use for a small fee.
- The hosting platform, who is responsible of hosting my files on a server so visitors can reach my website.
Then voila! I owned my first site! Then my second. Then my third.
But as I was enjoying my life as a landlord on the web, I started to fall in love with the web even more.
I loved everything about it, especially the philosophy of freedom.
I told myself I wanted to be a part of that freedom. And as I look around, I see that a lot of people have also overlooked the freedom that the web brings.
That's when I knew that swallowing the red pill was not enough; I had to dawn the mask.
Life as Spider-Man
I eventually reached the pinnacle in the web hierarchy: the webmaster aka Spider-Man.
A webmaster is a person who designs, develops and maintains websites. This is where I see fulfillment.
I have written software for a very long time, but no other software has been more influential than the software on the web.
In upcoming posts, I will discuss more about my adventure to mastering web design, web development and web marketing. Stay tuned!
By the time I'm through mastering the web, I'll be web-slinging and sticking to walls!
More resources
- Get a Website Now! Don't be a Web Peasant by Luke Smith
- LandChad.net by Luke Smith