for most, i would assume it's largely just that during the time of the naïve web, there was a period where google kind of was the company, so people started using it for everything (think shortly before and then during the early google+ era). 10 years later almost every normie who didn't start using apple products uses gmail and chrome simply because they legacied into it from when they were younger and less aware of the negative aspects of the practice.
"eternal september" refers to when the internet became accessible to "normies," thus supplanting the old internet vibe (mainly hackers, engineers, etc) in favor of being useable by the general public.
go to instances.social, pick a relatively small one and sign up for an account. now you're on mastodon and have a fediverse account. this account can interact with everything fediverse, from mastodon to pleroma to pixelfed to peertube. decentralized to the max. (don't join mastodon.social)
HTML, CSS and at least the basics of JS can be learned for free from codeacademy. Once you have those, code a website for yourself so you get how they work. Shouldn't take more than a week to finish this if you're dedicated.
The author essentially states themselves that the feeling they have is nostalgia, and it should be noted that we as society should not let our longing for the past prevent our moving toward the future.
However, I do agree with them and believe everybody should make their own website in order to bring this feeling back. We don't need social networks - we can make our own networks via webrings and linking. Bring back "netizens."
i use magic earth for maps, libre programs for word/excel etc (not cross-device though), searxng for searches (pick an instance and try it), tutanota for email (they focus on privacy - emails and your inbox are encrypted).
i believe everyone who has social media should instead primarily create and post on their own website.
i kind of just add stuff to it whenever. my (somewhat small) website so far has some pages dedicated to my hobbies, a page for news i found interesting, a list of websites i like (bring back web rings!), and a "blog" for website updates and life updates i feel comfortable posting. the news feed and blog both have rss feeds as well.
if i just have a train of thought i find interesting i'll make a page and title it and link to it somehow from some other page on my site. it's all connected, "digital garden" style. you should do it!
I said something akin to this on a 4chan post a little while ago and people hated me for it, but I stand by it. People need to 1) get more in touch with the technology they're using and 2) take back control of their content.
If you are into tech and what it provides for us but don't have your own website where you can post and design however and whatever you want, then what are you even doing? It's 2023, a .com domain costs $5 and HTML and CSS can be learned in less than a week.
We need to leave these massively-populated corporate data farms and go back to specialized media like content-specific forums and personal web pages. We've oversimplified and under-stylized our potential web presence as individuals for the sake of companies who farm our data. At least with forums the hateful comments are coming from people within your niche and the posted ads (if any) pertain to your interests.