Séamas O'Reilly: These websites show the worldwide web, and the world itself, at its best

Séamas O'Reilly: I’ve taken to the word ‘enshittification’ with the zeal of a convert over the past two years. Picture: Orfhlaith Whelan

New year, new me. That’s what I’ve been saying all week and I’ll keep doing it until I actually believe it. In my case, that basically means not being fully sedentary, and attempting to counter my debilitating addiction to the screens which blare a constant torrent of awfulness directly into my brain. I am venturing to be more present in the moment, more grateful for the little things, more positive in my outlook on the world and all that’s in it.

Nowhere is this more necessary than in my relationship to the internet, the portal through which I come to know everything about the planet on which I live. For most of the time I’ve been writing this column, I’ve surveyed the ills of this arrangement, whether that be the collapse of Twitter, the decay of the wider
internet, or the deadening churn of scammers, bots, and AI crowding out its every fibre. At times, it might have seemed like I believe the entire tech space is hellbent on destroying our lives. In fairness, this is primarily because the entire tech space IS hellbent on destroying our lives.