Do y’all remember when the internet was fun?

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Do y’all remember when the internet was fun? 

Strong Bad. Livejournal. The End of the World. Chat rooms and geocities sites. Web comics and personal blogs.

It was a place to find likeminded people who were into the same niche books as you, who drew fan art of your favorite characters and argued fan theories in the forums. It connected isolated individuals, giving the marginalized a place to feel empowered. We could communicate with people on the other side of the world – in real time! We could find any piece of information that we craved and we could stumble upon the unexpected. The internet was a place of discovery and whimsy and possibility. 

And now… it’s joyless. 

Now it feels like walking into a brand new mall where I can get everything I need – and things I didnt know I even wanted – efficiently and without much effort. Everything packaged nicely with a bow, a cute tagline. The internet used to be more like that disorganized buy-used-trade store that always had something unusual or unexpected to discover. You’d find things that excited you, organically, by rabbit-holing or “surfing” different sites. But now, content shows up in my feed, as inorganically as possible, pushed to me by the algo, growing more aggressive by the day. 

Social sites that once functioned as a digital “third place” for friends to share photos and inside jokes, and for long-distance families to stay in touch now prioritize their own desires instead of the users’, and we can’t find our cousin’s wedding photos or a college roommate’s new baby announcement or our neighbor’s rental house listing without trudging through the endless scroll of sponsored content, influencers and ads. 

I’m over it. 

I’m over capitalism’s greedy grip on our attention. I’m over the tech bros letting their egos and greed rule when they have the MONEY and the POWER to DO SOMETHING BETTER and fight back for the people who have built them up. I’m over the government and the people who voted in favor of fascism. My persistent anger has put me in a bad mood, making it hard to find joy in the daily things. I AM OVER IT. 

Time for a change.

When I first started my site No Place Like Anywhere, I had been inspired by two things: my grandmother’s typewritten collection of travel stories that sit in two binders on my bookshelf, and the personal travel blogs of days of yore, written by passionate folks like me who want to both see the world and share their own experiences. Through their stories and advice, I have become an informed and confident traveler. I have peeked at the vastness of the world, realizing how little of it I’ve actually seen, and dreaming of how much more of it I can see before I die. From hearing others’ tales, through blog posts, YouTube videos, Instagram Reels, and full memoirs, I’ve become motivated to live more intentionally and to aggressively pursue a more financially free lifestyle so that we have more time to explore the world around us. 

I wanted to use this site to inspire others, similarly. Sharing my life in some form – whether it’s journal entries or long form essays, photo collages or montage videos – has always been important to me. Where many might lean into privacy and shy away from strangers, I will talk to anyone, anywhere. The more the merrier, I say. I want to meet everyone and go everywhere, learning as much as I can about this world during my short stay here. Tell me your stories and I will tell you mine. I am an open book, wanting to share, inspire, motivate, educate, empower. 

As the internet changed, so did my approach to this blog. Where I had started with personal stories focused on me and my experience, I shifted the focus to the reader – what would someone get out of reading my tales? What value do I bring others through sharing my stories? How could I help others through my experiences? As I dreamed of monetizing my blog, following in the steps of the modern travel blogger, I studied SEO tactics, evolving as Google did, moving from key words and metadata to writing the content in such a way that the search engines would recognize authority and prioritize my pages in search results. 

Writing became less and less appealing, less and less rewarding. If we were all just following the formula, hoping that the Google gods bring our sites to the top of search results, what differentiated any of us? I stressed over what to write, how often to write, how to write in a marketing-friendly way while still writing about things I cared about…. 

AND THEN AI ENTERED THE CHAT. 

While I actively use generative AI every single day in my day job to great effect, I can tell you that its impact on the travel blogging sphere has been depressing and demoralizing. It had taken me years to finally figure out the SEO rules. But AI is changing all of that. And frankly I don’t want to keep up. I was nowhere close to being able to monetize the blog, and now that I have a clearer vision for both our near and long term futures, I no longer feel that a monetized blog needs to be part of the path to get there. 

So I’m saying fuck it. 

Fuck AI, fuck SEO, fuck the algo. Fuck the “rules” and the “shoulds”. Fuck the tech bros and this terrible internet they’ve thrust upon us. Fuck ALL of it. 

I’m going back to what I started this site for: to write, to share my life with others who want to connect over travel and living a more intentional, adventurous, stress-free life. 

So consider this your warning! While I will always create content that I hope helps and inspires you to explore the world around you – both near and far – and while I will always share my own personal experiences of traveling through anxiety and working to live a more intentional life so that you may find inspiration to do the same… I’m also going to break a lot of rules. 

The blogging rules say to write for the reader. Well, I can’t always do that. I’ve documented my whole life from the time I was a pre-teen, and I’ve missed doing so in a meaningful and personal way. You won’t want to read everything that I write, and that’s okay! I want to write for you, but sometimes I need to write for me.

The marketing rules say to leverage social platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Substack to grow your audience. Well, I’m tired of relying on free platforms that take take take from us without actually serving their customers. You can always find my photos and stories here on this blog site, where I pay to host my own content and where it’s not used against me. 

I want to write more often – so expect more updates! More photos, more mini adventures, more personal stories, more stuff you may or may not be interested in. I’ll be making changes around the site as I figure out settings and play with things that bring me the most joy. Along the way, I hope to bring you joy too, inspire you to find joy in the small things every day

I hope that you will subscribe – and not because I want your money! I want to stay in touch, I want to learn from you, I want to connect (maybe in real life, one day)! I would loooove it if you shared your own stories and insights with me! I want to hear YOUR wild ideas and bold dreams, the things that get you out of bed in the morning. If something I write resonates with you, let me know. Leave a comment, ask a question, give me a thumbs up. I don’t need more than you’re willing to give. And hey, its okay if you just wanna hang out. I’ll be here whenever you’re ready for more 🙂 

Here’s to new beginnings and renewed enthusiasm! Happy travels!