I received my first computer as a birthday gift when I was 14 or 15 (2009-2010), and even though I only got access to the internet about a year later, I instantly fell into this bottomless vortex, spending more and more time staring at the 4:3 screen of my Packard Bell, which sounded like a helicopter every time it booted up. When I finally got the internet, I quickly felt the need to have my mind constantly connected to the network, absorbing as much information as possible, and doing it faster and faster. That’s when I discovered this strange sensation of being “connected” to a machine, becoming one with the ocean of information.

At the time, I came up with increasingly improbable excuses to justify why I *had* to spend more time on my computer, until my weekends became entirely consumed by this activity. That’s also when I became a nerd, experimenting with various Linux systems, learning to code in Python and C++, and cracking all sorts of software. It was during this period that I also took my first steps in music production with FruityLoops, just like many others at that time.

I’m a child of Web 2.0, even though I only experienced the tail end of its golden age, and like most of my generation, I feel nostalgic. But beyond simply clinging to pretty memories, I’m afraid.

I’m afraid as I watch the freedom I once knew on the web gradually disappear. I’m afraid as I see this incredible space turn into a battleground. I’m afraid as I see walls and borders being erected online. I’m not afraid of losing my personal freedom on the internet, I know enough to bypass most restrictions. But I’m afraid that fewer and fewer people will be free on the web, and that access to information will become increasingly difficult.

Sometimes I feel like I’m watching a beautiful utopia slowly die, in silence and indifference, even as we rely more and more on this network in our daily lives, it seems a its fundamental principle to connect people across distances has been slowly eroded by selfish, financial, or political interests, forgetting the collective good along the way.