It's funny. I see a lot of folks who reminisce about how the Web was smaller, more personal, creative, and diverse in the early days. My recollection disagrees

It's funny. I see a lot of folks who reminisce about how the Web was smaller, more personal, creative, and diverse in the early days. My recollection disagrees on the creativity and diversity part. I remember a web and internet generally filled with variations of the same constellation of interests: technically interested people, generally in STEM, mostly university educated, open to LGBT issues, liking metal music, with a large minority of folks that watched anime. This early web was certainly more personal as most sites, even large ones, were run by maybe a few folks at most. Now as someone who grew up in a blue-collar, immigrant community this was a breath of fresh air to me. When most of my peers were more likely to ask the teacher why we needed to learn about geometry and multiplying large numbers together, I loved interacting with people that genuinely liked to think about things. But diverse this world was not. And while my professional and personal circles have over time essentially become a mirror of the folks I first met when I went online, I hesitate to call us diverse or creative.