![]() The first has to do with its unusual approach to being a tech company.Ĭraigslist has always been on the small side, with fewer than 50 full-time employees. Though a number of sites could offer a starting point to chart the progression of internet norms, I’ve picked craigslist for a couple of key reasons. It also offers a unique lens through which to view a history of digital culture. Craigslist is at once a marketplace, job hub, and message board. A “Community” section contains rideshares, pet adoption, local news, even “missed connections,” where people can post ads that attempt to contact someone from a fleeting encounter. Using a matching game to study the language of conversationsīesides for-sale, job, real-estate, and personal ads, craigslist includes a range of discussion boards, for everything from pets to haiku, and until March 2018, an active personals section.Talking the Deadspin debacle, the future of digital news, and more.Understanding how information flows into and out of Gitmo.It’s the 19th most visited website in the United States, and hosts tens of thousands of daily exchanges. But in terms of the platform’s value to digital culture, craigslist is both popular and multifaceted. Most people think of craigslist as a simple-looking site with a few basic functions, a way to sell a used couch or find a local handyman. ![]() In appearance, business model, and policies, the platform is a holdout, a corner of the web light on design changes, heavy on user responsibility-and possibly on the brink of obsolescence. Craigslist represents a different experience, one characterized by aesthetic minimalism, anonymity, and serendipity. Amazon redefines what’s normal in the marketplace.īy normalizing some web uses over others, these companies have altered our expectations of online life. When Facebook tweaks its News Feed, it alters what we know about current events, neighborhoods, friends, and family. Google answers our questions about pop culture and local news. But there’s no denying that for a huge number of people, a small number of corporations control how online life looks and feels. While much of the web has come to feel developed, safe, and predictable, there’s still messiness and experimentation to be found. I’m painting in broad strokes here-of course the early web included some self-promotion, and of course DIY hacking is still an important part of modern online life. Since the transition from Web 1.0 to 2.0, we’ve moved from an internet of messy serendipity to one of slick commercialism. Today’s web is dominated by self-promotion, long-winded legal warnings, and sleek design aesthetics that require constant upgrades. As more people came online and new platforms sprouted, norms of use developed and stabilized. When I call the contemporary internet gentrified, I mean the ways that some online behaviors have become ingrained as the “right” way to use the web, while others are “backward” or “out of date.” The early web was characterized by excitement at connecting with strangers and trial-and-error experimentation with online personas. In its rejection of venture capitalists, paid advertising, and rapid design changes, craigslist is the internet, ungentrified. With its stripped-down functionality and minimalist design, craigslist speaks to an older ethos of online life that contrasts sharply with the values of today’s mainstream internet. Yet craigslist is more than a window to the world’s ephemera when it comes to practicing Web 1.0 values of access and democracy, craigslist is an increasingly lonely outpost in a hyper-corporate web. The site is both a map and time capsule, a snapshot of the informal marketplace, and a mixtape of local opinions. In more than 700 cities around the globe, thousands of posts are uploaded to craigslist every day. Used iPhone? A one-bedroom apartment in Cincinnati? You can find it on craigslist. ![]() You can also find jobs and people to hire: A Philadelphia county library needs someone to drive the bookmobile, and in Los Angeles, an actor is offering lessons in impersonating Tom Cruise. ![]() In Philadelphia, someone is selling 40 life-size wax figures in Amish attire, ideally as a set. Right now, you can buy a Dolly Parton pinball machine for $750 in San Diego or barter for a custom Star Wars snowmobile in Bend, Oregon. This is an edited excerpt from Jessa Lingel ’s new book, “ An Internet for the People: The Politics and Promise of craigslist ,” published by Princeton University Press.
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