Let's have a Cursor Party on the Web

Andreas recommended this website to me and I went to check it out. It was a blogpost by Matt Webb, titled "Every webpage deserves to be a place". At that point in time, it was a decently new blogpost and there were many users on that website. When I first went in, it was crowded with cursors floating around. Looking at my own cursor, I was being prompted to type “/” on my keyboard, followed by whatever message I wanted. Like every other human being, of course I had to greet it first. I typed “HELLO”, and to my surprise, there were so many different users that started circling around me and saying hello as well. I did not manage to take screenshots as I was having so much fun chatting with random users.

Reflecting on this, I feel like this is the essence of what is lost on the web when I think about how it has changed. This also prompts me to question, how can we regain that connection towards computers/web/online spaces again?

Reading Webb’s blog post, his main purpose was to incorporate one small thing that helps people realise that other people are online too, which resulted in this cursor party. He said that it’s a "miracle that we can feel togetherness over the internet".

I think it’s fascinating when the simplest things such as cursors can ignite conversations and points of connectivity that are just so hard to encounter nowadays, with websites being so utilitarian. Would I have to go to a cursor party, each time I want to feel connected? Likewise for social media, would I have to go on Instagram, or Tiktok to feel socially connected again? Similarly to the differing opinions on Webb’s cursor party, where this user didn’t understand the purpose of these functions, I start to question what is the purpose of my research, if I cannot solve these issues of connectivity online?

At this point in time, what Andreas mentioned about how we should center our project in computational design is starting to click for me. How can I use computational processes creatively to bridge the gap in this connectivity, or in Webb’s words “feel togetherness over the internet”? And why the internet? Someone could mention that they feel a sense of togetherness only offline, in real life or when they are 'touching grass'.

In my humble opinion, I believe that the internet is able to provide all these social connections that can also be comparable to in-person connections. But I may also be biased as I'm very much attached to my laptop and computer. Growing up being in various internet communities, the memories and interactions I had with online friends cannot be invalidated just because it’s being compared to interactions offline. Connectivity and interactions can be fostered through devices, and through online too.