Dear reader,
A few weeks ago, I received an email from a reader named Tiffany. I’m a devoted reader of Tiffany’s work, so the email was a lovely surprise, kinda like bumping into an old friend on the street (except, in this case, it was an old friend I didn’t know I had).
So, Tiffany wrote:
Help me map the internet.
To which I replied:
I’d love to.
But the internet is different for everyone. Your bookmarks aren’t mine. Neither are your search results, social feeds, inboxes, or RSS subscriptions. So instead of drawing the perfect map, we thought it would be better to ask all of you. Not to pin down the internet once and for all, but to collect maps of the many different internets we each call home. Like swapping photos of our bookshelves.
With care,
Kristoffer
𓇢𓆸
Call for Participation: Mapping the Internet
Tiffany N is a tech and culture writer. Today, she comes to you with a simple request: help her map the Internet.
How did you get the idea to map the internet?
In 2009, co-founder of Wired, Kevin Kelly, asked everyone he knew (of all ages, might I add) to submit hand-drawn maps of the internet. He wanted to survey how people were experiencing their then-new age of connectivity. Some drew mind maps, others fashioned arrows into complex webs. My personal favourite was a large infinity sign with a small wooden house parched in the center—a delightfully simple representation of how optimistic we were about the early internet.
Why is it worth mapping the Internet now?
It’s no secret that the internet has changed a lot since 2009. For better or for worse? Depends on who you ask. I’m curious how folks, especially those with more intentional relationships with the web see the internet today. Internet traffic is often aggregated into a few select sites. Algorithms are creating a convergence of culture. The indie web fades in the background of SEOs—where do we find whimsy today?
The final form of this would be something of a collage juxtaposing Kelly’s project in 2009 with maps from today. Has the hope and enthusiasm of the early 2000s persisted in the rise of Big Tech? How did the rise of smartphones alter our fundamental relationships with the web?
How do people participate?
Three simple steps:
Draw the internet as you imagine it to be today
Indicate where “home” is on the map
Send your submissions to tiffany@breakfastatmyhouse.com
Please take any and all creative liberty with this—submissions close by October 20th, 2025.
Final note: Tiffany writes Cyber Celibate, a lovely self-described neo-luddite newsletter exploring the more whimsically low-tech corners of the internet. She has written about chaining her phone to a wall, printed her For You Pages, and hired a carrier pigeon in lieu of texting. You’ll also occasionally see her byline in Wired, Vox, MIT Technology Review, and Vogue.
𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧
Field notes
1.
Weird Web October. It’s that time again. Send me your sites and I’ll include some of them during October.
2.
Internet Phone Book. We are down to the last 90 copies.
3.
»If my mom wanted good art on her fridge, she could’ve purchased reprints of works by Vermeer, Lichtenstein, Wyeth, etc. But she didn’t want good art – she wanted my art.« — Taylor Troesh in My website is ugly because I made it.
4.
Call for Participation: Digital Humanities Today: Critical Inquiry with and about the Digital (Sep 30), New Media Open Call (Oct 1), New Platforms Publication (Oct 2), Rhizome Microgrants (Oct 10), Forms of digital publication (Oct 10), and Lullaby Machine (Oct 15).
5.
Poetic Web Calendar: HTTPoetics Showcase (Sep 28, Online), Start Up - Sounds (Oct 2, London), Wikigame Jame (Oct 3-5, NYC), Technologies of Solidarity (Oct 10-12, Rotterdam), Extending Poetry through Computation (Oct 10, Online), Triple Canopy Symposium (Oct 10-11, NYC), Peckham Digital (Oct 16-19, London), Softer (Oct 17, AMS), New Platforms (Oct 18, Sthlm), New Ways of Seeing (Oct 24-25, Paris), Stupid Hackathon Sweden (Nov 15, Sweden), and (De)Growing Infrastructures (Nov 27, AMS).
.𖥔 ݁ ˖𓂃.☘︎ ݁˖
Wayside flowers
Last email was sent to 4962 inboxes. Thirteen people support me with a paid subscription (thank you, LP, for the upgrade!). You can send questions, comments, products, sites, links, and more to kristoffer@naiveweekly.com. I read everything you send me :)