Introducing Agency Economy

Hello! Thank you for reading the first official blog post for Agency Economy. What is Agency Economy? Agency Economy is an Illinois-based non-profit that wants to change how we all use the internet. We were founded by a group of young people who are truly dissatisfied with the current relationship most people have with the internet. No one really owns anything; everything is an app that either sells ads against you, charges you a monthly subscription, bundling features you don’t even use to justify the price, or had completely abandoned their core principle altogether and has succumbed to Enshittification. Agency Economy is about reclaiming the web, and giving young people the voice and the agency to properly express themselves.

Platform Reliance

I always ask people whether they have a website or not—most say they do not. What is a website? In the simplest terms a website is just a bunch of files on a machine, that you make accessible by a web browser; this can be on the public internet, private on your home network, it can be pages like this one here, it could be images or videos or audio. It takes very little to run a website that can serve your needs. But, most when they want to share their thoughts or photos, use a platform like Instagram for example.

When was the last time you used owned or physical media? I don’t just mean Vinyls, Cassettes, or CDs, but also a .mp4 or .wav file that was on your device, something you have full ownership over and unless someone comes into your home, they cannot take it from you. I think it was exciting when there was, and maybe still is, this physical media trend that was going around. A counterattack against the rampant renters-only economy we live in. But still, the majority of people are still on a Netflix subscription or using Spotify.

Think about the platforms or services you use online right now, which ones serve you ads; which ones are subscription based, has the subscription increased in the last year with no new feature offering; which ones have just given you a worse service over time, less promotions, unreliable service, nonexistent support? Now think about what the alternatives you have to these services are, do they suffer from the same issues? If you are fed up with Spotify, you can’t just swap to Apple Music. It is even worse for subscription streaming services: HBO Max, Netflix, and Hulu don’t even have the same content. No matter how long you have been a loyal subscriber, you will never own the media, they can always increase the subscription cost, and you can always have the content you loved removed or restricted. Social media is even worse for what it does. Instagram, Reddit.com, X, all of these platforms you have no control over what you see; they can force onto your screen content that is enraging, they can force you to see an ad, or a personal weakness of mine, Instagram can throw addicting Reels in your face. Remember why we are on these platforms in the first place: to connect with people! This is the key point, there are alternatives out there that respect your freedom and give you real choice, but it requires a change.

The Change

I could spend pages writing about the issues of the current internet. I bet you have your own grievances with how things are, but let’s discuss what can be done here. First, get into the mindset that this is easy! The biggest blocker here is ourselves, if we can spend the time to understand, then we won’t have as much trouble changing things. We view getting a website as being the first step. Most people are digital peasants, they don’t own internet land. Anyone can buy a .com domain for $12 a year and there are even cheaper domains like .net or .xyz. From there, reach out to us! We will take you step-by-step on how to put something on your own space on the internet. Compare that to the $10-$20 a month that GoDaddy, Wix, or Squarespace will charge for the same services, basically selling you perpetual templates. Do you want a blog where you can share your thoughts, or a photo album where you can have your pictures, or a place to post your movie and tv reviews? You could put most anything on a the web for free once you have a domain. We will even provide hosting for you for free to get you started and show you how you can get free or near-free hosting yourself. And, this isn’t some isolated island on the web, you can set it up to even share other people’s content and subscribe or follow. This isn’t a product you are buying to get these features (however you can choose to buy the software to support the maintainer), this can all be done with free and open source software.

Eventually you can get to point of running your own streaming service, or search engine, or marketplace/online store. All owned and maintained by you, or even more importantly, someone in your family, or community who provides the service for you. I feel the most confusing part is the level of freedom you will have, there is no platform telling you how your page will look, what it means for you to share or follow someone, how people will discover your content, it is all up to you. Is it more work? Yes. Is the convenience of the current web worth the lack of freedom? I think many say, “No!”

An Agency Economy

The name Agency Economy comes from a vision of the world where people truly feel reconciled with themselves and world around them. The goal for us isn’t to make people luddites and reject technology, but to reclaim the web. The internet has so many good things about it, especially in its ability to keep us connected. If you feel strongly about this, or are at least curious about the alternatives, reach out to me, robert@agencyeconomy.org. The goal isn’t to make more tech people, we need there to be less tech people in these spaces, because this technology is accessible to all of us. It is meant for all of us. You may not go as deep into this as everyone else, but the point is to prepare you to be able to make the choice. The more people who are out there doing this, the less burden their is on any one individual to do more. That’s why we started Agency Economy.

Community Notice

We will be starting a variety of events in the Chicago area. Please check and subscribe to our events page to stay up-to-date. The goal is help foster multiple communities. If you are a community organizer who is interested, please reach out.