June 8, 2026
Dial-up nostalgia, ego-speed drama
I'm building a parallel internet, and it's called The Thinnernet
One man wants a simpler internet — commenters are split between dream, cringe, and chaos
TLDR: A blogger wants to create “The Thinnernet,” a simpler internet built around lighter, less cluttered online experiences. Commenters are torn between loving the old-web dream, mocking the Steve Jobs obsession, and doubting anyone can actually pull it off.
A blogger has announced he’s building a “parallel internet” called The Thinnernet, basically a vision for a calmer, lighter, less bloated online world. He frames it as a response to today’s internet getting stuffed with heavy pages, tracking, noise, and flashy excess — and, yes, he repeatedly filters the dream through “what Steve Jobs would do” energy. That detail is exactly where the comment section put on its boxing gloves.
Some readers were genuinely into the fantasy. One commenter leaned all the way into the nostalgia, dreaming of the old web: personal blogs, weird niche discoveries, and a more human internet that isn’t constantly trying to sell you socks or steal your data. Another said the core idea is real: people do want something that punishes page bloat and rewards simplicity. In other words, the vibe was less “this is crazy” and more “please rescue me from the modern web.”
But the skeptics came in hot. One blunt reply basically said: lovely idea, but society does not have the discipline to build it, and we’ll get absurdly fast space internet before we get a sane one. Ouch. The biggest eye-roll, though, was reserved for the Steve Jobs comparisons. One commenter flat-out said they "tune out" the second a project leans on a dead tech icon instead of standing on its own. So the drama is deliciously clear: is Thinnernet a bold rebellion against internet sludge, or just another beautiful manifesto with main-character energy?
Key Points
- •The author says he has been developing a concept called The Thinnernet, described as a parallel internet, and began writing about it in 2023.
- •He links this work to earlier projects from 2020, including an essay on a knowledge-base concept called Experience Base and a concept CMS called TicketMS.
- •The article references Dr. Nathalie Martinek's writing on organizational resistance to workflow change as relevant to the author's own workplace experience.
- •The author argues that future-tech discussion often overlooks what the internet itself may become, despite major improvements in fiber-optic connectivity.
- •The post contrasts today's high-bandwidth internet trajectory with an earlier computing era of lower traffic and fewer constraints on formats, protocols, browsers, and services.