When Web 2.0 came about and the public started moving towards it from 1.0, how users interacted with the internet itself was transformed in major ways because they are no longer limited to statically consuming the content of the web. The ability to create, upload, contribute to the sites in Web 2.0 created social experiences for the users and encouraged the forming of online communities when they started being able to interact with one another’s content. These online platforms became an extension of the user’s personal expression that could reach others with the same interest across the globe. Other features such as collaborative editing ability on documents, customization and personal profile building really set up the ground of the internet for being a dynamic and engaging landscape that didn’t exist in the offline world.
Today, the interactivity of the Web continued to evolve in even more personalized ways due to the use of algorithms and virtual interactive experiences. Virtual chatbots, analysts, and recommendations have been so heavily infiltrating every platform to the point that users are no longer customizing their experiences on the web but are instead being guided through the content that it thinks “you” would be interested in. On one hand it seems like we have more personalized interactions on the Web today versus Web 2.0, but from another perspective,the infiltration of data privacy and complexity in user profile establishment has also led to a biased and limiting platform of interaction. It’s imperative to strike a balance between personalized experiences and safeguarding user autonomy and privacy. By incorporating principles of transparency, accountability, and user control into the design of interactive technologies, we can steer towards a more ethical and empowering future for internet interactivity.