I hate writing the same post over and over again. But I feel like I’ve been around long enough writing on the web (10 years in two weeks!) that it tends to happen. One of those stories I write a lot is a rebuttal to the “Web is dead” meme that pops up at least once a year.

Here’s a rebuttal from April. Here’s one from nearly five years ago. Etc.

Rather than write the same post again as I normally would here after reading more ridiculousness today, I’ll instead take a different angle. Here’s something I have noticed recently: I find myself using the web browser app on my phone less and less.

I realized this the other day while looking at my phone’s homescreen. In my dock are four apps: Mail, Twitter, Messages, and Safari.

• Mail: I unfortunately have to use all the time and it eats away at my soul a little more each time I open it.
• Twitter: I gladly use all the time, it’s still my most-used app.
• Messages: I also gladly use all the time because it negates the need for a lot of email from people I actually know. Also, fuck the carriers and their SMS fees.
• Safari: Wait, I rarely consciously open Safari anymore. Five years ago, sure, all the time. Today? Not so much.

So why is it in my dock? Old habits die hard, I guess. I probably think I’ll often have the desire to go “browse the web”. But again, that seems to happen less and less these days. So I think it just provides me with some level of comfort that I can get to any piece of content on the internet with a few clicks if I need it.

The reality is that I get to almost all of this content through other apps now. Twitter is a great example because it helps to spread so much web content, but it does so in its own app. When I click on a link, an in-app browser pops up and I much prefer this because it’s faster than kicking me over to Safari.

The same is true on Facebook, Pinterest, Flipboard, etc. So it’s not that we’re not using the web, it’s that we’re using the web in apps other than traditional web browsers. In some ways, apps are simply highly customized web browsers.

So the problem most people seem to have is that they either can’t wrap their heads around this concept: you are using the web, you’re just using it in an app. Or they worry about the app model being destructive to the open nature of the web. Maybe. I just think it’s cyclical. AOL begets World Wide Web begets Facebook and so on.

There I go again, writing that same old post…

Anyway, the web isn’t dead, it continues to flourish with millons of new wonders sprouting up each day. What’s odd is that we’re perhaps no longer using a web browser as much to view these contents. And that’s because we’re increasingly mobile, and native apps provide a better experience and more functionality.

Also, I think the concept of “browsing” the web is different than it used to be. Again, apps have altered this. Content is now just as often pushed to us rather than us pulling it from the web. This isn’t better or worse, it’s just different. A mobile-focused experience for a mobile computing time.

And just wait until that Watch gets here…

But I think I’ll keep Safari in my dock for now. Just in case.