The internet is going through a shift. There used to be a thing called a “follower.” It allowed publishers, creators, and anyone online to build a community around their work. But this piece of foundational architecture for human creativity and communication – the “follow” – has been threatened. In this talk, I put this internetwide shift in historical context from the perspective of a creator, outline where the web will go in the future, and offer thoughts on what to do about it all as a modern creator on the internet.