We Laughed at 2013’s Websites. Now We’re the Punchline.
The web has always been template-driven, but now AI has automated the process. We mocked 2013’s cookie-cutter sites, but today’s dark-mode, blue-purple, AI-generated aesthetic is the same homogenization, just faster. The real driver isn’t AI or bad designers – it’s platform incentives that reward copying. Recognizing the new template helps us resist manipulation and see that ‘cutting-edge’ is just the next stale cliché.