Writer i comedian Megan Koester landed her first writing job reviewing Internet porn thanks to a Craigslist ad she answered more than 15 years ago. A few years later, she used a classifieds website to find a rent-controlled apartment, where she still lives today. When she wanted to buy real estate, she scrolled through Craigslist and found a plot of land in the Mojave Desert. She built an apartment on it (never mind that she later discovered it was illegal) and furnished it entirely with finds from the free section of Craigslist, right down to the laminate flooring previously used by a production company.
“There are many parts of my life steeped in Craigslist,” says Koester, 42, whose Instagram account devotes herself, at least in part, to cataloging screenshots of what she called “harrowing images” from the site’s free section; on the day we speak, she’s wearing a cashmere sweater that cost her nothing except the faith it took to answer an ad without photos. “I ride or die.”
Koester is one of countless Craigslist aficionados, many of them in their 30s and 40s, who not only continue to apply the aged classifieds site but also consider it an crucial, if anachronistic, part of their daily lives. It’s a place where anonymity is still possible, where money doesn’t have to be exchanged, and where strangers can make meaningful connections – for romantic pursuits, straightforward transactions, and even casting unusual artistic projects, including experimental TV shows like Attempt on HBO i Amazon Freevee Jury Duty. Unlike more vigorous online marketplaces like DePop and its parent company Etsy or Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist doesn’t apply algorithms to track users’ movements and predict what they want to see next. It doesn’t offer public profiles, rating systems, or “likes” and “shares” that can be handed out like social currency; as a result, Craigslist effectively discourages the pursuit of advantage and virality – behaviors that are often rewarded on platforms like TikTok, Instagram and X. It’s a utopian vision of a much earlier, much more earnest Internet.
“There are some real weirdos showing up on Craigslist,” Koester says. “There is purity in it.” Still, the site is a bit quieter than it used to be: Craigslist closed its “casual encounters” ads and turned off its personal information section in 2018, after Congress passed legislation that would have exposed the company to ads from potential sex traffickers. “lost callsHowever, the ” section remains busy.
Jessa Lingel, an associate professor of communications at the University of Pennsylvania, called the site “the ungentrified internet.” If this is the case, it means that internet gentrification has only accelerated in recent years, thanks in part to the spread of artificial intelligence. Even Wikipedia and Reddit, basic-looking sites founded in the early aughts with a Craigslist-like emphasis on fostering community, have incorporated their own versions Artificial intelligence tools.
Some may argue that Craigslist, on the other hand, is outdated; an article published in this journal more than 15 years ago called it “underdeveloped” and “unpredictable.” But for the site’s most dedicated supporters, that’s where its appeal lies.
“I think Craigslist is going through a renaissance,” says Kat Toledo, an actress and comedian who regularly uses the site to hire co-hosts for her Los Angeles stand-up show. Kisses. “When something has such a straightforward structure and really serves the community and doesn’t require too much? That’s what will last.”
Toledo started using Craigslist in 2000 and never stopped. She has visited the site over the years, looking for romance, housing, and even her current job as a forensic psychologist’s assistant. She worked there full-time for almost two years, undermining Craigslist’s reputation as a purveyor of potentially precarious, one-off gigs. Website stigma, sometimes equated with scammers and, in more than one case, murderersit may be difficult to move. “If I’m not doing a good job,” Toledo jokes to his employer, “just remember you found me on Craigslist.”