Why I'm attempting to Join the Indie Web

I believe there is a line between convenience and control. Having a favorite order on a delivery service where your payment info is saved and that you can get delivered with one click? Incredibly beautiful and convenient, saves stress and time! However, you have just submitted a preference, possibly a facial ID or fingerprint, a bank link, and an address to one site. That's a little scary! Not that you gave it to them, but that if someone were to gain access to that company, which we're seeing more and more, they would have access to all of those things, connected together, connected to you. In some cases, the risk is worth or equal to the reward. But it should always be more of a decision than I feel it currently is.

Facebook is necessary for a lot of people and businesses because "everyone is on it", but it doesn't actually provide much in itself. You are the product. That kind of sucks! It allows for widespread mis-information and advertising to reach and effect large majorities of America, and is turning into a 1 stop shop for hackers and bad news alike.

This is all possible due to the principle of it being a "3rd party Silo", where everyone gets on this vast, wonderful and chaotic internet, then all turn to one node of interaction. I think we can do better than that! Own our own sites, and "visit each other's houses for tea and a convo" virtually. Seems more appealing than facebook screaming matches anyways.

What does it mean to join the Indie Web?

Hopefully: It means regaining time, focus, and online autonomy. It's coming to my website to tweak it, post something, or share a news article I've found elsewhere that's interesting (this involves going to primary sources and diversifying your intentional media intake. Something I think is a great idea and want to be better about!). It's always been more fun to tweak my website than piddle on facebook, this just allows me to maintain contact and interaction with friends on those services, as I understand this mentality isn't for everyone (and I still like yall who won't adopt and care about what you're up to!).

It means visiting friend's sites that are also on the indie web to see what they're up to, treating that as their "page", allowing for you to bypass the News Feed that may inform you of a random middle school friend with 3 kids and thinks the government is trying to take away their guns. Facebook trying to start fights and keep you on there longer... oof. You don't need that! I don't at least. I don't know why I know so much about a few random people on facebook that I never interact with or maintain a relationship with in real life. So this bypasses that and gives me that time back, while being intentional and honest on who I want to keep up with and how much.

Here is their site explaining the plurality approach of this: https://indieweb.org/principles

*is no one size fits all. Imagine what you want your web presence to be, what would make you happy, and then go down some rabbit holes to figure out how to make it a reality! That's part of this. It's not step by step, because it's not a path. It's an empty field where you decide where to pitch whatever kind of tent you'd like to make.

Fact: Owning your domain should be more common.

Even if you don't want to splurge for a Wix, Squarespace, or a more user-friendly but expensive website building software, your name domain most likely costs around 12$/Year and a blog site builder could cost as low as 5$/month. That's around 70$/year to own your own little property where you can build whatever you would like online. That's so cool! And a STEAL! You don't have to be good or a programmer. It doesn't have to look gorgeous, because it'll be yours and that's inherently really cool! Paying more to make it look smoother: cool. But also fiddling and learning how to do some of the things from the ground up... even if it looks a little clunky, props to you because that's hard and respectable. Go You for creating something!

Actors (usually): You have a head start!

Many Actors are already are encouraged to have websites. This helps! If you already have a website, this can be an element of it. I am still sorting out logistics and how to go about it through a party like Wix, and will post my findings! It's learning together. But fun, and creative, and creates an intentional, specific community rather than your 1,622nd Facebook friend. I would love to build or help start this community! Reach out if this sounds up your alley, and we can learn together.

#blog #indieweb #ActorsIndieweb #IndependentWeb #reclaimyourtime #VirtualAutonomy