The indie web

I went twenty-one years not knowing how to cook an egg. Cooking classes were a rough time for an anxious student like I was. I did not know I was suffering from anxiety at the time; that is a recent realisation. Being open about anxiety is a challenge. How you think, when written as a raw thought, might have undertones of paranoia. I was worried about cooking an egg, without knowing my exact worries. For other foods, my worry was always food poisioning; if I cook, I’ll get ill.

Many forces were at play in encouraging me to be more open with my anxiety, but there is one in particular that motivated me to share my story with more people through this blog: Someone else wrote about their experiences with mental health on their blog. That blog post played a role in helping me overcome the stigma associated with mental health; they probably don’t know that, either. In being open, I felt less lonely. I found people who could help. And, eventually, I found people who imbued me with enough confidence to cook an egg. I am incredibly proud of that accomplishment.

This is the web. This is the indie web.

The indie web is all about people sharing what they want to share and doing so on their own platform.

For the last few years, I have participated in the IndieWeb community). The community (capital “I” and “W”) is where I found a home to positively channel a feeling of malaise I had about the web. When I joined, my outlook on the web was forever changed. The web is ours. I can publish a blog and share my words. There are now other communities I’m in that share the same values.

I can write about coffee, or pianos, or coding, or moments that brought me joy, or coding, or Scrabble, or mental health. I could have a personal website that is my place on the web, operating at a slower pace than other sites. I can be.

A friend, Mark, has equated the indie web to the British punk music scene, a rich part of the nation’s culture. Punk music is about creativity. Pushing the boundaries. Expressing emotions. It defines its own rules. Those rules change. This, I think, is a good characterisation of the indie web. Be yourself. Push boundaries. Above all, have fun.

Tantek, defining the IndieWeb, notes:

The IndieWeb is for everyone, everyone who wants independence from organizations, independence of agency to associate, and who embraces the web of humans that want to interconnect, to communicate, to value and respect each other, whether one degree apart or thirty.

This applies more broadly to the indie web (lowercase letters), as well as the IndieWeb community.

To have a personal website is, presently, an act of rebellion. It is a statement. You are saying: I want to define my experience on the web. I’ll let you in on an open secret: Big tech companies aren’t the only ones who get to decide how we share ideas on the web. The web is yours. You can put up a website where you share whatever it is that you want to share with others.

Your words could brighten someone’s day.

Your art could inspire someone who forgot how much they enjoyed the artistic medium you practice.

You will pick up a new skill or two on the way, whether that’s a website skill (i.e. using WordPress to publish a blog post), or a skill you learned because you were motivated by something you shared or wanted to share on your website.

Herein lies a question: How does one join the indie web? What about the IndieWeb? The answer to both is the same: start a personal website! The IndieWeb community is here to help, as is the broader indie web community that you can find across the web.