Love live the indie web

Our news feeds today are an ocean of overwhelm, a sea of outrage and a river of endless grief. It is driving many of us to despair. It is exhausting just thinking about it.

The dismantling of democracy, the deportation of the innocent, the reassertion of empire, government by sycophancy, the extirpation of expertise, the burning of natural resources, the various costs of living — all of these are enough to burn the hair off my chest each morning.

But we discuss the news as if it is beyond our control, as if we are designers in a fever dream, without agency and without any means to shape our destinies.

We are not.

One option, of course, is to delete all of the social channels from our devices. Jared Lanier, the godfather of virtual media, wrote a best-selling book in 2018 called Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Right Now and he makes the case. However, for various reasons, I have not yet fully disengaged from large social channels entirely.

Is there another alternative to doomscrolling through news, big social platforms and monopoly media? We have options about what we consume and create and, as designers, we have more than most. I want to shine a light on a few options that are sometimes relegated to the dusty and dim corners of the internet. (And I’m not talking about the dark web.)

Let’s talk about the indie web.

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What’s an indie web?

We as designers are, by nature, visual learners and quick consumers of imagery, accustomed to taking it all in, absorbing the details and using our ten digits to create new digital dopamine. However, we know that large social media and news/entertainment companies often exploit us rather than benefit us. They take our work, train their algorithms on it and then steal our private information.

One alternative is to participate and produce on the indie web. Like all good things, the indie web is just under our noses, in the corners and crevices of the internet and it reeks of human poetry, play and personality, rather than the usual madness, mayhem and mania.

But wait? Isn’t the indie web just a bunch of 1990s lookalike sites on Neocities or some fake nostalgia about what it was like to be online before it was commercialized and commoditized? Yes! It is. However, it is also a dynamic, growing and complex place that coexists alongside the work you do every day. The indie web is, by nature, more open, more personal and sometimes more political than what you’ll find elsewhere. It’s also wackier and wilder and takes time to explore and find your way to figure out what you like and don’t like.

The indie web doesn’t work like big social media — it takes time and curiosity to navigate.

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Participating in the indie social web

Here are a few noteworthy, independent indie social web channels for designers and makers on the social web.

Mastodon

Part of what is called the federated web or fediverse, Mastodon is a social network powered by open standards and protocols. Unlike centralized and large social media platforms, Mastodon has “instances”, which are independent servers run separately by different people around the globe. I’m part of an instance called typo.social, where typography and design are discussed. But not only do I have access to that community — I can access other instances everywhere, including those focused on gardening, bicycling or, let’s say, gnosticism. It’s all at your fingertips and it’s free and there are no ads. For better or worse, Mastodon and other federated networks are still small. As of October 2024, there were about 10 million users on Mastodon and only 2 million are active each month. You can easily find a niche there.

Are.na

I’ve been using Are.na on and off for the past decade. It’s kind of a mix between an oddball portfolio platform and a true social network. Are.na is a privately owned but highly open channel that allows its users to collect, collate and curate all types of visual and other content, including images, links, PDFs and other documents — into what are called channels. You can keep your findings and collections private, but if you create public channels, others can find your ideas and connect theirs with yours. Are.na represents an endless and interconnected chain of ideas and knowledge for designers, artists, writers and researchers. About 17,000 people support the paid version, but many more use the free one. It is a treasure trove of digital love.

Sublime

A brand new knowledge saving and sharing platform that allows you to save ideas, websites, images, links, etc. and create private or public repositories. Similar to Are.na, Sublime enables you to discover like-minded, discrete information objects. A private network founded by Sari Azout, Sublime’s focus is on developing a “knowledge library for creative work.” There are both free and paid versions. The Sublime interface is softer and more intuitive than other platforms, yet it remains fast and enjoyable.

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Self-expression in the indie design web

The second alternative is what I refer to as small media. Small media represents a vast collection of weird work on the indie web by independent designers, artists, writers and thinkers who are creating unique online workspaces, galleries, newsletters, blogs or projects outside of traditional alternatives.

The folks creating small media include social activists who are challenging what it means to engage politically. It consists of those who use independent platforms to produce their work and create new worlds. It includes people who enjoy making lists and those who code. It also features individuals willing to transgress social norms and create atypical, outstanding projects that combine visual complexity and curation.

This wild web includes the odd, the unconventional and the liminal. In this world, you delve in, indulge, drift a little and then drive off.

And as a warning, the following is a rabbit hole of link warrens, feed factors, nesting areas and odd exits. If you haven’t been to art school in a while, this is your invitation back in! Here are a few independent indexes (sites that list other sites) to explore.

The indie web won’t necessarily save you from endless scrolls, sad FOMO angst and dreadful news cycles. But they do offer a different view into the lives and remarkable work of others. We designers have all of the tools needed to offer up better visions of what it means to be engaged online. If we sidestep even one degree left, our paths may change immeasurably.

Webring

A comprehensive index of over 200 projects curated by Devine Lu Linvega, this site features the handcrafted and oddball work of artists, designers and developers, including bio sites, wikis, portfolios and web experiments. It is deceptively simple in its selections.

Single-Serving Sites

Similarly, this site offers up a wondrous selection of sites that are composed of a single page and a sole domain name that have one purpose. I have always loved one-page sites and there are so many great projects here, including The Gyllenhall, Nietzsche Ipsum, Species in Pieces and How to Give Your Best Self Some Rest.

Site of Sites

Another fantastic index of superb art and other digital projects that are not the usual stuff you find on awards websites or on big social media. Explore their impressive collections, featuring sites with sidebars and those that utilise neon. The web doesn’t get much better than this.