gemini://subphase.xyz/users/flow/gemlog/33-moment.gmi

This is just a quick post partly indended to jump-start my capsule after some healthy downtime last year. And that downtime isn't so much time away from the indienet in favour of other digital spaces - in fact over the past couple of months, very much fuelled by the whole #muskrat saga on the birdsite, I've been shutting down my digital presence that still lingered[1] on across some commercial social networks; liberating the last traces of my data and fully closing my accounts. As well as stepping away from the commercial Web, I've also been slowly shifting away my media consumption habits towards something that I hope is the start of something a bit more radical going forwards. By this I don't just mean consuming more content in spaces such as the Fediverse or Gemini, but taking a more critical approach to the sources of news and information media that I let myself engage with, and also taking a more considered approach to the articles and items I choose to engage with and pay attention to, learn from, etc. Unsurprisingly, this has largely meant a return to more useful educational book reading, essays, some other long-form (and mini-form!) items online, as well as swapping what used to be time used for doomscrolling/procrastinating on the commercial Web, instead paying more gentle attention to some of what's coming out of the smolweb, the indienet, the fediverse, etc.

> Every day now I come across something independent, creative, unique and interesting on the #fediverse the #smolweb #indienet #indieweb. It feels like an independent Internet is really flourishing - feels kind-of like the mid-to-late '90s, only now it's much more... accessible, findable, creative, politically interesting,artistic, informed, subversive. In this moment it feels like the 'Net is *ours* not theirs (corporates/states). #mastodon #gemini

That's not to knock the 'Net that we experienced back in the '90s (or for those who experienced earlier digital communities going even further back). But I do think it's worth shouting about how much this expanse of the IndieNet is flourishing at the moment. And while I don't think we necessarily need to lose our sh*t over that completely, I'm hopeful that it's a glimmer of a healthier state of digitality - at least for many of us, and a great many more of us now too, all those who are dipping into and exploring these non-commercial digital spaces, places and possibilities in this moment.

State of the 'Net entering 2023: indienet, smolweb, gemini