IndieWeb Carnival: On the importance of friction

I am pleased to host the first IndieWeb carnival of 2025 and invite you to think about the importance of friction, primarily on the web but possibly also elsewhere. Feel free to consider the idea in as abstract or concrete a manner as you like. Pick a link below to get started:

• How to submit your entry—(hint: send me an e-mail)
• Some prompts to get you started with this month’s theme
• If you are new, find out more about the IndieWeb carnival

If you have not participated in a carnival before, or if you would like to see how others have been doing, take a look at past IndieWeb carnivals hosted by some incredible people from around the world.

For a broader introduction to the theme this month, and my own thoughts on it, please consider reading my contribution.

How to submit your entry

E-mail Send me your entires for this month by e-mail with a link to your published post. My inbox is open to lengthy discussions of a topic too, if you fancy it. E-mailing me will also help me quickly get back to you to confirm that I’ve looked at your submission.

Social web You can mention me on Mastodon especially if you plan to share your writing there anyway. I am also on BlueSky if you prefer that instead. Unfortunately I do not have this website set up to receive webmentions reliably, so backlinks are not an option.

I look forward to reading your essays. I will try my best to respond to every submission within a day, but if there is a delay please rest assured that I will respond as soon as possible.

A round-up post will appear on this website by the first week of February. You can subscribe by RSS in the meanwhile or check back manually on the IndieWeb carnival wiki.

The theme this month and some prompts to get you started

While the insistence of the CorpoWeb on removing friction is really just a means of finding ways to keep people hooked on their products, the idea can span beyond the web itself. Sometimes the easiest way is not necessarily the best way. The IndieWeb is a great counter example: there is undeniably a steeper learning curve to setting up your own domain and server than signing up on Substack but the effort quickly turns out to be worth it.

Removing friction increases reliance on technology without simultaneously encouraging independent thinking and knowing. The following excerpt from Nicholas Carr’s book The glass cage discusses this idea in relation to architects:

...the computer is never a neutral tool. It influences, for better or worse, the way a person works and thinks ... [the person] comes to value what the software can do and dismiss as unimportant or irrelevant or simply unimagiable what it cannot ... the way architects work and think is becoming homogenized as a result... “When you flipped through architecture journals in the 1980s ... you saw the hand of the individual architect.” Today, what you tend to see is the functioning of the software ... [Designers and artists] will eventually take it for granted that the automated way is the best way ... They’ll rush down the path of least resistance, even though a little resistance, a little friction, might have brought out the best in them. (emphasis added)

Below are some prompts—should you need them—to help you get started with your own piece. While arguments may predominantly favour one view, counterpoints are welcome and even encouraged.

• How have you experienced and learnt to embrace friction on your IndieWeb-site?
• What are some analogies for friction outside the web—perhaps from your everyday life—from which we can draw lessons?
• Has a frictionless web ever made you take action before you slowed down to think about things?
• Has an increasingly frictionless web reduced people’s attention spans and made us impatient and seek instant gratification everywhere?
• How much friction is too much? How much is just enough?
• Is friction an entirely negative aspect that can be done away with, without losing out to the CorpoWeb along the way?
• How does friction for a11y users compare to that of users not reliant upon a11y?
• How does friction introduce skills in using technology as a replacement to knowing and understanding how something fundamentally works?

About the IndieWeb carnival

Each month someone hosts the IndieWeb carnival with a theme of their choice. Anyone can write essays/short posts about the theme, publish it on their own websites, and share the links with the month’s host.

At the end of the month, the host rounds up all submissions and publishes them along with some commentary as a compilation of that month’s edition of the IndieWeb carnival.