alienhospital/essays/housebound.html
2025-12-23 05:56:17 -05:00

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<h1>Houseboundedness & the Small Web</h1></div>
<div class="sitemap"><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I recently joined the Melonland forums, and I&rsquo;m enjoying myself there. It&rsquo;s a community full of likeminded individuals who have the same interests as me, and I am always deeply appreciative of internet communities that value kindness and discussion. But as I scrolled around the forums and the site, I noticed a common theme - unplug and go outside. The forums even close on Mondays to encourage people to do that! Which&hellip; is a great idea in theory, and I 100% understand why it is implemented, but as a housebound individual who is sometimes even bedbound, it did get me thinking about disability representation and accommodation in the small web.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">See, in theory, I love the idea that the internet should not be your whole life. And I do believe getting outside in the real world is extremely important. But I would like people to understand this: not everyone is capable of leaving the house, not everyone is capable of getting out of bed. The internet is my only connection to the world outside of my house. I love the fucking internet. I love the people I have met on the internet and the community I have formed. Many other friends I have are in a similar boat, too disabled to do a lot of things outside of the house. The internet has </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">many </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">downsides. A lot of them. But for many people it is a lifeline, a tool, a freedom.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This idea that using the internet too much stains you somehow confuses me. At times it can remind me of the way my Christian aunt talks about &ldquo;not getting distracted by Earthly things&rdquo; and tells me &ldquo;don&rsquo;t enjoy things too much or you&rsquo;re sinning&rdquo;. The internet&rsquo;s existence is not the problem. The problem is, of course, capitalism. It&rsquo;s been talked about to death, the commodification of the internet and the focus on profit above literally anything else driving authentic communities to their graves. The problem, on a more micro level, is also that the internet being everywhere these days means a lot of bigots are around to infect it. But if you wouldn&rsquo;t make the argument that learning is bad because some people learn chemistry or engineering to make weapons, why argue that the internet is a blemish just because terrible people use it? There are also a lot of </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">cool </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">people on the internet! What about them?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I joined small web spaces to get more into web dev, self hosting, small game development, etc; computer hobbies are the one of the only hobbies accessible to me as a disabled person who often can&rsquo;t leave its bed. So it is a little hurtful that a common message among abled or even non-housebound disabled webmasters is now &ldquo;Unplug! Go outside! Make friends in the real world!&rdquo;&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">So I propose this instead: </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">adding on</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to the encouragement to unplug. Giving suggestions to people who can&rsquo;t leave their house or bed - things to do besides scrolling mainstream social media or contributing to the &ldquo;wider web&rdquo;. Encourage them to diversify the websites they spend time on if they cannot go outside, or to try a new hobby if that&rsquo;s accessible, or to spend time talking to a beloved friend, or call their pets up for a cuddle, or&hellip; you get the idea. I&rsquo;ll pull a few things from Sky Stanton&rsquo;s </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://theduckopera.medium.com/the-severe-me-bedbound-activity-masterlist-part-1-e61612b7a357">The Bedbound Activities Guide,</a> </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">but meditation is a great one you can do anywhere, you can also make gratitude lists, fantasize and daydream, if you can use devices, go on </span><a href="http://itch.io"><span style="font-weight: 400;">itch.io</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and check out some indie art/games/books! You don&rsquo;t have to make going outside the end all be all of Healthy Internet Usage.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">There are more housebound and bedbound people than you think.</span></p>
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