Gemini Proxy
A suspiciously comforting solitude
A little pondering after reading ~oracle and ~inquiry...
Musings on empathy, social constructs, the toxic bifurcation of conversation between groups, all poured into the brain funnel.
One does not have to be immersed in
the continual shit-stirring of
My solution has been to quit
playing the game altogether, and
But it's not just a walking away from the monstrosity of social media; that movement has engaged young and old alike. Maybe it's the pandemic, maybe it's work-from-home (a luxury I am damned fortunate to have), but the need to be social, period, feels transformed. Most days I see exactly two people; my spouse and our dog, and I'm fine with that.
Tomorrow evening, I'm meeting up
with two friends that I introduced
That may sound like a total shite
boring-as-fuck evening to you, and
https://midnight.pub/posts/307
Replies
Solitude is precious and you must seek it at least occasionally or you will mentally break. My wife and I often sit by the fireplace and read or listen to music and that is some of my most joyful times. Don't worry about what society thinks is normal for your social life.
Well, lots of the Internet just now is very broken with regards to incentives and attentions and etc. etc. etc. Engaging with stuff like the Midnight or other things on Gemini is a nice little corner of the world.
I don't know. I really miss small talk and casual conversations and office gossip, personally. They say that weak ties are an important predictor of wellbeing, not just the intimate friendships one cultivates carefully -- and that seems right to me. I don't know if it's good that it's *possible* for us to be so cut off from the world. But that's at the macro level; one's individual choices are a different question.
I lean firmly quit end of the online spectrum. Can't remember exactly when, but I dumped Facebook and Twitter at least half a decade ago. For me, it was mostly due to noticing neither platform attracted people capable of long(er) form. Such platforms seemed in the vein of how Windows became the darling of those seemingly incapable of ever developing genuine computer competence - descendants of sorts of the clueless :-) Eternal September horde, if you will....
Fun to see the word 'Compuserve' again. I never got with that, but did enjoy similar "onvirons" from good 'ole General Electric called "GEnie".
Your "tomorrow evening" description has it sounding glorious!
mental note to acquire a "handle" - i.e. a 1.75L bottle - of Ketel One>
You are not alone in this at all :-). I think this rollercoaster of social media discourse is simply the outcome of targeting engagement as a metric of success. You're not gonna get much engagement by encouraging reflection and dialog, which will quickly sink your stuff at the bottom of everyone's timelines and poof! goes the traffic.
you're on midnight.pub/posts/307