Sometimes it's hard to remember that I loved the lives I lived before

[sovay]

Who knew that one of the reasons to appreciate DW not being the algorithmically slammed febrile chamber of FB would be that I can actually spend time on this platform without constantly having in my face the same photos of a man in need of a damnatio memoriae stat throwing an enthusiastically received Hitlergruß. I think of myself as possessing a reasonable tolerance for hateful language and gestures, since it is fairly impossible to survive in the world as currently constituted without one, but I could be doing several very different things with my life if I wanted to look at wall-to-wall Nazi salutes. I know that it happened. I have seen the responses and the responses to the responses and I have some responses of my own. Please get the outrage bait out of my eyeballs; it's got to take a number and stand in simultaneous line with all the rest of the corrosive Gish gallop, which actually if I hear one more person refer to the destruction of human rights as a distraction, get in that same line and load yourself into the sun.

Nonetheless, as people with whom it was my only regular medium of contact bleed off FB, I get to feel left behind once again. I am as unlikely to have an account on Bluesky as on original flavor Twitter for the same reason that its structure is terrible for my brain. I appear to have been wired by nature for exactly one form of internet communication and resent that I am supposed to accommodate to ones that make me feel like someone is treating my concentration as a pincushion. Discord is not congenial to me, either. Meanwhile I continue to hate the expectation that it is universally easier to extract information from videos or podcasts rather than written articles.

The original concept of the Etruscan saeculum is a valuable one, because it measures in historical memory: it ends with the death of the last person who was alive at the time of a crucial event, such as the founding of a city. Obviously I am trying not to feel that we are at the fraying end of one of these cycles, especially since Strauss–Howe generational theory appears to have run off a pseudoscientific and rather millenarian cliff with the notion.

To conclude on a not completely unhelpful note, Mamaleh's has had for some time a feature at their register where you can round up to the nearest dollar on an order, donating the difference in change to a charity of the restaurant's choosing. This month they went with the MIRA Coalition—Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy. The good news is that you can donate to them on your own time with or without a bagel or a milkshake or a 50/50, although I am obviously in support of the latter, too.

Comments

[theseatheseatheopensea]

I appear to have been wired by nature for exactly one form of internet communication and resent that I am supposed to accommodate to ones that make me feel like someone is treating my concentration as a pincushion.

I feel this so much, and each time it happens (which sadly is a lot), I appreciate DW even more.

Also, yay for donating to charites and bagels and milkshakes! <3

[sovay]

I feel this so much, and each time it happens (which sadly is a lot), I appreciate DW even more.

I still miss friends who drifted off or just never came over from LJ, but I appreciate its persistence immensely.

Also, yay for donating to charites and bagels and milkshakes!

They are my favorite local deli for so many reasons. They just announced a drag bingo night. As I wrote to selkie, they are obviously proceeding on the principle of "increase the thing."

[imagine_that]

This is still my favorite way to communicate on the internet. I wish I could persuade more friends to come back (or try it for the first time) so we could have a community here like back in LJ's heyday. It's so much more satisfying to write and read longform journaling.

And yes, not being bombarded with all those images here is a relief.

[sovay]

This is still my favorite way to communicate on the internet. I wish I could persuade more friends to come back (or try it for the first time) so we could have a community here like back in LJ's heyday. It's so much more satisfying to write and read longform journaling.

I don't really know any other way to communicate! If I am interested enough to talk about something, I want to talk about it. When I write at even minor length on FB instead of posting photos or sharing links, I'm pretty sure the algorithms hide it.

And yes, not being bombarded with all those images here is a relief.

FB was not designed for use of the cut-tag and it shows.

[ride_4ever]

I wish I had the skill to write comments to your posts that are as well-wrought as the posts themselves. Sometimes I don't even comment because I've read some post or other of yours that so fills my mind and heart I am beyond words with it. This one I'm commenting to say how less alone I feel when I read what you've said here about the social media platforms and the videos and the podcasts which are anywhere from "not congenial" to "terrible" for your brain...that is quite like my thoughts on those subjects (and yes, I also get that "left behind once again" feeling). It's LJ and DW which are perfectly suited to how my brain works. Thank you for sharing these thoughts which you have crafted so excellently.

[sovay]

This one I'm commenting to say how less alone I feel when I read what you've said here about the social media platforms and the videos and the podcasts which are anywhere from "not congenial" to "terrible" for your brain...that is quite like my thoughts on those subjects (and yes, I also get that "left behind once again" feeling). It's LJ and DW which are perfectly suited to how my brain works. Thank you for sharing these thoughts which you have crafted so excellently.

Thank you so much for taking the time and care to tell me. I am glad it makes you feel less isolated in a sea of short-form and media. Please comment whenever you feel like! I do not grade people's emotional responses.

[yhlee]

Trust me, I do use Bluesky because bored but you're not missing anything; one particular bungled feature (lack of guardrails) makes tge site unsustainably awful after a critical mass of total stranger followers, I predict it too will implode in six mos to a year if not faster.

[yhlee]

also sympathies on the fucked social media hellscape i hate video info that could be plain text

sorry this is curt i am v sick

:support support:

[asakiyume]

Thanks for the link for MIRA.

So many things are so bad--yes, they need to take a number.

I very much liked seeing the clip of Mariann Edgar Budde speaking truth to power, though, while Mr. Constitution Shredder had to just sit there and listen. It was like the man in front of the tank at Tiananmen Square, but she's still standing.

[dewline]

And of course, the Vulgarian reflexively demanded an apology for the sermon and begging.

Not going to happen, thankfully.

[princessofgeeks]

I'm with you; no to the constantly streaming, small-bite kinds of internet communication, yes to Dreamwidth, no to Youtube, yes to text.

[sovay]

I'm with you; no to the constantly streaming, small-bite kinds of internet communication, yes to Dreamwidth, no to Youtube, yes to text.

Thank you for telling me. That is an excellently summed manifesto.

[redbird]

MIRA do good work. In the Before Times, I volunteered for a few of their new-citizen voter registration efforts. They resumed those efforts a couple of years ago, but I no longer feel up to volunteering.

I agree completely about wanting printed text, not video or podcasts, with few exceptions, mostly for how-to videos where being able to see what the instructor is doing, or look at the results. For example, I may benefit from seeing what someone means by a "low simmer," but I know what a bowl of soup or an ice cream cone looks like, and I need things like oven temperatures in text.

That said, I do somewhat better than you with some bits of Discord and Bluesky, though it occurs to me that I haven't looked at the latter in a couple of months.

[ethelmay]

Video seems potentially useful in some instances, but in practice it always seems as if all the bits I want slow are too fast and vice versa.

[kenjari]

Meanwhile I continue to hate the expectation that it is universally easier to extract information from videos or podcasts rather than written articles.
I feel very much the same. Especially for social and political analysis.

[sovay]

I feel very much the same. Especially for social and political analysis.

Yes! When I attended lectures, I took notes as close to transcription as I could manage (I do not and have never written quickly by hand). It seems unreasonable to have to do that for information on the internet.

[gwynnega]

I still have many friends on FB, and I am enjoying Bluesky...but I just find DW so relaxing by comparison.

[sovay]

I still have many friends on FB, and I am enjoying Bluesky...but I just find DW so relaxing by comparison.

The pace here is also, generally speaking, much less 60-SECOND NEWS CYCLE OR BUST.

[thistleingrey]

*hugs*
I like DW and Bsky and former Twitter and Discord and Slack and Instagram and even (once in a while) TikTok for different purposes, but IMO this makes me a privileged consumer and has no bearing on what anyone else ought to suffer or put up with. One nice thing IMO about DW's it-takes-intentionality image upload interface is that people tend not to fling images like paint at a wall.

[sovay]

I like DW and Bsky and former Twitter and Discord and Slack and Instagram and even (once in a while) TikTok for different purposes, but IMO this makes me a privileged consumer and has no bearing on what anyone else ought to suffer or put up with.

I am glad you can use all of them! And I appreciate your support of my not.

One nice thing IMO about DW's it-takes-intentionality image upload interface is that people tend not to fling images like paint at a wall.

That probably is true. I never thought about it because I put up images on LJ and DW before FB, but if you're used to just clicking and dragging, it must feel obstructively fiddly.

*hugs*

[selkie]

I'm just going to go shallow and say I'm tired of seeing it because he's fugly and his posture was appalling while he did it, and if he wanted to wave fascism through the open door he should have straightened his damn spine and committed to the bit.

Thank you for being in receipt of all the stupid, inconsequential letters I send you after I report the morning's horrors to agencies that have abandoned us, even while we shout the fight is here. I am not leaving social media because it is our best early warning system, but I want to stop communicating by it.

One of the things I like very much about you is how you don't change to fit time. IJS.

[sovay]

I'm just going to go shallow and say I'm tired of seeing it because he's fugly and his posture was appalling while he did it, and if he wanted to wave fascism through the open door he should have straightened his damn spine and committed to the bit.

He probably thinks it's übermenschlich to slouch. You know, like it's gay to look like a vaguely presentable human being instead of a tragedy at Madame Tussaud's. I still don't want them to have gotten any more competent at it, especially since the original flavor was famously, trip-on-own-dicks-out-of-sheer-Judenhass inefficient, but it has not become any less insulting in the last nine years that we got the sloppy troll version of fascism.

Thank you for being in receipt of all the stupid, inconsequential letters I send you after I report the morning's horrors to agencies that have abandoned us, even while we shout the fight is here. I am not leaving social media because it is our best early warning system, but I want to stop communicating by it.

I happen to like letters and I like you writing them. Please keep it up and my idiosyncratic and undoubtedly disintegrated handwriting will attempt to return the favor.

One of the things I like very much about you is how you don't change to fit time. IJS.

*hugs*

[ashlyme]

I do have a Bluesky account, but haven't posted anything there as yet - I doubt I'll use it much. There are people I like a lot who've just left FB, and I miss 'em. At the same time, the site now is basically a hall of mirrors with a Fuhrer in it. For sanity's sake, I can't let these bastards colonise my every waking thought. This isn't putting my head in the sand; it's survival.

*Hugs*

[sovay]

For sanity's sake, I can't let these bastards colonise my every waking thought. This isn't putting my head in the sand; it's survival.

I am pretty invested in your surviving. Thriving, even.

*hugs*

[minoanmiss]

what else can I say but WORD

[sovay]

what else can I say but WORD

*HUGS*

[osprey_archer]

The degradation of Facebook is so frustrating to me, because it used to be so useful: a one-stop shop for all my RL friends! Everyone was there! And now there's maybe one or two posts from actual people at the top of the feed, and the rest of it is an arid wasteland of ads and posts from pages I've never followed, which of course just drives more people away... a real downward spiral.

I'm so in agreement about having to extract information from videos or podcasts, too. Often I'll just need one piece of information (so which type of battery does my car key need?) and I just don't want to watch ten minutes of video to find it.

[sovay]

The degradation of Facebook is so frustrating to me, because it used to be so useful: a one-stop shop for all my RL friends!

That is an excellent way of describing it at its height. LJ/DW was for people I met on the internet. FB was for people I met in person. The majority of my professional contacts were there. It was invaluable and also fun.

Everyone was there! And now there's maybe one or two posts from actual people at the top of the feed, and the rest of it is an arid wasteland of ads and posts from pages I've never followed, which of course just drives more people away... a real downward spiral.

The thing where it can just get stuck showing you nothing but screens of sponsored posts is abominable.

I'm so in agreement about having to extract information from videos or podcasts, too. Often I'll just need one piece of information (so which type of battery does my car key need?) and I just don't want to watch ten minutes of video to find it.

Yes! An article you can scan. A video, good luck.

[aurumcalendula]

Yeah. I have other social media but Dreamwidth is imho the the most enjoyable and least stressful of them (and the one I use most often).

Meanwhile I continue to hate the expectation that it is universally easier to extract information from videos or podcasts rather than written articles.

Same here!

[sovay]

Yeah. I have other social media but Dreamwidth is imho the the most enjoyable and least stressful of them (and the one I use most often).

Good to know. Out of curiosity, what are your others? Facebook has only ever been the other one for me, because it was how I kept track of the majority of friends who were either never on LJ or drifted away from it.

Same here!

Solidarity!

[dhampyresa]

The original concept of the Etruscan saeculum is a valuable one, because it measures in historical memory: it ends with the death of the last person who was alive at the time of a crucial event, such as the founding of a city.
That is a very neat concept.

I also do not want to see the human cybertruck ever again.

[sovay]

That is a very neat concept.

I really like it. Varro gives the Etruscan as seclum, which makes sense given how syncopated the language was. For reasons unknown to me, the only Unicode font that can render the Etruscan alphabet faces the wrong way (it was written right to left!), but assuming Varro was right, just hold 𐌑𐌄𐌂𐌋𐌖𐌌 up to a mirror.

I also do not want to see the human cybertruck ever again.

Amen. I do not want to have reasons for it.

[thawrecka]

Images of it really are constant on almost every other social media platform, argh. I don't need to see 100 people posting images of something to condemn it, because that just means constantly seeing the images, you know? I'm so exhausted.

[sovay]

I don't need to see 100 people posting images of something to condemn it, because that just means constantly seeing the images, you know? I'm so exhausted.

That!

*hugs*

[genarti]

I have never managed to make FB work for my brain at all, but nonetheless I sympathize; I can make Bluesky (as with Twitter once upon a time) work until I can't, I can make Discord work (though I pine for the group chats of my youth that happened at set hours and no one had a smartphone or notifications), but really what I want is LJ/DW and a much more constrained groupchat than the current model. And the feeling of being left behind as everyone one cares about migrates to or from or settles into an increasingly brain-hostile form of whatever the latest social media thing is awful and familiar. I'm sorry, friend. At least there's the core of DW stalwarts, I guess, but I wish I could summon back to it everyone we all want to hang out with, too.

(Also god, yes, I'm so incredibly sick of that picture. We know, we get it, thank you; if anyone runs into someone who lives under a rock they can pull it out again to a targeted purpose but otherwise let's all put it away again and work on the damnatio memoriae, thanks.)

[sovay]

I have never managed to make FB work for my brain at all, but nonetheless I sympathize; I can make Bluesky (as with Twitter once upon a time) work until I can't, I can make Discord work (though I pine for the group chats of my youth that happened at set hours and no one had a smartphone or notifications), but really what I want is LJ/DW and a much more constrained groupchat than the current model.

Understood. I never really got into group chats, although I can prehistorically remember using AOL Instant Messenger to have conversations one-on-one.

And the feeling of being left behind as everyone one cares about migrates to or from or settles into an increasingly brain-hostile form of whatever the latest social media thing is awful and familiar. I'm sorry, friend.

Thank you. Sympathies in return. FB was never a preferred model for me, but it was manageable when it had a chronological feed and was composed primarily of friends or colleagues who actually posted semantic content about their lives or their art. During the first year of the pandemic, it was one of the ways people held out their hands to one another. As its algorithms have pessimized to boost images with as little text as possible, already shared links, and emotional distress, it has really become like wading through sludge. I am glad you can use Bluesky and Discord at least a little.

At least there's the core of DW stalwarts, I guess, but I wish I could summon back to it everyone we all want to hang out with, too.

I never understood why the great die-off from LJ. Aside from the visual differences, I did not find the two platforms untranslatably different.

(Also god, yes, I'm so incredibly sick of that picture. We know, we get it, thank you; if anyone runs into someone who lives under a rock they can pull it out again to a targeted purpose but otherwise let's all put it away again and work on the damnatio memoriae, thanks.)

selkie shared with me: Ezra Rose's "מיר וועלן זיי איבערלעבן."

[yarrowkat]

i have spent years carefully curating an instagram feed and community that feeds me well a majority of the time (overall low on politics, as close to zero on "hot takes" as i can achieve, but not entirely absent of news; strong on nature photography, small farm/regenerative agriculture content, wildlife, cats, and the actual lives of many people i know), and even that got overrun badly this week.

it's not that the ragebait isn't justified, it's that it's exhausting and i think that is by design. i wish we would all use that energy to take concrete actions, of any sort, in the world instead of just yelling on the internet.

[sovay]

i have spent years carefully curating an instagram feed and community that feeds me well a majority of the time (overall low on politics, as close to zero on "hot takes" as i can achieve, but not entirely absent of news; strong on nature photography, small farm/regenerative agriculture content, wildlife, cats, and the actual lives of many people i know), and even that got overrun badly this week.

My sympathies. It is especially rough to get crashed in on in a sustaining space. I hope you have been able to reestablish some consolation.

it's not that the ragebait isn't justified, it's that it's exhausting and i think that is by design. i wish we would all use that energy to take concrete actions, of any sort, in the world instead of just yelling on the internet.

It seems to make a lot of people feel better to yell, but it doesn't make me feel better to be yelled at. (Yelling with is different and can actually accomplish something, but meme- and rage-sharing is not it.)

*hugs*

[regshoe]

I know what you mean, so much, about websites and social media. Much sympathy, and I am very grateful for Dreamwidth.

[sovay]

I know what you mean, so much, about websites and social media. Much sympathy, and I am very grateful for Dreamwidth.

Thank you. I am very glad you are in this space.

[moon_custafer]

I’m perversely fond of Tumblr which, as any Tumblr regular will tell you, is the *only* way to be fond of it. I have DW for longer-form, mostly text-based stuff.

I actually do need to get back to checking FB once a week because that’s how I keep in touch with my relatives and local friends (and also how I mainly follow local news)

[sovay]

I’m perversely fond of Tumblr which, as any Tumblr regular will tell you, is the *only* way to be fond of it. I have DW for longer-form, mostly text-based stuff.

I appreciate the existence of Tumblr because I enjoy reading other people's, but it is also not a platform congenial to my brain! It's closer to DW in that you can put a lot of text on it, but I just can't look at that much of it. I am glad it works perversely for you.

I actually do need to get back to checking FB once a week because that’s how I keep in touch with my relatives and local friends (and also how I mainly follow local news)

I just wish it had been less optimized for suck.