Imperfect

we are cartographers

Inspired by Khem's email to me which riffed on my post, online and offline.

Heya, Imperfect

Hi Khem,

Your post was super interesting to me. Because it's sort of a concept I haven't been able to dutifully explore and map out very well.

Thanks for your reply! Well, you're in luck, because your reply inspired my very own below. Hope that it's a map that you and other readers enjoy exploring.

There's been a pull with people looking to limit their online use, my friends talk about it constantly. It's usual stuff, negativity online, doom-scrolling, and all that jazz affecting their mental health.

For friends constantly talking about limiting undesired online interactions, here's a question. Who's talking about positivity online, bloomscrolling, and all that jazz amplifying their self-confidence? I think those attempting to minimize their exposure to tech could learn much from those maximizing the same. While I can only imagine the reverse can be true too, being inundated by takes of how absolutely poisonous being online is makes the realm feel more magnetic to me than anything. So many people out there make their virtual presence work for them and their wants. I can be more like them. Yet, there's some balance to be had here between shying away from the bad stuff and forging ahead with the good stuff.

Do doomscrolling, being terminally online, and other arguable pejoratives receive too much of a bad rap? Those behaviors don't seem all that bad in the grand scheme of things. Frankly, there's plenty of worse vices and addictions to be had. If you don't already endure some, I'm sure you can think up some that people you know endure. If rummaging online feeds aimlessly or for negative news is your most frequent and pressing concern, you might just live a rather wonderful life. Whether you're happy about said life is a different thing, but I'd expect the lack of struggle to invite gratitude, if not encouragement to make meaning out of blessed conditions. Moreover, if you're unsatisfied with said life, would you mind trading lives with me?

I can see how cleaning your virtual home can clear your mind similar to how cleaning your physical home works. I take it that you feel better after having made your bed, vacuumed up the place, and returned belongings to their rightful place. If you don't end up getting that far, maybe this Tumblr post from coffeeseed which headlines Seraphina's Pawn Stance is Objectively Correct* - Dice Exploder gets through to you:

God, I can't tell you how much the "there's not enough enrichment in my enclosure" joke has helped my mental health. Because, for some reason I can't comprehened, pretending that I'm a zoo keeper caring for an animal (which is also me) just makes everything easier to comprehend. Like "Your head gets screwey when you're apartment is messy" just doesn't carry as much resonance as "The tiger becomes agitated when its enclosure is cluttered" because then I'll be like, no shit? The tiger? I've gotta keep things nice and clean for the tiger.

Yes, and there can be a higher purpose for that cleaning. For example, countering the death of partying by hosting people in your own home for whatever fun suits you all. Dinner parties, potlucks, game nights, book clubs, movie nights, watching sports, and what have you. Think about all the online counterparts there are for such activities, bringing awesome people you would have never met offline closer to you. Yes, I can see how a clean virtual environment helps you focus more on enjoying quality time with treasured people. But think about the initial connection within the initial space that got you to meet them and gravitate closer to their presence, if not turning the connection into a hybrid one. I feel like tactfully catalyzing friendships is a key ingredient in cleaning up many kinds of messes before you.

Along those lines is manifesting what you want to see more of before whatever supposedly unwanted online acts you currently commit to. If you tackle what feels urgent, important, or critical for your well-being before whatever you want to limit, can what you want to limit even turn out well? If you're spending hours scrolling, gaming, or otherwise "wasting your time" in your current headspace after having fulfilled deep-seated desires, how much more enriching and less guilt-inducing could those hours feel?

Tried showing my friends my side of cyberspace (blogs, email, RSS), they just looked at me like I'm insane because it feels so minimal.

You can enjoy more than one side of cyberspace if you wish to. I figure that the more sides you are familiar with, the wider your pool of friend candidates becomes. Maybe you can introduce people into sides of cyberspace that they wouldn't have enjoyed if not for your gesture. Even if they aren't receptive, it's new stimuli for them at the very least. You never know how people may change either, so plant seeds where you can in hopes that they sprout and grow at some point. Cover their gaps and they may cover yours. Supplement or complement them and vice versa. Find overlaps that weren't apparent beforehand. Who knows? Maybe they eventually suggest spaces new to you that end up making you feel welcomed. Get all of that if not more by establishing profitable trade routes within and beyond your side of cyberspace.

Allow me to characterize myself as a bit of a social media gremlin for the rest of this section.

Some questions I would have about blogs:

Some questions I would have about email and contact methods in general:

Some questions I would have about RSS:

You have a blog? Okay boomer, enjoy retirement. Who reads blogs anymore? What kind of cushy tech job, hippie art gig, or other role do you have that got you into this hobby in the first place? If we're not counting those microblogging social media platforms like Twitter and the like, it's an even less popular hobby than expected.

What do people commonly use email addresses for nowadays? White collar work, sure. What else? Account registration, account notifications, verification codes, and other mundane external purposes excluding personal communications come to mind. Want to talk to someone? There's so much competition that email has to contend with, including but not limited to: phone calls, text messages, social media posts or direct messages, and chat app messages.

Maybe my opinion is an unpopular one, but humanity even having the ability to go online is magical. I think it's a net benefit, even despite the horrible stuff on there sometimes.

Going online is a massive abstraction. When was the last time you thought about the emergent coordination required for the construction and maintenance of the Internet? How data actually gets transmitted from its origin to its destination? How about all those undersea cables laid out all across the ocean floor? Even if you explored any of these talking points recently, how far down have you gone into the rabbit hole?

With many people not having comprehensive knowledge of how going online really works (myself likely included), I would wager that most people would be wise to consider going online as magical. One could even consider living in this current day and age as magical. Sure, there's plenty of horrible stuff that happens or has continued to happen in the real world, but look at just how many technological developments and quality of life advancements we straight up take for granted.

People think about how clicking a button on a webpage rearranges on-screen visual components, all without even giving so much of a thought as to user experience, networking, or the underlying technologies used to build and maintain the website. It's not just software, though. Look at it from a hardware perspective. How much do you really think about your phone as an assembled electronic object versus a magical portal that visits websites, launches apps, and starts games? People's excitement over foreground antics blinds them from all the background mechanisms that allow the show to go on.

Being able to meet people in countries I'll probably never get to visit to exchange ideas, music and information with them gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling. I'm wholly thankful I'm alive in a period of time that allows me to do this.

I enjoy how clear the global circulation of ideas you encounter and remix can be online. While you may not be physically present, so many people so far away from where you stand can witness your creative expression in such granular detail. Want to contact someone from a particular city, region, or country that isn't your own? The Internet exists to reach practically anyone through if you put your heart into it, all without the potentially long physical delay of letters and similar media.

How much of the world's countries, cultures, and customs have you tapped into as a result of browsing the Internet, surfing the web, and scrolling through feeds? Yet, there's so much more to discover that you just won't have the time for given your mortality. There's a beauty in that overwhelming abundance of novelties, though. Always something new around the corner to be fascinated by. Feels like that sense becomes more frequent as time goes by.

Random ramblings I know, thank you for the wonderful post! :)

Khem

Thank you again for the reply! Hope you enjoyed these random ramblings of my own.

Best,
Imperfect