Surfing the gosh darn web
Man, when's the last time I just poked around at old websites? It really helps me get back to center, in a way. In general, just seeing people's personal spaces online is invigorating in it's own way, given of course they have the freedom to be themselves and express what they'd like to. So recently, I've been playing with the "surprise me" feature on Wiby, which has been a real treat when it comes to satisfying not only how nosy I am but how nostalgic. I am putting what I consider most noteworthy in the link below on my Neocities. My goal for that entire page is to make it somewhere that serves as a boredom-killer for anyone who comes by. I think I'd like to make the "old interesting websites" part it's own section, maybe I'll make a section with current pixel doll enthusiasts (who sometimes have dollmakers on their websites) and maybe I'll try to find a spot for forums and web communities that are still kicking. I really just need to get things organized way more.
Anyway, jumping around site to site has been a blast, but I do have a certain soft spot for the websites dedicated to entire families posting their personal news, vacation photos, achievements and the like. Unfortunately I will not be linking them because it just doesn't feel right to do. Maybe you would be okay with it and I'm not judging you for that, but I just don't think these pages were made to have total strangers visit in this current age. Maybe I'm wrong.
Anyway, these personal websites really do have something special to them, there's something really great about seeing the personal choices in format, visuals, humor, and achievements listed completely up to the family themselves because it's what they care about. It's like a micro culture, this small group of people with their own way of thinking and taste. I can confidently say Facebook is behind killing this one. Well, at the very least, no one makes stuff like this anymore because of facebook. It's a bummer, because I this the idea of families sending their own physical or digital newsletters each season or holiday was such a great way to keep people in touch without it becoming overwhelming and quite frankly, bloated with the uninteresting. Now every dumb thought, small outing, and whatnot is put on the same level of in your face as the family vacations, graduations, birthdays, and the like. Mixing your personal journal or blog with a greatest hits newsletter just feels like such a waste of people's attention span. I can't help but wonder, if perhaps our dwindling attention spans (or at least the theory it is dwindling) could be simply because things are formatted to show you way too many things at once. How can you focus in such a chaotic space? But alas. I'm probably not even the first person to say this.
Sometimes I think about how fun it would be to make a little newsletter of my own to give to my husband's and I's families; just giving a more customized snapshot of our lives for the past few years, and getting a chance to sit down and consciously track our journey together to find the most interesting bits along with our best photos. Don't get me wrong, I love a good ramble on a blog (lol, obviously), and I love a good overshare session online in the form of a microblog or what have you. But it's not nearly as mentally present. Really, could you imagine? A zine about you, your partner, maybe your kids and pets, with whatever you wanted to put in there. And over the years, you would have a collection of physical little books that you or perhaps your kid could look at and really immerse themselves in your memories. That's a real legacy right there, and you could share that with the people in your life that you love. I think even single people could do something like this for themselves to later revisit and treasure. I know I have never felt regret over recording and preserving a moment in time, even a moment I felt at my lowest has become a reminder of my own strength. I'm a chronic daydreamer, so my mind goes wild with the possibilities of such a concept. You could review movies you saw, you could talk about the video games you play all night, you could share personal recipes and your favorite board games you play together. Maybe you have a strange work schedule, and you talk about what it's like to live such a life. You could even include stories you've written or include feedback given on the last issue you gave out. Maybe you're doing something like a "no-buy" or "dopamine detox" challenge, and you're talking about your experience doing that and perhaps hoping to get the rest of your friends and family on board. Maybe you can use this as a way to springboard an email/writing/in person/voice chat based book club, maybe this is where you print and send qr codes to your webpages and introduce your coding skills. There's just so much I can't help but think about....the ADHD is on full blast, for sure. I really could go on. I kinda struggle to shut myself up about it lol.
Another fun part of the older web is seeing people create interesting and novel challenges for themselves. We were beautifully bored! You probably have already heard the spiel about how boredom brings creativity to the surface. When I was younger, I think about in high school, there was something called....photojojo? I think? Where I was introduced to the idea of someone taking a photo each day as a way to document their life. I know that sounds super boring now!! But listen, that was just not something people did back then. People took photos for events, locations, and maybe for a more artful angle. The concept of digital cameras was becoming more accessible and people could afford to take a picture every day to see themselves grow and change in real time. Back then, the idea seemed so cool to me because there was this quirky hipster-ness about it all, 365 pictures of you that could be made into a fun flipbook to look back onto and treasure for years. Yeah, there's something similar to the newsletter thing here. I think this sort of exploration of your self and this sort of "chewing" on your current identity can be a healthy and fun thing when done right. I think it's human to want to create a legacy that holds what you feel makes you...you. To really settle in to who your currently are, while allowing yourself to fully accept the person you've been in the past can be such a beautiful way to find inner peace. To look back on what you loved and what inspired you can help you remember what matters to you and drives you. To look at your past mistakes and accept the fact that you made them. You are not the person you were before, you are that and then some, you are your past with a new angle and arrangement. I suppose that seems discouraging to some people but I think it's a little more helpful and realistic than pretending the past doesn't exist. You can always rework yourself, but it's always going to be you; this ever changing human who is only constant in their flux. But most people know that, right?
Going back to earth, and that whole people online doing challenges thing, I really would love to see more people on here or Neocities doing personal challenges, like the previously mentioned no-buy challenge, dopamine detox challenges, people trying more digital minimalism, or even something totally new I've never heard of before. I can't help it, I just love reading stuff like this because it's wonderful people coming out of their shell to push themselves further. It's inspiring and gives me hope. I even love it when it's a challenge customized by someone. I know that means I should be the change I want to see and try one out myself. I sorta just already adopt these things in my life, though, and usually I'm more successful when I'm not thinking too hard about it. Recently I've cut back on smoking cigarettes so much that I'm smoking 1 a week, max, if that. I've cut out drinking to about 3 total drinks a year so far. I've cut off Tumblr, this time for good I think, as it's been about 2 months and I've never been gone this long (since maybe 2016-2017, but I can't really remember how long I was gone back then). I've been gone from Twitter about 2 years now, same with TikTok and Instagram, you could count SnapChat too but it's because I was banned lol. Facebook has been gone for at least 4 years now, so wow, what does that leave me? Well, I'm sure there are other things out there I should consider cutting myself off from. But My point is that I've kinda made cutting stuff out of my life into a thing I just....do unceremoniously, but seeing people do similar in a challenge format is more interesting than my way of doing it. I love seeing people feel the joy that I do, when they realize they just cut something out that was stopping them from being more themselves and at peace. Call this my nun era lol.
What I do is not minimalism, however, or at least not the kind I'm used to seeing. I suppose it's more of a conscious declutter, where I take something out to leave more room for what actually seems to serve me. However if you've seen anything that has been maintained and decorated by my hand, the last thing you would call me is a minimalist. I love tacking on more and more things that I find fun or interesting, and I suppose I'm just pushing stuff aside to make room for those things. So maybe I don't scroll through Tumblr anymore, but that just leaves me more time to do all the other stuff that's screaming in my hyperactive and reckless brain for attention.
Anyway, I'm gonna sign off here and leave the links I was talking about. I hope you have some fun online looking at these too!
Interesting links on my website
EDIT: Okay, so I somehow lost all my progress and all the websites I had to be listed on that blog are totally gone....this is really frustrating, that was a lot of time and effort I just lost. It wasn't like I was doing rocket science, but still it took time out of my day. I'll try to figure something else out over the next couple days. Sorry about that.