I forgot how fun the internet can be.
So I made this account just to join the back-up ONTD community on here but it's actually reminded me of what I used to love about the internet.
After making my account, I started uploading a couple of icons. I've been super into Jessica Simpson lately, thanks to the Ashlee & Jessicast podcast, which has been my work-from-home background noise lately. So I picked an icon I made years ago, based on her "I Belong to Me" music video, since the video's theme of scorned-woman-in-active-breakdown matched my Dreamwidth username (which was inspired by an ONTD user's joke playing off my LJ username).and honestly my mood lately, haha.
Since I was bored, decided to go ahead and play around with layouts and stuff. I found a theme I liked and decided to make a header to match, partially as a joke. Not only because the "I Belong to Me" video is a cult camp classic in some circles (ONTD included!) thanks to it's cheesiness, or because of the semi-intentional cheesiness of the header I was designing — but because I was doing it just for the nostalgia. Like, haha-remember-when-people-actually-did-stuff-like-this-online.
But as I lay in bed in the glow of my computer screen, with Jessica's SNL episode playing in the background on my bedroom TV (a recent Goodwill score), I realized — I am doing stuff like this online; and it's actually a pretty fun way to spend an evening.
I've been trying to disconnect from social media lately, but I still love the internet. I've been somewhat active in the indie web movement over the past year, which is all about maintaining things that used to make the internet great. Dreamwidth, with it's early-LJ vibe, is kind of doing that for me.
Not to get too meta, but that's kind of why I decided to write this. Like, when I was a teen, I remember spending hours online doing things that felt like true self-expression — making icons of celebrities I was obsessed with, gushing about those celebrities in communities, and sharing my feelings and opinions and worries in my own journal, even when it was the most mundane stuff, like my feelings about the internet.
Being on social media has been starting to feel like a chore, a job, an obligation. Even trying to participate in communities related to my hobbies and interests can feel like something I have to keep up with rather than enjoy. Even when I am sharing something mundane, there's this pressure for what I'm sharing to connect with someone in some way and to elicit an engagement-boosting reaction. And despite the fact that we use our real names on social media, I felt more and more like an imitation of myself.
But tonight has reminded me of what used to feel so magic about the internet. And it's making me wonder if I might want to actually use this journal to reconnect with that. Maybe it's just nostalgia and it'll wear off, but I feel like it could be fun to engage with that creative energy again by posting on here.
I guess we'll see!
After making my account, I started uploading a couple of icons. I've been super into Jessica Simpson lately, thanks to the Ashlee & Jessicast podcast, which has been my work-from-home background noise lately. So I picked an icon I made years ago, based on her "I Belong to Me" music video, since the video's theme of scorned-woman-in-active-breakdown matched my Dreamwidth username (which was inspired by an ONTD user's joke playing off my LJ username).and honestly my mood lately, haha.
Since I was bored, decided to go ahead and play around with layouts and stuff. I found a theme I liked and decided to make a header to match, partially as a joke. Not only because the "I Belong to Me" video is a cult camp classic in some circles (ONTD included!) thanks to it's cheesiness, or because of the semi-intentional cheesiness of the header I was designing — but because I was doing it just for the nostalgia. Like, haha-remember-when-people-actually-did-stuff-like-this-online.
But as I lay in bed in the glow of my computer screen, with Jessica's SNL episode playing in the background on my bedroom TV (a recent Goodwill score), I realized — I am doing stuff like this online; and it's actually a pretty fun way to spend an evening.
I've been trying to disconnect from social media lately, but I still love the internet. I've been somewhat active in the indie web movement over the past year, which is all about maintaining things that used to make the internet great. Dreamwidth, with it's early-LJ vibe, is kind of doing that for me.
Not to get too meta, but that's kind of why I decided to write this. Like, when I was a teen, I remember spending hours online doing things that felt like true self-expression — making icons of celebrities I was obsessed with, gushing about those celebrities in communities, and sharing my feelings and opinions and worries in my own journal, even when it was the most mundane stuff, like my feelings about the internet.
Being on social media has been starting to feel like a chore, a job, an obligation. Even trying to participate in communities related to my hobbies and interests can feel like something I have to keep up with rather than enjoy. Even when I am sharing something mundane, there's this pressure for what I'm sharing to connect with someone in some way and to elicit an engagement-boosting reaction. And despite the fact that we use our real names on social media, I felt more and more like an imitation of myself.
But tonight has reminded me of what used to feel so magic about the internet. And it's making me wonder if I might want to actually use this journal to reconnect with that. Maybe it's just nostalgia and it'll wear off, but I feel like it could be fun to engage with that creative energy again by posting on here.
I guess we'll see!