The Good, The Bad, and The #Ugly
Social media is a plague
Hi witchards!
How has your week been? Mine was very busy, but I think I came through. I have a lot on my plate at the moment between volunteer work and my job, as well as trying to set up a new project.
This week’s theme sort of picked itself because it came up so much in conversations. It’s the toxicity and burden that social media introduces in our lives. I know that this matter has been discussed oh-so-much, but at the same time I think that it hasn’t been discussed enough, given what a vast ground for conversation it is.
More specifically, since we are all getting personalised peep-holes into “reality” through our own feeds, based on our interests and preferences, it’s very possible that no two people get the exact same content even on the same app. And since, more and more, what we see online is what we believe to be what’s happening, no two people get the same picture of “reality”. That can’t be good right?
Well for one, the content I get fed is all about motivation, inspiration, and basically how to get your life together. Makes sense since I spend a lot of time thinking and researching about this in general. The thing is, nowadays most content (I will not say all) is trying to sell you something. And when I say sell, I mean influence, but in truth I really mean sell. Since most influencers make money from you buying what they suggest, and since influencers become more and more abundant on the internet, a big portion of the content we consume is trying to influence us into buying something. And this can be very subtle. It doesn’t even look like an ad anymore.
For me, it’s just a girl my age, on my feed, that seems to have it all together, cooks and eats the most aesthetic-looking food, goes to the gym with the most flattering outfit, sits to work/study on her impeccable minimalistic desk, with her expensive gear. All of that in her spacious and well-lit apartment.
It’s hard to even know where to start dissecting this form of “subtle” advertising. The funny thing is a lot of people do it even without financial gain, they don’t partner with the brands they are showing. They just do it for show. After all, owning this stuff, and seemingly living a “romanticised” life, is something they can flaunt, and in exchange they get a lot of views, which can bring monetisation later on. My feed almost always ends up depressing me. It’s a very weird cycle of seeing things, wanting things (and thinking they are what is standing between my current state and “getting it together”), and finally feeling bad about wanting more things (both because I can’t afford them, and because I don’t want to be a consumer).
Even after acquiring all the things that are “missing” from my life, compared to the content I see, I cannot become someone else. I am still me. Not to mention the fact that the content in question is curated. Most probably that girl on the video faces a lot of the same problems as me, if not even more. She just cuts and stitches together the best clips of her life, and then I get fed the result, being made to believe it’s achievable on a daily basis.
I could talk about this for days, but the major takeaway is that:
I have to be grateful about what I am and what I have.
Romanticise my life in my own way, not how the internet tells me to.
Be forgiving of myself on my “#ugly” days (not talking about appearance here)
If I am to make content (like I am doing now) make it meaningful and helpful. Don’t add to the toxic culture of flaunting aesthetics.
Speaking of meaningful content, I wanted to prompt you to check out my friend’s new blog!
writes about tabletop role-playing games (TTRPG), which is something she recently got me into as well, and it’s been hella fun! The content is super beginner-friendly, so pop by to show some love and you might even get yourself a new hobby!On my end, thinking about what contributions I want to make to online media culture (and maybe even more importantly, what contributions I don’t want to make), I have started setting up my channel on Twitch and will begin streaming this Monday at 12:00 CET. My aim is to have a space where people can come and be motivated to do their work, feeling less lonely. I will focus my content around helping defeat stress and achieve focus, rather than trying to induce stress and distract my community (which is basically the whole business model of social media). Wish me luck!
Today I Learned
The HELENA-IR project has been going really well. The backend is done and looking spiffy. I managed to include a lot of good coding practices for testing and writing scalable code. It’s been really hard to find some time during the week to create the frontend, so I am looking forward to getting it done during the weekend hopefully.
For a work task, I have started looking into satellite imagery and its applications. It’s so interesting. Did you know that other than the Red, Green, and Blue bands (RGB), which are the bands allow us to see the images, there are a bunch more “invisible” (to us) bands that give us all sorts of useful information. For example NIR (Near Infrared) light, which is not in the visible spectrum for us, can give us details about a plant’s health. That’s because healthy vegetation will reflect NIR strongly, while stressed vegetation (yes, that’s a scientific term and it’s so cute) will absorb some of it, therefore not reflect so much. The satellites are able to translate this information (that is “visible” for their sensors) and provide it to us in a format that we can also observe. How awesome is that?
Starting next week (ceremoniously with Monday’s stream) I will start studying some software engineering topics, but I can’t tell you for what (yet 😌 ).
What I am reading
I have finally grabbed the new morning read!
Starting tomorrow, I will be reading “Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World”, by Haruki Murakami. I have read a collection of short stories by Murakami, called “Men without Women”, and was really mesmerised by his writing. I think it reflects the great Japanese qualities of calmness paired with the reality. I don’t know if I am explaining it well, but Murakami is able to narrate very raw, very realistic, stories, while creating a calm and aesthetic mood throughout the read.
I think just a look at this book’s description can explain why I picked it up at the book store.
'A narrative particle accelerator that zooms between Wild Turkey Whiskey and Bob Dylan, unicorn skulls and voracious librarians, John Coltrane and Lord Jim. Science fiction, detective story and post-modern manifesto all rolled into one rip-roaring novel, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World is the tour de force that expanded Haruki Murakami's international following. Tracking one man's descent into the Kafkaesque underworld of contemporary Tokyo, Murakami unites East and West, tragedy and farce, compassion and detachment, slang and philosophy.'
I will let you know what I think as I go along.
As for “Empire of the Vampire”, by Jay Kristoff, my night-time read, it’s been really entertaining. I am about 1/5th into the book (it’s quite huge). A horse died, which made me really sad. In the beginning of the book I felt a bit weird about the writing style. The stuff is really edgy, but at the same time it feels like this is your 15-year-old brother’s sense of edgy. The main character is way too cool, and everything he says and does just exudes a level of suave and unflappable perfection that borders on the absurd, making him almost a caricature of a flawless protagonist. At the same time I feel like the book is pretty conscious about this choice, and so I will not be hasty to put it in the list of negatives. After all, I did get used to this style after a bit and I have had some great laughs reading this book, mostly due to this effect.
Casual Magic
Most of my days this week were pretty uneventful and full of work. The one bookstore date I attempted ended up being a disaster 😂. But since the whole point of Casual Magic is taking a moment to be grateful about a part of your life, I would say casual magic was, the moody weather we’ve had this whole week. I've missed listening to the rain while working or relaxing, and looking at the grey skies. The city smells like winter also, which is really fun. I don’t enjoy the cold that came with that, but another casual magic moment was when I bought a huuuge blanket, that makes me feel like I am lost in a sea of covers and warmth. I am currently writing this blog under said blanket, and Skoni is sleeping on my feet. So maybe I am more magical than I think!
That’s all for this week my magical peeps. I feel like I have wrote a lot. Hope you stick around for the next one, and maybe see you Monday at the stream! Until then, stay witchy <3
A wonderful read as always. I read your blogs and it's as if you are there in front of me. I have a little project of my own which i would love to discuss with you when you come over. I want to do this as much for me but also for all other introverts out there who may feel like me and struggle with socialising due to lack if time, funds or confidence. I'll tell you all about it soon. Love always xx 🥰
This is my favourite post by far here, so much to unpack~ First of all, I am proud of you, Bells. Really. And what is noteworthy: you went through your #ugly days like a heckin champ this time, i was glad to see it happen. I remember how it was a year ago, and the growth is tremendous. So glad your project is going well, too~. Second of all, I must know if it is Panic at the disco! reference in the post 🥺. I recently read that Urie officially ended PatD! and his singing career (to focus on his family) and i have been very sad about it.
I am haaaappy you are enjoying Jay Kristoff. He makes me laugh like no other author. He's so heckin good at the dark humour. His jokes hit with surgical precision - is the only way i can describe it. As for Haruki Murakami, i was a fan of his when i was a teen but as i grew up and read some more of his books I realized he is overrated. I cannot remember of the last book i read, but it was very sexist and had a lot of plot holes that some of his fans on good reads praise and call it "gaps for philosophical contemplation" but it leaves me wondering if he is really a genius or just fortunate to have a dedicated fanbase. Hard to say. I wonder what you think about it~
And finally as for casual magic, playing with you on a weekend guys is always my own magic <3 Even though I am not performing my best as a GM recently.