My last post mentioned that I’ve seriously curtailed my social network use. Since then, I’ve pulled back a bit more; I’m participating less in several group chats in Signal these recent weeks. These folks are my friends (many of them irl — at least before Covid), and they’ve been a much-needed lifeline during the pandemic. Maybe it’s just depression, but it feels so clear that many of my interactions with the internet are just bad for my brain.
I don’t need to argue with bigots and other cruel idiots online. I don’t want to watch my friends argue with them either.
The past couple days reminded me that computers can be fun and a reliable source of the “good brain chemicals”. A friend set up a small tilde server and I threw together a website for it (no Gemini server yet). I have a “professional” website that I hardly ever update, but I haven’t actually Built a Web Site from scratch in nearly 20 years. There’s so much you can do with CSS now! And so many new HTML tags! I love practicing new (or long-neglected) skills, and I found the process so satisfying.
You can check it out if you care to.
I’m planning to continue “journaling” (or whatever) here; I just wanted a place to consolidate some of the links and other resources I’ve gathered on my “off-grid pinboard” (a text file in my home directory).