Free to be Frivolous
Prelude: Funnily enough, I'm sharing this post during Blaugust, a month long event in support of people being more talkative and building community on their personal blogs. I'm not officially participating in this event, but I did want to acknowledge it.
~~~
I love being talkative on my personal website. The floodgates really opened when I started adding artist's notes to the pieces in my Earthshine gallery. Even with zero engagement on those pages (because I built them to be that way) I do get some satisfaction out of sharing my thoughts. It's for my own enrichment.
I think one of the myriad of issues with being online in the current age of the internet is this pressure to have a good reason to say anything anywhere. This isn't unique to social media, where everyone is crammed into the online equivalent of an apartment building with wafer-thin walls. I also see it happen on personal websites where the people running them have to psych themselves up to write whatever they want in their own space. We feel the pressure to perform, make a splash, say something beautiful and true, but what if I'm just here to have a good time?
My one human brain cannot grok the ever expanding knowledge of humanity in its entirety, and my desire to hang out is greater than anything else contained in my body. I think it's helpful to fight back against the worry that what we're putting out here isn't good enough or a benefit to the wider world. We're just talking. Talking about anything - fun things, silly things, frivolous things - is still good for thinking, even if no deep thought comes out of it.
☎ ☎ ☎
My personal website is my playground, and if I'm not being a silly little guy in it then what's the point? This means giving myself full permission to talk at length about things that honestly most people would find annoying or boring. I'm not gonna let some abstract feeling of shame stop me from making my 60th post about my OCs, or writing another long update in my stray thoughts page, or making yet another blog post about how much I love my website. I'm probably performing for an audience, but I won't know if its there until someone leaves a comment on a blog post, and it's only my blog and my digital garden posts that have comment sections.
I think having a space to be comfortably frivolous makes us peaceful. It's like coming home and taking off a stiff outfit after a formal outing or a long shift. This space doesn't have to be a personal website, but considering the way that the internet is becoming increasingly formalized on the larger platforms, I think it's important to keep carving out play places for ourselves here.
Even if someone doesn't like the way I'm using my space, that's not really an issue. Unlike most other online spaces out there, a personal website is possibly the easiest thing to avoid. I think that's a really important feature. It's nice being out of the way only to be found by people who really want to explore this place, which means I can keep posting like no one is watching.
Prelude: Funnily enough, I'm sharing this post during Blaugust, a month long event in support of people being more talkative and building community on their personal blogs. I'm not officially participating in this event, but I did want to acknowledge it.
~~~
I love being talkative on my personal website. The floodgates really opened when I started adding artist's notes to the pieces in my Earthshine gallery. Even with zero engagement on those pages (because I built them to be that way) I do get some satisfaction out of sharing my thoughts. It's for my own enrichment.
I think one of the myriad of issues with being online in the current age of the internet is this pressure to have a good reason to say anything anywhere. This isn't unique to social media, where everyone is crammed into the online equivalent of an apartment building with wafer-thin walls. I also see it happen on personal websites where the people running them have to psych themselves up to write whatever they want in their own space. We feel the pressure to perform, make a splash, say something beautiful and true, but what if I'm just here to have a good time?
My one human brain cannot grok the ever expanding knowledge of humanity in its entirety, and my desire to hang out is greater than anything else contained in my body. I think it's helpful to fight back against the worry that what we're putting out here isn't good enough or a benefit to the wider world. We're just talking. Talking about anything - fun things, silly things, frivolous things - is still good for thinking, even if no deep thought comes out of it.
☎ ☎ ☎
My personal website is my playground, and if I'm not being a silly little guy in it then what's the point? This means giving myself full permission to talk at length about things that honestly most people would find annoying or boring. I'm not gonna let some abstract feeling of shame stop me from making my 60th post about my OCs, or writing another long update in my stray thoughts page, or making yet another blog post about how much I love my website. I'm probably performing for an audience, but I won't know if its there until someone leaves a comment on a blog post, and it's only my blog and my digital garden posts that have comment sections.
I think having a space to be comfortably frivolous makes us peaceful. It's like coming home and taking off a stiff outfit after a formal outing or a long shift. This space doesn't have to be a personal website, but considering the way that the internet is becoming increasingly formalized on the larger platforms, I think it's important to keep carving out play places for ourselves here.
Even if someone doesn't like the way I'm using my space, that's not really an issue. Unlike most other online spaces out there, a personal website is possibly the easiest thing to avoid. I think that's a really important feature. It's nice being out of the way only to be found by people who really want to explore this place, which means I can keep posting like no one is watching.