Why
I am fairly absent on social media. Although I used platforms like Facebook and Snapchat for a time, I eventually lost interest and opted to avoid them with a couple of exceptions (looking at you LinkedIn, begrudgingly). It didn’t necessarily start that way, but I steadily became convinced that social media would personally be more harmful than beneficial. Even as I recognise the value of these platforms and at times feel FOMO (my partner says I use Instagram indirectly through her), the growing body of research discussing the harmful mental effects of social media has only reinforced my aversion.
Having said that, I enjoy writing and public discourse. Exiting social media has meant that I don’t really have a place to publicly share my thoughts or opine on something, which has increasingly felt like a gap. I realize that sounds quite arrogant and, frankly, there probably is a level of that.
However, my motivation with this blog isn’t to become a supposed pundit or public intellectual commenting on the decline of democracy (though maybe I will write on that). On the contrary, I hope to keep this blog casual, free flowing, and personal. Yes, I will muse on the failings of the development sector, but also I want to celebrate queer fashion or discuss the importance of kindness. Sometimes a post will be proactively planned, other times it will be a reaction.
One major reason for why I want to keep this casual is to escape my perfectionist writing tendency. You know how some people have the “word vomit” writing style where they just splatter their thoughts on a page and then revise? I often envy those people because my writing style is self-punishing and fastidious. When I write, I question every word or sentence along the way and constantly revise until I reach a first complete draft (as I’ve been doing throughout this post). I tell myself this perfectionism is beneficial to the final output, but it often feels paralyzing. I want to remove these binds and learn to write more freely.
Overall, this blog has two overarching goals:
Gather my thoughts and make sense of the world. I suck at reflecting and often feel like I’m just running through life without consciously thinking about what I am experiencing or how I feel about it. I jump from one book or film to the next with little introspection, for example. I hope the process of writing these posts forces me to slow my mind down a little.
Share ideas and see how they resonate with others. For now, I want to keep the blog within a smaller circle of friends and peers… maybe family (some of them already think I’m a radical communist, so whatever else I write can’t be that shocking). Even as much of what I write will be on-brand to those who know me, I welcome your reactions, either on the blog itself or the substance of a post.