Doughnuts Thoughts
Sunday Morning, the day before Halloween.
A rainy day. My daughter came down with a sickness, some sort of upper respiratory cold that has her croaking like a toad and feeling miserable. So today is going to be spent watching movies on the couch. She already got through The Chamber of Secrets and Encanto.
I went on a drive for coffee and doughnuts which got me out of the house for a bit and allowed me to enjoy the autumn morning in my new home. Now I’m sitting at the dining room table, watching my kid play video games on her tablet while my wife is going around the house hanging pictures and artwork that we recently unboxed. Upstairs all of my clothes are piled on the bedroom floor waiting for me to organize my closet. When that task is done I have to move on to the guest bedroom which will also serve as my writing office. The house is coming along and I predict we will be fully settled by the end of November.
I’ve been thinking about community and the internet a lot lately. Can we get value out of these digital spaces, can we somehow improve the way we interact with each other and manage to foster at least a simulacrum of community? I know that anything we create here will pale in comparison to reality. Nothing will come close to the intrapersonal intellectual stimulation you get from sitting with a friend over a meal or a cup of coffee, but we can try to make this digital labyrinth a bit more bearable.
For all of its ills, the internet does have a few positives. It has allowed me to connect to hundreds of like-minded people to discuss literature, fiction, philosophy, religion, and a myriad of other topics. Thanks to my online friends I’ve discovered new novels, and read new perspectives. It also allows us to bypass the traditional gatekeepers and put our work directly in the hands of those it was always intended for.
But, one thing I’ve noticed is that due to its techno-demonic schizoid architecture the internet tends to reward boorish behavior. Enticing people to dopamine post insults and wormy feminine snark. Interesting and intellectual conversation no longer exists on any mainstream online platform. Any interesting but contentious online post is immediately overwhelmed by imbeciles and bots.
Even when everyone is nominally on the same side some of us cannot shake free of the Bugman tendency to attack and insult in feminine ways over minor disagreements, often as stupid as the right way to play a tabletop game.
The whole thing is pathetic.
I don’t engage in internet debate. I don’t care what you think and honestly, I’m not interested. Second, I’m no longer going to engage with or give time to anyone that takes part in insulting, degrading, and boorish behavior. That sort of nonsense will get immediately blocked in the same way I’ve blocked any mention of Star Wars, Rings, and every other outrage of the moment that has plagued online spaces.
I don’t give a damn about any of it.
I understand that having an online presence is critical for an independent writer, but I’m going to slowly shift my presence away from ridiculous soul-dirtying platforms like Twitter and focus on more long-form communication found here. Substack is going to be my permanent online home and I predict that the others will just be places where I can share links bringing people back here.
In closing, I hope you are all having a wonderful Sunday and a fantastic Halloween with your friends and families.
Online communities and friendships are great and vital, but phase II has to be taking them offline. Easier said than done, given geographical dispersion, but it is necessary and would lead to better discussions. Not every discussion has to be aired in public.
BIG AGREE. Social media, among many other things, has killed flame wars. Those now are just exhausting, and worse than all, cyclical. We can do better with our time.