curating obscure social medias

Better social nutrition

Social media feels like the “empty calories” of human connection. I’m filling my cup with connections, but they lack nutrition. They’re social donuts.

In its place, I’ve spent most of my social time in intimate and often vulnerable 1-1 conversations, usually while on walks in the woods.

I’ve been more present with my wife,... See more

I spend a lot of time seeking out music from different countries and regions, and with each passing year the challenge of finding something distinctively local increases.

This is a tremendous loss for everybody—akin to losing a species or an entire ecosystem. I feel I’m fighting a losing battle, but I refuse to walk away from the challenge.

To be transformed by a book, readers must do more than absorb information: they must bathe in the book’s ideas, relate those ideas to experiences in their lives over weeks and months, try on the book’s mental models like a new hat. Unfortunately, readers must drive that process for themselves. Authors can’t easily guide this ongoing sense-making:... See more

I like sharing with a smaller group. I don't want to put deeply personal things on Instagram at all. I like it for ... well I used to like it for things but these days not so much.

The bike rides. The sleepovers. Your first cigarette. Gossiping about your latest crush. Being consoled when they break your heart. Discovering a new city. Re-discovering your own (at 2AM). The hungover brunches. The tears. The laughs. The love. So many of the moments that shaped us were shared with friends. And then those moments started happening... See more

The people I find most interesting on social media are using it as a sort of diary/note to self, not broadcasting to an audience.

That’s kind of how social media has always been in a sense — from choosing a MySpace Top 8 to uploading albums to Facebook to reposting on Tumblr. We’ve always found ways to sort through and present parts of ourselves online. And right now, I’m leaning into that. I don’t miss MySpace or Facebook, but I do miss Tumblr and the ways I’d mix outfit... See more