Feb 5, 2024: Notes on Form
In early September, I deleted Instagram, along with most other social media apps. I've still posted a photo or two since then, as a semi-active social media presence is generally a prerequisite of participation in mainstream society ("That's a red flag," I continue to respond whenever a friend notes that their recent date lacks a social media presence). However, I now access Instagram less than once a week, through the less-accessible (and less-addictive) web interface. Needless to say, my mental health has improved dramatically.
This website comes as part of a personal re-examination of how I want to interact with the Internet at large, and more specifically with the modern culture of constant self-sharing. In this first blog post, I hope to explore the role of sharing in contemporary online culture and to thereby lay out my goals for this site.
First, I want to acknowledge that personal sharing is not inherently bad. Indeed, it's the cornerstone of communication. There is a human need to share, and the Internet enables us to share facets of ourselves with people across the globe. Through making and maintaining this site I hope to emphasize and continue these positive aspects of Internet-based sharing: updating friends on my life, preserving my thoughts in words, and encouraging authentic conversation (though Neocities is perhaps not the best format for that... there's a comment function, and I imagine anyone reading this is in touch with me regularly. If you want to chat, you can reach me at robinfgreene [at] gmail.com!).
By shifting my Internet-sharing onto this blog, I hope to be more intentional about the way I share myself. The nature of a blog is that it's public, and I can't control who does or doesn't see it. This does mean I have to censor myself; I won't post anything that I wouldn't want an employer or my parents to see (in fact, my parents will probably be the primary readers of this blog. Hi, mom!). Additionally, the process of editing this page in HTML is far more time- and energy-intensive than writing a short status update or even sending a text to a group chat. The added bonus there is that I'm also learning a lot of HTML and CSS in the process of making this blog!
There's also the aspect of privacy and the "new web". I'm currently reading The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff, and the pervasive dopamine loop of social media-sharing feels increasingly sinister and aversive to me. Though I am relatively powerless to stop the growing influence of tech megacorporations, it feels like a small personal resistance to keep my thoughts and feelings catalogued on an open-source site free from the influence of Meta or Google. I also love the retro-Web 1.0 ideal – when everything else is becoming a short-form video, having a text-based "home" site is a breath of fresh air.
As for the direction I will take this site, we'll see! I hope to keep sharing personal thoughts, events, and musings, and I've added some other small sections for now. If you have any suggestions for the direction I should take this page, please feel free to let me know!