Hello again, from the Write.as office in New York. I haven't posted in a while, partly because I've been trying to fit my thoughts into a box of what I think people expect out of my writing here. To release myself from that, I figured I'd share a jumble of what's been on my mind lately.

A fading love for the internet.

It's probably mostly a reflection of my current mindset and the state of the world that has me looking at the internet as a source of misery. I use it often to pass the time; I scroll social feeds across a few networks that largely show me either today's news, often bad, or the latest thing they're doing with AI, usually not great.

So I pine for the old days of the internet, when the digital world was smaller and we all just shared what was going on in our little lives, and we were content. We could simply exist in this new space, and what we did was often of little consequence, whether positive or negative.

Now we create “content” for the masses, and consume others' commodified lives; we self-censor and are careful not to post. The light, fun space the internet once was is now heavy and consequential. It's easy to see how the migration to more private digital spaces is driven by the public internet we've built, and what people have done with it since.

But there's still real-life.

So I'm taking solace in the real-life connections I have. In the city, it's so easy to get light touches of humanity no matter where I go. There's the local deli guy that knows me and the small pleasantries we exchange. There's the busy neighborhood outside my co-working space, where I regularly run into people I know.

Most recently, I stepped out for a break and heard a saxophone player down the street. When I got closer, I turned the corner and was pleasantly surprised to see a friend I hadn't seen in a long time — it turned out the sax player was his friend! They were having a day, making music and playing on the street corner. We both listened and chatted for a while as the tourists strolled past, some dancing, others pulling out their phones to record or stopping to listen for a while, too. It was a wonderful, serendipitous moment.

I also run into a lot of people from my photography meetup, NYC Photo Stroll, here. It's a popular neighborhood for street photography. So we stop and chitchat, and then part ways feeling good for the little bit of human interaction.

Speaking of the Photo Stroll, I've been attending our walks again and helping keep everything moving smoothly. On Sunday, we went out to Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge for a hike, and 35 people showed up. We walked for miles. A friendly park ranger told us about the migrating birds. Two weeks earlier, about 50 of us walked around the West Village — most passersby thought we were looking for celebrities (we weren't).

At each of these walks, I try to chat with as many people as I can, welcoming newcomers and catching up with regulars. I check in on the walk leader, and add people to our private group chat. My role is ultimately minimal: coordinating with our other organizers and gently supporting the event on the day of, if needed.

But at the end of these walks, I often hear about how much people enjoy the group and appreciate the easy-going vibes. It always feels good to hear this, and to see that the events go off without a hitch. People come away with new friends, and over the last three years, a lovely community has formed. A few people told me this weekend that they regularly run into other members of the group out in the wild, just like I do. My role in this little non-commercial, just-for-fun meetup is small, but it's so nice to have a small hand in helping people come together.

I hope to bridge the two soon.

As I mentioned in my plans for the year, I'm working toward running some in-person writing events. We seem to have found a good formula for running these community-oriented meetups (I should write about it in the future), and I'd like to see what we can do when I help bring writers together too.

That's it for now! I hope to be back with more updates soon.

#personal #life #journal