What I Crave Right Now
Maybe I've hit a little bit of a breaking point with certain things. I'm tired of algorithms. I'm tired of doom scrolling. I don't mind text messaging most of the time, but it doesn't replace human connection. I feel like in a lot of respects, COVID set us on a path that is less personal than it used to be.
I had a friend recently suggest coming over and cooking together. That plan got canceled for personal reasons. I'll be honest, I was bummed out by that. I used to have a friend who would do this kind of thing on a random Thursday night. They'd throw the invite out to anyone willing to show up. Sometimes it was just the two of us. Other times maybe there were six people there. It was never a large gathering by any means. The result was a good meal with actual eye contact. You got to know people more. There was connection.
So, yeah I was bummed. And to a string of circumstances, we haven't been able to revisit this concept. But, I'm sure we will. And I look forward to that.
I want to live my life in real life. I don't want to live it through an Instagram feed. Even the most genuine of us only show a fraction of ourselves online. Even on this page, where I intend to be as raw as possible, I'm never going to tell you everything. That's reserved for personal relationships. I crave that connection. Digital will never suffice.
But, life is online as well. It's the way of things these days. So, what's the best way to navigate that? Since January 20, the news cycle has been, for lack of a better word, insane. We all know why. That news cycle is in most of my social media feeds, but it's by far worse on those with algorithms. I'm saying the moment I open Instagram, it's there.
So, I need to step away from things a bit. For my sanity mostly. I can follow news through RSS feeds. That puts news under my control. Everything else comes back to that actual human contact. I think we need more meals, cups of coffee, cocktails, and conversations face to face. That's my ask.
I'm also over having my data shared. I'm tired of being pimped out by billionaires in exchange for a stream of ads and content to pull me in. I have a bit of an education in information technology, which includes security. I'm a privacy advocate. I'm fine if you chat with me on iMessage. At least I know it's end-to-end encrypted. What I'm not in favor of is chatting on something owned by Meta or any other social media company. It feels dirty to me every time.
So, I just redownloaded a messaging app called Signal. The foundation behind them is privacy-focused. They don't store metadata, it's open-sourced, and it's fully encrypted. You don't have to understand any of that, just understand it's private as fuck. I suggest signing up, setting up an account, and setting up a username so we don't have to look each other up by phone number. I'm “skoobz.78” on Signal.
So, what do I crave? More personal and private connections. More face time, but FaceTime is cool too. I want to hear emotion. I want to feel it from hearing it. I want more meals, movies, and board/card games. I want more real life and fewer timelines. I don't feel like that's a lot to ask. So, let's do it.