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Sunday was quiet, but went by quickly. We drove up to Ikea to buy a toy kitchen for the shelter (I told you it was easy), and had a nice authentic Swedish lunch. Then it was a lot of chores getting the yard ready for the winter, roasting a chicken, and Sunday Night Football, which I believe has been rebranded to be Football Night in America (FNIA). I do not care for this.

Utah had the driest spring in summer in 150 years, so forgive me if I get a little excited about snow. Because I had Monday off I decided to walk up and see some. The hike was incredibly beautiful and I got to eat my little lunch on an outcropping overseeing a valley of changing trees. 

While hiking I had to do a lot of thinking about some of the things I keep revisiting in this space, which is how to continue to feel good while participating in a series of social media platforms that seem hell-bent on self-destruction both within their own businesses and the national environment. The newest threat is AI, but we’ve also seen Substack monetize Nazis and be very open about it, we’ve seen Twitter become a cesspool of racism and hate, and we’ve seen the Meta family of platforms do nothing in response to marginalized creators being attacked and threatened.

I asked on Instagram what people think we should do to maintain our communities when we can no longer trust these platforms that brought us together. I’ve watched as migrations from one to another inevitably leads to the loss of people I really cared about and enjoyed seeing their updates. I ditched Facebook long ago, and only return from time to time for fundraiser type stuff. People no longer share life events there; it’s all reposting of memes, infographics, and news articles. When I mourn Facebook, it’s not something I can ever return to because it’s unrecognizable.

I worry that’s what will happen with the current platforms I enjoy.

The responses I got were helpful and I’m going to incorporate some of them. I’m creating a mailing list where I will send out a weekly round up of everything I did on the half-dozen or so platforms I use, including the full text you are reading here. You won’t need to navigate to any website to see any of it, except for the video content which is expensive to host so you’ll still have to click on Instagram or Tik Tok for those I guess.

I’m also going to create a zine. I’ll make an actual physical paper document and scan it and upload it. Someday I hope to send out a copy to human mailboxes, but that will depend on the buy-in from folks like you. Not a financial buy-in, but just enthusiasm and engagement with the digital version. If you want to monetarily support the zine (especially towards a future of a photocopied and mailed version), consider subscribing to Patreon at any of the paid tiers.

A lot of the responses I got had to do with building real world connections, which luckily I have been doing quite a bit in that sphere. I don’t have a lot of friends over for dinner parties yet, but I do spend a lot of time doing community building through volunteering. I don’t live most of my social life through the internet, thankfully, I just think it would be such a shame to lose the thousands of connections I have made online because a handful of billionaires with the worst haircuts you’ve ever seen can’t just let us pal around without ruining it every single day.

I would like to turn some of these connections into real life experiences, though. I’ve met a small handful of online acquaintances, and even had lunch with some of them, and it’s been fun. I’d like to figure out how to do more of that. I’d also be open to live online events like zoom calls or whatever, though I don’t think I have the juice to be entertaining enough on my own. If you’re a creator with an audience and want to put on a little live chat, I’m open to that.

I said on Instagram that based on the speed at which AI is ruining social media, I don’t know if I’ll last a year. I can’t make that prediction confidently, and I don’t want to worry people. I’ll stick around as long as you’ll have me, and if it becomes untenable I will give everyone a lot of opportunities to still see whatever creative endeavors I plug away at going forward before disappearing.

Anyway, I know I’m not the only person in this boat and unfortunately the boat has sprung many leaks. If we all go down, may I say that it is an honor sinking into the depths with all of you.

For the Log Cabin Sunday media wrap up: 

Listened to Metric, Art of Doubt

Read Becky Chambers’ novella To Be Taught, If Fortunate

This week’s videos:

I got mildly annoyed by some gatekeepy language surrounding the Hallmark movie Love and Birding, which is based on the novel Birding With Benefits. I have not read the book, though I have a copy the author was kind enough to send and personalize for me, and I haven’t watched the movie. I still had some thoughts:

You can watch it here.

Folks liked this thread I posted on Meta’s crappy twitter knockoff:

“Next time you get scared of Portland imagine Ramona Geraldine Quimby laughing at you while she walks down Klickitat street to the library, roller skates and bananas in her backpack”

This week I’ve been playing Ghost of Yotei, which I am loving, we rewatched Over the Garden Wall, and we finally watched Heretic. I thought it was really well done and a surprisingly nuanced portrayal of religious faith given the horror setting. I picked up some spooky books at the library that I’m excited to jump into, including My Heart is a Chainsaw, by Stephen Graham Jones.

I am taking any and all submissions. Poems, art, essays. The only request is that the fit into the general vibe of what I do online, these include: ecology, domestic violence and sexual assault advocacy, books, recipes

Also, if you make stuff that you sell online, I would love to feature your products in anticipation of stocking season.

Feedback, chats, questions? Email [email protected]