#like i wonder if someone ever thought about an algorithm like that

[purpleuniart]

imagine if social media just.... showed you the posts from the ppl you follow

[moralesmilesanhour]

Ooo hi, can you write something with gamer/streamer Miles G? Maybe he and the reader just chill and play games talking about life or whatever.

streamer miles!

Ok this went in a sliiightly different direction but the general premise is the same i hope that's ok lmao (also lowkey trying a new writing style/approach)

A/N: comment which animal crossing villager you think miles would like if u want 🫶🏾

You only really see a fraction of a person online. 

The messy, disagreeable thoughts that don’t fit into a neat little post, every time you’ve ever tripped over something and ate shit, all of your worst outfits - none of it exists if you don’t make it known. If you decide you’ve never stumbled over your own feet a day in your life, then it’s so. No one’s gonna claw their way through your screen and check.

For example, you had never seen Miles Morales smile with his teeth before until you clicked on his livestream, and none of his viewers would ever be able to guess.

He was laughing at some joke being made in the chat. 

“Y’all are terrible,” he said, wiping a tear from his eye.

Miles’ stream had been recommended to you by the ever-mysterious, totally-not-creepy algorithm ‘based on your location’, and the thumbnail with his dimples on full display piqued your curiosity.

He’d been passing by once when you accidentally dropped your books and folders while rushing to class. He knelt down and picked them up without a word, dropping them into your hands in a much neater stack than they had originally been in, from largest to smallest. 

Your eyes met for less than two seconds, but you could’ve sworn that there was a softness to them that couldn’t be caught from a distance. 

“Thanks!” you called out as the late bell rang. He only nodded before turning away, not bothering to walk any faster.

You never spoke to him again, having no idea what you’d even say. He rarely spoke outside of class, but you had assumed that based on the way he skulked down the hallway and the permanent ‘I’m bored’ look on his face, that he’d be playing something a little more…serious? ‘God of War’ maybe, or ‘Last of Us’. Or some sports-related game that you couldn’t understand.

Certainly not ‘Animal Crossing’.

Tentatively, your fingers hovered over the keyboard as the stream of comments began to slow, and you wondered if he’d be more likely to see it if you commented this instant.

–Who’s ur favorite villager?

There, nice and simple. Inoffensive.

Miles squinted his eyes at what was presumably a second monitor.

“Who’s my favorite villager?” His brows furrowed in confusion for a moment before he put two and two together. “Oh! You mean the li’l animals and shit. Um, the blue penguin? Ace? I like him.”

You sat back and watched him play for another fifteen minutes, most of which were spent figuring out what direction a couch sitting inside his virtual home should face. His voice was low and almost raspy, but…muted. As if someone had turned the volume down on it like you would the radio. He was fortunate to own a decent microphone.

–You got your own PC? 

It seems you got lucky a second time, and Miles paused to read your comment aloud once again.

“Yyup,” he answered proudly. “Put it together myself. I’ll do a tour one day. My setup is wavy, you’ll see!”

He continued going back and forth with the comments in chat, occasionally thanking some for making small donations. The fact of him making anything at all just from playing a video game was impressive. 

Miles remarked on the ‘classical style’ of one of the buildings on his island, and you snorted. Nerd.

–bro thinks he’s an architect

This made him giggle. A light, breathy sound that you would hardly expect to come out of him.

“You’re a hater, man. Watch me get hired as soon as I’m outta college and build yo’ next apartment building.”

You looked down at your phone and realized it was nearly one in the morning. With a yawn, you said your goodbyes in the comments and left the stream.

-

The cafeteria was full by the time you got downstairs, leaving not a single space on the white benches save for two completely empty ones near the back. 

Well, not completely empty.

As you weaved in between students carrying trays of slop with milk cartons, a familiar pair of cornrows came into view.

It’s now or never.

Timidly, you slid onto the bench right beside Miles. Focused on his meal and the tattered sketchbook he carried around, he looked up at you with just his eyes.

“Hey,” you tried to greet him casually with an awkward smile. “I saw you ye–I mean, I…I saw you. In general.”

His blinked slowly. “We all go to the same school.”

You cleared your throat.

“...Right. We-uh, met in the hallway.”

“You dropped all your books on the floor.”

“Yeah!” you replied a little too loudly. “I just, um, wanted to say hi.”

“...hi.”

There was a stretch of silence as you sifted through a list of topics to rescue the conversation, and a lightbulb went off.

“Do you have any hobbies? Other than drawing, I mean.”

Miles gave up on sketching and answered, “Video games.”

“Which ones you been playing recently?”

“Uh, Mortal Kombat, 2K,” he counted on his fingers, “and Animal Crossing, just to see what it was about–”

“Oh, you’re really good at that one!”

You both froze. Uh-oh.

“And how exactly do you know that?”

“I-I mean, you just…look…like the type?” 

You started frantically chipping away at the remaining nail polish on your fingers. Not even you could believe that one.

A tiny grin played on his lips. 

“Sure, let’s go with that.”

Soon the bell rang, saving you from making any further incriminating comments.

“See you in class?”

“Yeah, see you in class,” Miles replied, before tilting his head. “Or wherever I see you.”

[whokilledjared]

the sluttiest thing a man can do is be himself. (& takes on social media)

Hi.

I'm lonely.

The moment I got "two weeks off school" in sophomore year, life went to 4x speed & I can't turn it off no matter how hard I try.

Maybe COVID-19 adolescence did numbers on me. Somewhere between the iPhone 5c and ChatGPT, 14-hour screen times have live-streamed to me a steady, homogenous death of culture.

Nothing is cool anymore. Nothing is sacred. Every movement is a trend, and every cult classic a sequel.

The value we place on things being beautiful, on being "cool," and our gatekept appreciation of how hard these things were to find: it's been co-opted, or perhaps stolen. It's been stolen by the new merchant class. "Disruptors" and "innovators" turning our lives into a burgeoning black mirror prequel. Soon, we'll graduate too, and we'll wring every morsel of value in each others' lives dry for cash.

Plain and simple, I think we're being manipulated.

Your dates are an algorithm. Your music is a social signal. And Zuck knows when you sleep.*

God. What the fuck are we doing???

“Individuation is becoming the thing which is not the ego, and that is very strange.” — Carl Jung

Recently, I deleted Instagram. My first impulse was to post a story or something, announcing my departure. But then, I thought that would be lame.

I got rid of my account, too. Kinda. Over 1 year, over 800 followers removed, and what remains of me is a little grey icon, and "JM_0000000010" where my name and face used to be.

yay.

There were many people I wish I could have been friends with, but I wonder, too, why I find myself so drawn to the validation of others. Does social media affect me worse, or do we all just choose to ignore it, languishing in private?

At any rate, this last year has almost felt like re-learning how to be a human being.

Personally, I think one of the biggest markers for maturity is when you become willing to disappoint the people you know in favor of what feels right to you, when you start to unravel the stories you’ve told yourself (or been told) about who you are and what you should be. In short, the sluttiest thing a man can do is be himself.

And sometimes, I think about every college student that has ever lived. My grandmother, my dad, and so on. Just consider for a moment all kids who graduated before 2010:

What was it like for the ones in 1940? To walk around, before a campus had computers? In 2006: To meet someone pretty, but forget their number? In 1999: To cram into dorms, and watch Seinfeld live on-air?

Would I, like my dad in 1988, have braved cold night, brisk wind, & landline phone-call just to knock and see if my friends were too busy to hang?

What stories could I tell if there was even the slightest chance of getting lost on the way home from a party?

Humans are social creatures. We crave our friends like water. To me, the clearest difference between Dasani and Instagram is that one of them comes in a bottle.

Yet despite these distractions and comforts we have in 2024, somehow, we still have engineering students. People who carve out time in their day to sit down, look at paper, and solve differential equations. But then, that's not so hard, is it? It just takes time. Precious, fucking, time.

At Meta, leagues and leagues of these engineers power behavioral scientists, who are competing for the highest salary. Their benchmarks? Your FOMO. Guilt. Anxiety. Obsession. The worse you feel, the more you engage with their content. The more you engage with their content, well, you're starting to get the point.

Try something for me: Open up Instagram, but don't tap anything. What happens? How many little animations? How many tiny nudges prompting you to get lost? Our home-pages are billion-dollar diving boards, hoisting us over engineered catacombs of subconscious quicksand.

My homepage is my FOMO, my envy, and my crushes. The pain and struggle of trying to be someone who I am not. My little existential crises, bundled-up, packaged, and shipped with a like button.

To abandon your social networks entirely, however, requires a safety net of close friends. After all, your friends are online, and you'd be miserable without them.

This is the problem with our monkey brains. Millennia of sociological natural-selection have made us quite great at feeling terrible. We're damn good at making tribal status games to play with, too.

Seeking refuge in quirked up septum piercings and boygenius listeners, my time in counter-cultural, alternative "scenes" between St. Louis and Tampa has shown me that even the weirdest of folks and the most removed can accidentally find themselves reduced to nothing more than high-school popularity contests. Even if I love them. Even if they're amazing people. We're human.

We can't "quit social media" as much as we can't "quit bottled water" Sure, we can, but it's inconvenient. And even without a bottle, we're still drinking water.

So I lost touch with my friends. I got no new updates on their lives. I forced myself into the inconvenience of not having a phone to reach for in fleeting moments of boredom. Suddenly, I was out of the loop. Suddenly, I was bored. And suddenly, nobody missed me. My only friends were the ones I had the time to text. Everyone else ... does not exist.

Weekends have become more valuable than ever. Without the empty social calories of seeing my friends' pictures, I find myself planning hangouts as often as my schedule allows. I have more lunches, more study sessions, and more is done in the company of less.

And I have the time to breathe.

And in this calm, I think I found my answer: it's my misplaced ambition. These fears of anxiety and people I thought I would miss, they seem represent something I want to see more of within myself. Something I want to develop, lean into more deeply, as an individual. And I think that's quite normal; to look out into the world and feel attracted to things we want to see more of. This is, I think, how everyone develops their own definition of beauty — and of coolness. It's largely the intersection of what we find most interesting, and what we want to see more of in the world. Because beauty and coolness, by definition, are rare and hard to find. If they were everywhere, nothing be beautiful, nor would anything be cool.

When we all turn into wrinkles and cataracts, bad backs and heart attacks, for a brief, glorious moment, our lives are going to flash before our eyes. In this moment, you'll see your story. The ultimate progression of you.

How much of that will be skibidi toilet and reaction clips? How much of that will be arguing on the internet? Can you tell me, just how much of your life will you have skipped over to pacify your intentionally-lowered attention span?

That girl whose number you couldn't find Those passing questions over coffee that you couldn't search on Google The boredom of a subway ride

Those are not inconveniences, they're what the older generations refer to as "life."

* (oh, but if you can't sleep, consider this aside: Google knows the angle you walk at, how fast you're walking, and they've got crowdsourced pictures of everywhere around you at all times of the day. fun bedtime thoughts <3)

[speedycoffeedelight]

Hello! I've returned with more 'Reader helps get everyone a job' scenarios! And this time, not anon ✨️

Also, so happy to see you referenced my first ask, really made my day!

Anyway, scenarios begin.

~

Reader: Velvette, this is the second job you've been fired from since you got here. There isn't exactly many clothing store in town and if you keep getting fired, you'll be deemed 'unhireable'.

Velvette: *Rolling her eyes on her phone* I don't see why you're so bothered by that, I'm already a small time influencer and with the way I'm manipulating the algorithm, I'll be monetised in no time. Besides, the clothes they sold there weren't even good enough for a dumpster fire.

Reader: Anyway... There's atleast 2 more clothing stores available before we have to start looking elsewhere, a sports clothes store and a thrift shop.

Velvette: Pfft, thrift shop? You can't in your right mind think I'd be touching second han- wait. *Types on her phone* Thifting is in, sign me up! And then call Princess in here, her little lamb form is guaranteed to get me more likes then that bitch Geraldine's yappy mutt in socks and sunglasses.

~

Reader: Lute, I don't mean to be insulting or anything but I'm not sure if you could handle being a supermarket security guard. It can be a very dangerous job.

Lute: I understand you're concerns but allow me to lay them to rest with a quick demonstration of my capabilities.

*Lute quickly tackles Sir Pentious to the ground and pins him as he shouts a quick 'Why me?!'*

~

Adam: Listen Babe, I don't see what the issue is.

Reader: Adam, the bar is looking for a live band to there regularly, not a solo guitarist. Now I'm sure you are a wonderful singer-songwriter but they're not looking for a solo musician.

Adam: *Crossing arms* Fine. What other jobs are there.

Reader: Plenty, and almost all of them are places we've already got someone in so they can recommend you and you're pretty much guaranteed to be hired.

Adam: Okay Babe, fire away.

Reader: Well, the local cafés looking for another waiter (Charlies workplace).

Adam: Uh, pass.

Reader: The fast food joint needs another cashier. (Vaggies workplace)

Adam: Next.

Reader: The restaurant-dinner is willing to train up a sous-chef with no prior experience or qualifications (Angels/Husks workplace).

Adam: Eh, I don't cook.

Reader: The council is hiring more trash collectors, it sounds bad but has incredibly good pay (Niftys workplace).

Adam: As much as I'm down for driving a massive truck, somethings telling me to stay away from that little freak. She might stab me in the back or something.

Reader: You also don't have a driving license. Anyway, the radio station is hiring a files clerk (Alastors workplace).

Adam: They play rock or metal?

Alastor: *From another room* Nope!

Adam: Then, nah.

Reader: *Muttering to self* And I don't think you can work for the mechanics without a driving license either (Cherris workplace).

Reader: The florist is hiring. (Lucifers workplace).

Adam: *Fake gags*

Reader: What about working at that bowling alley and arcade pizzeria? (Voxs workplace)

Adam: *Sticks out tongue*

Reader: The clothing store? (Velvettes workplace)

Adam: *Raises eyebrow*

Reader: The local supermarket? (Lutes workplace)

Adam: *Pours slightly*

Reader: *Sighs and starts rubbing temple* Well, the only other places available is the post office and that steakhouse on the outskirts of town.

Adam: Steakhouse? Now that's what I'm talking about! Sign me up straight away.

Reader: I thought you said you don't cook.

Adam: Listen Babe, it's grilling, not cooking. Big difference. Besides, I literally invented the grill, you know? It's like 1 of the top 5 best ideas I ever had, you know, right next to naming a bunch of birds 'tits'.

Reader: You invented the grill? That's actually kinda impressive.

Lucifer: Don't flatter him, love. He had to invent a whole new way of cooking meat or else he'd have starved everytime Eve made him sleep on the coach.

Adam: HEY!

HEYYY!! Good to see you back again!! <⁠(⁠￣⁠︶⁠￣⁠)⁠>

Yeah , velvette gonna be a real bitch(HAH-) working at stores. She won't settle for anything that's not up to her taste.

* Reader sighing in the corner trying to find more shops.*

Poor Pentious, he had to be the example 🤣🤣

*the cast and reader giving Pentious concerned glances*

And there's Adam, the first man who can't settle on one job( just like girls- *gets shot in the head*). I can definitely see him inventing grilling like this ���😂

Thank you yet again for your creative and unique headcannons! I truly enjoy reading them!! ✧⁠◝⁠(⁠⁰⁠▿⁠⁰⁠)⁠◜⁠✧

[atalienart]

Just some random thoughts.

I know that numbers and likes don't really matter on social media and when you draw, you mainly draw for yourself but it's funny how seeing people get interested in you stuff makes you want to create more. Yes, perhaps it's short-lasting satisfaction and you should just focus on doing your thing but it still has its impact.

Social media these days are demanding. You have to post certain things at particular time, be everywhere, all the time. People migrate to different sites looking for something better and you need to follow. But I'm too tired. Too tired to manage every site that doesn't even work on my old phone, follow trends, pay attention to the ever-changing algorithm, escape from billionaire idiots, greedy corporations, flesh and mind consuming robots, people that don't care.

So, seeing someone's comment or a spike in interest, seeing real people being really curious about something I created, seeing that someone found me in a pile of trash that's today's internet is a little reminder that posting another drawing or sharing an update about my writing isn't a complete waste of time.

Though I notice how everything changed while I was absent for those couple years and I wonder sometimes if I should maybe stop posting and come back when, or if, I have something really worth showing, a bigger project. Maybe what I have right now isn't good enough to share. And then someone leaves a nice message or more people start to follow my blog and I think: okay, maybe one more drawing, maybe one more writing update.

I know that commenting and showing you care about someone else's projects require energy but I try to do it more often myself. I'm rarely on social media these days because they're exhausting and I suck at commenting but I still try. And I appreciate when people try for me. Thank you guys!

(btw, it's not fishing for attention and engagement, it's just something I thought about lately looking at drawings of my characters that kinda appeared out of nowhere xD)

[comicaurora]

Hi, sorry for the long ask. I wanted to say I love your work with OSP and the webcomic. Been a fan since like 2015 and even though I'm some random on the internet it's wonderful to see the channel grow and stay a chill and educational part of the internet. I find your channel and webcomic really inspiring.

Do you have a method/strategy/etc. for dealing with the constant barage of media/opinions? and how you stay true to yourself when there's so much stuff out there?

Like I find myself pulled in so many different directions and being told to change my art style and have to try very hard not fall into the trap of just making stuff so someone might see it, just to attempt beat an algorithm in a very saturated world.

Do you just block out that stuff or do have other methods? How do you decide what influences you let in (art or otherwise)?

Hoo, interesting question.

It's tough for sure, and it took me a while to get even halfway good at it. It's very easy to internalize "this is Good and this is Bad and if you aren't doing the Good thing you are a Cringe Failure" especially if you hear it a hundred times a day from every direction. Nobody wants to be a Cringe Failure, and in highly caustic environments like the internet, it's easy to be trained to suppress every aspect of yourself that could ever be targeted for ridicule.

I think ultimately the only real way to handle that onslaught of noise is to learn to listen for your own internal voice. It can be tough to hear, but it is there - otherwise all that noise wouldn't be so confusing and annoying. There's something in you that those opinions you're being bombarded with don't quite line up with. Someone says "oh lol that show is so bad", it only twinges because something inside you disagrees. Someone says "this art style is awful," it twinges because a part of you enjoys it. Someone says "this thing is the best," it twinges because you didn't enjoy it.

Excavating that inner core of Thoughts and Opinions is well worth the effort, because it'll help you process both what you actually like and dislike and what you actually want to create and how. It's not so much about blocking out competing opinions, because it can be very helpful to know what other people think about the stuff you enjoy and/or create - it's just about clearing out the internalized stress and fear and desire for conformity-induced acceptance that might be muffling your ability to hear what you actually think. It'll give you a compass for navigating to your own happiness.

Especially when it comes to creative art, making what you want to make is probably the most important thing you can prioritize. You're the only person in the world who wants to create that specific, exact thing in your head - and trying to create something someone else wants isn't bad, but it does suffer from the fact that that creative vision already has someone who could fulfill it. You don't need to make what they could make, or what you think they want you to make. You can just do your own thing, and the people who've wanted what only you could do without knowing to ask for it will love it.

[le-trash-prince]

I've been in a "watch 500 van conversion tour videos" mood lately so i'm just gonna post some of my thoughts (lots of complaining about YT and lifestyle minimalists here)

as always I hate YT's algorithm and how difficult it is to get past the wall of full-time influencers

Legitimately I hate when youtubers are like "here's an instructional video on how to do [thing i am doing for the first time]." This is something I genuinely think YT has damaged about DIY culture because ppl think that you can learn something just by watching a video. Like yes, you can receive instruction through a video, but you have not actually learned how to do something with your hands until you have learned it with your hands, and even then you shouldn't be giving people instruction on how to do it when you've only done it once??

I think the Malaysian food ep of Dish Granted is a really good example of this, when Steven is like "oh I'll pull chai while spinning in a circle the way the chaiwallahs do" and then realizes the hubris of that statement bc there is a high level of physical skill involved in what they do that simply watching a video simply does not magically gift you. I was really glad when Ronny Chieng basically called him out "sure the meal is good for a first attempt that you threw together but you can't pretend this compares to actual Malaysian street food. Like as street food it's crap lol"

in that vein I hate the videos that are titled "here's the best way to do xyz for your van" and it's like. the person's very first van build and they've never lived in a van before. like how do you know that's the best way? because you read about it on the internet?

anyways love this one tour video where 20 minutes into the tour, the dude goes "and here's my crockpot. because I really love soup." and then their camera guy who has been completely silent just busts out laughing and is crying "I rEaLLy LoVe SoUp."

one van had the BL sheets and I hate that my vision has been cursed this way

love the no-nonsense approach that the channel Cheap RV Living has.

also hate how hard it is to get past the YT algorithm of "wealthy white ppl doing xyz" and talking about the spiritual freedom it grants them to live more sustainably by getting rid of all their things that work perfectly well and then building an apartment's worth of furniture from scratch and cladding an entire van with virgin wood. did no one teach y'all about the thrift store.

every time someone is like "living in a van has enriched my life because it taught me how to be uncomfortable" i'm like "...... wait you guys were comfortable before?"

so many of the designer builds look completely the same but i will admit i do at least enjoy the current trends of interior design (warm whites, earth tones/natural wood stain, gold accents, the color green) as opposed to the whitewashed colorless shiplap trends of the 2010s. like yesss paint those lower cabinets green, go off girl. but also i have to wonder what the point of having something custom made is if it's just going to look like what everyone else has??? (aside from the fact that it garners views sure whatever)

at this point if it's a couple doing a van tour video i automatically skip it because i'm tired of the level of (fake?) cheerfulness it requires for 2 ppl to live in a 60sq ft space and talking about how "it's the best thing ever" in that social media voice. i say this but i haven't had any queer couples come across my feed yet so i could feel differently about that. I'd maybe watch videos from that lesbian couple in How to Build a Sex Room that were totally gunning for a threesome with the old lady designer.

take a shot every time a video is like STEALTH CAMPING and it's literally just someone hanging out in their van in the middle of the day watching TV before they go buy their groceries. i do that all the time, it's called "i don't want to get out of the car."

before someone even says what their previous housing status was, you can tell the diff between the homeless ppl and the rich ppl just based on who actually has stuff and is excited to talk about their stuff vs who is trying to emphasize their lack of material attachment while filming a video about their belongings.

also love the one dude who had a basic bed set-up in an otherwise empty van, went to IKEA and bought a metal folding table and a burner, set it up in the corner and had such genuine enthusiasm for having a kitchen in his car. like legitimately he was so excited and i was excited for him! vs the person looking like they were gonna murder someone bc they mismeasured a wood panel in their ~under $10K~ fully custom build.

[tiptapricot]

Thinking of this realization and just. God man. How did it happen? How did it play out? What was it like to be there?

Just thinking of like… Miguel just cleaning up the multiverse holes, just patching things up and putting people where they belonged after the collider events and getting spider help for it. And in that time, going between universes putting things right, he finds that universe where he’s happy and where he dies and where he has a daughter who’s left alone.

And they’re fine to be in other worlds, right? They do it all the time, talk to each other, interact, so he just thinks he can step in, can say “hey I found a different universe I’m gonna stay in, check in with me there” and it’s fine for a bit. Maybe he even talks with Peter about Gabriella as MJ is pregnant with Mayday.

Do they ever visit? Does Miguel ever say “this is my friend Peter, this is my friend Jessica,” when they’re off the clock, or “hey can you guys take care of that anomaly she has a soccer game today.”

Is there a brief period both Peter and Miguel are fathers at the same time?

What is it like when it goes wrong? What is it like when the readings go haywire and things start to disappear? How many people does Miguel call, how desperate does he sound? How hard does Peter try to help, try to salvage and save this world? How does he hold his own daughter afterwards when he’s seen Miguel’s disappear in his arms?

No wonder Peter doesn’t push back. No wonder he kisses Mayday’s head after seeing it all again. He was there. He believes it. He can’t let that happen to the people he loves.

And Miguel’s anger makes sense too. They didn’t save things, so now they have to, have to stick to what they know because what they don’t is too dangerous and they don’t have the safety net to explore. Canon has to be real, has to be rigid, because otherwise Miguel O’Hara is the one to fuck up so bad an entire Earth disappeared because of it.

He clings to events, to predestiny, to algorithmic guesses because he has to, because something that is thought of as harmless and good, something like saving someone and being there for someone, could destroy everything. And he can’t do that. He can’t do that kind of grief again so soon.

The collider, Miles, all of it is what started Miguel having to patch things up in the first place, what brought him into multiversal travel and to his daughter and his life and losing that. It’s been less than a year, depending on when he found it, how long he was there, and how quickly things went to shit.

He had everything and lost everything.

And it doesn’t make his reactions right but holy shit.

[dominateeye]

I forgot to write my "goodbye Cohost" post on Cohost a few days ago. I guess that's pretty emblematic of my relationship with the site.

It was a really cool idea that I always assumed was surely taking off, because it deserved success at least as much as if not more than any of those fediverse things I don't pay attention to. It was a site that had personality, had character, in a way far more believable than Tumblr's ever was. But because of several intentional and reasonable choices, it wasn't a site I really felt a need to use. It wasn't better than Tumblr for me, it was different to it. And while that was a great thing, it wasn't compelling enough to get me to risk losing contact with people who were still on here.

I think a successful social media site does need an algorithm, or some kind of discoverability of new content that is enabled and put in front of the user by default. One reason people go on social sites is to find new things; if they only ever want to talk to their existing friends, they'll start a group chat on any number of messaging platforms, or by text. I don't think such a mechanism has to become any more addictive than literally anything else on Earth is, and without ads, it's a hell of a lot harder to exploit for financial gain. I also think a successful social media site needs an app, even a sideloaded one available only on Android in order to dodge rules prohibiting porn, because using a site that already has a UI with the UI of your mobile browser also taking up room on a phone screen and having entire pages load each time instead of just the new content does create an appreciable difference in experience. Cohost on my phone was just a web browser, with all the clunkiness that entails. Par for the course on desktop; not so on mobile, where I use social media 99% of the time.

That's not to bash the site. Those decisions were purposeful; the Anti-Software Software Club team had good reasons for those decisions, to guard against the sense of dependency other platforms tend to create in their users whether intentionally or not, and to ensure that people could post what they wanted without having to worry about whether advertisers and investors and app store administrators would find it palatable. Those decisions made sense for Cohost and the kind of website ASSC wanted it to be. But while I admired that intention and that vision, and the home it became for many people, those decisions meant it wasn't the kind of website I was looking for. So I didn't use it. I just assumed it would be there in case Tumblr was no longer habitable.

I have to wonder how many other people thought the same thing.

I forget who on Cohost said this, but in among the discussion of open-sourcing the site (something I believe would be/have been a virtuous end unto itself regardless of logistical concerns, because it would allow more people to make more things and that is a Universal Good if there is such a thing, but I digress) someone opined that carrying on Cohost doesn't require open-source code, because that code was not really what the site was. Cohost was a belief that we deserved something better, that it was possible to make, and that it was possible to keep alive and make better, and that even if it failed it would have been worth it to try. Keeping Cohost alive is keeping that belief alive, and anything made because of that belief is a continuation of Cohost. Even if it isn't Cohost (jump) 2. I don't know how true that idea is, but I do like it.

One other thing that came out of this discussion was @hms-no-fun's observation that the people who use a social media site put in labor, too. Posting and chatting and participating in a community is time and effort spent intentionally; that's labor, even if it's never paid, and it's essential to keeping a community alive. Cohost was the legal property of Anti-Software Software Club, it was funded by two mysterious benefactors (one of whom started talking from their position as such in the site's final days and had some interesting things to say), but as users it was our site that we gave purpose to. Perhaps we should have gotten more of a say in the direction the site took. Perhaps we should have been given the chance to try to keep it alive. Perhaps shutting it down instead of reaching out to us for direct help did harm us in an avoidable way. But on the other hand, the team was never more than, what, five, six people? The site ran for about a year and a half, and we know those people were putting out fires for almost all of it. That's exhausting. I can't blame them for not wanting to run themselves even more ragged and take the inevitable risks of bring users into that side of things as well. Really, everything that's being said about Cohost is understandable. Because everyone involved had an investment in it, and as such, even in different ways, it belonged to all of us.

So if you're reading this, and you cared about the site, then so long, and thanks for making Cohost.

[f0point5]

Just skimmed through your posts about wags and the amount of hate they receive and omfg it is so refreshing to see someone with similar views!! Wag culture is so insane and I am a Harry Styles fan like I thought it couldn’t get more toxic than that and holy shit formula one is on another level

Im sorry in advance but I need to describe this in full detail to someone else bc no one irl is a formula one fan like me so I have no one to talk to this about😭😭 but I think it’s so interesting the way stan culture moves and how my tiktok algorithm showed me just how bad it is for the wags

I’m new to F1 so my tiktok algorithm started with showing me Charles Leclerc to Taylor swift music edits (thought he was really pretty but didn’t make me a f1 fan) to Max Verstappen to TS music edits (made me a huge Max fan and why I’m into formula one now lol) to Max interview clips to drive to survive (watched it —I know it’s dramatized but I love the way it’s filmed) to more tiktoks about max and his childhood and then I started getting really pretty girls on my fyp (now I know it’s Alexandra and Kika but didn’t at the time so I would like the videos and move on) but then I became a bigger fan of f1 so I would recognize them and then my tiktok fyp went to edits of the wags which was whatever bc I love pretty girls so I didn’t think too much of it but then very quickly my fyp turned dark (very dramatic lmaoo). I started getting hate edits of the wags and at this point I didn’t really have too much of an opinion on the wags and I still don’t except I do side eye Kelly —i know it’s none of my business and I know bare bones about their relationship but age gaps especially when one met the other when they were a teen always makes me uncomfortable🥴 Anyways so once my tiktok went weird, I started going through the hate comments these people would leave about these women and I feel so bad for the girlfriends. Yes they live incredibly privileged lives but being dissected the way they do on tiktok is absolutely insane. They get hate for literally every single thing they do. I remember there was a video of Charles and Alexandra at a race and she stopped smiling for one second and they were literally calling her two faced and fake for just having a resting face that isn’t smiling. There was another of Kelly and they had a video of her not catching the bouquet at a wedding and clipped a video of max laughing so it looked like he had laughed at her and then followed it by a video of Kelly getting annoyed or something and the amount of nasty comments was insane. I think Kelly then said something about it on Instagram and instead of feeling bad for spreading a false video to hate on her, the same page started to make fun of her for trying to say it was edited WHEN IT WAS!?? I still don’t get it honestly. I get being jealous of their lifestyle bc wow it must be amazing to be able to travel and experience the world the way they get to but not even when I was at my most parasocial relationship with one direction as a 12 year old, did I ever feel the need to send hate to the people my faves dated. I know stan culture has always been bad but I do wonder what it was like following formula one when tiktok did not exist. I’m not sure how long you’ve been a fan but was it always this toxic towards the wags?? Or is the increase in fans formula one has recently gotten the cause of all this?? This is my first time being a sports fan and I really do love it, it’s exciting watching races and learning all the lore of teams and older racers but I honestly didn’t think there was this amount of parasocial attitudes in racing when I was first became a fan like it’s insane

I just reread this and omfg sorry for the essay and probably a shit ton of errors bc I’m tired as hell rn

Formula 1 is the perfect storm for toxic fans because it is so constant. Racing happens for most of the year and in between the off track drama keeps going. Whereas singers are only visible while touring and not often in between. Drivers are constantly giving content.

I’m not gonna rehash it because it was so wild but that Kelly video at the wedding was one of a lottt of edits flying around about her at that time and some of them actually had some pretty personal information/rumours so when she comments about the editing videos she wasn’t referring to the one from the wedding I’m pretty sure. There was one particular tiktok account dedicated to collecting screenshots of messages “from Kelly” that apparently were edited, and just spreading rumours about her personal life from years ago.

But yeah it’s insane what these women have to put up with. To a certain extent they do sign up for it, since a lot of them use the platform to build an influencer career so they are inviting the public into their life in a sense but there’s no excuse for the way people talk about them and harass them it’s unhinged.

And yeah, I do blame the new fan base. Sorry to say but back when it was just old men watching the sport it was not like this. People used to laugh at the antics of James Hunt or talk about the partying but it wasn’t like…this venomous vitriol (obviously men and their hooliganism has its own issues no one likes football fans and they’re all men but I’d argue that kind of fan is part of the new wave of fans as well). And part of it is social media because now people can just post hate indiscriminately and with no consequences but it’s the younger demographic by and large using social media.

Parasocials in F1 absolutely seem to be the consequence of increased media presence (drive to survive, more promotion of races/race weekends as “partying” events, more races in cities/tourist locations). Thank you Liberty Media (RIP Moto GP). And personally I think it’s making the sport a bit ridiculous but it’s bringing in money. Parasocials are the people who buy merch and go to the f1 arcade and pretty much keep the cafes on Casino square solvent so…yeah. Good for the investors. Good for the teams.

And even good for the wags in a way like I don’t doubt that despite the hate they’ve all materially profited from the attention.

It’s just sad that people have to act like that. Like are they raised in a barn? Did no one teach them to mind their own business? Is the jealousy so real that they can’t help themselves? Idk how posting about how much you hate Alexandra’s body makes you feel cuter or better about the fact that Charles Leclerc won’t date you. I can’t relate.

Don’t worry about the essay you’re welcome to come and rant every time we love that here 💕

[kissmethroughthebone]

I feel so...... disoriented.

A wonderful date, followed by the next morning getting attacked by his ex. All over some tapdancing financial analyst who I wasn't even SERIOUSLY seeing. Why was I in it? God.

Like, something about this dude was too perfect. He was everything I wanted in a man to manifest, and even got me a ruby bracelet I had secretly desired for ages. And I was like, what's the catch, Universe?

Turns out the catch is the catching of hands at 8:30am by a screaming banshee with an Aliexpress clearance sale wig.

And of course him, he was wanting me around since I'm the only girl he has as an option, but slowly distancing and being stingy, since I suppose whatever classy and elegant softspoken charming woman he thought he knew vanished after seeing me with no wig, pimphand his ex, and then set him straight, ever so gently, I was ridiculously calm even, for lying to me in the first place.

He didn't cheat, they were 100% broken up, she just wanted to start drama. And a man lying and saying they were broken up half a year and just roommates, is a huge difference from saying they were broken up a month only. But regardless, not a great scenario all around.

And oh lookie, the guy who was so generous from the jump and a sweetheart and allegedly wanted to do all this extravagance on my birthday, is now conveniently busy, and "saving money" and whatnot.

And I cut him off since he's now going on a trip. Ah, that doesn't scream money-saving to ME.

Also paired with him telling me last Thursday that he wanted to do this one event with me "next weekend, on the 10th or 11th", and then I had to ask HIM myself last night if he was still down. And he conveniently forgot to tell me.

Ah, for someone always on his mind, he sure forgot about plans we made, or to remotely tell me that the plans are undoable thanks to a spontaneous trip.

Fuck him.

Ah well, I don't get to score an apology gift the size of Texas. A conveeeeeeniently undocumented "destruction of his personal items and stealing all the money in his wallet" from his ex. What dumbass would "forget" to take photos of evidence of a destruction of his items? The DA would throw his case out. His funeral, if he is telling the truth!

I shall take the L and move on, ah well, at least I got it on video. And oddly enough that boosted me to the algorithm on multiple social media sites, so, lol.

And now just using men for stuff on my bucket list and refusing to get attached even if I wanted to. I just no longer respect them at this point. It's a cruel joke to even think about liking them.

The last guy I claimed publicly was messaging women on FaceBook Dating behind my back, even during the good moments, so fuck him. The guy before that was actively sabotaging our relationship by being paranoid of me seeing others, whole time he was the one seeing others. And overall I hate a man that gets stingy, comfortable, or unbearable...

I only came back to the recent fella since I wanted an apology gift at best and a hangout buddy that paid for my stuff at worst, but alas. A liar that lied to make himself look good would of course keep the habit. Ah well, let's dip, thank you.

[theboardwalkbody]

No spoilers

I haven't been able to get to see Deadpool & Wolverine yet but I have seen a suspicious amount of people on Tiktok "complaining about how offended they are". All in quotes because the first video I saw was a man reacting to this woman physically crying over how offended she is, as a Christian, that they would "disrespect Jesus her lord and savior" and going off about how this woman should not be surprised because it's Deadpool.

I thought it fit my FYP because it was a reaction video, not the original, and the point was "that's what Deadpool is you can't be surprised and you probably shouldn't have gone to see it".

Moved on.

But ever since then I have been seeing at LEAST 2 videos at a time (I only get to scroll for about an hour each night lately) of OTHERS doing the same thing: crying about how offended they are regarding whatever depiction of Jesus was portrayed in the movie. I haven't been watching them. Just reading the text captions of "how could they say that about Jesus" and other similar statements. I don't practice religion and I like Deadpool enough to know you take all this shit with a grain of salt. So I skip video.

So seeing a second one was strange.

But to KEEP seeing them.

Multiple times a day for the last week.

I don't watch religious type videos so surely they're not in my algorithm. I have liked a few Deadpool stuff when the trailers were out so sure, Deadpool is in my FYP and maybe that's why suddenly there's an influx. But still.

Weird.

But now it's just suspicious.

Now I'm wondering if this is actually a bit. Like if there's a point in the movie telling people to go make these types of videos. Because it's way too many. It feels like a TREND rather than someone's genuine complaint.

And maybe the joke is on people like me who have seen these videos with no context and are finding it suspicious and now speculating like I am.

Won't know until I see it. (Again no spoilers). I just find this all suspicious.

[emmelynart]

Alma

(This is a lot. Much more than I originally intended. I apologize. I was going to submit this to someone as an 'ask,' but instead, I'll put this out into the nether.)

So, while sipping my morning tea and browsing Twitter, I stumbled upon this that Alma posted in reply to a poetry thread.

Now obviously, the ship part caught my eye simply because of the 'Dent'stiel Valentine Misha sent out last night shortly before about how "Apparently, some ships can't be sunk."

Okay, now that could obviously just be a coincidence, so I smiled about the possibility and then moved on with my life. Whether Alma is Misha or not, and no matter how much I want to know, it isn't something I'd ever talk about ANYWHERE ELSE outside of Tumblr because, c'mon... respect, right?

I've always felt that the goal isn't to out Misha as Alma, but instead to enjoy his musings and feel as though we're getting a look at him through a different lens.

So, that brings me to the next part, which got me about 25% excited about tin hatting and 75% worried for Alma (Misha?).

I stumbled upon this that happened on Feb 10th.

The original tweet has been deleted, but I found where the original poster took a screenshot... of a screenshot... that shows what Alma's reply was in response to.

First things first, and I'm not going to spend much time talking about the person because, frankly, I'm... upset. We'll just use the word upset. I scrolled through their tweets briefly, and it didn't take long to see that she's basically been harassing Misha and spouting nonsense about 'twin flames.' I'm hoping that, at some point, they get the help that they need.

Secondly, I wish people wouldn't have immediately gone in with the 'wrong account buddy' and whatnot. It would have been better for them to send a DM to Alma or at least be a bit more subtle. I just don't want Alma (Misha?!) to feel like they can't be open with their poetry and posts. Don't disappear on us!

Now, I'd like to see what others think, not just about the above, but about this next part.

Whenever I saw that Alma had a Twitter and that they didn't follow Misha, and Misha didn't follow them (like he does on Insta), that made me doubt whether or not they were the same person. Now though, I'm wondering how Alma knew to reply to that thread with "Promise?" in the first place.

It's possible that the Twitter algorithm is to blame for this and that, somehow, this crazy tweet ended up on their newsfeed. That being said, I'm not so sure. It's really pushing me back into thinking Alma might actually be Misha.

Thoughts? (Also, this is my first actual post, so please be easy on me.)

[sodasa-was-taken]

Hey there, I'm curious about your thoughts on this. If the Gundam fandom particularly the English part isn't very fanfic-heavy, what's up with Gundam Wing having 50000 fanfics from FF dot Net and AO3 combined? And many of them still being updated. They even had a zine last year and I think you can agree that that's admirable for an old fandom. Compared to Gundam Witch, I'm only aware of 2, and one is even dead. Meanwhile, other M/M heavy fandoms have released more than a number of zines already.

I guess I can't help but compare the English fandom with the Japanese fandom which is releasing countless anthologies and events across the board to this day. Like many, I've read that fanfiction is the gage that people care about a fandom so I can't help but wonder if that is an old way of thinking and unlike Gundam Wing fans who are older, the fans of Gundam Witch are younger and just don't care about fanfiction anymore.

This is the first time someone has pointed out a flaw in one of my arguments. It's been a long time coming if you ask me.

I think I might not have expressed myself in quite the right way. I didn't mean to say that the English speaking part of the Gundam fandom isn't into fanfiction but that it has a proportionally small amount of people whose main thing is writing fanfic. I think it's silly to only use the amount of fanfiction to determine the size of a fandom because the skill sets and passions people within a fandom can have vary greatly. Some fandoms are huge on fan songs some barely have any or not at all. Some ships have more animatics dedicated to them than others and while popularity does play a role it's rarely if ever perfectly proportional. That's what I was trying to get at. The only way the output of a specific type of fan work would be a reliable way to determine the size of a fandom is if the ratio of that type of fan work to the amount of people in the fandom was at least somewhat consistent. In most cases it's anything but.

The disparities between Gundam Wing and g-witch makes perfect sense to me, but it doesn't have anything to do with young people not caring about fanfiction. Believe they absolutely do. The thing is Gundam Wing aired on Toonami back in 2000 as the first Gundam show to ever premiere on American television. It was a straight-up phenomenon in the way anime just isn't anymore in the west due to anime becoming a lot more mainstream within the last decade. The way it was distributed meant that a lot of people could stumble into it without already being in certain circles watch a few seconds while skipping between channels and decide to give it a try. This had the potential to bring in people with very varying interest because a lot of those who became fans hadn't actively been seeking out the show.

Compare that to a show like g-witch that came out in a time where streaming wars and algorithms mean you most likely wouldn't have just stumbled upon it unless you were already watching similar shows. People in the west had to main ways of learning about the show: either through someone they know or through the internet. There's basically no way anyone got into the show out of pure curiosity and this is pretty much true for any Gundam show since Unicorn. Anyway, my point is we've gotten more picky because we can be and it makes fandoms more homogeneous when it comes to taste than in the past.

When it comes to what kinda people do choose to watch g-witch there's three main points I've seen people bring up when recommending the show. It's a new take on Gundam. It's well produced. It's gay, I swear. These three things respectively appeal to existing Gundam fans, people who are passionate about the medium of animation, and fans of sapphic media especially those who like animated shows. If they are to join the fandom they're likely more than one of them. Without knowing for sure through what I have been able to observe I would guess it's people falling under the third category who are the most prolific Sulemio shipfic authors. In terms of the amount of fics that is as I'm almost certain it's a bunch of Gundam veterans who are responsible for the 300000+ words ongoing fics.

That was a longer answer than I would've predicted. Thank you for the ask.

[istherewifiinhell]

back on the grief train woo woo (day recap) (most serious skip warning yet)

i have a predilectiction to not wanting to record or remember when (like the specific when in time) bad things happen. but in the last couple years of blogging, and i guess the year and change of drawing ive found a lot more appeal of recall. so i wonder if its not so bad to. record the bad. at any rate i dont think. not recording it makes it less real. which i think is the fear. and. my head is doing it anyway.

im doing this coping method questionable activity here instead of a journal becauseeee??? natural format my brains prefers i suppose.

to recap. the bad horrible no good very bad day

- i went to sleep late, as usual. i wake late. same. i prelong getting out of bed. also same. scrolling idly (or 'pre scrolling' the dash. i dont know why i do it)

- screams. screams and distress and misery and comforting a screaming distressed person. various talking down of hysterical lines of thought. (thats not an insult. 1. circumstances 2. understood behavioural trends) the joint and mouth gear i sleep in dont even come off until the screaming is done. have u every pet someones head in a wrist brace?

- lots and lots of crying. more comforting. the gear comes off. i brush my teeth. exhausted sitting and hovering around the. scene of the incident.

- migration to kitchen as food needs win out. all doors shut and all living beings collect. toast is eaten. water drank. etc.

- backup arrives. infomation is gathered. places are looked up and called. plans are formed. actions are taken. i mentally catalogue setimental, soothing, but give upable fabrics.

- i rip up threadbare torn bed sheets. i have to figure out how to get my dead cat into a box.

-he was around 12-15 pounds. we called him toddler sized and shaped. he had a mean punch and strong grasp. i taught him to sit on my shoulders, sometimes.

- realise how much heavier he is now. i cry. i cover him with the sheet. i somehow get it under him. hes stiff. even the tail. i cry. i pet his fur. i sob getting him into the box.

- backup apologizes. im on my knees. wailing. i think. definetly louder than anything ive done yet. backup gestures the dog at me. knowing my situation. distressee entered at some point. gets a hug from back up. i think i am gestured into the hug. i gesture down. im on the floor.

- i wail and am hugged.

- i am invited on the trip to the place. i gestures to my face. my sleep clothes. i dont see it happening. im told i dont need to be strong all the time. i reiterate. i really just wouldnt be able to get my glasses and a mask on.

- i dont see the box. i dont see much. at i dont remember if i have tea now or earlier. i soon as i hear the car go. im crying again. the sister cat meowing didnt help. i dont actually know or belief if that. i have no idea what she experiences. shes a cat. but. yeah.

- blogging happens? sometime happens? people return.

- im told. four years ago he developed a heart murmer. apparently thats a thing. 4 years. bengin to. serious.

- blogging happens. as well as algorithmic irony. i am asked if i want to watch something. i say. shower first. i forget ever song ive ever heard. for a moment. i settle on the album pocket.

- eventually i come down. i get food. we watch a movie. its a good movie. i have a nice exchange with a friend during too.

- i watch some dishes and realise. bizarrely. my old manager might find out about this. the vet was near to my job. the guy was friends with the techs. this was the kind of infomation he would share with me at times.

- youtube videos until the group disbands.

- i start recounting this my head

- i am wearing pjs i dont like. whatever the level for snotty sleeves where u chuck a set in the hamper has surely been met.

- typing this. using a spare pillow case as a hanky

- im gonna go and try and find the horse traqulizer of pleasant youtube videos.

[oldguy56-world]

Date Night

I am happily married so there is no need to go on any more dates in my life. Do I take my wife out? Of course I do but technically they are not dates because a date implies it is a meeting to decide whether or not you will end up with this person for the rest of your life. No pressure there. I suppose this means that people who date a lot are confused as to what (or who) they are actually looking for, or I guess it might just mean they are very horny.

Back in the old days of my youth there were numerous places where you could meet a person that could be a potential date/mate. Let's have a look at these.

Work. This was at one time a prime spot for finding people. Not so much any more. A lot of places of business like stores, offices, or just general working environments are now down to a couple of people. Good luck that the other person working with you is going to be your soul mate. But what if it is a large place with plenty of people to choose from? If you ask a person out and they say no, you cannot ask them out again or it is harassment. Don't even look at them. Ask out a second person and you are a predator. If someone says yes you better have lots of paperwork signed that it is okay. Perhaps it is a good thing that most places have people working from home. Saves a lot of problems. Now that people are working from home the only one they see in person on a daily basis is their cat, and well there are laws against that type of relationship.

Church. Do people still go there any more that aren't in their '80's? No thanks.

School. Seems like students are more interested in getting a degree these days than meeting a person. It is official. The nerds have won.

Bars. Everybody looked good in smoke filled rooms with a dozen tequilas in them. Remove the smoke, cut down on the amount of alcohol because the bars do not want to be sued, and everyone is a sane rational person who would never hook up with a stranger. Ever wonder why the birth rate is down...think about it.

Blind dates set up by friends. Who has real friends anymore? They are all virtual and living alone in their own parent's basement. No chance that their girlfriend/wife has a cousin who is nice once you get to know her. Best hope you have is that you make a connection with the Uber Eats driver.

Arranged marriages. Not common in many parts of the world but getting back to the point a couple of spots above ever notice that countries that embrace this activity have some of the highest birthrates in the world? Just saying.

I didn't even get into the cost of dating. Call me cheap but dinner and a move now costs an arm and a leg. You might only be able to afford one shot at happiness every 5 or six months so you better make it a good shot.

What is the main tool now? On-line dating. According to the profiles (Yes I did some research) everyone on these sites is wonderful. I have seen enough TV to know that they are never what they seem, and if you are old and they are young it is probably a man named Gus who is just scamming you for cash.

Even if they are legit no thanks. It was humiliating enough to ask out a woman and be turned down. How bad would it be if you post on a site that boasts thousands of members and no one swipes right on your picture?

I am happy to be married to my wonderful wife and not have to put myself through all of this dating nonsense. It is also the reason I do everything I can to keep my wife happy in life. She can do better, but I don't want her testing that theory.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK: There is no algorithm for love. There is no dating formula. If it is there, it is there.