Related Recs

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Not recording strangers in public and posting it on the internet

This has become the norm and every day I grow more disturbed. I understand if somebody is behaving in a harmful way, that is good to document and put out there. But as a whole, it seems, we have become so comfortable with recording people just living their lives. I saw a video of a guy working and the caption of the video was that he was so hot, we needed to find him!!! Why are you providing the Internet with his face and location instead of just going up to talk to him? I saw another of two people on the subway, seemingly a couple, having a very emotional moment. How would you feel if you open up an app and saw a video like that of yourself? I don’t like this level of sibling society surveillance. Why are you videoing an elderly person with sad music dubbed over it to gain likes? It is WEIRD. Don’t even get me started on videos of children. It is WEIRD to use a stranger without their consent to get some kind of fake validation. Get a life. I don’t mean to come on here and share something so negative, I just don’t have anywhere else to put it and it’s gnawing at me.

@mossyelfie

Oct 7, 2024

12

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oversharing on the internet

i read a instagram post (and am also reading all abt love) abt how oversharing on the internet is just a symptom of loneliness and a desire for community and attention and while i agree to some extent i love to Overshare bc i love to share pieces of my life and like to hear niche things from others too. like was it truly necessary for me to post that to the internet forever?? prob not in the grand scheme of things but how special is it that we can share specific memories or moments with each other through the air. maybe you will relate to it maybe not but it’s also nice to share a memory no?

@junebug

Jan 9, 2025

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not relinquishing your pre-digital memories to the machine

I made a Goodreads account recently and it asked me to rate some popular books I’d read before. Little did I know, every time I ranked a book, it would give me 5 more similar to that one, and then 5 more from that, and on and on until a neverending phylogenetic tree of books emerged on my screen. I was on FaceTime with my friend as I did this, and we compared which books we’d both read, ones we loved, ones we got forced to read in school, ones we read as preteens, etc. But half an hour in and no end to the Goodreads algorithm, but stuck in The Very Hungry Caterpillar-y children’s book branch of the algorithm tree that I couldn’t escape, I started to get mad. So I command-Q’d chrome and called it a day. This week I went back to organise my To Read list and to purge all the loose one-book memos on my notes app. My professor recently gave me her recommendations on queer literature and I wanted to properly organise them. On my profile it said I’d already read some 100+ books and I’d given them all 5 star ratings. Ok well now that’s pissing me off. Why is there digital clutter on my brand new account, and why did I give all that information to them anyways.? I love to categorise, but did I really need to log my readership of the individual 39 Clues books? I feel similarly about when I first downloaded letterboxd and it made me go down a similar never ending algorithm of potential movies I’d watched before. I did spend an unreasonable amount of time swiping through those movies trying to remember if I really did watch Horton Hears a Who in 2008(?) or not. Why do I feel the need to share this with the algorithm? genuinely what purpose does this serve me? Why am I volunteering memories from my 7 year old self when I learnt English by reading Geronimo Stilton books for the first time? Anyways, I deleted all the past data from my Goodreads account. There’s only logs from my current reads, and the list of books I want to read next. There’s comfort in organising and seeing your life laid out in list/grid categories, like unlocking achievements on video games - oh did you know I read so and so and yeah I was a pretentious little bitch in high school and every YA book I read in 2013 has gotta be logged and But there’s another type of comfort in keeping that information away from the internet where they’ll find a way to use that data against you. I can‘t think of a single occasion I’d need personalised ads for the chick-lit books I read in primary school but I know the algorithm is going to eventually find a way to sell my nostalgia back to me somehow… I‘m going to open any of my little apps and see hyper specific #ad on my screen. I know I’ve given so much of me away online already - and look what I’m doing right now(!) , sharing my interests and recommendations to strangers online hah .. I won’t lie about the fact that it brings me joy to live online - it’s been my playground for so much of my life - Like sorry I am literally the internet explorer -But there was a time before I lived on the internet. I don’t think they need to know everything about Then. I recommend not giving up everything about yourself to the machine

@emibee

Mar 8, 2024

Top Recs from @theclack

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A Spoonful of peanut butter with chocolate chips

The perfect lil snack for when you don’t want a big snack

@theclack

Apr 3, 2024

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Take selfie through a toilet paper tube to be the moon

@theclack

Apr 1, 2024

5

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"How have you been spending your time lately?"

We're long overdue in thrusting "What do you do?" into the sea forever. It's time we collectively get down to what people are interested in instead of minimizing their vibrant existence by asking how they make money.

@theclack

Mar 22, 2024

10