I'm not entirely sure what to write here. It will most definitely change or be updated with time.
Part of what drew me to creating a website here to begin with was a growing discontentment with the way that technology and the internet has been going. I have no actual qualifications to speak on these topics beyond being a regular person who uses these things, but I figure I'm allowed to speak on whatever I want to on my own website. I've made some changes in my life in response to all of of this stuff that I'd like to speak on.
I don't really use social media much anymore. All I do is occasional YouTube, and occasional "(internet search) + reddit" to get actual results, as you do in 2025... Most of what I watch on YouTube is criticism on the current state of things, which is probably sending me further and further down that doomer hole. I dislike how everything has an algorithm now. how they're designed to send us into these narrow holes, and how we let them. And how I'm still letting Google do it to me by using YouTube. I figure at least I'm somewhat aware of it at least...
I switched to Linux in September 2024, after thinking about it and not wanting to take the plunge for so long. I went with Mint as despite using computers my whole life, I knew next to nothing. I was one of the many "I'll switch to Linux when Microsoft goes even further," people, and then Microsoft continued on their bullshit as time went on and I didn't act in response. What sparked the switch actually was seeing a meme making fun of people like that, and then I realised that it was making fun of me, and I decided that I might as well look into it as I'd just put together a new PC and didn't have much of anything that I needed to care about if I reset everything like that. I haven't regretted it for a second, I've become infinitely more knowledgeable in the past year than I thought I was capable of. Things just work and make sense in a way that Windows never did. The last time I saw a person using Windows 11 in person I felt so confused at what I was looking at. I've become the very thing I hated- I now softly suggest anyone in my life use Linux instead of Windows. God I used to find Linux fanboys so annoying...
I recently bought a cheap digital camera and I love it. It's one of the ways I've replaced the smartphone in my life. When I leave the house I take my camera with me and will take pictures of things such as dead animals I find (bone collecting hobby documentation), or the textures of metal and concrete to use for the art I create digitally. When I bought the camera, I bought an SD card, but apparently the camera cannot handle such a large SD card (128GB, was the cheapest at the store), so that was a bit of a waste. I'll find a use for it soon enough. The camera has a built-in storage of 100 photos, and I can easily transfer them to my PC with the included cord. It's easier than transferring photos from my phone. The pictures aren't the best quality, but that's part of the charm for me. I miss how things were when I was a kid, and I had a camera kind of like this as a kid.
And yeah, that feeling of missing how things were as a kid? It is the damn phone. I promise it's the damn phone. Of course we are adults now and will not genuinely feel what it's like to be seven again, but as far of what we can control is concerned- the problem is the phone. When I use the smartphone, I feel like I'm sucked into it. Like the rest of the word disappears and goes on without me. And it's incredibly disorienting to feel that when I do use it now. 95% of my smartphone usage is for texting my boyfriend, other than that I do not use it and I couldn't be happier with that decision. You know those memes where it shows two images, one more vibrant and colourful than the other, and it says something like "how the world looked when we were kids vs. now"? Try going without the smartphone as much as you possibly can. Not constantly staring at a bright colourful light box makes the real world so much brighter.