The name's Jessie! Village witch and user of too many exclamation points. Interests include anthropology, wildlife, cryptids, and horror. For now I work in a museum and after this, we'll just see where life takes me!
It takes work to curate your online spaces, but if you don’t do it, corporations will do it for you using a couple harmful key principles. 1) Negative emotions hold your attention better than positive emotions. 2) Calm/contented people are less likely to spend money.
Curate your online spaces starter pack:
Blacklist, block and mute at will. You don’t owe anybody anything.
Turn off those notifications.
Decide when you log on. Don’t use social media at breakfast if it will stress you out all day. Don’t use it before you go to bed if it will keep you up. Find a fun ritual to replace it, like a video game or craft thing.
Consider which platform allows you to avoid topics that upset you. For example: tumblr is kinda shit for fan fiction because everything ends up in the same tag. The older forum-style platforms are much better for finding content you enjoy and avoiding content you don’t.
Leave online communities that don’t spark joy. You don’t need to stay in a place where everyone is always fighting. You don’t need to stay in communities where you are afraid to speak your mind or to make mistakes.
Ask yourself: could this ‘debate’ also be a conversation instead? Don’t debate people who seek debate to upset you. Don’t debate people who seek debate to get an audience for bigotry. Don’t debate people who seek debate to win instead of to learn. Don’t debate people who do not acknowledge your humanity.
Repeat to yourself: doomscrolling is not activism. Nothing in the world gets better just because you read, liked and reblogged posts about how terrible things are.
[Tweet by Kingfisher & Wombat @UrsulaV: “O best beloved, if you are doomscrolling Twitter today, ask yourself if there is anything you can personally do. If there is, do it. If there isn’t, remember that anxiety is not activism. Your misery does not improve the world a single iota.”]
Being a historian is 10% teaching and 90% reading dead people’s diaries for fun
Oh. Man.
I bought a box of letters at a flea market once in like the early 90s. Spent like $5 on a big shoebox stuffed full. Got funny looks from my uncle (he took me) all the way home, and from my dad after we got home.
They were talking about Colorado becoming a state as it was happening. Births and deaths within the family. Even included was “baby’s first letter” - a piece of paper folded and sealed, then mailed to “Baby Bowker” since they hadn’t been named yet.
Absolutely fascinating! And donated to a museum years later.
It is crazy how the most everyday things can become beacons of historical study
This is why historians love it when people keep diaries!
This, exactly!
Actual physical diaries, written on paper (or cardboard or fabric or the freakin’ walls). Hell, written on clay tablets that are baked and kept in a closet, so we can shame you for poor quality copper!
Digital media is amazing. Blogs are a great way to record thoughts and do things, but… chances are pretty high that nobody will be able to access a blog from today in ten years. We’re already having major problems with that. Stuff that was brand new and top of the line just a few years ago is becoming obsolete and people can’t access it at all.
So, please, keep diaries! Write letters! Send postcards! Keep that physical media alive!
Last summer I found a box of literary journal submissions from an author local to where I grew up (which is a very rural area and was even more so back then), written in the early 1900s and boy I snatched those up SO FAST.
I’d like to try and publish them into an anthology, but I’m still in the process of trying to track down if she has any family still alive anywhere.
shaking six year old me by the shoulders YOU WERE RIGHT. YOU WERE RIGHT ABOUT LOVE AND ABOUT FAIRNESS AND ABOUT SHARING IS CARING. YOU WERE RIGHT. THE ADULTS DON’T KNOW ANY MORE ABOUT TRUTH THAN YOU DO. KEEP BELIEVING IN THE FAIRIES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE GARDEN. NOTHING IS “JUST THE WAY IT IS”. I AM SORRY THEY EVER CONVINCED YOU TO FEEL SHAME. YOU ARE REAL AND A PART OF THIS WORLD. YOU WERE RIGHT.
inside you, young transmasculine person, is a voice that will tell you not to like certain things because they’re For Girls. that is the voice of the devil, and you must never listen to it.
This month, Tumblr’s Artist Alley is highlighting some of Tumblr’s amazing LGBTQIA+ artists for #june on tumblr.
Are you an artist with a store or open commissions? Want more eyes on your work? Submit your art to Artist Alley for the chance to be featured across Tumblr.
