felicia-richard

Did you hear about Myspace potentially coming back? Although I was a Friendster kid back in the good ol’ days, those platforms were the things you looked forward to checking after coming back from school. You go to your computer and check if you have any new comments, do some HTML coding to change your profile’s background and/or blasting your current favourite song whenever somebody visited your weird, little corner of the Internet.

Now, arguably, this website is my weird, little corner of the Internet. I have missed the idea of checking out what people I genuinely interested in are posting today rather than scrolling mindlessly on Instagram after a long day at work. Truth be told, I love the idea, but do I have the mental capacity to do any more reading after a long day of work? Maybe not. But do I hanker for the good days of reading someone’s thoughts that are not AI slop? Yes, absolutely yes.

Are We Tired of Social Media Yet?

Instagram wants a Reel. TikTok wants a hook in the first 1.7 seconds. LinkedIn wants a “3 lessons I learned…” post. X wants hot takes. YouTube wants thumbnails that look like you’re being held hostage. The dominant internet model of the last decade was:

Make something → post it → optimize it → chase engagement → repeat.

Everything became a performance — and I am so done with it (gasp: em dashes making an appearance. Relax, I write this post myself. Except for that first paragraph of this section though – yeah that one ChatGPT helped me to come up with that.)

Don’t get me wrong though. I still enjoy watching day-in-my-life Youtube vlogs. I recently dabbled into the world of vlogging too. Probably not my area, but who cares? Yup, that’s it. Who cares? The performative side of social media is the bit that I particularly am tired of. It’s almost like you can’t really be messy online anymore.

My Own Little Corner of the Internet

That brought me here today.

If you have the unfortunate experience of speaking to me and seeing how I struggle to remember what is the English word for belacan for example, you’d think writing blogs wouldn’t be the kind of ‘content’ I’d go with. I actually enjoy writing — it will take me days though. This post alone took me almost a week to finish. But that is exactly how I want to go about this. I want a space that feels like my own. I do not particularly have a single niche I’d like to be known for. I intend to fill up this space with topics around my travels, my love for makeup, some cheeky cocktails I’d probably regret in the morning, and what I think about The Execution of Lady Jane Grey painting.

Maybe we’re not trying to recreate the old internet. Maybe we’re trying to reclaim some of what we lost when the internet became a feed.

Thoughts?