Joy in Despairing Times

Seriously, how are you doing? It‘s been a while…

Frankly, an intense workload and the steady tasks over at my music blog keep me occupied enough. And ever more often, I crave some time away from the screen, small and big. Away from the noise and violence and enshittified web. I crave some sense of reality, physicality, and humanity.

I can’t shake the notion that we’re being led down a path we all instinctively feel is wrong. Yet, some sort of collective paralysis sets in, rendering it impossible to steer away from the cliff—even though we can see it unobstructed on the horizon. Authoritarians on the rise, inaction, AI-generated slop filling our feeds.

The sensation in my chest swings between anger, resignation, and profound grief for what could’ve been.

I used to passionately and optimistically argue for the opportunities this digital age can bring us. Communities, transparency, and agency.

Today, algorithmically boosted rage, clickbait, and sensationalism dominate while we’re drowning in a sea of pointless and soulless artificial content. Ever fewer things feel real or human or infused with any kind of emotion. It’s the same feeling I expressed a bit more than a year ago. Only that it subjectively got worse. Hence the grief.

Is this why we see the rise of podcasts? Because we can hear the coughs, the throat clearing, the silence of thinking?

There are some nooks and niches, obviously. They’re small, hard to find, and full of friction. And while friction is probably what we need more of, I find it challenging to detach myself from a decade of refined analytics and the promise of massive reach. Chasing virality, gathering higher stats—that was and still is a primary objective.

I can’t tell if it’s how we‘re wired or something we’ve been conditioned to think, but getting 100 likes on Instagram is more compelling than getting 10 likes on Pixelfed. And I wonder if alternative platforms like Bluesky are digging themselves a grave by embracing the same statistics as the gigantic incumbents.

But: what even are quality metrics?

So, this is the third day I’m trying to distil any kind of coherence, meaning, or even a single grain of positivity from this disjointed babbling. I’m generally a cautious optimist, but recently, I found it hard to carry this mantle.
And maybe that’s why I’ve mostly been radio silent here: because I can’t keep ranting and ranting. It’s a catharsis once in a while, but also a toxin on longer stints. And without even a slight sense of a positive solution… what can I honestly write that’s worth reading?

Day 4. Time to find a way out of this mess. Despite all the negativity and despair and Weltschmerz, I encountered some things (in the web and the real world) that sparked joy or tickled my curiosity. I think sharing these—in the hopes they might do the same for you—is the best for now.

So, here it goes:

1. Dataguessr. An intriguing daily guessing game by David Bauer.
2. Halide. A photo app that removes the over-the-top processing by Apple.
3. Pixelfed. Finally started a personal account to share some photos.
4. This conversation with Cory Doctorow.
5. This conversation with Richard Taylor and Greg Broadmore from Weta Workshop.
6. Look At Us by Archive. And Eldhaf by Múr. And many more.
7. A cast-iron pan by STUR.
8. Painting tiny plastic figures.
9. Writing this list. I recommend you do the same for yourself.

As for this blog here, I don’t know how it’s going to shapeshift in the future. Maybe just some thoughts and stories for now—occasionally.