Reading all the posts wrapping up this site make me hopeful for our internet future. I didn't post too much, but I loved this site the most. I've followed as many people as I can on itch, tumblr, bluesky and patreon, but if I missed any of you, I hope I see you again someday.
Bsky
Cara
Tumblr
Lauramakesart.com
I am truly not very active on social media at the moment, but when I start posting work again, it will likely be bsky and cara. I also plan to redo my website.
I'm gonna miss looking at this place like crazy.
So long, friends. Safe travels.
I wrote this out for a friend, and I am hoping my experience might help some others. I was hopelessly addicted to looking at twitter in 2019. I was losing time at work due to it causing me panic attacks.
While this is a bit of preaching to the choir on cohost, the truth is, if I was still where I was at in 2019, even the "better" aspects of this site would not have helped me. I had to make some drastic changes to my relationship with the internet to make a dent in my mental health. Replace "twitter" with any social media site in this post, and read it the same way.
I took action because I didn't want to get fired, panic attacks are bad, and I was becoming a generally more anxious, paranoid and unpleasant person to be around. If you spend more than an hour on social media everyday, I would so encourage you to try to spend just a couple weeks reducing your time on it. This post is less about why to do it, which I've seen a lot of posts on, this is on HOW I did it, which I've seen less of.
Here’s what worked for me:
Reblogging this cause I can't believe the timing of it. Opening bluesky isn't as bad as looking at the dumpster fire that was twitter, but it still feels bad to me, personally.
If you are really afraid for what your health will look like if you jump to another social media platform, I'm begging you to examine the fear. Have a plan! Tell yourself that you dont have to just have the numbers back in your life because this place is gone.
Safe internet travels, y'all. Don't forget what eggbug taught you.