Are you OK, babe? that's the 9th time in a row you've listened to Filter's 1999 single, 'Take A Picture'

In the world, there is a great dearth between the number of mistakes people will officially admit were made and the number of people accountable for them. Somehow, we are to believe that some mistakes are generated organically from unhealthy systems, that no one individual needs to step forward and accept responsibility. The people who put these systems in place are so likely to get off free.

I must admit that certain behavior I see in certain spheres has brought me to pause in thought. Many people want to indict the community of Twitter, even on Twitter- in the Discord server I'm in, we've made a habit of taking the piss out of people who wade knee deep into drama retweeting and repeating sentiments deriding people who stir up needless drama, and that sort of thing. And sure enough, quite often these same people turn right back around and do it again later. There's no accountability, or apology issued for previous behavior; on Online, you must never show vulnerability or your enemies will never let you live it down, and furthermore, your mistake brought you attention, approval, Likes, followers, and- let's face it- probably money. So they'll bully the next Protagonist Of The Day just like they did the last dozen, jump to absurd conclusions, make a parade out of how much they hate nazis/zoos/whatever else on their personal variant of the Wheel Of Things You're Not Supposed To Be.

Unfortunately, I smell it here on Cohost too. People come from other sites and say "boy am I glad this isn't like those other sites where harassment mysteriously happened." Who is the toxic element being left behind on Twitter? Can you name a single person from there who isn't here that is uniquely perpetuating the atmosphere more than others? Where was the harassment coming from?

We have to face the facts. If we can agree that "all the annoying tumblr people left for twitter", that the migration was the menace it was trying to escape, and if most people can acknowledge similar about Snouts/Mastodon and its cutthroat (and frankly, white-activist) culture bubbling underneath the toxic positivity, then we need to admit that the trauma we have inflicted on each-other passed through our own hearts and our own fingertips. We cannot leave accountability in the cloud when we still bear open wounds and grudges from lives past. We have to point to ourselves, prescribe the change in ourselves- even if we think we've already changed or were never really to blame, we need to vocalize our regret so that we can once again feel safe around each-other and prevent any defensive overreaction or spite from appearing.

Given what I am asking of the community, it's only fair that I start with myself. I have already addressed these things more privately on various occasions, but they're relevant, so here they are on the public record; I will leave them in the comments. I invite you to do something similar, either here or in some other way; resolve to do your best to heal the conflicts you have participated in or created. Our spaces need to have room- hopefully not just for mea culpa, but for forgiveness. I hope that the years have created enough distance between the versions of ourselves tied up in whatever compelled us to act those ways and the versions of ourselves that we can be now. I hope we can be better. I hope we can be kind.

Social media has long strayed away from its original purpose. What used to be an exciting yet familiar place on the strange, strange world of the Internet, now all we're seeing are (figuratively and literally) toxic waste. Ever since "entrepreneurs" found out a way to monetize the web, they all soon find out that personal data is the most lubricious of all. Thus all social medias nowadays, except smaller independent ones like cohost, are made with data harvesting in mind. All the algorithms, all the drama, all the clickbaits, all of that were created to feed the governments and advertisers data. In return, big social medias are earning millions while we are unconsciously selling ourselves away, for the sake of "convenience". With the downfall of various enterprises is in a foreseeable future, thousands are losing their jobs, we can only hope that we will not repeat our mistakes.

I have great hopes for the resurgence of open-source and indie web services happening these last few years. Cohost, Inkblots, Atmos, and many more are distancing themselves from the data harvestations, "decentralization technology", and pushing freedom of expression much further compared to most "bigger sites". I feel like we are truly going back to the root of Web 1.0, where the only limits for self-expression are the creators themselves. No DMCA, no deplatformation, only pure curiosity and wonder. Sure, it was a wild, wild time back then, with no lacking amount of "horror stories" but compared to the mockingly "sanitized" web we are seeing, is it truly that much worse? Or was it the opposite? The more we let the medias control us, the more idiotic we became.

Furthermore, I have trust in this generation. We have, and always had, the power to change the world. Everything constantly changes and we have the ability to steer it to a brighter place. Call me an idealist, but in these disturbing times, hope and dreams are all I have left. For every friends I've made in various forums, for every words of ecouragements through the screens, they are all the reasons I needed to still have faith in everybody.

I know that we can help each other to better. I know that we can be helped to be better. Only then that we can save ourselves on this sinking ship.

Truth to be told, I don't really have "beef" with anybody, I always apologize and try to fix my mistakes as soon as possible. I know that this will sound prententious, but perhaps if we conciously distance ourselves from trying to drag other down, we can take that first step to a better future, here on Cohost.

(I'd admit, this is some pretty controversial stuff. If anything I've said is wrong or if you would like to add your own takes then feel free to reshare or comment )

and now I can never go back to 1080p, there’s just so much room for my apps omg

(I had not gotten a new monitor in like 5-10 years)