right here📍
A digital newsletter curious about social culture, technology and wellbeing.
My childhood was filled with silent soft smiles. Passing strangers on the sidewalk or finishing a transaction at a counter, people who were making a transition to or from could often be caught with a smile or grin on their face, if only for a second. It makes me sad that I don’t get to say thank you or even give just a silent smile to the barista at the coffee shop anymore. Not because I don’t see them, but because I can now order my cup 10 minutes before I enter the physical location eliminating my requirement for human interaction when I get there. I already ordered just by tapping the glass in my pocket that never leaves my side.
I enter the shop and look for my name printed (from a computer, these days) in small font and black ink on a little white sticker identical to the 12 other cups perfectly arranged in line waiting to get picked up. I reminisce about a time before iOS and Android applications, order-ahead options and lock-screen reminders to know precisely when my coffee will be ready, or my parking expired.
I miss the uncertainty of regular moments (pre-pandemic and even pre-iPhone, honestly). The moments when you get to see someone unexpectedly in the parking lot, in a market aisle or even on the road at a stoplight. Maybe this isn’t happening around me anymore because I moved to a big city very different than the Midwest. Maybe it’s because we as a population aren’t as relaxed as we used to be (thank you, pandemic) and hold a lot more fear in our bodies. I’m really not sure.
Or maybe it is because most of the interactions we make with humans or commerce today are digital, behind glass, and aren’t being verbally expressed like they used to be. Things were more accessible when we could hear information in our environment. Now, we have to go tapping and searching for it, hoping someone will mention it. I moved to Los Angeles three years ago. Initially frustrated that the pandemic was still happening and I wasn’t able to go into an office environment to do my work. The classroom, and eventually the newsroom environment I learned from in all my previous years of schooling taught me so many real valuable skills simply by trying and showing up. I expected I could do the same learning when I got to my full time job. Good joke, Miss Rona!
We need to spark more organic conversation, and not just talk about what someone posted or what some company shared online. I had a horribly mean incident happen to me on Facebook in the seventh grade. The most important detail from that time in my life is this: it made me hate the internet. I will never forget what it felt like to see those posts on my feed, and the sentiments that were expressed about me by girls I thought were my friends.
The more we interact online and become engrossed in internet culture, the more I realize I’ve lost some abilities to smile at strangers or have an optimistic outlook on uncertainty. It’s hard for me to remember how things worked or how we interacted with each other before the internet was even a possibility (obviously, because it was before my lifetime). If you asked me to go knock on my neighbors door and ask for a cup of sugar, I genuinely would feel really uncomfortable. Not because of the task, but because I know that in today’s social climate, a random person knocking on your door unannounced implies a lot of things that don’t match up with an innocent cup of sugar. And rightfully so!
In more recent years I’ve learned that while there are definitely a lot of terrible pockets, the internet is not all bad. It isn’t impossible to find things online that can make us feel good: a concept I had a hard time comprehending at 12 years old. right here is my effort to (hopefully) bring some good feelings to your inbox. Next week, I’ll be sharing a list of little learnings I’ve relied on in my first couple years living on my own as a ‘real adult’.
I hope you will follow along with me as I share my stories, some songs I’ve been listening to and some questions you can take with you the next time you see your friends, or anyone! I am very new to the whole digital newsletter thing, and appreciate hearing from you! If you see any opportunities for change, please do let me know!
Songs for enjoyment
Questions to take with you
If your body was a paintbrush, what would you paint? How? On what surface?
If you could prepare a meal with anyone, who would it be? Why?
If your favorite artist could write you a song, who would write it and what would it be about?
I hope you enjoy it! You’ll always be able to find it right here.
Take really good care,
Michelle