Since I was 11 or so, the first time I got access to the internet (yeah, it was pretty different back in Argentina in 2006), my first thought was how I could have my own website. I still don’t know why, but I loved the possibilities of the internet, and the idea of having my own rincón, my own sort of garden online where to put ideas, knowledge, personalize it, share it, and start conversations.
Social media became what I thought would be that opportunity, and for a while I tried my best to embrace it. It always made me feel weird, and my relationship with social media is complicated, and I don’t think things will improve over there.
Dumping millions of people together into decontextualised social spaces is a shit show. Devoid of any established social norms and abstracted from our specific cultural identities, we end up in awkward, aggravating exchanges with people who are socially incoherent to us. We know nothing of their lives, backgrounds, or belief systems, and have to assume the worst. Maggie Appleton
So I decided to switch off notifications, take some space, and it’s been amazing. Way less anxiety, no more getting lost in short dopamine triggers, short content, and every 15 seconds an ad. No lo extraño para nada.
A couple of months ago I found out about the idea of a digital gardens, and immediately things clicked. I knew that was the path.