Social Media Fractures & New Spawns
A newsletter by L.V. Hartley / WOLF PIT MACHINE
NOTE: This will be a Long One. Not all emails will be nearly this long (probably).
THE WHY: Shift From Social Media to Scary Emails
If you are reading this, odds are you have submitted your email address to me to subscribe to the newsletter edition of Cursebearer Confidential, the perzine series that was original conceived, in fact, as an email newsletter. Ideally one that would keep the number of subscribers entirely unknown to me so as to tame my neuroses & keep me guessing as to my audience. Accepting the impossibility of such a feature that would never entice normal users of newsletter services, I decided ultimately to launch a newsletter anyways as a means of escaping social media. Not all social media for I still intend to use Instagram for the time being & sparingly use other platforms just to advertise time sensitive things like streams.
In the event it isn't obvious, let's ask the question: why leave social media? Why retreat into an online presence dominated by the seclusion of a personal site with newsletter updates? There's a number of reasons. For starters, I find scrolling on apps to be detrimental to my attention & often contributes to fatigued loops of mindless scrolling in place of more productive/enjoyable activities. Further, whilst the thrill of meaningless internet points can keep one going for a little bit, I'm finding myself a tad too impacted by them for my liking (not that I live or die by them at all - I simply shouldn't be sad that no one or a specific person didn't "like" my post). The only thing that is currently keeping me on platforms like Twitter is the ability to purge my inane thoughts by sharing them with a potential audience in a fashion that I might more easily get feedback on. As of the present moment, the only thing I've ever gotten feedback or comments on that I've posted on my site have been my Zinetober zines. It's nice to air out your thoughts & have people respond or otherwise engage with them in a way that requires little from them. Cursebearer Confidential, the perzine, was designed to provide a space for me to funnel these thoughts, but the nature of its release schedule & structure limits what I can write & doesn't satiate the need to express certain types of thoughts. Thoughts I am having at a great frequency because I am simply too thrilled with life right now & yearn to share my brain-spawns with the beautiful people that live behind my screens.
Okay, but why is an email newsletter the solution? As one blessed with the privilege of having never had an email job, there's something about emails I love ever since I experienced the power of breaking up with my first ever boyfriend via email. It's the digital version of my far more deeply beloved letters & can take shorter form without fear of wasting paper or postage. The thought that stirred me most into making this newsletter (beyond having a backlog of thoughts I would have otherwise tweeted) was the idea of sending an email part of the newsletter that just says "Are you mad at me?" Which is really funny to me. I won't spam you, fellow bearers of the curse, with emails though just because. Most emails won't be all that long either & might contain a list of thoughts that I would have otherwise tweeted or posted elsewhere. I'll also send out emails any time I do something cool I want to be seen. I won't take offense if anyone, even my beloved friends, tires of my emails & unsubscribes. I intend to ideally never find out by avoiding the section that tells me who is subscribed like the plague (if this is easy to do is yet to be seen).
Lastly, this is yet another experiment. I am making no solid commitments to this thing other than to give it a fair shot. If it no longer serves me or doesn't suit my needs, I'll abandon it without remorse. If I never tried this out, I might never know about something that could work beautifully for me.
NEW STUFF: The Latest from Yours Truly
** Uploaded the full scans of my celebratory birthday party zine created through the loving collaboration of my dear friends who attended!
UN-POSTED: Thoughts to be Purged
** Tormented by the ultimate temptation as I read Lynda Barry’s Syllabus: building classes/workshop groups of friends or others to informally teach more of what I know about art & my various disciplines. Paired with the joy of assigning work to people of my own design & having them do it. Mayhaps I am too high on the thrill of my birthday party activities.
** Extension of previous thought: Finished Syllabus (even felt moved to write a Goodreads review) I need desperately to do something like this or at least create a free curriculum of sorts as a next new activity. Maybe I can also turn it into a zine to hit multiple bases. I also want to either run or participate in a regular writing group/workshop at some point to work on my craft & hold myself accountable for meeting writing goals. Particularly with producing more short stories/poetry/essays.
** I find it so woesome to hear people say flatly "[they] can't draw." Like its a fact that they will forever be denied this elusive "talent" or that natural affinity is a legitimate enough thing one might possess to make pursuing creativity worthwhile. We afford grace for other skills & professions to practice/work tirelessly to obtain a skill less often than we afford it to potential artists. One needn't even pursue drawing with the aim of artistry for drawing can be for simple play or the utility of it.
** How long can an email newsletter be before my subscribes have permission to hunt me for sport? On this note: I am trying very hard not to look at the subscribers list so I have as little idea as possible who is finding my words (though of course anyone can look at the archive (I assume)). I have no expectations about this other than the hope that it will stop me from using social media. Subscribers are free to even immediately delete my emails or save them for a rainy day. How will I know? This is just the (seemingly) ideal system for those who really want to hear from me to get updates from me that they can take or leave at any time of their choosing without any obligation of response, even in the form of paltry internet likes (though I suppose you could still "like" an email by emailing me "Liked" - but I don't expect anyone to do that).
** My thrifting habits might have become something of a problem as I keep going outside my regular day & spending more money in general than I normally do. With current income, this isn't the hugest problem, but it's adding up & I'm contributing to my Abundance Of Stuff issue. I'm not buying things I'll never use though, I'm getting strictly things I'll use/wear & specifically a lot of wearables I plan to paint/print on that I suppose I could always sell too if there was any interest.
** FOLLOW UP: Thrifted something absolutely devious that I have to keep secret for some months & oh it'll be Really Good.
** Mourn me, fellas, I am slated to work as often as possible with this one nightmare kid at work jam-packed with behavioral issues who simply won't stop trying to make me flinch. This is the price I must pay for the first time working with him being apparently the best he's ever behaved.
For more:
wolfpitmachine.neocities.org
Got comments? Reach me at wolfpitmachine@gmail.com