It's been a thrilling couple of months since I decided to shift my attention and focus online. As much fun as I've had, it's not a sustainable way to go through life on the internet. That I was able to create and maintain the kind of tension necessary to make it this far, without sacrificing too much quality of real life, is really kind of miraculous. It's time to move on though.
In my last blog post on this subject, I was unsure of the direction I wanted to go. I think now the vision is more clear. The primary goals of raising this child and rehabbing this building remain. They're what brought me here to begin with. Beyond that, I think the best strategy is to build a three legged stool of social media, the website, and real life. I think with the general state of things, it's time for my news boycott to end. It's already started to crumble, but now is the time to start engaging with current events deliberately, and I need to keep myself informed in order to do so effectively. My hope is that, similar to social media, the prolonged absence from news will allow me to craft a healthy media diet from scratch.
As for social media, I'm going to begin engaging on Bluesky. My strategy on Threads was always shoot from the hip, but with Bluesky I want to take a more thoughtful approach, be more targeted. Lone wolf, tactical warfare, in the trenches type stuff. I think the primary aim there will be to nudge the center-right into identifying as center-left. This shouldn't be too difficult, as from a policy standpoint, the two positions are nearly identical.
This does not mean I'm done with Threads. There are too many good friendships that exist there, too many laughs to be had, too much space for new connections to be made. The platform has had a positive impact on my life, and I see no reason to change that. I'd like the space to return to a feeling of spontaneity, with experiences falling within a broad emotional spectrum. As it returns towards stream of consciousness, I would like to make it clear that all subposts will be about IRL people. I'm mulling over the idea of making it private, but I'm currently undecided on that one.
As for the website, I expect the blog to track the process, offer occasional lore drops, and produce material that reflects this overall shift. I'd like to be able to add media that engages with these topics in a variety of formats, and I think the website itself is set up to expand in these directions fairly easily.
This leaves my real life. I think the best entryway into expanding my work there is through the local church. I've talked a lot about my relationship with the pastor, and I truly owe him so much for being able to make it this far. The church already works with a lot of secular nonprofits in the area, and I think volunteering to aid those efforts will be a good use of my time. With the decay of society and a need for new models, it's my belief that immediate physical spaces will play a pivotal role in building what comes next. My aim is for these efforts to have a positive impact on the trajectory of my village, and hopefully offer a model for others to engage with their local communities.