704 days since the last update and counting
writing you from the mountains near Barcelona
Hi friends and family and maybe strangers,
This is not an update - this is a:
hello / reminder I am still doing this / platform test message
thought about social media.
note on what I am reading and listening to lately
Update to follow (soon but no promises)
At a certain point in the last 704 days while adding to an ever growing life update outline, I realized I love reading substack newsletters, yet I know virtually nothing about the platform.
So, here we are - on substack - together - virtually - across space and time.
I migrated 134 people from the last email over to this. One thing I realllllllly like about the move to substack is that it is SO much easier for anyone to unsubscribe! You don’t have to message me and have a direct conversation over email that the once-every-two-years emails need to stop. You can just unsubscribe anonymously and without fanfare.
This is and always will be free - what on earth would I be charging for? I am testing the different options for payment as a way to learn the platform and for anyone to cheekily send me a coffee or beer as moral support while I type the overdue update. Mostly this is a joke and way to see if anyone is out there looking at this. If something seems to be behind a paywall let me know so I can fix the settings because it was / is a mistake on my part.
and now…
an unsolicited thought on social media:
I really like knowing what my friends are up to, but I have only posted on my (now private) instagram AustinSomewhere three times in the last 704 days. I went on three trips that I essentially live-streamed and those are available as highlights in addition to the three main posts. That’s not enough to stay connected to the people I love. Not across thousands of kilometres and oceans. Not with the year(s) long breaks without in-person quality time.
I miss my friends and family. I hope they miss me back.
How do we share and receive updates in a way that is healthy and fulfilling? I hope the soon-to-follow-rarely-delivered message is one way. I hope to find a balance between letter writing (lovely but hard to keep up with) and using an app that serves you 94.28% content that is NOT your friends plus an ad every fourth image. I very infrequently use instagram or have the app on my phone (if that wasn’t clear) and I have never had a TikTok account (of COURSE I watch and enjoy the few videos people send me).
This week I found out about a 12 year old social media app I didn’t know anything about (imaaaaagine if I dropped a referral link right at this point?). You get a random notification ONCE per day to capture an image within the next 120 seconds (you can post outside of that two minute period but there is a note on the content for how late or early it was. still only one post per day it seems). The image includes both your front and rear camera (you and your place in the current context of your real life) and your friends are supposed to share at the same time. If all goes to plan, it sounds like you get a consistent and relatively genuine window into the lives of your friends. There are no ads from what I can tell. There are no public celebrity or theme based accounts to follow (yet sigh). The discovery page is what looks like a bunch of completely normal people I will never follow.
I’m interested. Am I the only one? Am I losing touch? Does this combine the promised benefits of technology with some psychologically safe boundaries? Is there a way to foster this type of online interaction in a way that doesn’t spike interest and attract financial and / or corporate influence?
Why does this interest me? What does this app do that other “social media” platforms are not doing?
Limit interaction with the technology (once per day you post, you only see people you know, one piece of content MAX per person)
Reduce performative (and professional) sharing culture (front and back camera, no studios, no crazy angles to hide the other tourists, you in a physical context)
Increase the amount of “real” life shared (similar but I think slightly different than the last point - if you share frequently you will more genuinely see into the lives of your friends, not just the highlight reel, not just the parties, not just the vacations)
Connect people across space WITHIN time (doing what only a phone call or video call could previously do, this experience defines the timing of when people share. It creates a novel feeling of connection and potential understanding of the person’s life at that moment. I remember the feeling I got when I first heard of the now invisible if not defunct “beats1 radio”. I was so captivated by the idea that if it caught on with my friends then we could be halfway around the world but listening to the same live radio station simultaneously and talk about that shared experience - live or later)
Protected from the “infinite scroll” and the long tail history of living online (content is only visible to everyone else until the next posting period which makes it much less stressful to share candid moments. Don’t have to consider how something you share will be perceived out of it’s context or much later in time. For example: You are celebrating a new job (congrats and I would LOVE to know this update! I really don’t like seeing this on LinkedIn as an archetypal thank you script positioning you for future employment)
Allow for genuine self-reflection (all your shares are saved for only you. If you post enough you can reflect on what is actually going on in your life holistically over larger timelines)
The complete absence of any advertisements (what a radical concept for life online. I haven’t downloaded a 3rd party app in years that doesn’t have some sort of permanent or freemium ad element. The benefits are obvious I hope)
footnotes:
1. As I was finishing this section up, the app told me it was time to post. I have been sitting in almost the exact same spot in my first three posts and THAT’S OKAY.
2. I have done exactly zero looking into the privacy terms for this app. I hope they are confronting the social media status quo on that front as well
Reading:
A Swim in A Pond in the Rain by George Saunders
fast-pace, educational, russian literature, short fiction, anthology
I purchased it at The Book Nook in Port Hardy, BC with Em, Camille, and Alistair on our trip up to the Northern tip of Vancouver Island at New Years for Alistair’s birthday. I had passed up on it a few times in various book stores including with Sophy at a store in New York City. I love George Saunders and this bookshop was really lovely in a remote place and I wanted to support it in my small way. I started reading it in early June on the way to meet Em at the airport in Berlin upon her arrival to visit me there for a week over her birthday. This book has a lot of birthday energy. Her flight ended landing up a few hours later than planned and so I was VERY early. I sat in the infamous and shiny BER airport reading and happily waiting. I love this book and hope to finish it today.
The Patch by John McPhee
classic John McPhee, memoir, narrative non-fiction, journalism, slice-of-life
I purchased it at Daunt Books, Marylebone in London, UK with Austin G. We were both on the hunt for John McPhee and could not figure out the organizational logic of the store. We did end up tracking down the only two McPhee books in the store before asking for help finding the non-existent others. They reported that no one in England publishes McPhee so they took it into their own hands and published “The Patch” themselves so they could have and distribute copies in the UK. The other book was the one on Oranges, it was in the Florida section. I don’t remember what section this book was in but it was about three shelves left, all in the welcome shelter of the basement room on a scorching hot day. John McPhee has live a lot of life. He might be an acquired taste as I have recommended him to people who never made it through their first book of his on multiple occasions. I imagine I will try to read every book he has every published - including the one about Oranges, though I will save that one for a the end of the list. I started reading it in London right after purchasing. I read one morning at a little cafe called Fortitude Bakehouse before work - smiling, laughing, and shaking my head. I found Fortitude because it served as the coffee spot after a morning workout ride with my colleague Sheree’s Thursday morning cycling group (laps around Regent Park - I wore jean shorts and rode my Brompton with a bag full of my work things on the front - thankfully Sheree also showed up quite casual and on a single speed which helped me blend in. We stayed in the slipstream of the group the whole time). It also served as the meeting spot for Austin G, Alex and myself before our 111 km ride to Brighton from London. I read this book each night last week on my way back to the mountains from the city. Each night grinning, giggling, and nodding to myself. So deep in the world that McPhee was sharing with me. His writing feels very personal, especially so this time. He is getting older (his words) and this could be his final published book, it feels like he wants it to be.
Listening:
Katy J Pearson’s Sound of the Morning [ spotify | apple | youtube ]
Bright, easy rock, a sunny, windows down drive at the end of summer
Pearson’s voice will NOT be for everyone (reminds me of the voices Aldous Harding sings through half the time). If that is the case, give the first song a skip. Join me for track two and roll the windows down. It’s an overall bright album that I serves as my morning alarm this week and a reliable soundtrack for biking with enough energy to keep the legs going without feeling turbo. This album is great and I am playing it a LOT, but I still like Pearson’s 2020 album "Return” more - if you listen to this and you’re on the edge, try that one.
Time Wharp’s Spiro World [ spotify | apple | youtube ]
Contemplative, jazz-leaning electronica, a quiet night stroll in empty city streets
Brendan sent me this record earlier in the week and said, “I think you’ll enjoy this album”. You thought correct. There is only one song towards the end that comes on and I think to myself, this would be better without this song. But maybe I am just still warming up to it. The type of record where I will never learn the track names and that’s because I put it on and leave it on. I had the most beautiful bike ride down into the city from the mountains the first time I listened to this. I took a wrong turn in a place where the streets were FAR too steep to retrace my steps and ended up in a ravine between a row of beautiful houses and raw forest on a single track hiking trail with my brompton. We made it in one piece.
and now…
my laptop is overheating, it’s 15h14 and I haven’t had lunch yet.
and that is how I decide the post is done and edited!
important work like this deserves the utmost scrutiny and YOU deserve a thank you for being a part of my life <3
talk soon
It’s sure looking like a newsletter!!
Got lots of smiles out of this one. Your friends miss you, too ❤️