Journal on Mary Seph's Small Musings

I Love Blogging ❤️‍🔥

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 17:57:28 -0500

All that writing about the Fediverse made me a bit nostalgic about Sharkey, another microblogging software like Mastodon. The UI is to die for and it has so many more options compared to Mastodon. It was also really easy to get started.

Alas, what I truly need right now is a blog. I don’t want to worry about innundating my followers timeline with long posts like today’s (unless the signed up for that). I’m leaning towards RSS feeds subscription instead of follower count because I don’t have to worry about who is reading and any potential reactions. This is about me for me. It’s not social media because there are no pretty much no social features. The only way to interact with these posts are through a micro.blog account. micro.blog may be a social media but it’s social features are minimal and I don’t use the emojis. Thus, this is a blog. This is a blog! A blog where I can write what I want. Write for myself. It’s just so liberating.

Reflections on Experience with Social Media and Ending on a Positive Note

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 17:13:40 -0500

It’s really funny in a not funny way that to build connections on social media the users also have to suffer all the shit that people throw into it.

My biggest gripe of mainstream Mastodon is the same as other corporate social social. No sense of community, no boundaries. People who don’t add content warnings to upsetting non-illegal content (ex. complaints), people who don’t tag political toots.

I got so tired of sanitizing my Mastodon feed that I felt I had to be on my toes every time I scrolled through my feed. It’s like people don’t even consider how their words could affect others. It’s like people are talking at the reader and not to them. It feels condescending, childish, and it gives me a negative opinion about that person’s character.

This issue of all mainstream social media is incredibly complex and my frustration fuels my fascination with human behavior in digital spaces. On the one hand there’s freedom of speech while on the other the mental health of the casual reader. Decontextualization is also a pretty issue. The whole quote toots/retweets function.

I got a bit carried away with my fascination with anti-social behavior. I was complaining about social media not doing a dissection of human behavior, wasn’t I? Ah yes, the first paragraph was about how I had to metaphorically dig through a pile of negativity in an attempt to forge professional connections. That was a huge commitment! And at the cost of my mental health! My precious and fragile mental health. So yes, a few weeks after changing instances, I couldn’t keep checking my feed. The risk reward balance was (is) skewed against me. Thus, after maybe a month or two, I started feeding some Mastodon mutuals feeds into my reader.

Writing all of this down… makes me feel pretty good! I don’t feel like I should best myself up for being unable to hold a social media presence and stay at the fringes of the interwebs. I’m working on my website and enjoying it a lot. I’m learning web dev and improving other skills. I’m Doug okay and I mean that! I’m doing my BEST! My best is all I can do!!! (^_^)

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 15:52:37 -0500

I am inundated by worry and doubt. Do I really want to write as a living? Reading these articles from The Open Notebook make me feel unpleasant in a way I cannot describe. What do I really want?

Am I unable to write because I do not want to, or because I have convinced myself I am unable to? I can’t seem to make heads or tails from my feelings.

I am lost and do not where to go.