On January 6th, 2005, something very unlike another January 6th years later happened: I started writing my first book. It was/is called The Fraud (not available to buy because it’s a first book and not great), and I wrote it chapter by chapter on my LiveJournal.
I loved LiveJournal, but it went out of style, and so I gave up on it, as younger folks do, finished The Fraud offline, and forgot about it.
Turns out, I missed long-form posts, so I started a blog called H. Claire Blogs around 2011 and I enjoyed the hell out of it. As did a bunch of people. But then Bluehost pulled some shit and it would cost me $400 to get it back up and running, and… fuck that. So I let the thing lapse and it no longer exists.
But it’s definitely time to start fresh. I miss long-form stuff.
I’m a novelist, so obviously I like long-form writing. I write under a few pen names, each with a different audience looking for different things from me in the books and emails. For totally practical purposes, I keep my pen names incredibly segmented. Funny things go to one list, cozy things go to another, and dark serial-killer things go to another.
Occasionally, I have something to say that doesn’t fall into those three categories, though. John gets tired of hearing about it, so I need another way to share it. For a while, the ideas that fall through the cracks of my existing audiences ended up on my @claireorwhatevs Instagram or Facebook.
Let me just say, I’ve been on social media since 2006 (not counting MySpace), and I’ve officially gathered enough data on this “social experiment” to determine that it’s scientifically icky. I don’t want social media to have any more of me than absolutely necessary.
Besides the obvious concerns I have about amoral tech bros with napoleon complexes deciding who gets to see my posts and manipulating my emotions and data in a million little ways, it’s also become so clear to me that we’re being trained to give almost nothing of human value to each other on social media platforms. Obvious bids for connection are ignored entirely or deflected with a heart emoji. The result is that record numbers of folks are inexpressibly lonely and low-grade irritated all the time.
Like, imagine someone posts a story on IG about how they’re struggling to get out of bed each morning (obvious plea for meaningful connection). The common response is a string of heart emojis below the post. That doesn’t make anyone genuinely feel heard or connected.
THE PERSON IS DEPRESSED AND LACKING PURPOSE AND CONNECTION, but sure, these hearts are super supportive. Cross “supportive friend” the to-do list for the day and move on.
Disconnection disguised as connection is a feature of social media, not a bug.
I’ve grown tired of seeing this and even more tired of fighting against it in myself. I prefer long-form communications anyway. I want to give ideas some breathing room instead of limited characters, and I want to listen and connect with people (you!) on these ideas in the comment section.
Bonus: your communication will not be lost in the hellscape of my inbox this way!
That’s what the Claireorwhatevs blog is about. I’m H. Claire Taylor, Claire Feeney, Brock Bloodworth, and Nova Nelson here. I’m Claire… or whatevs.
Let’s be online friends like it’s the year 2005 again.
Except, you know, maybe without the cyber bullying I experienced back then.