#misrepresenting source

[a-miniature-constellation]

We don't talk about the feeling of "misrepresenting" our source enough, despite it being a decently common thing from what we've encountered. Especially within the factid community (and even more so within the "identifying as" part of the factid community), which is what this post is going to focus on, despite it by no means being an exclusive experience. We've just seen it tenfold there, likely due to a lot of discourse that comes from just having a factual identity.

The feeling of misrepresenting your source is something we've experienced a lot. That feeling of double guessing "am I doing this right?". Of "would my source feel this way?", "would my source say that?", "do I match up enough to count?". This goes double if part of your identity *doesn't* align. Maybe it's a different gender. Maybe it's a different partner/feelings about the partner you had in source. The guilt, the feelings of being invalid, of double guessing "is this even really an identity of mine?". They creep up out of nowhere. It's easy to get lost in it, especially when you're still new, but honestly it can come just as strong years in. And it takes over everything. It's one of those feelings that just engulfs your brain, making you double guess *everything*.

Like I said, it's something we're familiar with. Especially since we have such close interaction with so many of our sources. Hell we're friends with some of ours. It's easy to get caught up in that questioning of being similar enough. We find this is truest for our factives (not many folks with other factional types have fronted enough to confirm beyond factives) compared to our fictives, who seem to be able to handle the feeling a lot better. Something about just being a factive of another person makes us feel like we have to represent them correctly. We have to be a copy of them, and we can't have any deviations. Maybe it's because we're held to such higher standards by the alterhuman community. We either have to 100% source separate or be 100% the same. There's no room for anything else. Maybe it's because we're afraid they'll see we're different and get mad at us for, being us?

But that's the trick to all of this. You can't misrepresent someone by existing as yourself. A part of having a source (and identifying "as") is you're a version of them, not an exact copy. This doesn't make your identity any less real, but it does mean things will just naturally be different at times. And that's okay. It's okay to have a different typing style, a different gender, a different partner. Because in the end we're us. We can be our own person while still being/having our source, and that doesn't invalidate our identity at all. And of course it's easier said than done. Dealing with feelings, especially when there's so much outside influence, always is. But that bit has been a good base to fall back on when we need it honestly, so we're hoping it'll help someone else too.

[astralleywright]

lots of people interpreting Ashton's "i want the gods to pray to us" devoid of the context of the lines directly before and after it, so here's the full quote: "in my darker moments, that's what i want, is i want to see them pray to us. i want to see them ask what we want." it was not intended to be a statement, but an admission, and it wasn't about worship at all; its about the fact that Ashton spent his whole life praying to any and all gods for some safety or healing or comfort and got nothing, only for them to finally bother to show up when he and the Hells became useful or inconvenient.

[fazmid]

need to preface this by saying piracy is cool and rad and necessary for media preservation but it's really obvious that the internet archive has no legal (legal, not moral) leg to stand on when you can just upload a whole ass video game to it and allow unlimited/unrestricted downloads. why keep insisting you're a library/archive at this point. like I don't care about the legality of what they're doing personally but I am confused by why they think they can defend it in court when they're barely distinguishable from a torrent site

also if you, like me, have seen the link to disco elysium on the internet archive being passed around tumblr, bluesky, reddit, and wherever else recently: no it was not uploaded by Kurvitz himself (I don't understand this bit of misinfo?) and it was not just added recently, but uploaded two years ago now. you should still click the link if you see it though because piracy is cool and rad

[wonderingabout]

i am so horrified by the war in gaza and i am outraged by netenyahu and so upset by what i hear on the radio! i hear such awful things in the bbc so i try to find confirmation of it in other news sources and i can’t lol and then i don’t know what to believe.

[bunnyboy-juice]

GRAAAAAAAH MISREPRESENTING DATA DOES NOTHING FOR ANYONE EXCEPT FEED TROLLS WHO ARE TRYIGN TO TAKE OYU IN BAD FAITH ANYWAY OH MY GD

[ghostcond]

writing anything wizard related is an exercise in “how much can i headcanon in this world before i start to sound insane”

[ourstarsystem]

The sources listed in that initial article (such as this one) specifically targets research on teenagers and primarily only teenagers. The one I linked just now outright stated that there are several issues regarding research on phone addiction, stating:

"There is a need for a useful conceptualization of the term and a limitation of the boundaries between abuse and addiction and the weight of psychiatric comorbidities, where it is difficult to determine whether problematic use coexists with or is a consequence of them, which becomes more complicated in combined behavioral and substance use addictions."

On the other hand, the majority of the studies have focused on the adolescent and student populations, a period of life where impulsivity and sensation seeking play an important role. Thus, we consider that the concept of cell-phone addiction cannot be extended to the population as a whole until additional data and studies on the adult population are available.

Essentially, this is another issue of correlation =/= causation. It's about the same as arguing that videogames and adhd are linked for example, which people seem to interpret as "I need to make sure my kid plays less videogames so they don't become adhd" and not "my child who has adhd is more likely to spend a lot of time playing videogames because they're quick and easy ways of seeking stimulation".

This need for constant phone attention may likely be more of a sign that in this late capitalist landscape, there are fewer ways in which we're achieving meaningful engagement with others and our environment. We're working longer hours with less time for ourselves and people in our lives. Public spaces aren't accessible both physically and monetarily, and they are also diminishing.

People who are anxious and depressed (and poor!) aren't going to be going out and engaging with a world that makes them anxious and depressed, they're going to be engaging with a space that's more accessible and readily available. There's also the fact that we've created a second "world" for us online, with people to engage with and new things to find at the tip of our fingertips. New obligations that we invest our time into and is reasonably difficult to pull away from as a result. Companies are noticing all these factors and are definitely taking advantage of it, though

But boiling it down to "phone bad, that's why you're not creative anymore and why you're depressed and anxious" is a gross oversimplification. As far as sleep goes, turning off electronics an hour before bed might be enough to help (same with your lights!)

I wish it was easier to talk about mobile phone addiction without sounding like a boomer

[awogga]

lord give me the strength to protect my parents from generative ai

[vermilionstarlight]

wait nevermind I'm looking in the notes of that last post I reblogged and she is mocking someone for "believing in Uyghur discrimination [in China]" and citing pinkwashing and putting gay rights in air quotes. the latter could be explained as genuine criticism of western governments and not explicitly homophobic (cuz they DO often insincerely use queer rights as a cudgel while genociding trans people domestically and such), but the former is just reactionary shit?

they may just be a dumbfuck. if they respond with some reactionary shit im blocking them.

[hum-cyber-scan-suggestions]

Communications to someone that mislead them into undertaking activities that might in some circumstances make sense, but because the communications do not originate from the source they are perceived to, the activities do not make sense

[hunter-djura]

Hard agree.

Additionally, as someone with ADHD - I'm aware of how time affects relationships. It's no mystery that people change over time and so too must your relationships.

It's not front of mind, but I doubt that most people think of their less contacted friends in such a systematized way either.

Speaking of; Friendship 'mechanics' is quite telling.

[gottfrieds]

it is amazing to me, in recent years, how many people are actively dismissing two of the most basic, core tenets of infection prevention (keeping hands and surfaces sanitized)

[scooberdiver]

the thing about enjoying media with canonically plural characters is like.... it's most definitely Not Like That At All. but hey it would be super cool if it was !!!!

[gothprentiss]

one ‘conspiracy theory’ (or whatever be nice to me i’m tired) i’ve come up with whole cloth is that i don’t think the erfurt latrine disaster happened. i will be reinvestigating this. but like what i recall from the last time i got suspicious is a single roughly contemporary and unsympathetic source for like 50 people drowning in shit and i was raised to not believe in medieval chronicles. dragons over northumbria and so on. one of many fundamentally misunderstood genres which are frequently confused with responsible historiography in ways we are only really recently beginning to unpick

[miinos]

saw a post that was like "teddy bear build" and it was just a muscular guy who wasn't toned and. ooiuuvvvh I got a headache so fast

[deadnotsleepng]

sry but it does piss me off when people take everything in a video essay for granted, especially when i know for a fact that something is not true, and it took me less than 3 minutes to confirm that and prepare citations. just because some guy tells you something does not mean its inherently true. ESPECIALLY IF HE DOESNT PROVIDE SOURCES