#and even a lot of my online life tbh

[inaris-mage-of-storms]

Evening plans: lay on the floor and have Feelings about a Discord server apparently

[oh-meow-swirls]

i think this was funnier in my head.

[nachosncheezies]

Something that I have observed, in life and in fandom spaces, is that vast cultural and linguistic differences are often unknown, and this has become especially apparent as social usage of the internet has grown worldwide. It's no one's fault. Nobody is "less than" or unintelligent or whatever else for not recognizing it. It's simply something that you can't really know, I think, without being directly exposed to it either by education or personal experience.

I've been lucky to have been something of a nomad, but that comes with its challenges which go way beyond the practical or homesickness. I can say that even within the English language there are VAST regional and cultural differences in modes of expression. Interestingly, the folks I've known who MOST seem to recognize it are linguists and especially professional translators - professions where a recognition of the importance of localized metaphor, unspoken nuance, idiomatic expressions, etc, are absolutely KEY to success. But I digress.

Based on my own experience, I believe that internationally common tongues sometimes fail us to a degree because of this. In some places, culture is more "individualized" - a sort of "what can I do" which often includes a sort of "me against the world" outlook. (I do not mean selfishness. Not at all. I mean it's a starting point, not a goal.) Presenting one's thoughts can best be accomplished by conveying strong, even absolute conviction in one's position, which - "me against the world" - can lead to generalized and sometimes forceful statements. At home, that would be a starting point for discussion and debate, and would be returned in kind. In other places, discussion takes more of an "improv comedy" style, wherein "yes, and..." is the mode of debate. In still others, the places and types of silence can convey just as much about someone's position and can be just as persuasive as words themselves. Sarcasm is especially regionalized, and conveyed differently from place to place. Body language is universally important in adding nuance or clarification to any statement in any place. Put these sorts of things in a blender, and you can easily find misunderstandings where some come off aggressive or as "talking down" to others, others unusually meek, still others appearing to agree when actually, they are not agreeing at all, etc.

I have also observed that in real life situations, differences in regional accents afford a certain amount of grace toward these differences, even when we're not actively conscious of any of the above. (This, I can say with absolute certainty, because I have also lived in a few places long enough to have taken on a floating accent, and when I'm visiting any of these places for more than a day or so, that grace if I stumble back into other modes of expression disappears with whichever accent I got off the plane with 😂)

Unfortunately, online, we don't have this constant audible reminder that a person is something of an "other" coming from some other place where modes of communication may be different. Even people who deal with language as their professional bread and butter can easily forget in online spaces. We tend to hear whatever we read in our local accent, and things such as metaphor and sarcasm may be misconstrued, "individualized conviction" modes may come across as shocking and rude, or the many and varied uses of silence may go completely unnoticed, etc.

Anyway. If you have read this whole novella, thank you. 💕 I have debated posting something like this for a looong time, because I wonder sometimes if conflict I see within fandoms (and educational groups, and professional groups, and and and) might arise, fundamentally, from these sorts of misunderstandings. I do not intend it as a callout to any person or group of people. Perhaps, hopefully, simply food for thought.

[shadowfan2002]

i'm finally gonna try to set up with a new therapist tomorrow btw so hopefully i will be posting less about my Mental Health problems. i know i usually delete those sorts of posts like instantly but. 👍 i can't wait to have a chance at being a somewhat stable somewhat functional person. this has been a really nasty year for my mental health i'm like back in the sort of pits i thought i escaped years ago. except i didn't actually escape anything It's all been dissociation that's coming up to bite me in the ass really really hard. So hopefully having someone to talk to about dissociation and trauma and such instead of bottling it all up will help a lot

[beeseverywhen]

Saw a post talking about how it's stupid that literary analysis is seen as this boring excruciating thing and yep. Couldn't agree more. But it got me thinking about how much I love how ppl on this site talk about ideas that were traditionally pretty inaccessible things, restricted only to an academic elite, so casually. Like yeah there's no running from how there are people here who are determined to be anti intellectual and those that have their head up their own arses and are determined to think that they are way more intellectual than they are lol but there are even more people just talking about these ideas casually and I just think that's so important and so cool and honestly that's what the internets all about??? Its about getting exposed to people and ideas you never would have gotten exposed to irl.

Like its so fun! I love that ppl talk about philosophy and sociology and literature analysis as these everyday things that you can joke about and make memes about. Yeah loads of you are wrong lol and tumblr is the home of net zero information, but acting like there aren't idiots spouting shit in every university worldwide is ridiculous. Sometimes people are wrong and they are really sure they are right! And part of the fun of learning is accepting that and reading between the lines. Being ready to challenge people and challenge your own ideas! Yeah I just love it tbh. I love getting to see ppl sharing this specialist knowledge like it's nothing. I've been introduced to so many fascinating ideas and texts through tumblr. I love to bump in to someone raving about their speciality and let what they've told me lead me in to a total wormhole of research and end up knowing way more about an idea I never would have even considered

[magentagalaxies]

sometimes i'm just awake in the middle of the night and it suddenly hits me all over again that i'm literally only halfway through college and already i'm making a film with my number one comedy hero????? like what the hell that's the type of goal i expected to be chasing for my entire career but it's happening now!!!

[theygender]

I finally got up the nerve to ask my spanish professor if I could use the nonbinary pronoun elle in class and I was worried the answer would be no since it's not an official pronoun, but he said yes! I got to use the correct gendered words for myself on my test today, and I didn't know just how much gender euphoria writing out the phrase "cuando era niñe" and ending my adjectives with -e was gonna give me but I'm gonna be happy for the whole rest of the day now. I'm also glad bc like... now if any other nonbinary students want to use a pronoun that matches their gender in their spanish class it should be easier for them. I've already done the hard part of coming out to my professor at a community college in the bible belt, explaining the movement for a gender neutral spanish pronoun to him, and providing him with resources from a spanish LGBT organization. And I let my pride club know what he said so now if any other students ask the organizer about using nonbinary pronouns in their spanish class she'll be able to tell them that the prof is okay with it 💛

[yoohyeon]

I does one start to sell things like art online 😭

[astrxealis]

whenever i see a ff fan who is somewhat close to my age and is into like. vi and x alongside xv ix etc it just makes me happy awhh

[gothcarmelasoprano]

maw why are these troll accounts linked through my ex best friends STILL following me

[autisticlassiedog]

Well, fellas.... Not to self dx, but I'm reading the criteria for autism and like.... things are making a littleeee too much sense

[amethystcove]

incoherent ramblings ahead !

[kanameows]

got to love how the bees and undead had such polarising normal polls while jun easily swept eden's poll with an 83~%

[spideyhexx]

I also live with my parents, never really go out, and want to date... but also don't. I know the struggle Kit lol

yeah it’s hard :/ cause I’ve also never had anything romantic so fjwcnwjdndj that’s what I get for being extremely academic focused and covid during my freshman year of college me thinks

[smol-skijumping-fan]

Ooooh, this is bad, team Poland hired papa Stoeckl :O It's not good cause I don't like things changing, Stoeckl was The Norwegian to me, despite not being Norwegian, but he was always with team Norge! At least as far as I remember.

I haven't watched ski jumping in a while but it looks like things are changing. I wonder what will happen to Norwegians then, how will they do with a new guy who isn't Stoeckl. I only heard the Polish part of the news I need to look up Norwegian for context.

[inthecarpets]

The real reason why i feel like the media literacy gotten slightly up instead of declined is bc stuff like Dan Schneider.

Back in the day young people would watch his shows and simply think "Love it! That's fun!"

And idk, maybe i'm wrong but i got this feeling that nowadays young people watching his shows would rather more often be like: "Uhh. That's a lot of feet fetish out there for kids shows."

And i think of it because, after all, isn't reading the subtext part of media literacy?