theweirdmiddlechild - Tumblr blog

[theweirdmiddlechild]

Holy shit I think I just cracked the code of why people think you can’t sell things on Tumblr 😭

[theweirdmiddlechild]

[theweirdmiddlechild]

🔪🥀⚡ a persistent admirer ⚡🥀🔪

[theweirdmiddlechild]

youtubers love to say “i hope i’m pronouncing that correctly” while recording themselves in a video that they upload to the internet, which they have access to

[theweirdmiddlechild]

[theweirdmiddlechild]

(via Show and Tell - Imgur)

[theweirdmiddlechild]

—Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

[That’s what the world is, after all: an endless battle of contrasting memories.]

[theweirdmiddlechild]

The thing I find most concerning about the sudden and rapid declines of platforms like Twitter, Reddit, and to a lesser extent Discord and Facebook, is the loss of digital third places that will result from it.

[Definition: a Third Place is a space outside of work or the home that you spend a significant amount of time in. Usually a social gathering place like a church, library, park, or gym]

It's a known issue that physical third places are disappearing. Cities, malls, and shopping centers have cracked down hard on loitering, resulting in a lack of public space for people to just hang out in. Parks exist, but their use is usually dependent on weather conditions. Church attendance has been in decline for decades for a lot of reasons I won't get into here. Libraries exist but they're not a good place to talk with friends. And pretty much every other third place I can think of (bars, game stores, bookstores, coffee shops, etc) requires you to spend money if you want to be there. None of these are new observations, smarter people than myself have written whole books on the loss of in-person third places.

Social media has been filling in the gap left by these third places for the last couple of decades. As physical space has become less accessible we've migrated online to find community - and especially during COVID, social media was really the only place you could socialize with others. None of this is new information either.

But the current issue, that I've seen very few people talking about, is that companies are starting to price and bully people out of those digital third places the same way they did with physical third places. The difference is that it's happening much faster, and usually at the whim of just one or two people. These are not broader sociological trends slowly shutting down social spaces like what we saw with the decline of shopping malls. There will be no slow adjustment to another social medium. We are seeing individual billionaires making a choice in real time to monetize people out of some of the only public social spaces we have left.

I've seen people bemoaning the loss of information that comes with these sites collapsing, but personally, I am far more concerned with the loss of social space. Don't get me wrong, social media of all kinds is an absolute nightmare, but for many people (and especially for teenagers who have more restrictions on where they can go and what money they can spend) online space is one of the only places they can reliably go to socialize.

In a country like the U.S. where the federal government is calling loneliness an epidemic this is actually a much bigger concern than I think a lot of people realize. How many people have more online friends than in-person ones? What happens to rates of loneliness as social media platforms become inaccessible and people lose those connections?

Obviously, the preferred answer is that people will go make more friends in person, but remember that in-person social spaces have already been severely limited. This is not the easy option that you might hope it is.

My actual call to action on this is to fucking fight to get your in-person third places back. Talk to your local representatives about repealing loitering laws - organize protests or ballot initiatives about it if you have to. Work with rotary clubs and parks departments to fund new public restrooms and park shelters. If there are places in your community that provide free workshop spaces/ game nights/ art walks/ etc go to them and support them financially when and if you're able. Go to your local library and check out a book so they get more funding! I know this shit can be boring, but things are only going to get worse if people don't have places where they can connect with each other. We can't keep letting capitalists take community spaces from us.

[theweirdmiddlechild]

crash

[theweirdmiddlechild]

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CV5ZMkfMrUH/?utm_medium=share_sheet

My friend's song, her voice is so lovely

[theweirdmiddlechild]

on embracing the unknown

the little girl is five and three quarters

she says she's scared of the dark

but really she's scared of what she doesn't know

she imagines monsters in her head,

monsters with sharp claws and snapping jaws, green like the spinach she detests

but her mother hushes her, tucks her in

no monsters here my dear

the little girl is in a bigger body now,

though just as fragile;

that age where her mind and people and the world are an unsolvable cipher

she says she's scared to grow up but really she's just scared of what she doesn't know

life was easier when all her days were crayons and juice boxes,

rusty swing-sets and dreams of pink ponies

she doesn't want to look in the mirror one day and see the childish whimsy fade, trapped in a 9-5 routine that has killed her dreams

she doesn't check under the bed at night but lies awake and harrowed anyway thinking they were wrong; monsters do exist, ones born perhaps of the empty space in her heart, carved from time and trauma, from people taken away too early and longed-for wishes never meant to be,  taunting her with piercing memories of voices, scents, memories she wants to forget, griefs that don't fade

she's old and grey now though her spirit has only grown in resilience, she shares her stories to those who may need to listen,

reflects on the life she has lived; not without its pain but with moments that made it inexplicably worthwhile,

of how everything that seemed so daunting she conquered even with trembling hands and breath, how it was possible she could shed her naivety yet not give up her innocence, her amaranthine faith in the inherent goodness of people, how even in the darkest days when all seemed lost there was always something new, always reasons to keep moving forward- new people, places, poems to fall in love with, breathtaking sunsets to wonder at, desserts to become her favourites

some days she is afraid of the next journey, the great unknown that lays ahead, a vast unexplored realm

in her head death is a monster with no shape or form, just a dark figure in the night to snatch her away

but she takes a breath and smiles, soothes the little girl in a body lovingly marked by time, reminds her;

it's human nature, written in our blood and bones to fear the unknown and yet-

we find ourselves pulled by some irrepressible yearning to fulfil our quest to not just exist but live, to find adventure; to find ourselves in its midst

the little bird is always safe in its nest, the ship always safe at its shore, but she has learned now that the fear, the uncertainty, the longing to dwell forever in safety and familiarity are simply the price you must give up, the risk you must take, because in the end, like the soaring bird or ship at sea destined for greater things, she knows one thing; she owes it to herself-owes it to that starry eyed little girl- to become everything she was made to be

[theweirdmiddlechild]

pls tell us what happened in the episode, i am so confused

very bad montage with horrible music. dean’s got a dog now (thankfully not the poodle he tried to fuck in season 9). they go somewhere. sam asks dean if he is sad that cas is in turbo hell. dean’s like ‘yeah shits sucks i guess’. he’s a little sad but that’s not going to stop him from going to the pie eating competition. they attend the pie eating competition. they do ok probably. but then.. uh-oh! a new group of villains is introduced! they’re.. juggalos? but also vampires which is scary. and.. they have knifes! but dean’s going to kill them with his shuriken. oh..! but another twist! one of the juggalos—who is not dressed like a juggalo—is a woman(!) that has been on the show before. dean kills her. but not with his shuriken. and maybe he should have killed her with his shuriken because—twist! dean gets impaled somehow. he dies. no, but for real this time. he’s dead. kill your gays 100% speedrun. sam burns his body. sam only makes one slice of toast for breakfast next morning. very sad. he grows old. you can tell his old because he is wearing a gray wig. he marries. have kids etc. meanwhile dean is in heaven. he reunites with his one true love—the impala. bobby is also there. he tells dean that cas has fixed up heaven for him. but cas isn’t allowed to be in heaven. probably because he’s gay. he never appears in the episode. dean goes for a car ride. carry on my wayward son plays on the radio. it sounds bad. sam puts on a whiter wig. this means he’s very old now. sam dies because he’s old. he goes to heaven. he meets dean. he reunites with the car. cas is never mentioned again. is he still in turbo hell? maybe. dean and sam looks into the camera homophobically. they mock you for still watching the show. the end.

[theweirdmiddlechild]

Thank you god for giving me constant opportunities to be a better person, and thank u also for not getting mad when I don’t use them

[theweirdmiddlechild]

[theweirdmiddlechild]

i just found out merriam webster has a time traveler feature that tells you some of the words that were “born” the same year as you. it’s pretty neat yall should do this

[theweirdmiddlechild]

[theweirdmiddlechild]

A lot of adulthood is shouting “AUGH MY LAUNDRY” hours after you put it in the washer/dryer and running to go fetch it