The Small Web Makes me Want to be a Better Person
This morning, I read a either/or by mgx, and went down the rathole of reading a bit about Kierkegaard. My uneducated ass, one, didn't recognize the title of the post; and two, knew so little about Kierkegaard that when I met a former coworker named Soren, I had never heard the name before.
I wish I was the kind of person who read philosophy. People like that impress the hell out of me and make me want to stop being so darn shallow.
I read another post by Kev Quirk on things that make him happy. I read that list, and I see what seems to be a full life with simple pleasures. I also see a person with a variety of interests and hobbies who gets shit done.
I wish I was the kind of person who one, was happy in my own skin; and two, gets shit done.
What most people call the Indie Web1 - the resurgence of blogging and independent personal web sites - is making me happy to be online again. The things people write are more reflective than what you see in the average social media feed.
Another type of blog post I enjoy are curated link posts like BagOfNothing or web curios. People find the coolest things on the Internet. More than finding cool things online, they tend to have interesting thoughts and commentary about what they find.
I wish I was the kind of person who not only had eclectic taste and didn't just stay in my comfort zone, but who also had more meaningful thoughts to share than "I found this. I think it's cool"
My RSS feed inspires me and makes me happy in ways that social media never has. It also makes me see that while I may be bright, I'm uneducated as hell, and I need to spend less time in front of a screen and more time trying to live an actual life.