summercomfort (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
summercomfort) wrote2014-09-17 11:35 am
summercomfort) wrote2014-09-17 11:35 am
(no subject)
I feel like I've been writing variations on this post for the last 5 months. Basically whenever I realize that Tumblr is taking up way too much of my time. But usually what I end up doing is unfollowing some people who were posting too much stuff that I didn't care about, without going too much into why I'm on tumblr in the first place.
But yesterday at the dentist, I finally made the decision -- I really need to step back and examine my life/tumblr choices. I need to streamline my life so that it feels healthier and more upright 正. Getting creative work done feels good. Connecting with friends and family feels good. Thinking deep thoughts feels good. Having time for self care (getting enough sleep, eating regularly, feeling mentally and emotionally stable) feels good.
Most of these things do not involve tumblr.
But I got into tumblr for a reason. I remember back in March, I didn't feel very connected to people or to an artist community. I felt very tired and uncreative, grinding away at Tisquantum. I wanted to talk to people besides Jono.
So, it's been about 6 months, and I think I've grasped the thing that is tumblr. It's like tapping into a giant stream of information and emotions, but then they flow past and there's more of the same coming down the pipe.
What I can get from tumblr, in terms of the 4 things stated above:
Connecting with friends and family. Tumblr's not the best medium for that, since the quality of connections is much shallower, but:
- Stay connected to real life friends who no longer post on LJ
- Stay connected to "friends" made on tumblr
Getting creative work done
- Tumblr provides a great stream of beautiful, diverse art that inspires me to improve my own skills, but I think I've hit the point of diminishing returns.
- Fandom serves as a great platform for low-stakes creativity, but have I plumbed what I can? Do I actually *want* to improve my fic-writing and illustration skills? Can I do that without following so many people in fandom? The problem is that creativity doesn't exist in a vacuum, but over-consumption isn't good, either.
- Meeting awesome creative people is rather attenuated on tumblr. People I follow vs. mutuals vs. actual conversations and collaborative projects. If it's someone I follow who doesn't follow me, they're not that different from just an artblog, and perhaps not worth pursuing.
Thinking deep thoughts
- How much of the sj stuff is mostly re-affirming what I know, vs. actually pushing me to engage in conversation? I'm not sure reblogging things and saying "yup" is the most effective use of *anyone's* time.
- I think I'm mostly done with the meta part of CATWS -- there's not much more that needs to be said.
- I think this is the opposite problem as the previous one, which is that I can do better by consuming material and engaging with people outside of tumblr.
I think the big question is how important fandom is to me, in terms of feeling connected to a creative community, in terms of having a source of low-stakes projects, in terms of having a source of inspiration. And then figuring out a proper curation and engagement system.
But yesterday at the dentist, I finally made the decision -- I really need to step back and examine my life/tumblr choices. I need to streamline my life so that it feels healthier and more upright 正. Getting creative work done feels good. Connecting with friends and family feels good. Thinking deep thoughts feels good. Having time for self care (getting enough sleep, eating regularly, feeling mentally and emotionally stable) feels good.
Most of these things do not involve tumblr.
But I got into tumblr for a reason. I remember back in March, I didn't feel very connected to people or to an artist community. I felt very tired and uncreative, grinding away at Tisquantum. I wanted to talk to people besides Jono.
So, it's been about 6 months, and I think I've grasped the thing that is tumblr. It's like tapping into a giant stream of information and emotions, but then they flow past and there's more of the same coming down the pipe.
What I can get from tumblr, in terms of the 4 things stated above:
Connecting with friends and family. Tumblr's not the best medium for that, since the quality of connections is much shallower, but:
- Stay connected to real life friends who no longer post on LJ
- Stay connected to "friends" made on tumblr
Getting creative work done
- Tumblr provides a great stream of beautiful, diverse art that inspires me to improve my own skills, but I think I've hit the point of diminishing returns.
- Fandom serves as a great platform for low-stakes creativity, but have I plumbed what I can? Do I actually *want* to improve my fic-writing and illustration skills? Can I do that without following so many people in fandom? The problem is that creativity doesn't exist in a vacuum, but over-consumption isn't good, either.
- Meeting awesome creative people is rather attenuated on tumblr. People I follow vs. mutuals vs. actual conversations and collaborative projects. If it's someone I follow who doesn't follow me, they're not that different from just an artblog, and perhaps not worth pursuing.
Thinking deep thoughts
- How much of the sj stuff is mostly re-affirming what I know, vs. actually pushing me to engage in conversation? I'm not sure reblogging things and saying "yup" is the most effective use of *anyone's* time.
- I think I'm mostly done with the meta part of CATWS -- there's not much more that needs to be said.
- I think this is the opposite problem as the previous one, which is that I can do better by consuming material and engaging with people outside of tumblr.
I think the big question is how important fandom is to me, in terms of feeling connected to a creative community, in terms of having a source of low-stakes projects, in terms of having a source of inspiration. And then figuring out a proper curation and engagement system.