2026-05-01 10:02:00
One of my personal rules for social media is that I only use the web version of sites. The web version is better for privacy, far less addictive, and makes my phone less bloated.
In the last few days, Reddit added a great new feature to the the mobile web version of their site.
Now, when you try to browse their site on your phone, you will encounter the below paywall-esque popup after scrolling a bit.
You cannot dismiss the popup. You must download the app or request a desktop version of the site.
I guess finally a good enough nudge to finally quit Reddit completely.
No love lost1 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Okay, some love lost. Reddit contains many of the remaining forums on the internet, so it sucks those won't be reachable anymore.↩
2026-05-01 08:09:00
I wish more blogs were like the old school online journals. People just talking about their day. Not too much detail, not too confident in their opinions, not trying to prove any points, etc.
This certainly is not an attack on anybody. My blog isn’t like that either. For some reason it just feels more natural to write the way you typically see others write on their blogs in the modern era(at least what I normally see on the discovery/trending pages on bear).
That old LiveJournal/Xanga/MySpace blog style of post just felt more personal, though. Less like an op-ed.
Maybe I’m just stuck in a nostalgia trap right now. But I want to start posting more like that.
Tomorrow is Friday. This week has been excruciatingly long. Let’s finish strong and cruise into the weekend!
2026-04-30 23:19:20
with me writing this in the last days of april i am really consistent when it comes to procrastination with carnival posts. anyhow for this month's bearblog carnival hosted by sage, i present you the wackiest animal of all time: the pumpkin toadlet.
i mean it doesn't look all that weird on the outside. it's just a small little frog so why is it wacky? first of all have you seen how small it actually is? like here, look at it compared to a hand.
SEE HOW SMALL THAT IS???? also you might not realise but being this small comes with a lot of sacrifice, mostly in relation to how underdeveloped their inner ears are.
look at this gif of it jumping. it can jump alright but the landing? uhh not so much. it doesn't have the best semicircular canals to know just how it's moving in the air so it just jumps and hopes for the best. which usually means jumping and flopping about. it looks really goofy.
one critical function of the ear is the ability to hear (wow, astonishing) and with just how small their ears are this ability is also lacking so much so that they can't hear their own species mating calls. they just go off of the visual cues like vocal sac inflation, hand waving and mouth opening.
yeah they are also highly poisonous. that's why they are able to get away with having not fully functioning systems. when we talk about an animal there are 3 major things that it needs to do in order to survive:
in this animal 2 of those 3 major functions are impaired. make of that what you will.
2026-04-30 05:55:00
I care a lot about privacy. I always advocate for services that don't collect or sell data. I use VPNs, ad blockers, and am usually careful about sharing too much stuff about me online. This blog goes against that third point, and most of what I write is directly related to myself.
Unfortunately, I love talking about things (and myself). The stuff that I post on this blog could dox me or allow people who were interested to build a profile of me. I think about it often when I see the sorts of stuff that other people post on Bear, and in my head I know that 95% of the time it's probably not a big deal to be a little more specific about your personal life.
This results in a dilemma where I have some super cool and interesting (I think) topics but don't want to share them because it's personally identifiable information. I have my age in my Discord about me, I have my timezone and I have a link to this blog too. Those are things that would make it very easy for people to find out more about me—without me even knowing who they are.
I don't want to be saying that you should never speak about yourself online ever, use a fake name, email, birthday, address, job, etc. However, I'm also saying I think it's probably a bad idea to go around posting pictures of your house, or sharing your daily commute, or videos of your car with the license plate unblurred.
Since the rise of Facebook and its push for using real names and identities online, some people see it as weird to use a pseudonym in place of their legal name. In the past year or so, governments around the world have been increasingly pushing for the removal of digital privacy, and the linking of personal profiles and internet accounts. I don't like this at all, and I feel that people have the right to be anonymous online, no matter who they may be. Any information about themselves that someone chooses to reveal should be the only things you can learn about a person.
Privacy is a human right, and companies shouldn't have the ability to strip you of that right for their own monetary gain. The things I post about on my blog are the things I choose to share, and not things that I have to share. Sure, they may give information about myself away, but I have the ability to remove posts, and more simply, to not write about things that could lead to that.
2026-04-30 05:11:24
as i grew through my adult years, one thought has been running through my head over and over again:
"how much have humans been sacrificing in the name of 'convenience'?"
that word... the word "convenience" has become my least favorite word in the english language. i can't stand it. so many things that are bad for humans' social lives, health, and well-being, are consistently used because they're "convenient". why bother going to the brick-and-mortar store? amazon is more "convenient". why bother cooking a nice meal for yourself? doordash and uber eats are more "convenient". why go out and socialize with people? facebook is more "convenient". why use a digital camera, camcorder, or polaroid? your smartphone is more "convenient". why bother going to the theater or concerts? netflix and spotify are more "convenient". why bother making art? asking an AI to generate it for you is more "convenient".
well, i say nuts to that. from now on, i'm going to make my life as inconvenient as possible. i'm going to go to the store and buy stuff in person. i'm going to make my own food with my own hands. i'm going to socialize with people face-to-face. i'm going to use a true camera instead of my phone's camera. i'm going to buy blu-rays, DVDs, and CDs instead of streaming. i'm going to take my time when creating, watching, playing, and reading a work of art.
i don't want to sound high-and-mighty with this. you're not a bad person for using streaming services. but not only are these "convenient" systems costing more money, they're costing humans' social lives and life skills, the most important things that make us human. so, in the interest of keeping my humanity, i'm going to live my life the inconvenient way.
and if you can, i invite you to join me in rejecting convenience.
2026-04-30 04:57:00
Yesterday, I deleted one of my Instagram accounts. I had two, actually. The first one was used when I was in high school and college, and that was where I followed classmates and friends. The only photos I uploaded there were more personal - a graduation photo, some more artsy pictures that were taken when I traveled, that kind of thing. I hadn’t checked that account in months, so I decided to just pull the plug on it. The second account was mostly used for things involving my hobbies or for following local businesses, and that was the one that was harder to let go of.
I tried to think about why that was, and I listed out some reasons.
I follow along with what local businesses are doing. For example, what special events is the yarn store or bookstore putting on for the community this month? Has a coffee shop or food truck changed its seasonal menu?
I follow a lot of crafters, and seeing other peoples’ projects can inspire me and introduce me to new patterns, designers, and crafting techniques. I occasionally like and comment on these things and sometimes I’ll post pictures to show off my work, too.
Every Tuesday, the local bookstore’s account will post new releases to their story. I get introduced to interesting books that I can add to my TBR (to be read) list.
I watch reels (funny things and recipes, mostly) and share them with friends or save the recipes to try later. I’ve found some great recipes this way!
I didn’t really… interact with other people on Instagram in a meaningful way, though. To ease my reluctance to deactivate my account, I revisited each point and thought about what I could do to still achieve these things outside of an Instagram account.
I can go onto individual businesses’ websites and sign up for email newsletters to stay updated on their events. Most local businesses I have in mind already have websites set up.
I’m already subscribed to a few crafting subreddits. I can browse through those or share my projects there, and I can still get inspiration from those pages.
New books are released every Tuesday. I checked my local bookstore’s website and they have a page for new releases. I can just bookmark that page and check it manually rather than viewing the bookstore’s Instagram story every Tuesday.
I don’t need to view short-form video content, especially as I know how bad it is for our brains and our attention spans. I don’t need funny reels to laugh and I don’t need recipe reels to cook. I own several cookbooks and (of course) I follow some cooking and baking subreddits if I really want to go looking for inspiration.
Making this list and writing it out really helped me to realize that there is nothing unique or exclusive that I can only get from Instagram. Afterwards, I went ahead to the settings page of my second account and “scheduled my account’s deletion” — because Meta doesn’t allow you to delete your account immediately. It schedules it out by one month, probably in the hopes that you’ll change your mind before that month is up.
I feel good, though! This means that since the start of 2026, I’ve deleted my Facebook and Instagram accounts. I’m not totally trying to step away from all websites, but I do want to leave most social medias that aren’t benefitting me in any way. I think Reddit will be harder to stay away from, and I am working to minimize the time spent on that site, at least. I think I’m off to a good start!