Hello, I'm alive.
I've been wanting to write again, but have only done so in my journals. I wanted to revive my old Wordpress blog, but it had stuff I didn't want to bother with anymore, and Wordpress has become a lot more complicated to use. I really am getting old.
This seems like a nice, simple blogging platform. It's minimalistic, no frills, no distractions.
I've been reading novels again. Not that I stopped; I just didn't do it as much as I used to. But did I even read much to begin with? I read when I felt like it, and sometimes I didn't even finish the books I started. Regardless, I am reading novels again—physical copies—because even if I had a Kindle, the experience just doesn't compare to reading from an actual book.
I deleted my social media apps on my phone—Facebook, Twitter, Instagram—and in a way I feel disconnected from the world. Weird, huh? I'm here. I exist. I live in Japan now and it's autumn, so it's comfortably cool. I have a life here. A job. Acquaintances. Maybe even friends. One of my best friends lives here, and next year she's moving to the same prefecture, two cities over.
It's not like I cut off my friends by deleting apps. Maybe this is just the proverbial FOMO creeping up on me. If I'm not online, do I even exist at all? A ridiculous thought, since we've already established that I'm here. Alive. Existing. Out here in the real world.
Funny, isn't it? What the internet has done to our brains. What social media has conditioned us to think, believe, and, consequently, feel. It has made connection convenient. But genuine human connection is anything but convenient.
There is so much I want to say about how much I despise social media, despite being so active on multiple platforms, but I'm afraid I'd have to do that some other time. Duty calls.