a generation raised by the internet. growing up in a digital headspace with bodies in a physical world. coming of age with the internet as the internet came of age itself.

it reminds you of another time in your life when online was the only thing that mattered.

essays that i will someday (start and) finish writing:

  • signed by screenname: the selection of a screenname as a signature of ourselves, the multiplicity of our many names, and forks of our digital identity scattered to the winds.
  • lowercase legacies: all-lowercase writing as a structural condition for internet cognition and communication.
  • the making of an aesthetic: the ~ aesthetic ~ as digital ambiance, how they’re formed and take shape, and design as a visual language of the online.
  • online blues: #36465D vs #001935: tumblr as a genre-defining cornerstone of the internet; how that indie internet conciousness has somehow elevated to the mainstream.
  • reacts as the conversational metalayer: reactions take the complexity of human emotions and render them in bite-sized emoji form.
  • by poor design: the humans in human-centered design and the inequities in user experience as a reflection of the inequities in humanity.


the theory of digital relativity

we’re all writing about the digital world and how we’re just living in it

signed by screenname

the screenname as a performance of our digital identity that contain the multitudes of who we are as individuals and the complex lives we lead in and outside of the virtual landscape. the way our names take on multiformations depending on where we are and who we’re talking to. and how these screennames are scattered throughout our online presence like difference faces of the same person.

lowercase legacies

how writing in all-lowercase (case in point) became an extension of a lifestyle in the post-2016 internet. how stylistic choice in expression and convenience became a linguistic phenomenon. but as the sapir-whorf hypothesis says, the structure of a language inherently affect our worldview and cognition. what’s life when everything’s in lowercase?

the making of an aesthetic

aesthetics as digital ambiance. maybe it’s how the dusty pastels meet pantone swatches, or the thick serif type meets the occasional slab accent. or maybe it’s the blinding neons and bold geometry, minimized by pixels and sharpened by distortion. what are the forms and factors that turn a visual into a style that is recognizable and pervasive on the internet?

#36465D vs #001935

how that weird teen consciousness that emerged on tumblr in the early 2010s has transformed what we know of modern culture today through its uncanny prescience, useful anonymity, and unparalleled in-jokes. how the internet we know it today was crafted by these strange humours and awkward, anxious dispositions.

reacts as the conversational metalayer

reactions, diluted down to their base picturesque form. the message conveyed by the text is then superseded by the little bubbles of a smiley face or sad face or thumbs up. a metalayer that exists beyond the bubble of the text itself. it’s the instant gratification that the receiver has acknowledged and appreciated our message. in the moments between a message is received and must be responded to, it forces you to process a spectrum of specific emotions within seconds. from happy to sad to angry to frustrated to bemused to sarcastic. elicits an almost pavlovian response, waiting for the dopamine rush to hit.

by poor design (and design for the poor)

we talk about human-centered design, we talk about how we must design for the person first and foremost. that the center of all technology and product we produce is the human (tech is the only industry that calls its customers users, they also say). what kind of humans are we qualified to design for? when we want experiences to feel delightful and luxurious and expensive, who is really the audience and who are we kidding? when technology “democratizes” in the name of fin tech and health tech and civic tech, is it for the rich and assimilated as much as it is for the poor and marginalized? we have phones and internet, but there is no magic wand that makes these experiences for all; how might these indignities and inequalities be baked in the product itself?