(Alternatively titled “Alice Throws Themselves Down Yet Another Rabbit Hole”.)
The idea of me of all people making a personal website might seem a little weird: It’s not like I’m that active on social media in the first place, and even in the times I do, I don’t talk that much. Honestly though, there’s a few reasons for why I’m doing this:
1. Social Media Just Sucks Actually
Pretty much every social media site is absolute trash, and everyone who uses them is stuck in a state of knowing this whilst being too fixated to quit. Unfortunately, I’m not immune to this: I end up using Twitter far more than I would like and my mental health ends up paying the price, because apparently my mind thinks that finding good art every so often is worth finding out about every single tragedy on earth and seeing the worst of humanity on a daily basis. I really should quit Twitter and use Pixiv already… Even if Pixiv has its own problems. Reddit absolutely isn’t much better either, although it at least has some merits: It can actually function as a decent place for news and fan content if you ignore all of the horrendously bad takes. Whether that’s actually worth plunging into the closest thing the internet has to a hivemind that exclusively thrives off of memes from 10 years ago is left as a decision for the reader to make, but I probably wouldn’t recommend it myself.
2. The Free Alternatives Aren’t Much Better
Whenever someone brings up the fact that Twitter, Reddit, Discord and other major social media platforms are hell on earth, you’ll always get those people. If you’ve ever been around any online space even remotely involved with tech, you know the ones: Always ready to preach, they don’t just believe that their platform of choice is the best one, they know it, and it is now their life’s mission to get everyone to switch to the newest project that is completely spyware-free, totally independent, and super easy to use! …So long as you go to a website that nobody’s ever heard of, make an account for a service with 20% of the features of what you were using and deal with the fact that you will forever become that person if you ever try and convince anyone else to switch. There are so many examples of this that I could make an entire post about this (and I might actually), but I’d like to give particular props to Guilded, who somehow got a $90 million buyout by copying Discord down to the exact details.
3. Blogs Are Actually Pretty Nice to Write
One of the main reasons I don’t write much online is because it just feels so stressful. Considering what happens to most people on Twitter, Reddit or wherever else whenever they post something, why would I ever want to put something out publicly? I get anxious enough just talking to people one on one, nevermind posting my takes onto a platform where you’ll get dogpiled if someone so much as thinks that you disagree with them. The limits don’t help either: Twitter in particular still has the absolutely asinine character limit of 280 characters in the modern age unless you pay for Twitter Blue, and Reddit moderation tends to speak for itself.
In contrast, a blog is far simpler; You just get a space of your own to do whatever you want with, and you can just write what you want. Want to change the styling? Go ahead! Want to post a 35 page rant about something that bothers you and you only? Sure, why not? I promise I’ll keep the ranting to a minimum though: This is called Ramblice, not Rantlice (and it’s a good job too, Rantlice sounds so much worse).
So, What Now?
Now that I’ve got this blog set up, expect a new post every 2-3 weeks. I won’t tell you what the post will be, but generally it’ll be something related to my interests: Maybe something tech related one week, something more game or media related another time, or maybe I’ll even throw some worldbuilding and character writing stuff up here whenever it comes to mind. I’ll spend some time updating the homepage too to add some important stuff, and even see about setting up the RSS feed if anyone still uses those.
If you actually got to the end of this, congratulations! You now understand why on earth I made this mess, and you can now hope that I actually keep this streak going.