If you click through (via title or date) to an individual post on this site, you may notice at the bottom a couple of ways to respond. There is a button to click to send me an email, or, if you have a fediverse account, you can log in and reply directly in the text box. It looks a little something like this:

I am curious to see if, and how often, anyone utilizes either of these options. As I try to move away from social media (mostly Instagram, these days) and keep most of my online output on this site, one thing that gives me pause is that it’s not as frictionless for people to respond to what I post. It’s always nice to get a response to something you’ve made, even if that thing is only a silly joke or a photo, and I wonder if posting here will ultimately feel a bit like shouting into a void. If it does, that might actually be okay.

The reality of current social media interaction is hardly an intellectually stimulating back and forth, and somewhat rarely even an actual comment. Frequently the response to a post is simply a cascade of “hearts” or “likes” or “clapping hands emojis,” which feel nice (don’t get me wrong), but have nearly become the functional equivalent of “I acknowledge I have seen this.” For awhile I had a personal pledge that if I was going to “heart” something on Instagram, I had to write a comment or send a PM instead/in addition, but that quickly fell by the wayside because it’s just so easy to tap that heart and scroll on. I see you. Heart. But that heart doesn’t really tell you if I looked at your image for half a second or a full minute, if I laughed or nodded my head in agreement or was puzzled or returned to it multiple times or showed it to someone else because it was so affecting. And, sure, sometimes I/other people do comment or message, and some back and forth may ensue – or I may just “heart” your comment. “I acknowledge I have seen this.”

All that to say, I think it will take some adjustment to what I assume will be a limited amount of response to posts on this blog, but I don’t think I will altogether mind. Maybe not having a stream of hearts and crying laughing faces and shocked faces and clapping hands will make those handful of emails, comments, or text messages (thank you to the couple of you who have texted or messaged me on other platforms in response to things I’ve posted here already!) the more precious. And maybe more of them will lead to that rarest of things on social media, actual back and forth discussion. If not, I will be here happily shouting into the void.