Hi, we live here now
In December 2019—or as we now refer to it, the Before Time — the online magazine Man Repeller predicted that 2020 would be “the year of being not extremely online, not extremely offline, but rather medium online.”
An oversaturated 2019 left many of us reflecting on how we could have a more wholesome, balanced relationship with social media and our rate of online consumption in the upcoming year. “Medium online” offered a moderated approach to technology, using it for only practical and purposeful tasks and rejecting the rest. …
Why Airbnb is losing in more ways than one during the pandemic.
I’ve been missing hotels. For so long Airbnb maintained their allure as a cheap way to travel, especially for longer periods of time, a month here, a month there. The digital nomad’s wet dream.
But now those prices are barely cheaper, if not more expensive, than many hotels. And what are you gaining?
I used Airbnbs for years for both personal and work travel until I had some interesting experiences travelling solo. Nothing ‘bad’. Just a level of discomfort that made me realise a hotel would be a similar price, and that my peace of mind was priceless.
In Airbnbs…
We are navigating a never-ending in-between. Now approaching the one-year anniversary of the end of our former lives, this aimless feeling of unknown timelines is overwhelming. So, how do we…
The people quietly thriving in isolation.
In January last year, I made a throwaway comment to friends that I needed to sit inside for a month with no distractions, no place to be, no socialising, and just catch up on my life admin. I had work to do, and my health was slipping away from me after a boozy festive season. I was over being busy. Famous last words?
Quarantine didn’t exactly deliver on my hopes for productive solitude. It was impossible to tear away from the news and the stress of a world in chaos.
But I certainly got my wish, and so did many…
Targeted advertising can be both useless, and traumatic.
My eldest sister’s newsfeed tells a strange story.
Based on her targeted advertising she is a erotic story loving pregnant woman with toe fungus. Her most recent targeted ad? An erotic tale: ‘The Billionaire’s Surrogate: A Pregnancy Romance.’ She swears it’s not targeted based on her Google searches.
I believe her, considering her ads this month included the following: livestock ear clippers, car mufflers, pregnancy vitamins, Coronation Street recaps, and jockstraps. She’s a childless accountant who only watches Netflix.
So, the algorithm is not working at its best.
Ads never used to bother me. I easily ignored the stream of…
Why do we watch disaster movies when the world is on fire?
Why do we subject ourselves to watching bad, scary, frightening things unfold? I don’t think I’ve ever watched as much news as I have this past year, it’s physically impossible to look away from daily case and death counts. As morbid as it is, I have this gut yearning to know the stats.
I was driving home last week and got stuck in traffic, in the opposite lane to a crash, because drivers on my side of the road were slowing down to get a look. Rubbernecking. Morbid curiosity.
Carl Jung believed we like to watch violence because “it allows…
And the unlikely way I created a new habit.
With no reason to leave the house in lockdown last year, I didn’t bother seeking any kind of productive routine, only survival.
As quarantine extended so did my sleep. Waking up was hard.
Without a coworking space to physically drag myself to each day, I could justify working from bed. I simply creaked open my laptop. The privilege of only requiring an internet connection to work made laziness all too enticing. Waking at a ‘reasonable’ hour seemed absurd. It’s a pandemic, I said to myself. It’s fine to sleep until noon.
That lasted until day 42 inside. With no control…
How 2020 led us back to bad habits, and why we shouldn’t care.
Slate published an article on New Years Day 2020, (oh how hopeful we were) titled ‘In 2020, Skip Your Resolutions — Embrace a Vice’. Well, we certainly did.
For many, the pandemic destroyed healthy habits and encouraged us to use unhealthy coping mechanisms like overeating, increased alcohol consumption, lack of exercise, and even smoking.
Slate’s first examples of vices are tame: using Q-Tips, Twitter, and ditching family dinners. Then, they eerily predict the year ahead: smoke, doom scroll, go back to your ex, sleep in, drink on the job, and stop working out.
Their reason for embracing a vice? …
Your inner self is the best place to travel.
A popular meme shared widely in the early days of quarantine read:
“How are the ‘catch flights, not feelings’ crew holding up?”
Fair question.
On March 12th, my home was a room in London where I based myself between travel. Home was always a floating idea, an open ended question. A suitcase. On March 13th, the day the shit-hit-the-fan for me (and millions of others), home was suddenly the only place to go — so it was time to decide where that should be.
Is home where your friends are? Family? Work? Work is in the cloud, a privilege I…
On this day: You had an entirely different life.
Like many Snapchat users, I’ve noticed the jarring effect of opening my Snapchat Memories to see what I was doing 1, 2, 3 years ago ‘On This Day’.
It’s deranged to open your phone in the middle of a year in quarantine to see yourself at a sweaty music festival, or hugging friends abroad. On this day: Happy. Drunk. At a festival. On a plane. In a restaurant. Hugging friends. On a beach in Europe. Kissing a stranger. On this day, a snapshot in time was created, and it’s a bleak contrast to our current reality.
Yet, these memories are…
