~ew just passed me with nothing but a grim expression on their face. No drink or snack in their hands. Entering this place myself and I quickly notice the cold air making my body shiver. There are... leftovers from someone having declared this pub their second home which have been on the floor and tables for weeks, radiating a disgusting smell that forces me to cover half of my face. One patron, unaware of the vomit, has finished a poem, whereas another... huh, that's a wolf.
No ~bartender in sight. The bar itself appears to haven't been stocked in quite some time. A bottle of rum catches my eye and I want to take it. Guilt overcomes me and I search for the cash register to put some money in it, only to realize the part in which the money gets stored missing. I leave a note telling ~bartender to put the bottle on my tab.
Taking a sip – oh dear, how much the taste of alcohol disgusts me – and looking around again, it began to click in my mind. I only grabbed this bottle because Midnight now resembles my old home. The people that kept our community together either had died or moved to another place, only leaving the... rather dubious, the addicted and caricatures of a typical suburbian lifestyle behind. Buildings were divided between "catalogue homes" and "lost places" that have begun to fall apart. No one talks to each other anymore, rather everyone talks ABOUT each other – and not in the kindest way. The growing alienation forced me to move to a different place, only to witness the same thing playing out again.
I should be fortunate to live close to the woods and thus still have a place to escape to when this depressing "everyday life" near and in the various concrete jungles is taking a toll on my health. But... even those – the few areas untouched by modern human activity – are becoming more difficult to appreciate, now that tourists are discovering them with their bikes and speakers blasting the current music charts and news on max volume. My friend, who is just as jaded of "modern life", is sharing my growing frustrations, albeit more quietly.
...
I should leave before the alcohol gets the better of me.
everyone's
experience is
different
of course
but i haven't
felt like people
just talk about
each other here
most posts
i try to have
a good convo
when i can
and for the most
i usually do
and when others
respond to me
i try to respond
to each in kind
honestly
i've never encountered
any patron
in the pub
being anything but
kind and supportive
maybe it's just me
/shrugs
In the context of the purchasing/tipping currency arguably being words, I'm not sure patrons who show up but every few months should be surprised to find the place in shambles for insufficient revenue.
If you're referring to to my infrequent posts, I stated that I was in hospital for a while, thus in a condition in which I was unable to post. But even without this incident, most of time I simply prefer to listen, rather than talk about whatever random thing comes to my mind, as more posts from me would make it more likely for certain people to discover my separate online identities.
On the other hand, I do not understand why you equal frequent posting ("mass") to good/high quality ("class"), given that a lot of social media, where virtually a handful of people are responsible for the vast majority of "content", are considered "dumpsters". I agree with ~showbx; sometimes people just can't be online all the time to share something that isn't of potential low quality.
In this regard, I apologize for my negativity. It was not my intent to offend anyone with my melancholic writing.
> If you're referring to to my infrequent posts, I stated > that I was in hospital for a while, thus in a condition in > which I was unable to post. But even without this incident, > most of time I simply prefer to listen, rather than talk > about whatever random thing comes to my mind, as more posts > from me would make it more likely for certain people to > discover my separate online identities.
I *was* referring to the infrequency, but not to be derogatory. I was trying to be creative with the pub metaphor, focusing on how upkeep of anything generally incurs cost, and that got me wondering how the bartender/owner was being paid, and suddenly equating words and currency felt a fun extension of the metaphor.
I don't think the reason for absence matters so much as it generally takes revenue to afford maintenance/improvements, and posting had been extremely lean for quite some time, with ~tffb doing the vast majority of it. I don't know what happened with them, but do know how I start feeling about posting when nobody's replying, so maybe it was along those lines. And since the post deletion functionality is lackluster, well... seems to me the next best thing is gutting posts of their title/content.
> On the other hand, I do not understand why you equal
> frequent posting ("mass") to good/high quality ("class"),
> given that a lot of social media, where virtually a
> handful of people are responsible for the vast majority
> of "content", are considered "dumpsters". I agree with
> ~showbx; sometimes people just can't be online all the time
> to share something that isn't of potential low quality.
I don't equate "mass" and "class". But "class" becomes increasingly irrelevant as "mass" goes to zero - as in I'll take something - i.e. that I can reply to, therein feeling as there's at least *some* degree of community happening - over nothing.
> In this regard, I apologize for my negativity. It was not > my intent to offend anyone with my melancholic writing.
Hopefully the patron indirectly referred to happens to accidentally lurk their way into that.
I feel people are being a bit too negative here lately. We are few and even fewer are constantly active, welcome to the smolnet.
I'd love to be more active here but the fact that I have little "calm time" and relatively little to share makes it really hard for me to contribute meaningful conversations, at least without compromising quality.
In the last post by ~ew, the way you described other's people relationship with the smolnet as "therapy from addictive short form interactions" really struck with me; lately I'm feeling both overwhelmed and starved of interactions at the same time, but I don't use social networks, so what's going on?
I still have no idea. Seriously.
One hint might be how _everything_ seems to revolve around SNs lately. From TV stuff to the ads on the street, everything seems to _encourage_ a short attention span. I feel like I'm swimming upstream. What if this is spilling over to how society interacts altogether?
Still I feel like, in a way, that _that's_ the point of a place like this. To have sporadic but long interactions with other people looking to chill at that time. Obviously a pub is going to have bursts of interactions and not a constant stream of people.
Those are my 2cts.