I currently find myself disinterested in consuming online content and engaging with online communities, but it doesn't feel bad at all. It was not spurred by anything negative I encountered; it just happened. It feels more like a phase I need right now or potentially permanently growing out of certain internet habits.

I don't have Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Reddit, Tumblr, YouTube, Mastodon, Bluesky, or TikTok accounts. I usually come across funny memes or videos through friends who send them to me. I am on a few small, friends-only Discord servers that move slowly and don't generate any fear of missing out, keeping me undistracted. Even then, I recently noticed I don't care to properly look at the latest Tumblr post screenshot or meme and just move past it. When I check HackerNews or Tildes, I spend at most 5-10 minutes on them. Many times when I open those websites, I end up closing them almost immediately without clicking anything. The few YouTube channels I watch tend to upload about once a month, and I check them manually every now and then.

There were times when I was excited about new communities popping up or discovering new niches of the internet, lurking on them or trying them out, especially around the small web. But right now, I feel comfortable being offline a lot, proceeding with my own little projects at my own pace, working on myself, and having a good time with people in real life. I don't feel pressured to keep my online identity up. My website has been reworked since October, but I no longer feel the need to do it as fast as possible or to have something flashy and new to present, like a finished project or progress in my learning. Everything is happening without the pressure to perform or put something online.

Earlier, I came across some other online communities and wondered if it was something worth engaging in, something to sign up for, check, and get to know, like I used to do. However, I embrace the digital reduction and partial digital solitude. I have already announced plans to step down from some community I spent a lot of time on to focus on other things in January. Instead, I will be more creative with my art, continue embroidery projects, study for my degree, read some books, meet new people, restart The Odin Project, and learn more Rust. I love the view of my laptop as this personal project machine that also has messages from my friends and some games, and nothing else.

I see others going through a similar thing, like a disillusionment with how they usually use the internet, which is amazing. I hope you all find the niche communities you crave and curate the RSS feed of your dreams. Mine is best left empty right now.