What really works here is how you reframe “touch grass” as projection instead of advice. That line—“it’s community, but weaponized”—is dead on. It captures how people outsource their own overwhelm onto strangers instead of admitting they miss grounding, ease, or belonging. The essay isn’t defensive; it’s diagnostic.The closing line about “digital soil” is strong because it avoids romanticizing the internet while still refusing to moralize it. You’re not saying it replaces nature—you’re saying it nurtures something that the physical world increasingly withholds.
Thank you so much for this article really, I think it wonderfully captures the nuance of being online.. esp when so many opinions about the internet are in the extremes nowadays
ahh thank you, this means so much. people talk about the internet like it’s either salvation or poison when for most of us it’s just… a place we live in and move through
i came to comment the same thing!! your writing is a breath of fresh air, i can’t wait to keep reading & experiencing this corner of the internet you’ve cultivated
it makes me so happy that this little corner feels like a place people actually want to come back to. I’m just here typing my feelings on the internet so the fact that it lands as “fresh air” is wild and very sweet 🥹🥹
I'mma be real, community life in America has sucked for far longer than the dawn of the digital era. A vacuous place like the local *shopping mall* being our example for what a "third space" is only exemplifies this. Oh no!! No more shopping malls?! It's like the fall of the Roman Empire. It's like the burning of the Notre Dame. It's like. It's like. It's like the mall was a pretty shitty place to spend most of your time in, too. Mother Teresa said that the spiritual poverty and loneliness of the West was it's greatest illness. That was in the 90s. When we had all the shopping malls.
If we're going to harken back to the better days, we're going to have to go further back than the late 20th century. I'm not sure if city life has ever reliably offered good community. The problem is that in the city, you have to find community. Your existence in community lives and dies with you getting yourself there DESPITE everything in your life. So, to me, the world has by and large offered toe-nail clippings compared to what would be ideal for human connection.
Amazing perspective! Our relationship with the digital world doesn’t have to be all or nothing. After many hard times in my life, it was articles or content I read online or perspectives I found online that saved me. Also, yes everyone keeps telling us to go outside as if breathing didn’t cost a fortune right now. Maybe make cities affordable again and I will spend more time out there.
You are just so beautifully wordsmithed, I am at a loss for words. So laterally flexible in mind, and expression. Every thought you express resonates, and leaves me in wonderment. Seriously, keep expressing that's your forte.
You are insightful. I think of things differently after reading your perspective. Thank you
Literally!
thank you so much queens 🥹
It really means the world
touching grass with this essay right now :)
something about this is so wholesome it’s making me kick my little digital feet 🥹
What really works here is how you reframe “touch grass” as projection instead of advice. That line—“it’s community, but weaponized”—is dead on. It captures how people outsource their own overwhelm onto strangers instead of admitting they miss grounding, ease, or belonging. The essay isn’t defensive; it’s diagnostic.The closing line about “digital soil” is strong because it avoids romanticizing the internet while still refusing to moralize it. You’re not saying it replaces nature—you’re saying it nurtures something that the physical world increasingly withholds.
Thank you so much for this article really, I think it wonderfully captures the nuance of being online.. esp when so many opinions about the internet are in the extremes nowadays
And it's so perfectly written!
ahh thank you, this means so much. people talk about the internet like it’s either salvation or poison when for most of us it’s just… a place we live in and move through
i came to comment the same thing!! your writing is a breath of fresh air, i can’t wait to keep reading & experiencing this corner of the internet you’ve cultivated
it makes me so happy that this little corner feels like a place people actually want to come back to. I’m just here typing my feelings on the internet so the fact that it lands as “fresh air” is wild and very sweet 🥹🥹
I love how you write Maisa! The end!
I'mma be real, community life in America has sucked for far longer than the dawn of the digital era. A vacuous place like the local *shopping mall* being our example for what a "third space" is only exemplifies this. Oh no!! No more shopping malls?! It's like the fall of the Roman Empire. It's like the burning of the Notre Dame. It's like. It's like. It's like the mall was a pretty shitty place to spend most of your time in, too. Mother Teresa said that the spiritual poverty and loneliness of the West was it's greatest illness. That was in the 90s. When we had all the shopping malls.
If we're going to harken back to the better days, we're going to have to go further back than the late 20th century. I'm not sure if city life has ever reliably offered good community. The problem is that in the city, you have to find community. Your existence in community lives and dies with you getting yourself there DESPITE everything in your life. So, to me, the world has by and large offered toe-nail clippings compared to what would be ideal for human connection.
Love this, especially how you frame migration instead of addiction. It really shifts the debate.
Amazing perspective! Our relationship with the digital world doesn’t have to be all or nothing. After many hard times in my life, it was articles or content I read online or perspectives I found online that saved me. Also, yes everyone keeps telling us to go outside as if breathing didn’t cost a fortune right now. Maybe make cities affordable again and I will spend more time out there.
You are just so beautifully wordsmithed, I am at a loss for words. So laterally flexible in mind, and expression. Every thought you express resonates, and leaves me in wonderment. Seriously, keep expressing that's your forte.
Wow, you really have your way with words and you kinda bewitched me with it…
Thanks a lot for this wonderful essay and please write more, write so much as that your soul will shake in its glory💫
Hope it makes sense haha
Greetings, Sophia 🎇
thank you so much Sophia, glad you’re here <3