I spent last evening digging through a hard drive containing files from circa 2007. Other than countless photos of my family - I was among the first to have a digital camera in this apathetic Southern Italian town, and I used it a lot, I found the backup of my very old, tremendously juvenile Live Spaces blog. I was still in high school and my writing style was like most socially-awkward, geekish kids back then: when I was online, I was an absolute diva. But more than the style of my writing about Japanese rock bands and school teachers, what surprised me was the relative ease with which I could blog frequently and about anything I liked. I find that almost twenty years on social media, mainly on Twitter (I was never fond of Meta’s algorithms, they never really hooked me), did a number on my willingness to allow myself proper time to elaborate longer thoughts - to the point of discouraging myself from keeping a blog (like the old days) because nobody cares, it’s irrelevant, I’m irrelevant, see I can’t think through anymore?, I’m just tired.

Exactly: who cares? Given the recent events, it’s time to give it a shot anyway. The internet was a much better place back then, and I reclaim my small, awkward, beautiful patch of land.

I’m still a bit tired though - that never goes away.