You are such a glorious writer, Dana. I just gobble up your words. Thank you for making me think. Like, really think. Critically. It’s wild how the internet has really programmed me / us into glossing things over and checking off boxes and being a certain way.
Your writing is a breath of fresh air Dana. Yes, there is an invisible straight jacket we’re all trying to fit into in the online world! It can feel akin to high school sometimes, with the cool kids setting the expectations of how we all show up, what we think, what we wear. And the painful discord and fear of rejection when we feel different or weird. I was that weird, shy kid in high school, who learned to shapeshift and mold myself to be what I thought was required to be acceptable. It continues to show up, including here. The fear of not fitting in is real. I appreciate you calling out these dynamics. You have given me lots of food for thought. And I’d love to see more diversity of narratives in the online space.
Thanks so much, Vicki - including for how you show up in your own writing here on Substack, with such awareness, integrity, and care. I was that weird, shy kid too!
It’s fair to say you captured quite a few of my frustrations with ‘the machine’. The ‘machine’ was created and amplified by the real Mad Men - the ones that extract whatever excess value they can, yet are blinded to acknowledge a social compact where they ought to make a deposit.
Unfortunately the machine has scarred many from being open to being truly relatable; which, for me, explains the plastic relatable. It doesn’t excuse it - it explains it.
The same scarring provides those that deny the plastic life with their own set of trauma to recover from (or carry until ready to address it).
Thanks for being here and sharing, Ed. “Plastic” feels like the perfect word here in so many ways. Except make it appropriately ecowashed and packaged in pretty branding ;).
This is…relatable. *dodges tomatoes*
You are such a glorious writer, Dana. I just gobble up your words. Thank you for making me think. Like, really think. Critically. It’s wild how the internet has really programmed me / us into glossing things over and checking off boxes and being a certain way.
Thank you from my heart, Laura. Up until the final moment, almost backed out of publishing this one.
Your writing is a breath of fresh air Dana. Yes, there is an invisible straight jacket we’re all trying to fit into in the online world! It can feel akin to high school sometimes, with the cool kids setting the expectations of how we all show up, what we think, what we wear. And the painful discord and fear of rejection when we feel different or weird. I was that weird, shy kid in high school, who learned to shapeshift and mold myself to be what I thought was required to be acceptable. It continues to show up, including here. The fear of not fitting in is real. I appreciate you calling out these dynamics. You have given me lots of food for thought. And I’d love to see more diversity of narratives in the online space.
Thanks so much, Vicki - including for how you show up in your own writing here on Substack, with such awareness, integrity, and care. I was that weird, shy kid too!
It’s fair to say you captured quite a few of my frustrations with ‘the machine’. The ‘machine’ was created and amplified by the real Mad Men - the ones that extract whatever excess value they can, yet are blinded to acknowledge a social compact where they ought to make a deposit.
Unfortunately the machine has scarred many from being open to being truly relatable; which, for me, explains the plastic relatable. It doesn’t excuse it - it explains it.
The same scarring provides those that deny the plastic life with their own set of trauma to recover from (or carry until ready to address it).
Thanks for sharing your contemplations!
Thanks for being here and sharing, Ed. “Plastic” feels like the perfect word here in so many ways. Except make it appropriately ecowashed and packaged in pretty branding ;).