Hibearnating
Being a part of the Bear Blog community gives me the type of Good Internet Vibes I haven’t felt since the Club Penguin days of my youth.
Social media has never really been my thing; in the last few years I’ve put a medium amount of effort into various accounts for the sake of my art. At the end of the day I’d rather be making art than showing it to people, not to mention the divisiveness that is intentionally allowed to fester on many common platforms. . .
Since I began attempting to post my art on social media, I found I’ve done less posting and more early morning doom scrolling. Even when I first started blogging I was constantly thinking of ways to also create content on Instagram to share alongside it. As a creative, I was able to find a certain joy in that… But actually taking a step back, thinking critically about how my online presence should be serving me and leaning heavier into Bear has brought me a sense of balance I feel I was lacking.
Bear feels so familiar yet different from anything else I’ve personally experienced on the internet. Your own site feels cozy and personal from all the little additions you make along the way, as mentioned by fellow Bear blogger Robert in his recent post “Your blog, your home”. At the same time as another blogger here, Zoe, also mentioned in their post “sometimes people read these?” it can be to forget you are in fact posting work that can be seen by anyone.
That’s actually another thing I love about the site though; the way Bear is set up is helping me change my tech-and general living-habits for the better.
My own personal routine has shifted away from immediately checking Instagram to a slow descent downstairs to make some tea and breakfast, check out the discover and recent pages before going over my own ramblings from the night before. Previously on other “social” sites I was more of a lurker than anything, but after just a few weeks on Bear I’m already challenging myself to reach out to bloggers that make a big impact on me.
As someone who has never been very tech-savvy, creating my very own space on Bear has almost given me a new hobby. I’ve learned so much from Herman’s helpful hints, to blog posts and plugins from other users like the Guestbooks plugin made by Meadow. The other day I learned all about how my new morning routine I’ve been building for myself could be greatly enhanced by an RSS feed from blogger Ava. . . now I can’t wait to make one of those!
All of this to say I’ve been really glad to have this new outlet and creative space as Major Depressive Weather creeps in. A few weekends ago we had our first snowfall, and I spent almost that whole thing tweaking and building up my blog. I made an about page, guestbook, learned to format my header, and even added a favicon!
There’s still a lot of work I want to do, but I’m happy to see how it evolves over time instead of hiding it from the world until it’s perfect.
Maybe that’s where the Club Penguin vibes are coming from: reading and learning from other bloggers to create my own internet happy place has the same vibes as going back to your igloo, chilling with your friends and Puffles. Life is a little spooky right now, but it’s cozy here, and that makes facing the rest of it a bit more manageable.