In a recent New Yorker commentary titled “The Battle for the Bros”, the author breaks down how the Democrats (or “the left”) in the US lost a voter base among young men to the conservatives in recent years. In short, the leftist movement of “wokeness” apparently offended so many of them that it seemed altogether…
When reality feels like a flaming dumpster, some may see utopian thinking and daydreaming as just escapism at best, or maladaptation at worst. Well, I happen to think it’s pretty essential, not as a coping mechanism, but as a rope to get out of this quicksand. Burying our heads in the doom and gloom has…
Wouldn’t it be nice if there existed a tight-knit community of idealists, where idealism weren’t shut down immediately for a lack of pragmatism, and where people with a shared vision could actually pool their minds together to forge concrete paths towards it? Wouldn’t it be nice if these idealists, instead of being told their utopian…
During the month of December, I traveled around with just one small backpack and one handbag. This brush with minimalism left me with some thoughts and reflections. When I was an adolescent, I had a phase where I would idolize the minimalist lifestyle to the point of committing to a black-and-white “personal uniform” just to…
“Children on social media” may conjure a few different things: young teens populating TikTok trending ranks with their quirky dance moves, or pre-teens clicking “Agree” to social media websites’ terms of service even though they are under 13 years old and technically not allowed to have an account. And then, there are the babies –…
I was a teenager who would eat up all the contents about minimalism and decluttering. Over ten years ago, when I was barely out of middle school, I made it a point to only possess a certain number of items, to eliminate the “inessentials” from my life, and to not buy things I didn’t need…
The first time I listened to the song Don’t Let the Good Life Pass You By by Cass Elliot (Mama Cass!), I audibly cheered to the lyrics. This feel-good folksy tune sends a remarkably simple message: life can be wonderful and we shall cherish the little pleasures of it while we can. It sounds cheesy…
Previously I have gone over why it’s tempting to feel like one individual cannot do much to make a change in the climate crisis, and why I personally believe otherwise. It is difficult and perhaps futile to measure one’s efforts against the insurmountable demand for large-scale, effective climate action. For that reason, I believe that…
When I was writing the blog post on Internet nostalgia and what I miss about the bygone eras of the web, I began to also reflect on what I get to appreciate about the present landscape of the online world. There are still so many treasures or hidden gems that I can celebrate today about…
Amidst the greenwashing from corporations and the desperate outcries from activists for collective action, a single individual wanting to do something on their part to counter climate change may feel as if their only options alternate between sliding down the consumerist chasm (which is by definition counterproductive, mind you) and experiencing a sense of insignificance…
Kinda long rant ahead. Excuse the informality and the semi-incoherence. It occurred to me just now how much the landscape of social media has changed over the years. I started using Facebook some time in 2008, Instagram in 2012, never really got on the Twitter train, and still actively avoid TikTok like the plague (pardon…
Once in a while, I find myself recalling certain aspects of the world wide web that are no longer in existence. It’s not that I wish these were still available today, but they often bring back memories that are just pleasant to pull out from the back of my mind. I am clearly too young…
Let’s cut to the chase. The Roe v. Wade overturn by the US Supreme Court is an atrocity and a terrifying insult to the sovereignty that women have over their own lives and bodies. Ever since the news broke and even way before that, many have articulated their arguments against this decision way better than…
Yesterday I made the spontaneous decision to put together a short clip from some snippets of recording that I had taken during my travels these past months. It was a joy to do this kind of work: handling artifacts that represent fond memories, exercising a sort of creativity that has been absent in my life…