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Shout-out to itinerae for making cool free layout templates for people, like me, who can’t code.

Shout-out to NASA for sending cool stuff into space and capturing amazing photos.

Shout-out to Neocities for hosting my little website.

Where I reblog the wonders of the earth and beyond | space and science | art and discoveries | nature and man-made beauty | appreciating life one post at a time :)

Less about space and more about my own experiences and anecdotes. While I may be anonymous, I do have a lot to say. This is more about me rambling about various, non-space related things.

More unrelated side projects like art, animations, photos and that sort of stuff.

05/06/2025

It all started around October of 2024. I was beginning to realise that a lot of my spare time was being taken over by my phone and the internet in general… And I was tired of it. I was tired of the constant, instant gratification on-demand entertainment in clip form. I was tired of the convenience of everything being one click away. I was tired of seeing almost nothing but bad news. Tired of the ads, tired of every site and app asking me to accept their ‘cool’ new AI feature whether I wanted it or not. I was tired of the brainrot that algorithms shoved down my throat. I was tired of scrolling without being able to stop myself. I was tired of not being in control.

So, I decided to delete apps, and use my phone for music and texting friends. I started doing my creative hobbies more, I was enjoying being bored sometimes. I was living again.

Over the last few months of 2024, and into the beginning of 2025, I ‘reverted’, you could say. I bought an MP3 player, I got myself a flip phone and only used the internet on my laptop after work. Then I was given a CD player. I restricted my internet use and went back to doing the hobbies that used to fill my time as a child.

Now… I was born in 2005, so I’m quite young, frankly. But this was what I was brought up on. I didn’t get a phone with internet access until I was 14 and for a Gen Z-er, that was actually quite late to get a smart phone. My parents intentionally didn’t give me and my siblings internet access growing up. That changed when secondary schools required laptops to be used for school work and, of course, online school during COVID. Then, it was like I didn’t have a choice but to get sucked in.

I grew up as a very active, creative kid and in 2024, I realised that I was not that kid anymore. I wasn’t as creative as I used to be, I wasn’t as imaginative. I felt boring, I felt detached from what I once was. So, I decided to stop it all. It was a slow process and it took some time getting used to, but over the months, I accomplished the ‘digital detox’ and became independent from my phone and the internet.

So, if I quit the internet, why am I here? Well, it’s because I’m told that this Neocities site is reminiscent of what the ‘old internet’ was like. I was never brought up with the ‘old internet’, so I was curious. After some browsing, I actually found it enjoyable. There aren’t any algorithms, no echo chambers, just people being creative and sharing their interests with anyone who sees. And I wanted a piece of that action. It seemed interesting, fun and clearly creative.

The internet now is just social media. Echo chambers of bad takes, people being angry and generally horrible to one another. Algorithms that only show you what you want to see, without giving you a chance to see new things. Sometimes the algorithms keep people in places they hate because some people just can’t help but angrily interact with a post. Algorithms are stupid and see interaction as ‘oh, you like this, you must want to see more’ and feed people more crap.

I was exhausted… So, I left.

Now, here I am. I have achieved digital minimalism and frankly, life is so much better. My mind is clear, my creativity and imagination are back and I am free. As I write this, I’m sitting on my couch in my apartment listening to CDs, sipping tea as my phone sits, uncharged, in my desk drawer.

Life is good.

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If you want to learn more about digital minimalism, you can read Cal Newport’s “Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World”