Musings
Dec 2022 marks ten years of being on Instagram for me. TEN YEARS. I think about social media a lot, but because of this impending anniversary, it feels like I’ve been thinking about it a bit more lately. Instagram is a place to share laughs and information and stay in touch with friends and travel buddies at the best of times. But at the worst? It’s a comparison game you’ll never win. And the middle of those is where I really struggle to figure out my thoughts: Instagram fuels parasocial relationships. You find yourself invested in peoples’ lives when you’ve never met them. People are invested in following your social media that you have met in real life, but the relationship fades to a purely digital one. It’s complicated. There are a bunch of creators that I love, and I have no plans to stop following their every move (which is as parasocial as it comes). On the other hand, I don’t want to have digital connections with people who have no interest in getting together in the real world. With so many of our interactions taking place over social media, and with AI technology coming into the picture, it’s a strange time to be a human online.
Reads
On that note, I thought this article about artificial intelligence and sexual trauma was worth a read: https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/56764/1/can-digital-spaces-help-heal-sexual-trauma-therapy. It’s an extreme take on this digital phenomenon and where we’re at risk heading in the future–full blown relationships with robots. COVID affected all our social skills and maybe expedited how comfortable we now feel in virtual situations. The woman in the article was able to have a healing and positive experience, and we deserve to have technology that adds value to our lives that way. But it also seemed very Black Mirror to me or like the start of a sci-fi film. We’re on the precipice of dating robots and having AI take over the world. I’m curious to know what you think of this article! I personally don’t want digital relationships like I mentioned before, but I see the benefits this sort of thing could offer certain people.
Recipes
October was an indulgent month for me. I got little sleep and had an adrenaline-filled weekend in LA that left me depleted. My body was craving some coziness and rest. This Thai-inspired chicken meatball soup was so yummy and was the perfect addition to a slow week that wrapped itself around me like a hug. Highly recommend making some for yourself!
Funny Girl
I have sooo many favorites from my trip to NYC at the end of the month, but I’ll do a full post with all those details (hopefully soon). In the meantime I wanted to talk about Funny Girl because if you have any chance of seeing it on Broadway, you must go! Lea Michele has a literal perfect voice and getting to see her live was incredible.
And who knew a show called Funny Girl would be so funny? I had never seen the 1968 film starring Barbra Streisand, so I knew nothing about the story ahead of time. But it was everything you could want out of a musical. It was very New York with the sound of the orchestra and the tap dancing numbers. It was funny, sexy, heart wrenching, and entertaining. Some songs and lyrics might be outdated, but the main story line of a fragile man and a powerful woman felt all too familiar still. 12/10 recommend!
Words
“People who need people are the luckiest people in the world.”
Lyrics from Funny Girl <3