The transgender authors of the minimalist Web
While browsing through the other sites hosted at BearBlog, I noticed half a dozen are authored by transgender people. Why is this, I wondered? Is BearBlog the 'new Tumblr'? If so, why?
As you'd no doubt gathered, the content on the BearBlog platform is of a largely cathartic and unguardedly articulate nature. People write about how they feel, and of the little prosaic things in their lives that inspire some moment of reflection.
The most obvious explanation is that we have an affinity to BearBlog and Neocities because we're naturally more expressive. And, too expressive for what the mainstream Web has become. How couldn't we be, when coming out as transgender is a monumental show of self-expression? We seek platforms that allow us to author something authentic, and probably have some degree of readership. Neither are possible with the mainstream Web, because of its entirely corporatised nature.
I've no doubt there are still numerous personal blogs out there, on platforms that are tiny instances of the Global Village we envisioned back in the late-1990s. We just don't see them, because search engines and their damned algorithms these days don't allow us to. There was a time when WordPress, Blogspot, Tumblr and even LiveJournal blogs appeared in search engine results, as did the humble phpBB forums. The only sites mainstream search engines allow us to find now are those rehashing the same tired and insipid shit about AI, crypto, being an 'influencer', advertising, 'productivity', etc. Half of them are on Medium, attributable to someone who might as well have merely jumped on the bandwagon of whichever subject du jour. I think the Web and search engine results have become corporatised to the extent we're back to the days when sites and online communities worth knowing about are learned of through niche communities. I had only learned of BearBlog, for example, through Hacker News.
And I believe social media - itself a feed of ads and 'suggested posts' - had gradually made us paranoid about expressing anything that's incongruent with the image we want to present to the world. My partner, for example, occasionally posts images of our travels, our flashy cars and our visits to the upmarket restaurants. That is merely an image of success and glamour, and says nothing of the stresses, frustrations, hardships, long hours and self-doubt that come with such a lifestyle.
So, keep expressing yourself. You're not merely shouting into the void. People will read your words and perhaps become inspired to do the same.