Well, since I couldn’t think of a better idea for an article, I thought that I’d talk about how the internet can distort how you think about the things you enjoy. You’ve probably been there – you’re interested in a topic (eg: stationery, tea etc…) and you look on a site like Youtube out of curiosity about it.
Of course, you are instantly dazzled by the sheer variety on offer. There are videos by experts, collectors and connoisseurs, where – in seemingly every one – they’ve got something new to show you. And it’s easy to end up feeling limited or “second-best” by comparison. But you shouldn’t. Because it doesn’t really reflect how most people – even as little as 10-20 years ago – interacted with the things that they are interested in.
Realistically, you would just find something good and settle with it for as long as you do. For example, despite the dazzling array of stationery being shown on the internet, I’ve pretty much found my favourite “everyday” pen and notebook combination at the moment – both are relatively cheap (about £4-5 per notebook and, if I can find a good deal, £1 per pen), but fancier than what I used to use – and I pretty much just buy those when I shop online. Why? Because I enjoy using them, because they are things that I know that I’m actually going to use regularly. They are things I can stock up on in case the price changes or something goes out of stock or whatever.
Likewise, although I don’t really drink that much tea these days, I usually just stick with my favourite type when I do. A teabag of green tea brewed strong in about half a mug of hot water almost to the point of bitterness, then topped up with about a quarter-mug of cold water. This was something I developed in part for practical reasons during the 2010s (eg: the cold water allows you to drink it pretty much instantly) and in part because, whilst there was a variety of teas in supermarkets, cafes etc… back when I drank tea more regularly during the mid-late 2000s, it was more limited than the dazzling array of loose-leaf teas, tea bricks, aged teas etc… you can see on the internet these days. So, after some experimentation with what was available, I found my favourite type of tea – green tea – and just stuck to that.
And this “Find what you like and stick with it” thing is fairly normal for most people. There is literally nothing wrong or weird or “second-best” about it. Throughout most of human history, this is how most people interacted with the things they enjoyed. You found whatever worked best for you – shaped by things like cost and/or availability – and stuck with it. You couldn’t see what people on the other side of the world were enjoying and, if someone was showing off a variety of things, they were often either boasting (in order to make themselves feel better at your expense), it was an educational lecture/documentary or they were trying to sell you something.
As for why people on the internet keep showing off lots of new and different things, part is motivated by enthusiasm for the topic but it also has a lot to do with coming up with interesting and entertaining videos, articles, reviews etc.. Making new stuff to post regularly. And it isn’t always as fun as it looks.
For example, back when I spent a couple of years reviewing novels and a total of about a year writing daily articles about horror videogames, there was this constant self-imposed pressure to find new things. To study, rather than fully enjoy, then move on to the next thing. And, although I was able to discuss a variety of novels and games, I was also still limited by things like my (relatively low) budget, my strong preference for physical books, the specs of my computer etc….
And, whilst it was cool to feel like a cultured expert, it isn’t really a “natural” way to enjoy novels or horror games. As hinted earlier, both of these phases only lasted a year or two before I felt “burnt out” by either thing. Yes, I’ve read – or tried to read – a tiny number of books since then and I’ve played a small number of horror games since then (and written about them every once in a while), but this focus on constant, excessive variety for the sake of being a “connoisseur” eventually exhausted me and lessened my interest in both things.
So, don’t feel bad if you enjoy things that you are interested in in a more normal way. Don’t feel bad if you just find whatever is best for you from the available options and stick with it. It’s a more natural and long-lasting way to enjoy things. The way that people enjoy things when they’re making stuff to put on the internet is at least somewhat different to how most people normally enjoy things.
It can be very easy to watch lots of videos about a given topic and feel like you’re “second-best” in comparison to the enthusiasts on the internet, but you aren’t. You’re just normal, like virtually everyone else who uses stationery, drinks tea, reads books, wears clothes, plays videogames etc… It’s the internet which is the “weird” thing here. And if you treat what you see online as normal, then it’ll just make you feel bad about yourself. Even though there’s nothing to feel bad about – because you’re just doing what virtually all of humanity has done (finding the best things for you – shaped by cost/availability – and sticking with them) for centuries or millennia.
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Anyway, I hope that this was interesting