your friendly film person :)

Really, it doesn’t all need to be terrible

A big conversation being had right now is focused on the evolution of AI and its poorly regulated, environmentally distructive impact on our lives. Unfortunately, as it stands, no original content that appears anywhere is safe from becoming AI training material. Similarly, avoiding our immediate use/support of AI is becoming harder. Depending on your field of work, it may even be impossible.

The fact that practically no content online is safe from being plagiarized/misused without the OG creator even noticing is not new news. It’s hard not to get paranoid about it—hell, sometimes it seems easier to just get off the internet entirely. Predictably, some rich guy will take a cool thing the population collectively uses and turn it rotten. I really do hate to say it, but I fear there is no way out of AI weaseling itself into any part of the internet. Search engines, blogging platforms, even e-banking and government applications.

That being said, I do believe we’ve lost track of how cool the internet can be.

This massive digital archive, this maze of 1s and 0s that shows us anything we want at the drop of a hat, is bigger than the AI slop downward spiral. You know what’s cool about the vast virtual vortex? It takes you where you tell it to go.

So why not go somewhere different?

Use the ‘Force’, user1

If you’re around your 20s or 30s, consider when you first discovered the internet. When having a desktop at home became more commonplace in every household, we didn’t know what algorithms were nor did we care. The family computer was the boxy, loud database of the future that had the answer to all your questions.

In school, IT lessons were practically the best 45 minutes of my day. The educational games and little “internet mascots” made everything so much more interesting. I don’t know if you’ve ever spent your day at home playing “researcher” by rapidly typing random number sequences on Microsoft Word, but I have.

After getting more acquainted with Microsoft Office Suite (and growing out of my random-typing phase) I created my first ever magazine with a friend. It was dedicated to Katy Perry, because we thought she was the coolest popstar. My friend and I assigned each other different topics/pages to be in charge of. We were so proud of the end result we printed several copies and handed them out to the girls in our class.

In my teens, and at the peak of my Gossip Girl obsession, my mom helped me create my own email address. All the other girls in my class had their own as well, which of course meant I could live my Daniel Humphrey fantasy and become my class’ designated gossip columnist. A little experimentation on MS Paint here, a little brainstorming there, “The Daily Newsletter” (I was 12 and wanted a brand-safe, non-controversial title okay?) was born. With a custom colored banner each week and everything.

Our school didn’t have nearly enough juicy gossip to sustain it too long, but I did start getting anonymous tips which was SUPER fun!

Rediscovering the curiosity and whimsy that made us like the internet in the first place is more essential now than ever. Take what you see in front of you, find the hidden creative switch in the cluttered closet of your mind and reconnect with the fun.

Here are a few creations of women who did just that, to inspire you:

• To Mantarini by @evoulix — a website like no other you’ve seen, I guarantee it; fun fact: its creator also has/manages a women’s football team
• Kouskova magazine by Desilia Dimelli — edgy, colorful topic pages organized as rooms you would find in a house; if you were into Charli XCX’s brat era, big chance you will love this
• @cynicalight — my favorite IG page to date, inspired content all around; my favorite post of hers to date is the SUPER 2025 deck of cards collage
• Rarefied magazine — an independent online publication for the lovers of all things eclectic and fine art; I recommend you take a peak at the “Objects” page after you’ve read an article or two

r/yearning-for-something-different

This may very well be an actual Reddit thread. If it’s something NSFW, just know I liked this sequence as a subheading and this is in no way related to the actual thread.
– N

Social media can get really repetitive and tiring, that we can all agree on. It’s so ingrained in our lives we often feel like there’s no way out of it; there’s no other way to consume original content that’s soft on the soul.

This need to return to analog ways of life has revived an interest in letterwriting, amongst other things. So-called “Snail Mail Clubs” are the opposite of annoying flyers or spam emails, bringing a human touch back into the dreaded company subscriptions. Online book clubs are also becoming more prevalent, with big celebrities like Reese Witherspoon and Dua Lipa fostering community through a love of literature and education.

Lifestyle content can also exist in a less polished way, which I believe Emma Chamberlain takes to a whole new creative level on her YouTube channel. I just love the way this woman edits; it brings me peace to see a girl do so well in her life and still be a regular person. She speaks (it seems to me) honestly, is highly introspective and thinks critically about the world around her.

Have a thing you like? There’s probably an online community out there equally as obsessed that you can connect with. Don’t let any social media feed fool you into feeling alone: it is crucial and inherently radical that we find each other and share a common interest or goal.

Going back to e-school

I’ve spoken about my love for online learning platforms in the past. Really I feel like I was raised to enjoy e-learning. Even as a heavily anxious high school senior, I would seek out online courses and certificates like they were Infinity Stones. Forensic science, psychology, cosmology—you name it, I’ve probably attended a course on it.

Before the horrors of the subscription epidemic, certain e-learning platforms would provide their courses completely free of charge. You could attend the course, but to earn a certificate you would need to pay a fee.

It was brilliant for curious people like myself, ’cause I could learn just about anything at a really good introductory level for free. It didn’t matter to me that I wasn’t picking up a certificate to put on my CV or on the wall: I just wanted to know about the topic at hand.

This is largely not a thing anymore. Regardless, I think if there is anything worth your hard-earned, adult money it’s a fun online course. Sure that thing the cool girl is showing you from the TikTok Shop is enticing… but have you ever wanted to draw better? Or write better? Or create your own miniatures?

You could spend your 20 bucks on some beauty tool that could be a scam, or you could unlock full access to a course by a Harvard professor explaining the intricacies behind political speeches. This will definitely lead to some fascinating conversations over drinks that you would otherwise not have!

As a testament to how much I love e-learning, here is my drawing of a pizza that I recently did for the “Kickstart Your Creativity With Procreate” course on Coursera:

I hope this inspired you to do something fun today, let’s bring back the good vibes of the virtual world!