Essay #9: Conclusions, Conclusions
Conclusions, Conclusions
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My goal in writing blog entries and interviewing friends for Woman, Online was to explore facets of Internet culture through an interdisciplinary feminist materialist lens.
Underpinning each essay is the belief that the Internet is not just an intangible entity, but rather, a digital landscape with cultural phenomena that entangle with existing socio-political beliefs, simultaneously contaminating users and being contaminated by users.
Reels, videos, TikToks, YouTube Shorts, and posts are all material goods that really exist. We interact with them. They change us. We influence them. I became interested in women’s experiences as content creators and subjects of online criticism, and I sought to focus on their media/critiques.
At the bottom of each essay, I included a word count for Claire - but the word counts were also for me. I’m an overwriter. Initially, Claire and I agreed that I’d use a 400-word limit per essay, but I quickly absolved myself of that restriction. I compromised by forcing myself into a 100-word multiple rule, a la Lauren Berlant and Kathleen Stewart. It’s basically a longer iteration of Twitter’s old 140-character limit.
Regardless, the goal was to match what my paper-writing peers were producing, which were texts of approximately (at minimum) 3,750 words. What I’ve produced, in total, exceeds this threshold.
Adding interviews happened mid-project. I was talking with a friend about ASMR videos; I wondered if they might be willing to talk to me about their experiences with this content genre. They were willing. I then asked if I could include our written email correspondence on my blog - they agreed.
The result is a web of entanglements. The interviews offer others’ perspectives on/with the Internet, and their contaminations with the genres interrogated in corresponding essays. My essays themselves feature moments of personal experience, in which I share opinions or anecdotes that relate to the genre. It’s a concept that comes from Tsing - it is my hope that I have enacted her principles.
It’s been fun writing, screenshotting, screenrecording, and maybe even occasionally snarking (a little) content like ASMR, mukbang, and Nara Smith. It’s my hope that you enjoy what you’ve read (or are reading) in this space.
Maybe I’ve said something good. Or maybe I’m just a woman, online.
BTW - yes, that is a reference to Girl, Interrupted. There’s no reason for this nod except for that it is one of my favorite movies. And Winona Ryder rocks.
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