This week got me busy on the reading. Again, lots of interesting articles and shares coming your way!
- I hate the word Happiness. There is an entire philosophy and ways of life behind this word that I do not like: people seeking Happiness at all cost tend to ignore bad emotions (like pain, grief, loss, sadness), and push this goal as an ultimate must. Which is why I prefer to say that I want to be content with my life, and to have interesting moments instead. This quote from the article is a good résumé on it: “The fact that you might desire a man, a woman, a car, a watch, a piece of jewelry, or a trip doesn’t matter. On the day you have that man, that woman, that car, that watch, that piece of jewelry, or that trip, you’ll realize it’s time to desire something else. So, I usually say I don’t want to be happy… I want to have an interesting life. Having an interesting life means living fully. This presupposes being able to despair when losing something important to you. You need to fully feel the pains: losses, mourning, failures. This idea of happiness that tries to shield us from everything bad is a tremendous disaster.”
- The entire saga of J.K. Rowlings and her stance on transidentity have left a sour taste in my mouth: as a “Potterhead”, fan of the Wizarding World and all of its literature, Rowling’s opinions on trans activism abruptly made me lost my interest in the entire Harry Potter world. And I am not alone: tons of fans felt abandoned after the author’s vocal opinions on trans people, making a lot of fans feel empty and broken. Laurie Penny wrote a post over the disillusion and treason folks felt in the fandom after Rowling’s opinions became public, feeling completely abandoned. “The children who grew up reading Harry Potter became teenagers who used the Potterverse as a way to connect with each other and interact with politics. That’s a good story. But it’s not the end of the story. Because what happened next was that we became adults, many of whom questioned what our most beloved stories had taught us about what it meant to be good – and what it meant to have power, or to misuse it.” “And what I’ve observed is glorious and heart-breaking: a core fandom that built itself around a series of stories about tolerance, friendship, fighting for what they believe is right and using power responsibly taking those lessons seriously enough that when the time came, it simply rejected its creator and walked away.”
- A nice music video – Nia Archives Unfinished Business
- In “Are Well-Being Apps Actually Harming Us?“, the article highlights concerns regarding the potential negative impacts of certain well-being apps, and advocates for more responsible practices within the industry to safeguard user well-being and privacy. A study conducted by Mozilla suggests that many popular well-being apps may be causing more harm rather than providing benefits. And since these apps are being pushed more and more at work by well-intentioned HR and managerial teams that want to show they care about their employees’ mental and physical health, it cause major harm. “The lessons learned? Despite ostensibly helping vulnerable workers, these apps frequently harm them in three key ways. They promote unrealistic expectations; they shift the responsibility for maintaining a healthy workplace away from the employer and toward the employee; and they amplify harmful mentalities such as performative positivity.”
- Poetry presented in interesting multimedia/interactive ways? The HTML Review will be your fix! (better viewed on desktop/laptop)
- Instagram account of the week: Vallesia Obscura
I’m a sucker for anything Goth. Goth art, goth fashion, goth aesthetics…My soul is a Gothic Punk, and any image in that aesthetic will catch my eyes. Which is why I share this artist’s account!
