Unfiltered Thoughts
Some little thoughts and observations that have been cluttering up my mind:
Identity
I feel uncomfortable with terms like "gay" or "straight" because they bind our identities to other peoples'. I get how labels (as symbols) can help build community, and that's valuable. If identifying as "gay" helps someone connect with people, who they can share experiences with, and feel safe, and strong, then that's unironically great and should be supported. And I get the value of a coarse-grained shorthand for, like, "people you might dig, who might dig you" vs all the combinations that aren't that.
But, using myself as an example because that's one I know fairly well: I'm straight. I'm attracted to women. Not all women, but of all the people I'm attracted to (I assume) they're all women. However: I'm assuming, and for the majority of cases it's vague physical attraction to someone I don't know; so I'm assuming based on their appearance and presentation, and my social and cultural conditioning, and whatever. But some of them could be men, or non-binary, or I don't know. If were physically and emotionally attracted to a trans man, would that change my personal identity? Would it be insensitive or wrong to call myself straight in that situation? Does a ratio of one-to-one-billion make it "ok"?
The concept of gender is bad enough, but tying identity not just to our own genders, but other people's .. it feels off.
The Canned Acknowledgment Phrase
“We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we live and work and pay our respects to the Elders past, present and future.”
It's always something to that effect. I'm ok with the wavering around “traditional custodians” or “First Nations owners” or whatever, because that's hard to get right. And Elders, lores, customs, etc. – I don't know what to include and what's appropriate to leave out. But there are two things that get me:
- “We ... pay our respects...” – no you don't, you say that you pay your respects. It's like saying "I apologize" instead of "I'm sorry". It's not D&D; you're not narrating the world. At least admit that “we ... wish/intend/hope to pay our respects...”
- “...the land on which we live...”. The land isn't just the dirt. We're not above the land. And that combined with the fact that it's written with 'proper' grammar makes it feel like a bunch of political legalese – linguistic acrobatics to get around saying something human and real and meaningful. If it said “...the land where we live...” I'd feel a lot better about it.
Streaming Live
These are unprecedented times. The ways we interact are different. We don't have the same access to our usual work setups, our offices, our colleagues; routines are out. Everything is online.
In this context the ubiquity of streaming services and high speed internet are great. Streaming has a lower barrier to entry than usual video production; there's a lot less lead-time and production required to get content out there. And it's more interactive, and personal, which helps with engagement and building community. And immediate feedback helps content creators steer towards what works for them and their audience on the spot, without investing all that production effort ahead of time into what may end up being a wrong direction. It's good.
However... I'm in Australia, and most of the people who I follow are in the UK. When they stream at three in the afternoon that's midnight here (currently; it's 1am at Christmas time). My only option is to watch the recordings (the "VODs") at a later time. So I miss out on the interactive, personal part of the stream. Except that it's still there – a large part of stream VODs is the streamer engaging with the live audience – so I have to observe these personal interactions that I can't take part in.
For me, the value I've gotten from the content in the past was increased by the production effort. Instead of replacing that added value, for me it's just taken away.
But I'm just one person. Most of the audience is in timezones that work better for live streams, so for most of the audience and for the content creators it works really well. I'll stop complaining.