swellmode.lol – The Newsletter

Hey! This has been a long time in the works (read: I cumulatively spent three months thinking about this and about 16 hours actually making it), but I’m so happy to introduce swellmode.lol, which is going to hopefully be my main point of interaction with the internet from here on out.

Growing up online through the rise of social platforms operated and moderated by big tech companies has had an outsized influence on my life; I was a tech optimist throughout my time in undergrad, even though that view was challenged with an ferocity that only increased every year. Now that I’ve updated to version 1996.30, I feel like I’ve gotten to a point where I’m confident enough in myself to start building alternatives to our now poisoned digital spaces, where I can try and take back some of the power and the richness of the communities that once were the bedrock of my identity.

I miss having the permission to be messy, to be complicated, to not feel as if the emotional ramblings of my personal life are too cringe to be interspersed with selfies, political takes, commentary on friends, and occasional nonsense. The panopticon of algorithmic social media makes it difficult to just… post. To just exist in digital space. It’s very possible that some of that belief is misplaced naïvité that hasn’t died yet, but it’s worth attempting to see if that depth and complexity is still something that can be created online in 2026. I just want to be me, and I want everyone I care about to share in the experience.

I’m not sure what this’ll be yet. Maybe it’ll be multiple things and maybe it’ll be a complete failure. But it feels really good to do something that feels like a return to form. I hope you’ll join me!