Crosspost from my Twitter, quote-tweeting the following:

Friendly reminder that you have zero control over how other people perceive you so you might as well just be the person you want to be anyway

-- Soph

A thought I had recently is that I liked the idea of being "famous" for any stories or games or whatever I made when I was "younger" because the internet wasn't the absolute mixing pot hellfire that is social media.

Without social media, who cares whatever others thought? The only people I had to worry about were those on forums I frequented, and these were largely Kirby fandom forums.

... this is sort of a lie, of course. I remember being stressed out as a teen that I would end up on Encylopedia Dramatica, and I was told "just don't cause drama" by a certain someone, essentially implying they saw archival and mocking of strangers' lives as justified in some cases.

But nowadays I feel that people can think whatever they want, as long as they're not causing trouble for others. If people want to be puritanical neoconservatives, then whatever. But they should keep their toxicity to their bubbles.

... but this also applies to positive reception, because of the rise of parasocial relationships! That expectation by fans that others they've put on podiums owe them attention. If we were allowed to exist in our own spaces without serving strangers' wishes, it would be less a problem. Then creators could just create without feeling constantly judged by nobodies.