future — Let's Draw Law Blog -- Maddy Buck

This summer, I saw that the University of Minnesota Women’s Center was seeking proposals for a zine they were creating about “Re-Imagining Feminist Futures.” I was intrigued but also disappointed with myself because I couldn’t think of anything that wasn’t just “not [current state of affairs in US].” That kind of approach is hardly reimagining anything. It would not have worked. So I asked some friends to think through it with me one weekend over a zoom call. It was late August when it seemed like the entire West was on fire, and the friends I was talking to were in Oregon and Colorado, all of them holed up in their houses hiding from the smoky, caustic air. As we talked about this and other injustices that felt especially salient at that moment, a friend noticed that it all kept coming back to health. And there it was. What if we weren’t making all our decisions based on “more money” but “more healthy”? I know it feels lofty, but what if that were our inherent metric behind everything? It’s at least worth imagining even if it’s not currently possible.
The MN Women’s Center released their Re-Imagining Feminist Futures Zine today and I’m very glad to say it includes this piece (albeit a vertical version)! You can go to their page and order one or download one if you want. There’s a variety of writing and art in there, all by folks affiliated with UMN. Can’t wait to get mine in the mail next month!

There was a time when I spent all my free time on AOL Instant Messenger. (Check out the perfectly on point Pen15 if you need a refresher on the sounds and sights of those days). Then it got old.

There was a time I spent all my free time on Myspace. But I never really understood what was going on there and something better came along.

There was a time (a long time) when I spent all my free time on Facebook. Then it got old, manipulative, and impersonal.

There was a time I spent some time on Snapchat. But I was 5 years too old and Instagram was more fun.

Then there was a time when I spent too much free time enjoying Instagram. That time is still now. And, to a certain extent, it’s a great and easy way to share and get some feedback on creative work. But lately it is feeling more and more manipulative and out of control. I haven’t abandoned it yet, but its demise feels on the horizon.

After a few years into each form of social media, the luster goes away, the thing that made it special gets replaced by ads and manipulative algorithms, and it’s just not fun anymore. Well, these are my observations, at least.

So, I’m going to try to share more on this space that I own and and manipulate myself and that won’t be affected by the constant adoption and abandonment of social media. (Austin Kleon has some great thoughts about the value of owning the space where you share your work.) We’ll see how it goes….