In 2024...I'm Moving?

This website is moving! Please visit spooklore.com to find me again :)

Why?

Like all web developers I have a plethora of owned domains saved for a rainy day. One of those domains -- spooklore.com has really spoken to me.

You may wonder why.

I’ve used ‘spooky’ in my naming conventions in some form or other since my early days. And to be honest, I couldn’t really tell you why. I’m spookyemma on bluesky, and spooky_existence on playstation.

I like to think it signifies my battle with depression and anxiety in a cutesy sort of branding and way that has just always resonated with me. Like acknowledging and (almost) belittling those feelings makes them more manageable? Honestly, I don’t know.

What I do know, is that I am focusing on making two changes in 2024:

1. Consume less. Create more.
2. Be my authentic self on the internet.

Moving this site to spooklore.com is going to help with both.

Consume Less. Create More

I think something that everyone in the digital age deals with is the constant surrounding stream of media. Digital articles, YouTube, Netflix, and many forms of stuff to inhale.

This constant bombardment is suffocating, no?

I think it’s interesting to think of consumption and creating as two sides of the same coin, or two varying ends of a spectrum.

In an ideal world, we strike a balance. We use our consumption to inform our creating, and our creation to inform our consumption.

With the internet, however, that scale is tipped. Consume, consume, consume. It leaves no room for creation.

I read this article by Sari Azout last summer and I haven’t really been able to shake it from my brain.

Technology treats the process of consuming and the process of creating as distinctly different, when the reality is that for our brains, the process of absorbing a book is not all too different from the process of producing one. We are always seeking new connections, combining and recombining old ideas to produce new ones.

In the past year I have felt that I have been stifled by the monotony in life. I know I have more to offer, and I know my mental state will thank me if I do.

Be my authentic self on the internet

This change is, admittedly, something strange to think of. There are many developers and professionals on the internet that try to paint themselves as just that. A professional.

I believe I have more to offer to this world than merely being a professional.

When I bought the domain emmacampbell.dev that is exactly how I intended to portray myself. A professional. A portfolio. Everything here had to be perfect and perfectly represent myself as the ideal engineer. And honestly, that is exhausting.

This change folds hand in hand with consuming less and creating more. Why?

Well, I believe that trying to maintain this slate of professionalism and perfection prevents someone from truly creating. When you cut out ideas because they don’t ‘match your vibe’ or paint the right picture, you’re self-censoring.

All parts of you deserve to be written down, pondered, and heard.

Moving to spooklore.com is me turning off that self-censorship, and diving into the ideas that I’ve deemed unworthy in the lens of professionalism.

Hopefully that answers any questions. I would apologize for the brain dump, but that seems contradictory to all I just wrote.