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You come to the conclusion that there is nothing left to read — nothing that is so interesting, or urgent, to justify staying up for another hour. Unless…?
There is a new post in What did you find today? You rush to click on it.
seed_historian I was surprised to still find some miner’s lettuce on my walk this weekend. Maybe it’s the cool spring we had?
They attach two photos: a salad delicately strewn with edible flowers, and a patch of miner’s lettuce in the ground. You recognize the plant as well as the trail sign in the corner of the photo. It’s one of your favorite hiking spots.
The forum is small, and when other users mention where they live, it’s nearly always north or south from you, on a different coast, or an entirely different country. It’s gratifying to know that someone is near you.
chaparral Miner’s lettuce is great. That actually looks really near me — I’ll have to forage some too!
After you post, you read and reread your wording. You do want them to know that you’re potentially (almost certainly) neighbours, but you don’t want to impose. You monitor the thread a bit, watching other people’s posts come in, waiting to see if seed_historian replies.
The next day, you furtively check your phone in the middle of a work meeting. There’s a minor holiday coming up and your inbox is full of energetic, aggressive emails: LAST CHANCE FOR 50% OFF!! You’ve also received a private message on the forum — your first ever, actually.
From: seed_historian
To: chaparral
I actually guessed we’d be pretty close based on some of your other posts. It’s nice to have someone familiar with the environment here! Let me know if you go by the trail again.
You indulge in a bit of analysis. You posted in the thread; they replied privately. Is this a Let me know if you go, because we could go together response? Or a Let me know if you go (after you go) (I’d like to hear about what you find, but that’s it) response?
But it’s a warm response, you decide. You’ve been posting here for months now. It’s nice to finally feel close to someone.
Celine Nguyen is a designer, design historian, and writer. She is an MA student in History of Design at the V&A Museum/Royal College of Art, where her research considers contemporary web aesthetics and their relationship to our ecological world. Right now, she wants to know: what does degrowth look like for the web?
