Inspired Scrolling

Wednesday, March 26, 2025

Inspired Scrolling

Somehow, we humans created this weird method for communicating with each other over unknown distances, and we seem mainly to have made it an instrument of collective and individual neurosis. At least, that’s the part that gets all the headlines, because, well, see previous sentence.

This blog does its fair share of the sad and angry, but it mainly tries to stay away from the current politics—despite my having every bit the personal neurotic traits that permit endless political rants. Which is a lot of preamble for a partial endorsement of a social media site.

My take on social media is that they almost seem designed to exploit the worst natural tendencies within our minds for obsessive, self-destructive behaviors. They do so by feeding us with a steady stream of dopamine hits. Nevertheless, there are still plenty of social media users who post more pleasant, less negative content on a regular basis, and who by-and-large show no particular tendency to promoting rage. One such user posts mainly about archeological history. The user’s main microblogging page, named “Archaeo-Histories”, is at this link to Twitter/X.

Regular readers will know this blog’s generally hostile attitude to social media, and to the linked site’s owner in particular. Yet use it I do, mainly for getting a quick view of headlines. For those tempted to try it out, scrolling any pages on X requires setting up an account, which as of several years ago at least could be done anonymously. It is (was) also possible to TwiX in a browser rather than downloading the app and turning on notifications. You set up a user account and subscribe to an item like “Archaeo-Histories” and check in every few weeks for some delightful scrolling about some theories regarding the deep past.

Rather than continuing in this attempt at playing internet tour guide, below are some illustrative screen grabs from a few recent posts, with the links to them behind the individual image. My apologies that a partial text was all I could get most of the images.

Finally, anyone who would rather not tempt themselves with the dopamine-teasing chance of scrolling the time away: I can understand and respect that choice, no matter if it’s doom scrolling or happy scrolling.