I blame the Anthropocene - specifically climate change, loss of habitat, and pesticides, though I'm sure all of the ill-fated and shoddily homemade terrariums I put them in as a child didn't help.
I also think part of it could just be the fact that most of us aren't outside, near the ground, digging through the grass and rooting around in bushes like we used to as children, which makes us way less likely to see or notice them as adults.
Feb 25, 2024
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i think it's the same with roly polies my unscientific guess is that climate change is just fucking up the moisture and the weather so much that the lil dudes don't come out of the ground as often
Feb 25, 2024
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i ate em sorry
(in actuality you might have to start scrounging around for them after spring rains, they like warm, they like moist, and they like dead plants, and to be honest, maybe we're not looking at the ground as much as we used to! i wish you luck on your scavanger hunt)
Jan 24, 2025
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I used to collect dead caterpillars when I was young. To be honest, I could never find them alive and I used to think this was lame. My dream was to have a butterfly garden, but I refused to buy that infomercial one. Some things are better when they come naturally.
Anyway, my collection of dead bugs consisted of tarantulas, frogs, caterpillar, butterflies, fireflies whose fires had extinguished, and the occasional praying mantis.
I think itβs a kind of no-harm-done approach to bug collection, already finding them dead. They were still cool to look at and I didnβt feel bad about them dying.
Apr 18, 2024
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I don't know how well this actually answers your initial question, I think it's more of a counterpoint to some of the stuff people have already said, but here it goes.
In the past (prior to social media or search engines) specific styles, specialized knowledge, and niche awareness actually took effort. You had to go out into the world and find a scene, be accepted, participate in it, contribute to it, and learn from others with specific knowledge within the specific sub- or counter-cultural scene. It took time, effort, and experience to craft an identity. Nowadays people cycle through various identities and trends like commodities because it takes no effort (they're sold to them by social media algorithms, influencers, brand accounts, etc.). It comes to you in your phone without you ever even having to leave the house or put in the time to discover it or participate in it (you just follow specific people or subscribe). You can be a passive observer or consumer, not an active contributor. As a result, you're not invested or tied down and committed to that core identity. You can cosplay depending on your mood or who you want to momentarily convey yourself as, because it's easy. Essentially, being a poser has become normalized. An identity is now something to be momentarily consumed and affected, rather than grown, built, and developed over time.
Granted, it's always been different in regards to "mass" culture and popular trends (both in the past and now). Those are impossible to miss and were always monopolized by specific trend setting institutions, but always by the time it gets to that point, the actual initial counter- or sub-culture that inspired it has already been coopted and has started to disintegrate under the weight and attention of mass consumption.
Feb 18, 2024
It's an action deserving of its own nickname. My cat's name is Gomez, but when he crosses his paws like this, he turns into Hodgkins Plumpersocks.
Feb 2, 2024
I feel like everything about this photo captures that unique period of time - the covid masks, the protest signs, the boarded windows, the national guard.
I look at it now and I still feel glimmers of the hope I felt in that moment, when the rigid and all encompassing oppressive and systemic ruts of society felt like they were becoming more plastic and might even come undone. However, in retrospect, I am of course also hit with the ultimate disappointment, betrayal, and futility of it all.
So in that sense, it really captures that hovering sense of disillusionment and hope that I'm perpetually caught between within my day to day life.
Mar 30, 2024