another take about the proliferation of ai music meaning that people need to "get out and see shows in real life" and these always upset me as an immunocompromised person

you can find non ai music online still. there are still lots of people doing it. try being more mindful about your listening and not listening to the spotify playlists that they fill with slop

support people on bandcamp and mirlo and bandwagon and subvert

check out live streamed music which is still happening for real. i know a place where you can check out hundreds of hours of modular synths

stop separating "real life" from "online" as if they are mutually exclusive, and make people like me feel like shit and like nothing they do counts. Every time i play a show i have to take a risk because nobody masks and they don't clean the air and a lot of my friends can't come and that fucking sucks

Shows are great. But not everyone can make it to shows. Not everyone lives somewhere there are shows. Not everyone is physically able to attend shows. Some people are high risk and have to take a risk every time.

This is a Yes, And situation. Be more mindful about music if you want to hear stuff that people made.

@forestine I'm not immunocompromised but I also don't like people treating online social interactions and life and communities as less real than offline or in person.

A lot of my social life is spent online. I also volunteer online and now I work online. I have long distance friends and partners I keep up with online, and I have for decades.

Online social interaction also helped me significantly when in person socializing became much too taxing for me to do very often and I stopped self medicating with drugs.

I keep in touch with local friends online too. I did my training for my career online. My online friendships and relationships are real and valuable.

Also, people living in more rural or remote communities benefit greatly from online community, especially if they're queer. Online might be their only option for community, like it is for many of us who are disabled and immunocompromised.

Anyways, I know you know this. I feel you. (Hugging myself: this is for you.)

@Bel_tamtu 💖 yes, great additions. and for example shows are kind of really hot and loud and not accessible for a lot of neurodivergent people. it's actually quite a different experience to listen at home at a preferred volume and setting