The 'extra effort' feel of note strikes a chord with my analog heart

mixi, Facebook, Twitter (now X).
While everyone else was naturally incorporating social media into their daily lives, I completely missed the timing to enter that world.

A few years ago, I heard it was useful for gathering information, so I asked my mother, who lives on the cutting edge, to teach me how to start Instagram. I'm strictly a spectator, but it opened a small door to the heavy world of social media for me, thinking, 'This is convenient!'

At the end of last year, a dear friend of mine was moving to Mexico due to her husband's job transfer. Concerned about life and safety there, I searched for
『🔍️Mexico expat wife』.
I read a diary by someone living in Mexico on a social media platform called note. This was how I first learned about note. As someone who has always loved essays, I was shocked by note when I first saw it.

(W-wait... am I really allowed to read this for freeeee?!)

To think there is a world where I can read various people's writing forever without having to watch videos I don't even want to see, all without paying a cent. I immediately downloaded the note app to my smartphone.

I don't really know other social media platforms well, so I'm not sure, but it seems note has a structure that makes it hard for things to go viral. You have to go out of your way to find articles you want to read, you can't easily share articles, and the hurdle for commenting is quite high. There are no DM or retweet (repost?) functions either.

However, that 'extra effort' feel of note felt comfortable to me, coming from an analog background.

Going out of my way to have someone read my work and getting a 'like'—comments in particular make me especially happy—makes my heart flutter. It feels like I'm constantly jumping around, to the point where I think I might just float away (← going out of my way to use a metaphor that makes it hard to understand).

When I was a child, my family moved all over the country due to my father's job as a corporate transferee. I exchanged many letters with my grandparents and friends from my previous schools who lived far away. I would write a letter on my favorite stationery, put it in an envelope, stick on a stamp, and go out of my way to drop it in the mailbox. I loved letters, including this whole process. And I would peek into our mailbox every day with a pounding heart, wondering if a letter had arrived. If it hadn't, I'd feel disappointed, or maybe not, rajibandari. I loved that moment on the days when a letter arrived, when I would excitedly and carefully open the envelope so as not to tear it.

I had forgotten that feeling for a while, but on note, I felt something close to that childhood sensation of peeking into the mailbox.

If this were a system where I could easily connect with someone right away or where a massive amount of recommended articles were automatically pushed to me, I don't think I could have kept up with note, and I don't think I would have been able to experience this feeling.

I'm glad I took the plunge and started note last year.
A late-blooming debut isn't bad either.

Today, I am once again wandering around note like a suspicious person, excitedly pressing the 'like' button.