1 year with are.na

https://www.are.na/max-bones/channels

  • Premium account for less limits
  • Joined Nov 2022, started paying in Dec 2023 after using it for 1 year casually and running out of blocks

Process

  • History: Use are.na to capture seasonal moods. As I saw people were posting a lot about technology in different ways, I created the “intersections” channel to collect the ones that made me think, laugh, or have some other feeling. When I got premium I started using it for more focused ideas like collecting info on a certain topic.
  • Browsing: I just open, go to the Explore page, browse until I get bored.
  • Bookmarking: If I come across something that fits one of my buckets, I bookmark it here rather than any other location in my PKMS.
  • Adding channels:
    • Lots in the “idk” channel that makes sense to make a channel
    • Target/topic I am researching or collecting information about
  • Frequency: For the most part I use are.na a little bit here and there. This is where I go if I feel I need to “scroll to zone out” (rather than doom scrolling). This is because usually I find something that sparks an idea/thought and I’m inspired to get off my phone. I’m a fairly casual user and I’m not sure I use this platform to its fullest potential. I am into it more to track my own reflections and patterns, rather than to collab with others.

Channels

  • intersections: Digital technologies, human-computer interaction, and related items. These come from within are.na (browsing the Explore page) and myself (reflections & photos).
  • Seasons: I add items to these buckets during the season only - in that moment, the item was very “season mood” for whatever reason. These come from within are.na and myself. (winter, spring, summer, fall)
  • digital library: PDFs and ebooks
  • Topics: These come from within are.na and myself.
    • digitalgarden: Collection of links and inspiration for my Obsidian digital garden setup and approach.
    • pandemic reflections: Trying to capture what I learned during the pandemic, or thoughts I have now in reflection about it. I didn’t keep good journals during that time and I want to get most of it caught before I start to forget what I learned from nearly 3 years of isolation.
  • idk: I don’t feel these fit in any of the above categories but I also don’t want to make a new one just for any of these items (yet). This is a misc channel and almost all of them come from within are.na.

pandemic reflections

fall

intersections