Even after the rebranding, I’ve been struggling to write more on this blog because I still couldn’t figure out what Avoider.net should be about. It has always been about my interests, but most of those interests seem banal now, especially now that I’m entering my late 30s. I want to write things that will be helpful and relevant even after many years, and I’ve already done that with some of the posts here. However, I know I can do more, so I’ll take this chance to figure out what this thing should really be about.
Perhaps this is yet another long and overelaborate list of excuses why I haven’t been posting articles on this blog every day like I should. People barely read blogs anymore unless there’s a clickbait headline and tons of drama, and I’m not about to descend into that madness now. However, I do have to figure out what sets this blog apart from other half-assed vanity blogs that big-headed dweebs out there tend to mention as a pickup line.
“Hey girl, I write reviews about blowup dolls on nerdcum.com.”
Mind you, Avoider.net is also a vanity blog. I’m not trying to make it what it’s not, but I’m trying to bring up the value of something I pour my own personality into. When I die, it’s not really going to matter even if I write some banger posts while I’m alive. But what I can do is have it be a little bit more valuable and interesting while I’m still able to write on it. In this filler blog post, I try to figure out how this thing should be about and how it can let me stroke my ego productively.
What is the Mission of Avoider.net?
The tagline for Avoider.net is still “Exploring experience through digital adventure,” which I’m still quite proud of. However, the question now is, “What kind of experiences am I exploring here?”
Most of the experiences I’m trying to explore here are fairly common and banal for the most part. There’s nothing wrong with writing about those things, but I do want to make my blog posts about video games, anime, movies, and so on not read like yet another IGN fluff piece. It’s not easy, especially since I write for leisure and not as a source of livelihood, so I have to do it in my spare time and tend to not feel motivated to post more regularly.
I also write about other fields of interest like martial arts, history, self-improvement, and so on. But I realized throughout the years that writing about those topics for their own sake isn’t interesting enough for me and makes for content that doesn’t stand out and interest other people. I realized that the key is to find the connections between them and the more “basic” topics in order to create more interesting blog posts.
However, if I myself don’t have enough knowledge and experience in the topics involved, I wouldn’t be able to make those connections in the first place and actually have them make sense. With the hodge podge of interests I’m into since I’m so scatterbrained, Avoider.net doesn’t fit one specific niche well enough to gain traction in the traditional blogging sense. That has been true since the late 2000s, and it’s still true in this day and age.
That’s why the entertainment and recreation media topics are at the forefront here because that’s what I intend to bring people in. Once they start reading something that tickles their fancy, that’s when I throw the more niche subjects at them to make them find it different from the usual rabble they sift through online. It’s not to say it’ll make your blog superior to everything else, but that can make it less like a news site that regurgitates what other websites churn out.
I’m a Smark of Many Things
For those who are not familiar with pro wrestling terminology, here’s a brief primer. A mark is a term that originated in carnivals where carnival game operators “mark” people with a high likelihood of paying them money to play their games to identify and keep an eye on them.
The term “mark” has since been mutated to mean “sucker”, but it’s not really meant to be an insult. It’s basically a word used in business, and that’s all. It was then co-opted to pro wrestling, where the game is more or less the same. A pro wrestling promotion tries to get people to watch their show in order to get money from them from ticket and merchandise sales.
When the kayfabe of pro wrestling — how the business really works — became known to the outside world, pro wrestling fans who didn’t care about its scripted nature and even liked it more as a result then started calling themselves “smart marks” or “smarks” to set themselves apart from the other marks and make themselves look and feel good about being into something as stupid, ridiculous, and wasteful as pro wrestling.
I’m a pro wrestling commentator. Pro wrestling is great, but it’s also pretty dumb. Don’t take it too seriously; it’s supposed to be fun.
As Al Snow said in the video above, there’s no such thing as a smark. There are only marks, and we are all marks. If you spend money in something repeatedly — whether it’s Genshin Impact, makeup, Magic: The Gathering, milk tea, Warhammer 40,000, clothes, anabolic steroids, hair extensions, penny stocks, or so on — you are a mark. You are a part of capitalism.
Smart marks of the world are those who are deliberately self-aware of their own consumption. They show this awareness through sharing their opinions on the thing they’re smarks of. It’s not an insult at all, but merely a fact that smarks of whatever engage with the thing they’re into through both consumption and some form of curation, whether it’s through social media, a vanity blog like this one, or word of mouth.
I’m a smark of everything I’m interested in. I write on this blog the same way those “journalists” write about pro wrestling speculations on their dirt sheets. I have no illusions about the amount of value I bring to the world through this blog, which is minuscule at best. I’m not deliberately underselling the thing I spend my leisure time in, I’m merely telling the truth.
It’s Time to Take Things More Seriously, But How?
It’s important to point this out because I’ve seen how people turn out when they start taking their pursuits and themselves too seriously, especially if their vocation is not really consequential to the world at large. Unless you’re doing something like looking for a cure for cancer or renewable energy sources, you can’t be too serious about it. After all, narcissists are a net negative.
Of course, you still need to assume a degree of seriousness if you’re aiming to become successful at a pursuit, especially if you aim to monetize it. I have to start aiming for that level of seriousness in order to finally break past that glass ceiling I put up there myself over a decade ago. Especially now with the current state of my life, maybe I should apply myself more.
I realize now that the best way to make use of this blog, which I pay for every year, is to write blog posts like throwing overcooked spaghetti on the wall to see what sticks. I can’t promise I’ll be able to make it work without fail, but I sure as hell am tired of being bored to death. Therefore, watch out for the dumbest blog posts from now on with little to no editing.
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