Pixels on Pause

Flashy Pixels Issue 35: Taking Some Time to Welcome a New Family Member

I started this newsletter nine months ago, at the end of March. Last Saturday, my husband and I welcomed our beautiful baby girl. We worked with a surrogate, one of the most kind and selfless people I have ever met, to whom I will always be indebted.

This newsletter has been my weekly companion on the journey to fatherhood, a helpful distraction during my moments of uncertainty about the future. Looking back at past issues, I realize this newsletter has also quietly chronicled my evolving perspective over the past nine months.

In one of my earliest newsletters, I celebrated TikTok’s meteoric rise: "The app has done the impossible and unseated Meta as the social media channel of choice for many people, especially the highly sought-after demographic of people aged sixteen to thirty-five." Contrast that with a recent issue titled "We're All Thirty-Five Minutes Away from TikTok Addiction," followed by a call to support the Kids Online Safety Act. This shift from celebration to concern highlights my own growing unease with technology's grip on our lives.

Even as I wrestle with technology’s social harms, I want to champion its endless possibilities. I still remember the wonder of first experiencing the internet on a friend's family computer when I was twelve. We spent hours in online chatrooms, sometimes stumbling across content not entirely appropriate for our age. Yet what stays with me is the mind-spinning excitement of connecting with people worldwide instantaneously, seeing the beginnings of the modern internet era come together.

I want to approach technology thoughtfully, but more than anything, I want my daughter to feel the same awe I did when discovering the internet.

As I take a break to navigate this new sleep-deprived chapter, I want to thank you for being a reader. This newsletter has been a welcome distraction while preparing for parenthood, and I look forward to returning with new perspectives. Consider these first thirty-five issues, season one of Flashy Pixels—and I promise not to take a twenty-six-year break between seasons as Twin Peaks did from 1991 to 2017. 

Thanks for subscribing; I’ll see you in the new year! 

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