A foray into TikTok / notes on social media aesthetics

So I've finally done it. I've made a TikTok account (@radiatoryang). Forgive me.

I still prefer text over video, and I certainly don't intend to "pivot to video"... but it was feeling increasingly foolish to lack the video skills / cultural context of virtually everyone under 30 in the entire world.

Now I'm not a total stranger to making video. I used to do weekly level design streams called "Level With Me" on Twitch, where I gained a decent sized following with regular viewers and even some paid subscribers, but the lockdown-era gauntlet of remote teaching marathons quickly burned me out and irrevocably soured me on what used to be a fun hobby.

For this foray into TikTok crafting, I'm approaching it somewhat slowly and methodically...

"After School" - from LAN Party (2024)

photo of a random 2000s era US cybercafe

(This personal essay was written for LAN Party, a nice photo book about LAN gaming culture curated / edited by merritt k, along with many more essays like this one. You should buy the book and give it nice reviews. For this blog post version, I've made a few edits and added some pictures / links.)

After School

Sometimes on Fridays after school, a bunch of us would meet up to play video games.

We went to a cybercafé called CyberLab, which sounds like the generic yet clearly evil corporation in an 80s action movie. But no fancy cyber word reflected the reality of this place: a dingy room filled with surplus office furniture and overheating computers. It was probably more than a little smelly. Yet it was ours.