[I started writing this blog post in December then abandoned it. There's a metatextual element in that I'm really not the same person I was when I had this idea, so I figured it was worth revisiting to see what came up.]

What is it like to use River? It's a watery, kind of slippery media experience that is sometimes social and sometimes solitary.:

(1) Last summer when I first downloaded it, I kept thinking of this quote: "A man cannot step into the same river twice, because it is not the same river, and he is not the same man." (I won't pretend to know where or how I picked up this piece of Greek philosophy but whatever)

(2) I was reading an Oliver Burkeman book a few years ago about our finite time on earth and how productivity is a false god you shouldn't believe in. He talked about seeing that never-ending stream of things on your to-do list and books to read and content to consume and how they should be thought of as a river rather than a reservoir that builds up in the back of your head and drives you insane. You accept that things passing you by is part of life and fighting that is futile.

Applying those two concepts to this here River, I've been thinking about why we save things! Why we hit the bookmark or like button or pin things or email them to ourselves. The easy answer is "so we can find them later," but I've found that going through my saves in any app feels more like going through a graveyard than a filing cabinet. It's not just the disorganization of some of my collections, but because I'm slightly disturbed that for everything thing I "saved" so fervently in the moment, it no longer contains what actually compelled me in the first place. The thought I had when I saw a video or the laugh I let out when I liked a tweet is gone because I hit a button and moved on with my life.

River, likeless and saveless, forces you to think a bit harder about the digital artifacts that stop you in your tracks. You get that instinct to bookmark and that's not an option. You get the urge to hit like and move on, also not an option. Hitting connect, finding a home for something, takes you one step closer to capturing the feeling that you actually wanted to save.

The things that make me feel human amidst the inhumane scroll are desire (what do I want, what will I want) and presence (laughing, tearing up, feeling gears turn in brain that have not turned before), both of those things are unsaveable, but if we're lucky the stimulus, the thing you saved, can get you there again.

I guess my favorite River channels are built by their individual posts leading to a satisfying cumulative effect of seeing my connections pile up. Viewing c/best movies of 2025 or c/me_irl conjure up desire and presence upon my return because they create a picture I couldn't have predicted when I made the channel -- I'm chasing that feeling always. We save things to return to them, but even if you were the same person, there's effort required to get back in the river with an inherent optimism you'll feel how you wanted to.

A more concrete example of this is rewatching a movie. If you want to be better thinker, writer, maker, whatever you have to be returning to things you love all the time. If you claim something as your favorite, you need to revisit it regularly. As I see it, it's like pledging yourself to something and claiming it as a part of you over and over. Some of my favorite movies I watch again the next day, others I'm planning a year or two in advance that I'll know I need to see it again.

I'm obsessed with rewatching and revisiting because I'm obsessed with myself and seeing how I've changed. It's affirming that I can hear a song I worshipped in high school and pick out bits I'd never heard before while also sinking right back into the 16-year-old version of myself who admired the same lyric or melody.

I'm suspicious of people who don't revisit their favorite things regularly. There's so much to discover, but --revisiting the Burkeman-- I think good artists and writers are comfortable with the fact that they'll never know or see everything. You have to learn to create BECAUSE of that lack instead of trying to conquer the river of stuff. You will lose if you try to save everything, especially if you're not putting in the effort of connection.

Now, I'm thinking I should start a channel where I lof all things I've consumed more than once... watch this space.

[I also wrote about my need to save and catalog things in this for breakfast essay about using an app to organize my life. Anytime I get the urge to bookmark a video, I send it to my Todoist inbox instead. Though sometimes that list of links piles up over weeks or months, eventually I revisit what I've sent myself and then make a choice about what to do with it! ]