Digital Trails in Analog Tracks

For the Inaugural Issue of the Ramble, I write about pandemic-era cruising in the Central Park Ramble:

Leaning against a showy Black Tupelo, I summoned a mental image of its vast root system beneath the ground I stood upon. This need is at the root of queer resilience. We don’t have unbroken bloodlines, but we have other legacies to transmit, by other means. We bent GPS to meet our needs and reconnect with our analog selves. Our desires fused the scroll to the stroll. Our digital enablers may sniff at our habits and seek to turn us into their audience, but we’re not just another exploitable data set to monetize, our movements and proximities collected to know more about us to sell us more stuff. In the end and the beginning, beyond tech, beyond catastrophe, we are vectors of longing.”

Thanks to Chris McManus for the thoughtful edit, and stay tuned for a podcast reading from the essay.