Over a year ago I had started an instagram account When We Were Seven to collect the bits and pieces of a new fascination: Age 7. I made a Substack at that time too, but I never launched it, concerned the idea was only a temporary obsession like so many things I chase down rabbit holes. But that hasn’t been the case.
Everywhere I look, I see adults remembering and talking and writing about being 7 years old. Even when not populating my IG content, I collect quotes, interviews, characters, podcasts, pop culture all related to age 7 in a notebook (and a spreadsheet, naturally).
While my interest in When We Were Seven grew, the number of tangent fascinations for this newsletter waned. (I also finished my thesis, graduated with an MFA in Creative Nonfiction, celebrated a milestone birthday, and saw a total solar eclipse from my backyard; so the time for wandering obsessions was limited.)
On that note, I want to specifically thank you for generously leaping into my first endeavor Easily Fascinated for 5 Minutes. Encouragement is ever wasted and your willingness to give up an email address or write a comment was noticed. Every click of the little heart 🩷 is the online version of a head-nod-hello or the subtle salutation of three-fingers lifted from the steering wheel.
If you’re willing to take another leap of curiosity, I’d love to have you over on When We Were Seven. Click here to read the first Substack post—the origin story of When We Were Seven. (You’ll find all the buttons to subscribe there, as well as in the About section.)
SPECIAL NOTE: If you’ve published any work related to your memories of age 7, I’d love to know about them. Comment below, IG Messenger, or email whenwewereseven at gmail dot com. I want to direct readers to the content I enjoy and the people who create it. It can be online content or an excerpt from a book/magazine that I can link to on the When We Were Seven Bookshop.org Wish List (or other source if you prefer). (Substack makes sharing links infinitely easier than IG.)
🐰 Rabbit holes🐰
🐰 “Everywhere I look I see…” This phenomenon has a name: frequency illusion. (Or, Baader-Meinhof phenomenon after those who classified this human behavior.) It is a form of cognitive bias—we generally find what we are specifically looking for, at times to the exclusion of other information. The first time I recall experiencing this was after I found out I was pregnant; pregnant people seemed to multiply overnight and show up everywhere I went. While echo chambers and cognitive bias are serious concerns influencing the security of our democracy and the quality of our healthcare, I like to appreciate that the human brain’s obsessive drive to track the familiar can be used for joyful purposes too.
🐰 I have tried to embrace the ebb and flow of Easily Fascinated for 5 Minutes without getting hung up on frequency or speed.
🐰 “It’s not clicks. It’s not followers or even likes. It’s people.” ~ The New Social Media Rules by Allison K Williams on BrevityBlog. And that’s true; engagement with comments and sharing each other's work builds a satisfying community that will stick together no matter how platforms and technology change. It’s part of why I’m adding Substack to When We Were Seven; I have no control over which billionaires decide to tank which platforms, but Substack is based on email and website contact. I also learned Substack does not own my email list—I do, which is a relief. Should Substack turn into too much video, sounds, and rapid-fire, heart-racing exchanges… I can continue in the quiet written form I prefer.
🐰 When We Were Seven Bookshop.org Wish List is an affiliate-linked list that benefits my local indie-bookstore directly. I hope you’ll consider purchases from here, but the list is primarily just a cool way to maintain a list of books (because my Goodreads is a disaster and Amazon is bad for the book publishing industry).