About this blog
Wrangling my neurodivergent brain often feels like trying to herd a bunch of cats having a post-poop zoom: I always have a lot of shit on my mind, so I spent a lot of time procrastinating thinking about how describe my blog. Diluting it into a 165-character meta description wasn't possible, but I came up with a literary magazine-style one-liner followed by a long explanation:
“Not Enough Search Volume” is a focus on the why — a personal blog with an academic slant.
I want to resubmerge myself into why I became a writer in the first place. I want to reconnect with the style I developed throughout eight years of higher education without hearing "say it plainly," "we don't have the budget," "write faster," or "those keywords don't have enough search volume." I want to write the about shit I wasn't able to write about for a good chunk of my short-lived (is six years short-lived?) career as a full-time tech journalist.
From 2018 until 2021, my former editors treated me the way my former writing professors did; they let me bounce around the full, chaotic spectrum of my thoughts until I found something that made me hyperfocus. They trusted my voice and actively encouraged me to use it. Thanks to their guidance, I am tremendously proud of the massive body of work I created from that time.
But once 2022 rolled around, that all changed for the worst. By the end of 2024, I was gasping for air. So I left tech journalism to focus on teaching, my own creative pursuits, and to get as far away from tech as possible. (I still freelance a little.) It's one of the best decisions I've ever made: saying yes to creative freedom.
My blog posts will be driven by whatever I feel compelled to write about: a book review; a well-researched, profanity laden rant; my late ADHD and Autism diagnosis; why I hate the word “consumer” and generative AI. There will be times when I write about tech, but the vision I have for my blog is holistic — a conversation fostering empathy, human connections, and sharing humorous and heartfelt experiences regardless of what I’m writing about.
I want you to get to know me — the real me — as I continue to find the little pieces of joy I accidentally scattered far and wide, glue them back together, and show others and myself that I was whole from the start. If I do my job right, my blog will become a safe space for my readers to do the same with each other.
What happens when a creative writer-slash-almost-former-tech journalist starts a blog? I'm not sure, but life is a series of hyperfixations; if you have an interest in books, tech, gardening, games, education, Star Trek, neurodivergence, spooky things, the occult, witchcraft, astrology, or having deep conversations in the comments section, there's a good chance at least one of my posts will catch your interest.
About the author
Joanna's body of work spans across PC Gamer, MaximumPC, Gizmodo, USA Today, Reviewed, The Verge, and Laptop Mag. She's taught creative writing to high schoolers for the last seven years and hopes to do the same with college students soon — and finish her memoir, along with a plethora of other writing projects.