Hammock Snapshots are short flash fiction pieces, accompanied by an original illustration that aim to capture a moment, a feeling or a fragment of something without the pressures of longform writing. The series began on Instagram and now also features on our site.

You begin to measure yourself, unconsciously, through the digital signifiers on your screen. How many red dots or numbers or little icons appear, how many notifications create a buzz. You play mindgames that you deny even to yourself, keeping your phone away for an hour in the vain hope that the number has miraculously grown or savouring pointless interactions as though they signify something larger. You check them every few minutes and feel a tinge of disappointment when there is nothing, and though you keep telling yourself that they don’t matter or have any meaning, they eat at you slowly. You berate yourself with delusions like will power or control but really there is a giant system at work to keep you checking the feed, to make sure you scroll. Or else.