January 13, 2020

dealing with social media

...or not. Where to start?

1. It's all about "me", or the shared bits of all of us.

Thinking about "looking" at screens.
Writers of memoirs and painters of self-portraits have known this feeling for centuries. A window to our soul and an apple a day...whatever.

This grain of sand (now in 2020, 1 in over 7 billion). Light plus silver halide particles on a film negative, capturing a thin layer of shadow and exposure framed in a box for a flicker of a moment.

Now multiplied by millions (those who share) and billions (everyone who has access to the interwebs) if even only by wireless phone.

That brings me to phones. While I ❤ art + fiction. And enjoy autobiographies ( esp. unplanned ones) and don't care much for biographies (esp. unauthorized ones). Phones?

The problem with phones is like screens; it's not about the device. It is all about the disembodied voices. It is the torture of the damn things "beeping" all hours of the day and night.

A sincere heartfelt thank you to the team who developed the 'Do Not Disturb' algorithm. Thanks for helping to reduce a lot of suffering.

(to be continued) 

In the next post, later with the ...or not dealing parts.

(1/13 to 1/17/2020 or 4 days later)

Uploaded this background to FaceBook in December 2019.
More than a few times over the years I've written long wordy complaints about how there has to be something better. I've quit FB, even deleted photos there, etc...

Today? I'm feeling like enough words.

(1/29/2020, 12 days since I added words here)

Twitter algorithms hunt up data from "web-crawlers" my searches, emails and whatever else my digital life lets "them" list and sell. The loudest crap buries tweets from my meek busy friends.

Facebook bought Instagram, it keeps attempting to remind me to log in. But, I have never done the FB on my phone.

This Blogger blog, Google purchased, now uses ad space attempting to sell add clicks to me. It knows I visit my own blog here while editing more than anyone else reads it. That $84 and change in my Adsense account went from $79 to $84 dollars in the last 8 or 9 years. It will never reach the $100 dollar threshold. So Google will never pay me. 

Medium paid me a nickel. They actually sent a deposit for that five cents! But, people stopped clapping when I got past the five episodes they could read for free. So, I listed all the episodes as FREE to read. It's against the rules to ask for claps. I haven't but, the cynical side of my sense of humor assumes they are blocking me since it's free to read my story posts there.

My own blog, www.uvabe.com always shows up as Not secure. Hmm...? I see this same warning in the paid-for URL on a lot of other artists' and writers' blogs.

The mean person who I fight with sometimes says, You will never be young and sexy, you will NEVER be an influencer. Why do you even waste your time? 

I say What else is there? It's what I've got, a little time to waste. Then I write this post as a writing warm-up for more important things.

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