No, I'm not talking about THAT. (OK, that too.) I'm talking about social media. You would think after all these years I'd have a clue, but I don't. Let's take Facebook, which is so impossible. I mostly hang out there for my book club, but the notifications are so screwed up that it's hard to keep track of things, which I have to because I am one of the coordinators. I will be reading a group thread, trying to make sense of it chronologically so I can award points to members for various things, but the fucking site refreshes every 11 seconds so I have to keep starting over. ARGH!
I've mentioned Bluesky before. I like to keep a presence there, though I am not sure why. You can't really get to know anyone via skeets (the new "tweets"), and since I don't want to be super political in public, I avoid most of those posts, which are in fact most of the posts. Even when I agreed with one of my moots last week, some other person swooped in and attacked me out of the blue. FOR NOTHING! We basically are in agreement; she just got all bent because I said I was pausing political donations as they don't seem to do any good. We went back and forth for a while, which was ridiculous. Arguing on the internet is always a giant time sink, but if someone starts with me, well, you know how I am.
This blog is technically public, but no new peeps seem to find it (so far), so I feel I can say whatever the fuck I want. Not that I do. But I could! In any case, comments are always held for moderation, so even if some troublemaker popped up, I would nuke their comment before it saw the light of day. Bluesky is 100% public however, and if you want to moderate, you have to do it yourself by blocking bunches of folks, which is tedious. I imagine I will spend less and less time there, though in its favor there are still no ads, yay. (Besides all the other issues, FB is insane with ads.)
IG is OK. Cute animal pics but lots of ads.
I recently revved up my Reddit account, but I had been so inactive for so long I didn't realize the site is swarming with fake accounts looking for karma points by posting pics of cats that aren't theirs, etc. Or they spin up some elaborate fictional problem in order to get "advice," which creates churn, and idk what. How does this benefit them? Do the points eventually turn into money? What's going on? Today I deleted a comment I made on a "name my kitty" thread when it was pointed out that the post was a scam, and when I visited the OP's profile, it was all pr0n. Ugh. It makes reading the site unappealing now.
Substack is just as confusing as it was the last time I tried it. I'm not sure what the difference is between following someone and subscribing to them for free, though I do understand that free subscribers might not see everything someone posts if they have monetized themselves. I'm not sure what a "note" is vs an article. I can't figure out how to have my own "publication" there like other people do. I don't see that option when I post a poem or whatever. It just appears under my account name "Lightmotifs," which I changed from Paula Light because Paula Light certainly does not sound like the name of a publication. But other people there have their name showing and the name of their publication/s too.
Whatever. At least there are some nice, thoughtful articles on Substack as opposed to the dopey memes I see everywhere else.
I still like blogging best, even if I have only a handful of readers. I appreciate you!
I watched a couple of old movies recently. I used to think "old movies" meant black and white film noir or Elvis Presley musicals from the 1960s, but it turns out that the 1990s were a long time ago too. Gah. The first one was Clueless, which is appropriate for this post. It's a 1995 film written and directed by Amy Heckerling, and it supposedly developed a cult following. You know, for a silly romcom, it is a delightful movie. Alicia Silverstone plays her part (Cher) to perfection, and Paul Rudd is great as Josh, Cher's love interest. Wallace Shawn is hilarious as the history/debate teacher who won't change Cher's grade until she makes him happy by coaxing him into a love match with another teacher. Dan Hedaya, who plays Cher's father, has the role of Nixon in the movie Dick, and I love that crazy film so much. Supposedly, this is a modern take on Jane Austen's Emma, which I haven't read, but I did see the movie adaption starring Gwyneth Paltrow. I liked it, but Clueless was more fun.
Next I watched Betsy's Wedding (1990), which was written and directed by Alan Alda, who also stars as Betsy's dad Eddie Hopper. This movie has a fabulous cast! Besides Alda, there's Madeline Khan (RIP) as Betsy's mom, Joe Pesci (RIP) as Eddie's corrupt brother-in-law, Molly Ringwald as Betsy, and Ally Sheedy as Betsy's sister Connie the cop. Anthony LaPaglia is my favorite though ~ he plays Stevie Dee, a mob guy sent to keep an eye on Eddie's construction project, but instead he falls for Connie. I guess this film didn't get such good reviews, and both Molly and Ally were nominated for "raspberry" awards, though idk why. They were fine, and the movie was enjoyable overall. I mean, it is a romcom, so idk what people were expecting.
More book reviews soon, though I have been slacking at reading lately so they won't be coming as fast for a while.
I had to quit social media in order to save what little remains of my sanity. Blogging is lots more fun and less stressful.
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks for the movie recommendations. 🙂
Something happened to social media, starting with Twitter becoming X. Like, all of them are just algorithms and bots. I read comments carefully on Reddit (and sometimes IG) before responding or liking. I have found that if I click on "Following" on IG/Facebook I can see my friends without drowning in whatever the algorithm thinks I want to see. It's sad because it's making me lose touch with people since I don't see them on my front page. Meta needs to dial this crap back. I haven't been on Bluesky in quite a while, and I haven't missed it. On Reddit, I have my faves and I notice that under each photo on the cat subs there is a "Google reverse image search" which I think is there to verify the source or something. Anyway, I'm happy you're blogging. 😄
ReplyDeleteI'm down to Reddit only, which is maddening. I throw pictures up on ig once in awhile. Reddit is weirdly addictive and totally useless. I finally googled it and found out that my age demographic (erm . . . over 65) accounts for 3% of Reddit users, which explains a lot. I mean to drop Reddit. I will then slowly pull completely out of the Internet until I am curled up in a fetal position awaiting the termination of my social security benefits. I don't mean to sound fatalistic. I meant to hide that. Or something.
ReplyDeleteI still like blogging. I miss mw. Sometimes.
Bluebird, I totally understand. That’s why I try to stay away from politics and other polarizing convos, tho sometimes I can’t resist reposting something funny.
ReplyDeleteKeera, on FB I mostly click on my book group. I know I miss a lot from friends, but that’s the way it is for many of us. I see ppl commenting on my (few) posts a week or two later because that’s when FB, in its vast wisdom, decides they should see it.
Roy, yep I do enjoy Reddit and am not giving it up now that I fixed my feed to exclude politics. I just won’t comment on the “name my kitty” posts because most are scams. Makes sense. Why would you ask strangers to name your pet? LOL. In any case, the AITA posts are fun, even if fake, and reinforce my decision to give up dating. I am just glad I escaped before encountering one of the real horror scenarios, which are apparently common!
Here's my experience with Reddit, all too frequently: "I am planning a move to the south Bay Area. Any recommendations for apartments in the specific part of Sunnyvale where I am fully committed to move to in January?" Typical comment: "Why would you want to move to an expensive place like the south Bay Area??" My response: "Thank you very much for your apparent concern about my well-being. And for the 47 downvotes. This has all made me reconsider my life goals."
ReplyDeleteBut then I get a lot of pretty good advice.