1. If I am on a particular site, I don’t want to have to go somewhere else to access the content. Post your poem; don’t redirect me to your blog. Give me your opinion right there; don’t make me click on a stupid video. We used to call this clickbait; now it seems like business as usual.
2. What is up with these IG reels of nothing? Why do you post a “reel” instead of a normal picture or video that will appear in the feed. I don’t want these extras to distract from my scrolling or make me miss something important. Same on FB. I keep hiding the reels, but they return like brainless zombies. Or maybe I’m the brainless zombie for constantly expecting things to be better. But I am hungry for content!
3. The term “content creator” as a job description drives me bonkers. We are all content creators every time we make a post or respond to someone else’s post. It’s so absurd to elevate this ordinary behavior to an art form. Sure, there are real artists and real writers around the internet, but I don’t see Stephen King redirecting us to another site and asking for a subscription before we’re allowed to read his latest opinion on whatever thing.
4. I don’t mind ads, but when there are a zillion of them shoveled into one article, it’s really obnoxious. There are times an article is impossible to read because of all the ads loading, reloading, and flashing. Then you’re flung back to the beginning because you haven’t seen enough ads apparently!
5. App app app app. I don’t want to download a new app every time I feel like reading something. Give me a break. Same with being pummeled with the subscriber box. No, I don’t want to get a daily briefing, sheesh. Can’t I just please read this one damn thing?!
Argh!!!
6. Why is everything a series lately? It’s hard to find a standalone book or movie nowadays, but I enjoy the freedom of one and done ~ if I begin a detective story and notice it’s book 1 of X, then I worry the ending won’t be a real ending and will force me to continue. Same with shows on TV. I don’t necessarily want 17 seasons of a drama, even a good drama; most shows jump the shark in the third season, at best. (There are exceptions of course, which is why I said “most.”)
7. The internet has made most people too lazy to bookmark this blog and visit it (you can subscribe via email, for free! LOL). I don’t care that much, although it might be nice to read more comments, but if I am not served up in a feed, forget it. I’m just rolling around the outskirts of the internet like a tumbleweed in a ghost town.
8. I can’t stand it when posts aren’t in chronological order. That’s it. Very simple. Keep everything in date order. Quit mixing shit up.
9. The idea that if X is good a million X is better has got to go. For example, if I “like” a picture of a cat that doesn’t mean that I only ever want to see pictures of cats. I am not a robot! Technology is so sophisticated in some ways and so basic and clunky in other ways.
10. The proliferation of scams is truly mind boggling. It makes me want to go off grid and live in a remote cave. But then I would be cold. And hungry. And lonely. Plus there might be snakes in my cave, but I wouldn’t have a phone to google up how to deal with them. Sigh.
I guess no. 6 isn’t about the internet, oh well. If this were a popular blog, someone would nastily point that out and then say my whole post is a lie and I should be canceled. My friend D notes that social media is now a perpetual outrage generator, and it’s true. But it’s not anything new ~ when I first wandered onto the net in 1998, people were gleefully trolling others and making nuisances of themselves. I got caught up in that too. Why not lash out anonymously when I was in a bad mood? It released some of my ongoing anger, and then I could turn off the computer and be immune from any consequences.
Today, there’s very little ability to be anonymous, and there’s no such thing as turning off your computer. Your computer is in your sweaty hand 24/7 with a constant barrage of alerts and notifications. God forbid you should miss a second of the outrage and hate, which is more effective at keeping people engaged (and thus their eyeballs on the ads) than anything pleasant. The more successful communicators understand this, which is why we see the outrage progressing exponentially.
I am experimenting on IG by following some celebs, to see if that livens up my experience. My friends don’t post much, so I am served up a bunch of cute animals in between the ads ~ I love the cute animals, but I am getting a wee bit bored. Let’s see what happens…
Amen. Well said.
ReplyDeleteThe job title "content creator" is the person in charge of posting stuff on a company's Facebook page. I mean, somebody's got to do it!
ReplyDeleteFor everything else, algorithms. Even the TV-series that get boring after one season. Because if you watched it, you have influenced an algorithm.
I don't post much on IG etc. because I too am tired of the whole thing. I have taken to clicking on "Following" before I scroll so I see the posts of people I am actually following, not all these other randos. And the reels thing? That's user interface nonsense, at least on IG. When I want to post a photo - just a photo - the first option is "reel" followed by "story" and it's easy to hit the first one since that's where "post" used to be. Arrgh!
Thanks for letting my vent on your rant. 🩷
Bluebird, thanks!!
ReplyDeleteKeera, ok, for an actual title at a company, I will make an exception, but for people posting videos of their silly thoughts, no!
"Content creator" bothers me too. Imagine if someone described Shakespeare as a "Content Creator at the Globe Theatre".
ReplyDeleteThe series thing is annoying as well. A few series carry their weight, but some just become repetitious and a way of making easy money rather than thinking up new characters. If people are going to do it, I would prefer if they followed the old model from the likes of Sherlock Holmes and James Bond and made all (or most) of the stories stand-alone so you can read them in any order and skip ones that don't look interesting. But then, people would complain about lack of character growth (which I think rarely happens in series anyway).
Daniel, funny about Shakespeare! Bond is a good example of a series that has held my interest. The stories are standalone, but it helps to know the backstories too. One series that showed amazing character "growth" (to the dark side) was Breaking Bad, but most just meander...
ReplyDelete