Should we care that Elon Musk is about to acquire Twitter? Not really. Remember that Twitter, like Matt Gaetz and Marge Greene, is just a tool. Like any tool, it can be used for evil or good. Well, mostly evil in the case of Matt-n-Marge, but you see what I mean. I’m not going to ditch Twitter just because the world’s richest (for now) man and the […]
Bonfire of my vanity
Take a look at the composite picture above: What do the five faces have in common? I’ll just wait here while you ponder. Hint: It’s not the Dave Clark Five. It’s not the Five Amigos. It’s not the Five Horsemen of the Apocalypse. It’s not the Five Guys. It’s not the Five Pillars of Islam. No, my friends, these five faces represent the closest resemblance to yours […]
Anti-social media
Here’s a useful tip: If you delete Facebook from your phone, you will check Facebook less often. A LOT less often. In a scientific experiment starting the day after the election, I deleted the ubiquitous blue icon from my iPhone 6. That was right after putting out feelers regarding a move to Australia. Still haven’t heard back from Australia, but over the past few days I’ve noticed […]
Hello again. And now I must be going.
After 15 years of the Internet, I thought I’d heard from pretty much everyone I’d ever crossed paths with since being born. But the other day there was a comment on a video I’d uploaded to YouTube: “did you attend Flathead H.S.?” I recognized the name. We’d been close friends during my freshman year. All the girls back then loved the way he danced. Once he was […]
Sticking it to the (Instagram) man
Like a lot of people, I deleted the Instagram app (and all the mediocre photos I’d taken with it) after reading about Facebook’s new terms of service. At first reading, the new TOS made it sound like anybody who uses the app is a mindless tool who exists solely to consume ads and provide free content for Facebook. It gave the impression that I am the product, […]
Too many stars and too much history
I can’t get all smug about the Twitter people who know nothing of Paul McCartney, Dick Clark and Rodney King, and who are unaware that the film Titanic was based on actual events. It’s not that I don’t enjoy making fun of people who are dumber than I am; I do, very much. And it’s not that I don’t think the national IQ has been trending downward […]
Every call is a wakeup call
I do think mobile phones are changing how people relate to each other. But maybe it’s not such a bad thing. Tonight a young couple parked in front of my house, no doubt intending some quality time at the wine bar across the street. They were both good-looking, both in their mid-20s, both smiling when they got out. Then the woman groped for her purse. She pulled […]