The Urge To Share

in

I read someone saying that social media isn't a plague, that it's bad, but not that bad and there are some positive uses for it. I've thought about that and come to this: social media is a cesspool from which plagues come. Sure, cesspools are useful, but I'm not going to live in one. I'm with Jaron Lanier on this. I just feel that Facebook, Twitter, and all the rest are bad for us.

It's like sugar which tastes good but is poison in the amounts at which I consume it. I'd lead a better life without sugar, but it's tough to quit. You're still on social media because you're hooked, right?

If Facebook, Twitter, or whatever make your life better, then go ahead. If you use them because your friends are all on them, okay, whatever. If you use them despite feeling that they are a cancer on society, well then I've got nothing for you.

I'm thinking about social media also because I've been doing things differently in my life and it's the sort of thing I'd have posted on Twitter or Facebook. Hey, look at me! Be grateful I can no longer share that way.

What about this blog? Isn't it just like social media?

There are differences that feel important. One, I'm not providing free content for some large corporation's profit. Two, people must choose to come and read. Three, commenting takes more work. Four, I'm not much invested in growing my "following." I used to worry about the numbers, but I don't any more. If someone gets something out of this blog, good. I get plenty out of it. I mean, I'm learning how to write.

I can't think of a single lasting thing I learned on social media except that it made me deeply unhappy and is designed to do so. It made me mean. I'm not sure I'm willing to offer Zuckerberg and Dorsey any gratitude for that lesson.

I still have the hard-wired urge to share. That urge is fine unless it comes out of a sense of jealousy or insecurity and so long as that urge isn't satisfied too easily.

Anything I want to share here, I draft usually in pen or on the typewriter. If it still seems worth sharing, I type it on the computer. I consider again if it's worth sharing. I revise to make it ten- or twenty-percent shorter. By then I've made the decision and copy it from my favorite online writing tool into my web-host's software, give it one last look, and publish. The process gives me time to ask, am I sharing something worth someone's while? My answer may be different than yours. That's fine. You choose to stay with me or not.

I don't have any algorithm here. It's just you and me. Social media platform algorithms prey upon our weaknesses because strong users are lousy customers and these folks want suckers, billions of them. As for this, no money has changed hands, no advertisers have had their say, and you're free to go at any time.

I just wanted to share that.

The social-network-internet of today is best understood when you hold in your mind the image of a faceless person scrolling down a screen endlessly for all of eternity, but yet for whom satisfaction never comes. –Rebecca Toh

State Of Syracuse Weather

in

Syracuse's mayor presented the State Of The City last night. It was a good show. The speech was held up on the hill with windows overlooking the city. The lights dimmed and the blinds slowly rose revealing the world outside. The plan was for us to see Syracuse's nighttime skyline in panoramic vista. Instead we greeted a wall of white snow.

The mayor could have complained or joked about terrible weather. That's what I'm used to hearing. But he didn't complain and that's a lot of why I voted for and support him. He said it was like we were in a snow globe. Beautiful. He embraced the weather and referred to us as "the titans of winter." Oh, I like that.

At XO Taco prior to the speech, I wrote the following in my notebook:

I'm starting a pro-snow campaign in Syracuse to change the mood. I'm not expecting this to be the mayor's primary initiative. Some things I have to do myself.

If I were mayor, I'd gather the weather reporters and media executives to present the case for changing the talk around the weather, setting a new tone. It's not a conflict of interest like choosing sides in a political race. Just present the weather in a fairer light.

Celebrating the weather will lift the city's mood. We live in winter sometimes from late October until the first days of May. We get a lot of snow. This morning it's nine degrees with a fresh layer of snow and some ice. We can say it's too damn cold or declare that it is nine degrees and people are still out walking, driving, shoveling, beginning their days. We can cheer the DPW for making all the roads safe. We can celebrate a sky that is eggshell blue and bright with sunshine. It really is a beautiful day in our neighborhood.

This reminds me of the push a few years ago in North Dakota to drop North from the state's name. Ridiculous, right? But North sounds and feels colder. South Dakota is in no way tropical, but it sounds more inviting than North Dakota. Dropping North might seem foolish, but it would have a positive effect on the feel of the place. And the feel of something is often much more important than we care to admit.

Here in Syracuse, we don't have to change our name, just shift the tone from being snow victims to becoming snow titans. We can show gratitude for the chance to talk with neighbors as we shovel, to brush off a colleague's car as we wait for ours to warm after work, to come in from the cold and be offered a mug of coffee. We can marvel at how inches, sometimes feet of snow fall, yet the day goes on as if it were spring with cleared roads, open businesses, and a thriving city.

If we hear, see, and read reports celebrating winter, we can begin accepting it. Acceptance is a step toward happiness and happiness is powerful stuff.

I'm pro-snow, pro-winter, and bet your chilly ass I'm pro-Syracuse, the city of winter's titans.

Steering Clear of BOOM

in

I have been pretty busy. That's good. Being busy means I am engaged in a bunch of things. I'm not overly busy. That's the state of trying to do too much and failing to engage any of it well enough to feel good. I'm coming up on that though, and need to be careful, but for now I'm just pretty busy.

Still, being this busy has kept me away from writing and that sets off a warning. Reminds me of Apollo 13 when the Saturn V loses an engine on ascent. The astronauts wonder what's up. CAPCOM wonders what's up. The flight director wonders what's up. Then one engineer says, no problem, we'll burn the other four a longer and all will be well. My warning light is blinking and mission control is checking my systems. I'm okay to burn longer, achieve orbit, head for the moon.

The thing to avoid is when Apollo 13 went BOOM after leaving Earth orbit for the moon. BOOM is bad. BOOM is life-threatening. BOOM ends things fast. I don't want BOOM. I've been there before.

That's some comfort too, familiarity with such things. I've unintentionally blown up my life several times. In each case I was dead in space, but I did what Gene Kranz directed after Apollo 13 went BOOM: I worked the problem. Those engineers and directors made let Apollo 13 go on to the moon, knowing gravity would return it to Earth. There was no shortage of hardship and danger along the way, but the astronauts arrived back on Earth. Boom wasn't the end of the story.

Even so, I don't want to go BOOM. I'll avoid being too busy to write, stealing twenty minutes at the kitchen table typing this. I'll write a little and remind myself a lot. Then I'll close the computer and decide what to do next, where to engage, what to let go, how to be busy but not overly so. After all, I'm going all the way to the moon.

And back.