Rants, Raves, and Rhetoric v4

Category: Social / IM / Chat

  • Federated social media

    Back in April, I learned about Mastodon. I made an account, but never used it. I made another and started using it. People are leaving Twitter. Many of those to Mastodon, so I will find them. You can find me there as @ezrasf@mas.to , so connect with me. The concept is interesting. There are many…

  • Juggling Social Roles in Social Media

    Sociology has a concept of us holding multiple social roles. At home, I am both a husband and a father. With relatives, I am a son, nephew, or cousin. At work, I am a supervisee, mentor, subject matter expert, or organization historian. Things get a bit more undefined out in the wider world, but I…

  • Friendship Placebo

    Social media plays with our minds in allowing us to stay connected to old friendships. We feel like we are maintaining the relationship. But, it lacks something. Social media tends to bring out our worst. We portray ourselves at our best. We compare our worst to others’ best. Assumptions, gossip, and negativity abound. It really…

  • The Social Media Evolution

    The Make Me Smart Podcast episode 96: Do it for the ‘gram had an interesting quip that Instagram was what the Facebook News Feed was before it got corrupted by ads and political arguments: the trivialities of our daily lives. All social networks became popular because of trivialities. “What’s on your mind?” THAT is what…

  • Freelove != Free Love

    Got an email from Academia.edu saying, Dear Ezra, Alessandra Carneiro uploaded a PDF that mentions the name “Ezra Freelove”. They have a premium service where you can buy access to mentions of your name. I know of only one mention in a VSU paper as a thank you for my work there in IT in…

  • Pseudo-Following

    There are a handful of people who post interesting things, but I cannot stand the 99% of what they post. Is it worth the pain sifting through thousands of crap posts to reach the one gem? I discovered that I have a strategy for this dilemma. Follow someone who reposts the interesting stuff. Let them…

  • Fake News

    There is an article floating around with a title, “Fake news sharing in US is a rightwing thing, says study.” I have not clicked on it because it sounds like fake news. The Guardian typically has clickbait titles. Also, I am annoyed because if I wanted to do a study on how susceptible liberals are…

  • On This Day & Friendship

    When I look through Facebook’s On This Day feature, sometimes I am startled to see that someone I expected to like a specific post did not. This reminded me that what I post often is targeted. There are a handful of people who I know follow my posts and will appreciate them. Friends are people…

  • Do I Use Pinterest

    A male friend asked if I use Pinterest. His wife laughed and laughed. She nearly dropped their daughter from all the laughter. It was if there was something humorous about two guys discussing a web site. Well, I do use Pinterest some. I don’t spend massive amounts of time on it like I hear some…

  • Students Out PR Professionals

    As a Valdosta State University student, we nicknamed the student paper the Speculator. Incorrectly reading between the lines were their specialty. Grammatical errors and spelling mistakes were part of their standard. But it was amusing to see them go after the administration. Not so much to be reported on when I made big mistakes. As…