Category: social media

the junk word diet

Ian HunterLeave a comment

You find it hard to think for yourself

Much easier to let others tell you what to think

You no longer read books or newspapers

Preferring to turn on the TV or the radio

You only trust one news media

Everything else must be treated with the utmost suspicion

Passively consuming the trivia 

Religiously believing the unbelievable untruths

Eating the social media junk word diet

Like the addict who knowingly returns to his dirty needle

Never daring to make up your own mind

Lest your conclusions contradict the mantra of the angry mob

Long gone are the days when you listened to opposing views

You can no longer remember respecting others outside your clique

Today you feel safe being part of a gang who regard all outsiders it as mortal enemies

Your life is now simple without having to debate or defend your views

You are the willing Stockholm syndrome victim of your political hijackers

I thought about trying to save you with an intervention

Having you deprogrammed so you can see the real world again

Sending you off to a thinkers rehab clinic

But sadly its too late

You are beyond my reach

I miss the old you

My quest to be an influencer

Ian Hunter3 Comments

I am told that an influencer can make a lot of money

All you need is a bunch of social media followers

Who watch your photo and video postings

Surely an easy transition from being a poetry blogger

I am already dreaming how to spend all that new income

After researching I discovered the typical profile of high earning influencers

They are mostly 20-30 years of age

Majority are female and very attractive

Dressed in the latest designer fashions

With followers measured in millions

The age and gender things are insurmountable hurdles for me

I would not look that good in designer clothes anyway 

I would also need more than 200 times my current Cheeky Monkey followers 

Then I discovered that there are senior influencers out there

Labeled as Granfluencers with some in the 80’s and 90’s

They mostly do incredible things like body transformations

Turning their flabby midriff into rock hard six packs

Showing seniors how to pump iron like a champ

I am not a gym rat so that line of work is out for me

There must be something entertaining I could do

I thought about cycling but that is not outrageous enough in itself

What I need is something interesting that would entertain folks

Then I hit on this great idea

I could give talks on single malt whisky

Film myself drinking scotch daily while traveling

Get sponsored tours of Highland distilleries

Film myself drinking scotch in exotic places

Surrounded by attractive women in designer clothes

Better still I could drink scotch while riding my high end road bike between distilleries 

Followed by a big peloton of beautiful female riders in skimpy lycra suits advertising scotch

All I need now is a catchy name for my new single malt sipping cycling tour blog

After a lot of marketing brainstorming I found the perfect label:

UNDER THE INFLUENCER

Cell phones come with a free bad manners App

Ian HunterLeave a comment

Somebody knocks at your door

They know you are home because they can see you inside your house

You go to the door and see a man there but decide not to open it because you do not recognize him

You are now both looking at each other through a window next to the door

He points to the door gesturing a request for you to open it, you write down a note

“what do you want?” and hold it to the window

He reads it and writes a note back “I am your new neighbor”

You write another note “hi nice to meet you” and he writes “can you do me a favor please”

You make him wait ten minutes and hold up another note “what do you want?”

He writes “your car is blocking my driveway, is there any chance you could move it please”

To be sure he is genuine you go back inside and look up home sales to verify the house next door recently changed hands

Then you go upstairs to take a look if your car is indeed blocking his driveway

All this time the guy is waiting outside your door

You eventually go back and write him a note “ I need to find my keys, I will be there in a few minutes”.

Forty minutes later you open the door and introduce yourself to your new neighbor.  

This all sounds ridiculous but we do it all the time with cellphones

Screening the caller ID before we decide whether to answer or pausing before responding to a text

Remember the good old days when you always tried to answer a call before three rings?

Before smart phones, If you called somebody on a land line you had a very high expectation of actually talking to a person at the other end

Today everybody has a smart phone in their pocket but its so much harder to speak to them

Imagine how it feels for somebody to see you posting on Facebook while you ignore their calls and texts

Perhaps we consider paying a thousand dollars for a smartphone a worthwhile investment because it comes with a free bad manners App

Are you a “user?”

Ian Hunter2 Comments

“There are only two industries that call their customers ‘users’: 

“Illegal drugs and software” said Edward Tufte, a computer scientist and a professor emeritus of computer science, political science and statistics at Yale University

I came across the above quote while watching the 2020 documentary Social Dilemma

It reminded me why I quit FaceBook in 2017

And why our society has become so polarized

The film explains why so many people believe in conspiracy theories

Why fake news is more entertaining than the truth

How the big tech companies lull you into on-line addiction

So they can sell your usage to advertisers 

I just noticed I used the word quit to describe my parting with FaceBook

Just like a junkie or an alcoholic would quit an addiction

If you can spare a few hours away from the internet

If you are concerned about your own social media addiction

Or that of your family and friends

Please watch the documentary

1,456 days of social media distancing

Ian Hunter5 Comments

On November 8, 2017 I decided to stop looking at FaceBook

I was disillusioned at the content and disappointed in myself for wasting so much time every day looking at mundane things which added no value to my life.

It was easy to quit, no twelve step program or going to FaceBookaholics Anonymous meetings, I just closed my account and moved on

1,456 days later I have no regrets and my true friends found other ways to keep in touch

Early in 2020, I do not recall the exact date, I made a decision to stop watching the news, both TV and internet

After a lifetime of addiction to daily news, I suddenly became aware that being constantly fed negative sensationalized stories did nothing to make me a better person

Being informed of the minute details of a distant natural disaster or terrorist attack that I could not influence just added unnecessary stress to my life

I do care about things and donate both my time and money to causes that matter to me

Abandoning the news was not as simple as deleting an App on my phone, I had to make conscious decisions not to tune into news channels

It was harder to break the habit of reading online news especially when you Google a current affairs subject because the top results are almost always news outlets

You have to dig a little deeper to find data on matters that interest you but also be skeptical about anything you read being true or factual

When I walk into a room today where TV news is being broadcast, I simply ignore it by listening to music on a headphone or engaging in conversation

So I am saying a huge thank you today to FaceBook, CNN, NBC, BBC and all the other media sources that used to take up 2 hours or more of my day

Thank you for leaving my life and gifting me that time to do other things of my choice like riding my bike, reading, writing, having interesting conversations with friends or engaging in a project to improve my home or myself

Imagine how this extra time gained daily adds up, over the next decade I will have the equivalent of 12 months news and social media free gifted time for myself

Its like having your life expectancy increased by 10% with the additional bonus of being less stressed

I am grateful for still being alive today during the Covid-19 Pandemic, and even more grateful for not having been spoon-fed the 24/7 toxic news on this subject

If important things happen out there that could effect my life, others advise me of it

Time is precious, I am determined to spend mine on things which bring me joy and fulfillment

The battle to control John’s thoughts

Ian Hunter2 Comments

John was something of a rebel in his youth, always challenging things

not blindly agreeing to everything he heard and he was constantly searching for answers

he made an effort to think for himself

holding strong views on many things but willing to listen and learn

as he got older he settled down raising a family and working hard at his job

thinking for himself became a tiring task

without realizing it, he allowed others to do his thinking for him

he only listened to one radio station and watched one TV channel

all his books went unread and he rarely listened to music anymore

John allowed others to inject their thoughts into him

broadcasting and social media became the dirty needles for his news addiction

social media closely tracked John’s browsing habits

adjusting his news feed like the pusher who mixes a cocktail of drugs for a junkie

john happily ate all the words prepared by the media dietitians

he would repeat the same digested words during conversations

his circle of friends dwindled to a few just like him

he only went to bars that had TVs tuned to his favorite channel

politicians who hijack people’s thoughts loved John and those like him

they could easily collect votes without having any real policies or credible manifestos

one day,  John collapsed at work and was rushed to the hospital

he had suffered a massive stroke and his recovery was long and slow

throughout rehab he was totally disconnected from all news media

therapy sessions slowly taught him to speak and walk again

his right side was partly paralyzed and he learned to type with his left hand

the therapist gave him writing tasks and he kept a journal of his recovery

it was exhausting to type even a short sentence at first but John persevered 

John’s mind slowly began to wake up again

he started reading books and magazines and progressed to writing short stories 

after a very long rehab period,  John went home but he did not turn on the TV

he stopped using social media but he read extensively and wrote every day 

his first book was an autobiography

John became a successful author

the politicians who hijack people’s thoughts don’t like John anymore