Will there be historians who look back at what went wrong who hold Facebook responsible as a major mouthpiece for misinformation put out by the fossil fuel industry? Will there be any historians?
And yes, putting these in a blog post gets less eyeballs than Facebook, but…
My mum doesn’t, but I know people whose mums do.
If we lose all computer records and historians dig down, what will they think of all the selfie sticks?
A lovely neighbour of ours sent me a link to a documentary about conspiracy theorists in New Zealand. It explores how social media has exacerbated our differences and stoked hatred, the worst of which spilled over into real-world violence outside Parliament earlier this year. She found it so disturbing that she could only watch eight minutes of it (mind you, she doesn't watch the news for the same reason). But she thought more people should know about it and asked me to share it as she doesn’t use Facebook.
I don’t blame her. I use social media less and less. It upsets me how it has displaced real, curated content online. Facebook and co want posts that engage (facts don’t matter), and the algorithms reward arguments and hatred. Social media isn’t building community anymore. It is dividing it. We preach to the converted in our bubbles and attack anyone who doesn’t agree, driving them off to their bubbles, or off the platform entirely. It happened to neighbours who didn’t want to be vaccinated. They left Lyttelton's Facebook group: end of conversation.
How do we break out of our bubbles and prevent social media destroying our online and off-line communities?
I was given that opportunity last Friday when I went to see my physio (for reasons of age catching up with too much time sitting at a computer/drawing table). At the end of the session, she often leaves me with pins sticking in my neck and shoulders as she starts up her next patient. A couple of curtains separate us.
One of my very early cartoons!
The patients are usually Lyttelton locals like me, who have similar views about the world. Often the chat is about the aches and pains, but sometimes it becomes more interesting. Nearly always those fellow patients are in my bubble—left-leaning, environmentally concerned...you know the type—rational and decent people (so we think). But this time, the patient on the other side of the curtains was from a very different bubble and the conversation became very interesting…
This is an extract of my Illustrated Epistle, which goes out once a month-ish. It is a behind-the-scenes look at the life of a cartoonist (specifically, mine). I'd love it if you signed up at the bottom of this page, or here:
http://eepurl.com/cCOOeD
Or head to the archive to read it here.
Well, it was almost inevitable: finally we got Covid. I probably caught it from going to bridge lessons, as fewer and fewer people are wearing masks (our Lyttleton table have been insisting anyone who plays with us wear a mask, but we are in the minority).
It was like a heavy cold with extra aches for a day and a half. Even my eyeballs ached. How is that possible? One of my neighbours called to say that she had made muffins with a special ingredient. I was hoping it was marijuana (not legal in New Zealand, unfortunately), but it was chocolate. Nearly as good. And it was the first of many deliveries we received during our isolation.
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I did a lot of lounging around in bed, especially after a sleepless night. I couldn't concentrate to read so I listened to Lisa Tarbuck on BBC Radio ). Her show is so entertaining I had to switch to Joni Mitchell to finally drift back to sleep.
The boyf got it two days after I did and my sister in Auckland got it two days after him. New Zealand is surging.
This is an extract of my Illustrated Epistle, which goes out once a month-ish. It is a behind-the-scenes look at the life of a cartoonist (specifically, mine). I'd love it if you signed up at the bottom of this page, or here:
http://eepurl.com/cCOOeD
Or head to the archive to read more here.
As I write this we are still Covid free, but getting fed-up of mostly sitting outside bars and cafes, especially as we have had a burst of wintry weather. The boyf is super fed up as he doesn’t have as many down jackets and woolly hats as I do.
Because of my reducing-the-money-I-give-to-polluting-dairy-companies, I have amassed a small fortune with the money I've saved from having my coffee black instead of enjoying a latte. But my jar will keep filling up for a while before I feel it is worth the risk of eating out..
I'm waiting for three weeks to pass without hearing of a someone we know here getting Covid before I venture inside to mingle with people at random, without a mask.
We've also been looking into our long-term health. We are generally healthy, but we're getting older (shock!)
So we want to know that should anything happen we’ll be covered. New Zealand has a public health system that covers emergencies, but it is patchy when it comes to everything else.
This is an extract of my Illustrated Epistle, which goes out once a month-ish. It is a behind-the-scenes look at the life of a cartoonist (specifically, mine). I'd love it if you signed up at the bottom of this page, or here:
http://eepurl.com/cCOOeD
Or head to the archive to read more here.