This past week, I have been slowly easing my way back into mainstream social media, something I more or less abandoned in late 2016 because I got tired of too many strident voices and too much mudslinging.
You Need Your Head Examined!
You might wonder why on Earth I would do such a crazy thing!
My reasoning is actually twofold. For one, I need to get more serious about marketing my artwork to a broader audience and that's going to require me to reconnect with social media on a broader basis. Don't get me wrong — I love Hive, but it just doesn't have the global reach of other platforms. Hence the decision to reactivate a number of my social media accounts, many of which I have admittedly had for 12 to 15 years.
Second reason does relate to Hive, and is — I suppose — my own attempt at "flying the team colors" so to speak... in the sense that I will cautiously participate in the ongoing efforts to onboard more people onto Hive which is definitely something we need around here.
Humans Behaving Badly, Part 453...
To some degree, I suppose I can accept personal accountability for some of my puzzlement about people's behavior simply based on the fact that I am what you might describe as "neurodivergent," but even on a much broader base I would have to say that an awful lot of people are just behaving really badly!
It almost seems like as time has progressed, the fine art of debate has instead turned into the art of fighting, and opinion has replaced facts, and people seem more entrenched than ever in their own little cognitive echo chambers which typically seem to operate independently of tangible facts... and ultimately requires the complete and utter destruction of anybody who doesn't see the world the way they do.
Of course, keep in mind that I'm only viewing this from the periphery. I'm not in social media to have anything to do with politics, religion, government, monetary policy, parenting or similarly firebrand topics... I am out there promoting art!
Even so, it is almost impossible to escape people who would have been described 25 years ago as "being in their complex" spouting off about things that simply make me sit there and shake my head. And I don't even need to fact check them to reach a pretty solid conclusion that there are fruit loops in the room...
Meanwhile, it also feels like there is a general groundswell movement to normalize this sort of thing.
Which also makes me shake my head as I sit back and find myself revisiting — at least in my mind — the 2006 movie Idiocracy which increasingly looks like something eerily predictive rather than an over-the-top farce comedy. And that makes me really sad, not to mention worried for the future of humanity.
I'm not so worried for myself anymore, because I am getting old and don't have so many years left on this planet. But I do worry a bit about what our grandchildren might be experiencing, by the time they make it to their 60s.
Of course, I have periodically been accused of taking everything too seriously, and I'm certainly open to the possibility that I'm taking a lot of the current shouting and screaming a little too seriously.
Move along, nothing to see here!
Really....?
Of course, I'm not going to let the aforesaid dissuade me from continuing down this path because I do need to sell some artwork. So, ahead we forge! Maybe I can keep myself balanced and inspired by telling myself that somebody needs to toss a few nuggets of sanity and reason into the mix.
And that's about it, for tonight. As always, I appreciate you stopping by and putting up with my ramblings... and do have a great week!
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Created at 2023-09-24 22:18 PDT
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