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Tag Archives: social media

I’ve heard it before. Stop re-posting.

26 Thursday Mar 2020

Posted by threeresolutionsguy in Character and Competence, Rants, Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on I’ve heard it before. Stop re-posting.

Tags

character, covid-19, social media

There is a tendency in all of us, and I say that because it is in me (and ‘what is most general is also most personal), to listen and understand only what we want to hear.

Evidence – the response to COVID-19.

I am avoiding news broadcasts because I do not want to hear the daily countdown to my own tragic death, and that of my loved ones. I am avoiding Twitter as much as I can because of the apparent glee with which some people speak of it, and the preaching from those who wrongly consider it their job to tell me what to do. The Government can do that for them. It’s in their Circle of Influence. Nobody else’s. How I respond is in mine. Everything else is outside, in the Circle of Concern. Including death tolls.

That said, I am grateful for the fact that HMG has started to use my mobile number to text me important updates, and Facebook for the unusually real updates.

What I am fed up with is everybody else’s reposting of the same posts I’ve had 10 times from someone else. If someone posts ‘how to wash your hands’ one more time I swear I’ll practice hand-wringing on their necks!

But these are strange times. There is, among the best of us, a willingness to comply for the better good. And the intent behind such posts is well-meant.

Unfortunately, and I refer back to my opening paragraph, there are those who understand only that 2m (what happened to 6 feet??) is the gap we should keep between us, so that means a 2m gap into which we can impose ourselves when jumping a queue. Those of us who think that it is noble to protect one’s family by behaving in a way that threatens another’s. And such people will, rest assured, find the evidence to justify what they are doing through reference to some nonsense that a moron has posted onto social media with the title ‘This is true!’, when it patently isn’t authoritative, responsibly sourced or cross-referenced.

At the same time, trotting out doctors to tell us we’re all going to die makes sobering, and therefore emotionally-avoided reading.

Which is why I have kept my reading about the virus to Government broadcasts and briefings. The rest is fluff and nonsense as far as I’m concerned.

Good ideas on the challenge in terms of how to Keep Calm and Carry On are great. Selfish preaching that points at me and says ‘IT’S ALL DOWN TO YOU’ – not so much.

Think about what and why you are posting. Has it been posted elsewhere, more authoritatively and widely? Is it in your area of expertise? Is it in the right Circle?

If the answers are Yes, No and No – don’t post.

Please.

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“As Emerson said about Trump…….”

06 Monday Jan 2020

Posted by threeresolutionsguy in Character and Competence, Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on “As Emerson said about Trump…….”

Tags

Baghdad assassination, Donald Trump, Facebook, social media, The West Wing

Time management. It’s a term that seems niche, but the more I read and write about it, the broader the definition becomes. To get the subject of this post, I will restrict the definition to one of ‘maximising the use of time on the things that matter.’

And go straight into the weekend’s events in Iraq. I am not talking about the assassination of the Iranian general, though. I am talking about the social media storm which followed.

As soon as possible after the incident was reported, social media posts began ringing around saying ‘Trump did this’ and ‘Trump did that’. Emotions ran high, depending on which side of the political divide you sat. The Left said the man was a war-mongering despot committing us to World War 3, a helpful conclusion designed to keep us all calm, I am sure. The Right commended Trump for taking positive action – an unusual term for killing someone.

But here’s the thing. Most posts I read, read like the posters assumed that Trump woke up one day and decided to top this fella. Never mind that the Left forgot that their narrative (an oft-used media term) was that Trump is an idiot, so couldn’t even spell or pronounce the general’s name. And would probably have put the H in the wrong place in Baghdad. Like I just did.

I try not to waste time espousing opinions on things I know next to nothing about. It wastes time engaging in arguments which I can’t win because I am unarmed. Yet there is a whole world out there of people who engage in this regularly, thus wasting time which could be better spent in the Circle of Influence.

One thing I do know, based on watching The West Wing (and the documentaries which I then had to watch because they were so informative), is that decisions like this involve a whole bunch of experts. And time. Yes, the President makes the final decision, but not until he has been briefed by the military, intelligence experts and various diplomats. Such advice includes the why to do it and the how to do it. The Why, in this case, appears to be based on the General’s involvement in a lot of outside-the-combat-zone terrorist activity. The How, we know.

But there would have been a whole lot of ‘What If’s’ considered about the aftermath. And considering that the US has apparently been surveilling this man for some years, we can reasonably assume that there would have been a lot of information available that led to the decision.

All of which means that while the ‘proper’ media seems to be trying to address it sensibly (partisanship aside), the time spent by all too many of us on Social Media debating the issue based on a belief that he just had an idea one morning and made a phone call, has been ill-informed, un-authoritative and emotional. Which does not reflect the best use of anyone’s time.

Social Media has its uses. It has its limitations. But above all, it has an all-encompassing ability to divert us from what is truly important.

I use it to entertain and, occasionally, brag. I do not use it to display pictures of undrunk pints and uneaten dinners. (I lie – I did, once, show a picture of a partially incomplete meal from a San Francisco fish restaurant because it was the first meal that had ever beaten me.)

It is a great place to start a debate, but if you are going to do that, at least make sure that your opening comments are based on a reasonable level of understanding. Consider your post and ask, “Is this all as it seems?” If you can’t answer that, do the research. You’ll be better informed, which is a great use of time.

And you may save the time you would have spent sending a post that would have made you appear stupid.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once opined, “What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.” Which may be more about character but the message remains clear.

Be in no doubt. Posting ill-informed opinion says a lot about you.

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Why are you distressing your friends?

09 Tuesday Jun 2015

Posted by threeresolutionsguy in Rants

≈ Comments Off on Why are you distressing your friends?

Tags

"Circle of Influence", charity, Circle of Concern, Facebook, social media

I’ve recently found that well-motivated people do like to spread the word through social media about issues that they find disturbing. This is all too frequently done through the inclusion of a video of whatever it is that causes this emotional upheaval. Societally the convention is that this is considered a ‘good thing’ because (they say) it ‘raises awareness’. The awareness it has raised in me is annoyance. Why so?

Well, consider it like this. If something makes me angry, upsets me, or even worse distresses me – why on earth do I want to visually inflict it on my friends and cause them anger, upset or distress?

The news channels, the newspapers, the charities and so on already provide this information copiously. There is rarely a day goes by without some bead news being visually communicated to me, often by a charity justifiably seeking funds. In their defence they do so with more measured video snippets because they believe that distress should not be inflicted by accident. If something IS likely to distress, they warn us.

(Have you noticed the repeated charity adverts saying the ‘situation is getting worse’? If that’s so, the money already sent isn’t working, so why send more? OK, that’s a bit tongue in cheek, but Michael Sheen is starting to get on my pip. See also an interesting article on why Ethiopia continues to breed an ever-larger population while still having no food and water.)

Anyway, social media users – if you like me enough to consider me your friend, here’s a suggestion.

If you really feel strongly about an issue, provide a link instead of a video, and let me decide if I want to see it. Provide it so that it doesn’t automatically upload the video e.g. put a gap between the . and the com. Don’t force upsetting scenes on me. Start a conversation about it with me, and see if I engage. If I am interested, let’s talk – if not, let’s move on. Or just use a poster raising the issue, one that doesn’t anger, upset or distress people, but just raises that awareness.

PLUS – and here’s just a thought – please don’t try to involve me unless you intend to do more than just spread the word. If you want to actually DO something, DO IT! Otherwise you’re just pointing and saying, “Oooh, look what they did!”

And that’s the Daily Mail’s responsibility.

In the end, it’s simply a case of your Circle of Concern v my Circle of Influence. If one or neither of us is willing and/or able to do something about the issue other than just shout, let’s waste no further time on it.

 

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