First, I'd like to add a little update to my post on FODMAP intolerance. I've started occasionally using digestive enzymes and that's been helping some residual issues I've had. If I go out for dinner, it's hard for me to control every single little ingredient in my food so I can end up feeling ill after a great night out. I started taking some digestive enzymes for the FODMAPs I have issues with and it's great!
Genius and thank you. And with my IBS, fodmap changed my life, although my bodies (short term) reaction to the covid booster hasn’t helped (happens every time I have the booster). Tumeric (the strong stuff) has helped that problem hugely. (Possibly too much detail in this)
Weather here is damp and grey, but at least I'm inside cosy and warm.
Your comments about 'likes' are so true. We seems to have become a species obsessed with what people think about us and will do so much to garner their approval and support, even if we don't think we're like that. I hadn't really considered that people posted in light-hearted chat groups for this until someone deleted a post, stating that they did so because they didn't think they'd get much engagement. I occasionally post in that group and 'engagement' hadn't really occurred to me - it's surely just for fun...
Something real, then. For a few years I had an issue where I had digestive disorders, my face would break out and I’d get headaches from eating. Turned out to be low vitamin D. It was during a time when I was a salaried employee and never saw the sun. I read an article about it, brought it to my doctor. I was at poverty levels for the vitamin.
This is a cracking bit of writing. In a way, it’s stuff any sensible grownup knows already… but put SO much better. Your point about totting up “mm-hm” noises to check how popular we are is hilarious and spot-on!
It took an effort of will not to automatically tap on the Like button.
In Myanmar, where Facebook essentially *was* the internet, the function of “Like” was understood by users to mean “I’ve read this”. So they would Like everything, which of course the algorithm noted.
However this also included extremist anti-Muslim content, but the algorithm wasn’t really watching for that, just for Likes. So it began amplifying that in people’s feeds. They kept Liking it, and.. positive feedback. The Rohingya Muslims were already marginalised; this just emphasised that and meant the Junta’s attacks against them had popular support.
Later, Facebook added more options than just Like.
Anyway, have been careful not to Like this post. Just in case.
When I worked in AOL in the early 00s, we often talked about the ability to deliver things serendipitously to readers. I despair at how it's turned out.
In the real world I'm very happy because I went for a swim in cold water today 😁
Great post, thank you. I hate seeing likes on social media in response to posts by bereaved people expressing their sadness at their loss. I understand that people who “like” those posts aren’t literally liking the person’s grief, but it still makes me uncomfortable.
I wonder if social media has done the opposite to me - my mum recently passed away and I don’t really know how to respond to people offering condolences. I withdrew from a lot of social media a while ago and feel like more of an observer than a participant.
A quick note from a Canadian...I mostly just read your blog. Have to say your writing is very thought provoking and so well constructed! It really makes me think, so thank you!
The weather here is drab and miserable but I have to go out for a run in a few minutes because our local gym is closed for refurb FFS. (Will this do?)
Genius and thank you. And with my IBS, fodmap changed my life, although my bodies (short term) reaction to the covid booster hasn’t helped (happens every time I have the booster). Tumeric (the strong stuff) has helped that problem hugely. (Possibly too much detail in this)
Weather here is damp and grey, but at least I'm inside cosy and warm.
Your comments about 'likes' are so true. We seems to have become a species obsessed with what people think about us and will do so much to garner their approval and support, even if we don't think we're like that. I hadn't really considered that people posted in light-hearted chat groups for this until someone deleted a post, stating that they did so because they didn't think they'd get much engagement. I occasionally post in that group and 'engagement' hadn't really occurred to me - it's surely just for fun...
Hope your winter is better than your autumn x
Something real, then. For a few years I had an issue where I had digestive disorders, my face would break out and I’d get headaches from eating. Turned out to be low vitamin D. It was during a time when I was a salaried employee and never saw the sun. I read an article about it, brought it to my doctor. I was at poverty levels for the vitamin.
Indeed - why are people SO fucking STUPID? And because I'm a person, that includes me.
Sometimes right exactly as I'm SPEAKing, I think: what a fucking stupid thing to be saying,
but I can't stop in the middle of the sentence cos that would be fucking stupider.
How's a human s'posed to get through this fucking stupid thing call life....
Sometimes it comes down to just hitting - SEND..... or in this case - Post
Perhaps the more alone people are the more likely they are to need the strokes .
What is real.
I don’t know at this moment I am typing this message sitting in a room with a man
doing jigsaws because that’s about the only
patterns his brain can follow.
They are his real.
The bits he can control
Maybe it’s the same for us all we are choosing the bits of our lives trying to
fit them into a picture .
It’s just in the bloody real word you have to
do a lot of trimming to make things fit.
Just meditate on the sensation of your
breath the idea is to find that object
the sensation then fix your mind there.
I wish you and yours ,
A Merry Christmas
an abundance of stupid people
because you can use then to practice
patience .
I don’t think I have said the L word
if I have I humbly beg your pardon .
I'm really busy and stressed running up to the end of the year and I can't work out if I just need a break from work or a break from everything.
Reading the articles I want to read feels like work.
Playing the games I want to play feels like work.
Even watching the TV is blotted by playing games on my phone.
Yet I feel if I stop all the articles and games then I will have failed.
I know that's how they work. They want eyeballs for ads. But isn't it supposed to be fun? Or informative?
At least with a physical newspaper I could finish the damn thing at some point. It's is just endless.
This is a cracking bit of writing. In a way, it’s stuff any sensible grownup knows already… but put SO much better. Your point about totting up “mm-hm” noises to check how popular we are is hilarious and spot-on!
It took an effort of will not to automatically tap on the Like button.
In Myanmar, where Facebook essentially *was* the internet, the function of “Like” was understood by users to mean “I’ve read this”. So they would Like everything, which of course the algorithm noted.
However this also included extremist anti-Muslim content, but the algorithm wasn’t really watching for that, just for Likes. So it began amplifying that in people’s feeds. They kept Liking it, and.. positive feedback. The Rohingya Muslims were already marginalised; this just emphasised that and meant the Junta’s attacks against them had popular support.
Later, Facebook added more options than just Like.
Anyway, have been careful not to Like this post. Just in case.
I go swimming when the weather is fronting
My likes are rather a-wanting
I read, watch and listen; scroll, rage and shout
But resort to knitting and chanting
When I worked in AOL in the early 00s, we often talked about the ability to deliver things serendipitously to readers. I despair at how it's turned out.
In the real world I'm very happy because I went for a swim in cold water today 😁
I didn't 'like' but reshared. Because a reshare transcends the boundaries of approval and represents a personally curated endorsement. ;-)
Thank you for expressing this so well.
There's a version of the Guardian that lets you finish it: https://guardian.gyford.com/
Great post, thank you. I hate seeing likes on social media in response to posts by bereaved people expressing their sadness at their loss. I understand that people who “like” those posts aren’t literally liking the person’s grief, but it still makes me uncomfortable.
I wonder if social media has done the opposite to me - my mum recently passed away and I don’t really know how to respond to people offering condolences. I withdrew from a lot of social media a while ago and feel like more of an observer than a participant.
A quick note from a Canadian...I mostly just read your blog. Have to say your writing is very thought provoking and so well constructed! It really makes me think, so thank you!