Local News on Social Media: Big Fail

I watched a local news program this morning.  The news actors reminded viewers to ‘like and follow’ them on social media sites because watching them on television is not painful enough.   Plus, following them on Facebook and Twitter guarantees viewers won’t miss a single glimpse into the clever personalities they have worked so hard to create for us.

To make the news feeds even more fun, social media news managers occasionally add yummy recipes and tidbits on how to properly raise kids or how to stay warm when it’s cold outside. I mean these people are just downright essential to fans all over the metro area. I’m not sure how I even function without them.  Local news is not just the news anymore.

About the time I posted this piece last year is when I stopped following my local news stations on social media. I don’t have the self-control to avoid making snarky comments for which I am violently thrashed and beaten nearly to death by fans of the station.  It’s not that I care much what the rocket scientists news fans think of me personally but it is a nuisance to wake up in the morning with 57 notifications–52 of which are hate-filled comments about my remark.  Several of the comments come from the news actors themselves demanding to know my qualifications for not liking them.   As my friends in Texas say, the juice just ain’t worth the squeeze anymore.

BREAKING NEWS:

KCTV666: Grab a tissue readers because this next story is relly, relly sad. A real tragedy. Okay, so a guy was walking down a street in the metro and he did something relly mean to another guy walking on the same street. Cops were called and we are waiting for more details. I’ve been crying all day!! Should people be allowed to be relly mean to others on the same street? Keep the comments nice please!

42,000 likes 18,000 shares

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Cruisin’ for a Good Time on WordPress

20160124_215227[1]“…I’ve since evolved from the timid hope that someone will come over here and read my work and like it (and tell me so) to boldly inviting people to look at it. Hope wasn’t really working out very well. Inviting people works better. ” Continue

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Me, Me, Me. A Verbal Selfie

Writers, from all accounts that I’ve found, are often stumped about what to write on their blogs. There’s no shortage of blogging going on in the universe, that’s for sure, but writers generally have a specific kind of writing they want to do.

Some bloggers offer helpful hints and inspiration. Tons of bloggers, certainly some of my favorites, share recipes and cooking tips. Some tell funny stories. Some are funnier than others. Some can barely spell but they have something important to say and they manage to get it out there on that massive information highway. Wordes, wrds, words. It’s all good, as my kids used to say.

Lots and lots of bloggers reveal personal information about their lives, their romantic breakups, their pets. They write touching stories about their children or parents or fighting their way back from illness or some other kind of challenge. These aren’t all writers, necessarily, but they’re bloggers. They want to share something with the world. A piece of themselves.

Then there are bloggers who write about blogging. It’s a business for some folks. I haven’t figured out how they make money at it, at least not on WordPress but a few of them are hugely successful at it.

My favorite bloggers are those who are able to bring together elements from each category and draw me in with compelling ideas and fascinating perspectives about their lives—or about all life.

I recently started this networking blog, separate from my writing blog and I commented to a fellow blogger that I wasn’t sure what to write about on it. His answer resonated with me:

Write your world for us. No one sees it like you do 🙂

And, he’s right. I’m sure I’d be locked up for a long time if anybody knew what really goes on in my head. My kids have told me for years what a weirdo I am. I’m okay with that. I like my life. While I spend most of my time alone, I’m not a hermit or a recluse and I don’t have phobias and I’m not anti-people. Necessarily.

I love people. In fact, I don’t know anybody else who loves people like I do. I love deeply and usually forever, I’m just not needy about it. I even love people who don’t love me back. Sure, there are plenty of folks in my life that I don’t love and I even have strong feelings of dislike with regard to a few people. I’d still put them out if they were on fire.

Whaaaattt???

I am what I am ..

That’s not to say I am some kind of Pollyanna because I’m certainly not. One of my

husband’s cousins once called a me sailor and at first it so enraged me that I thought for a minute that I wouldn’t put him out if he were on fire. I calmed down and accepted that that’s just how he sees me and I supposed that there must be a reason he sees me like that. Either way. It’s all good.

So, taking the advice of my blogger friend I’ve decided to share a kind of day in the life of story about myself. Me, me, me. It’s like a verbal selfie. It is, more accurately, only a few minutes in the life of story. My actual days go on and on sometimes. It might be best described as an expose of my boomer vanity. A split-second snapshot of my own private insanity. I should probably be embarrassed but I’m not. Maybe it will resonate with other readers and writers who mostly love people and definitely love life. If it’s not well-received, I’m okay with that too. This is my life. I like it a lot.

It might help to read my short introduction, Another Introduction to understand that I’m old but I’m not a grey-haired old granny. I don’t want to be young again but I miss certain parts of my youth. Looking younger would be nice. I only worry about it in short snippets though, because again, I’m vain, but I’m happy.

For a peek inside 30 minutes of my day, take a look.

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Networking, The Big Picture

peppersontheline 017Gaining 80 new followers in the past two weeks has forced me to think twice about slapping any old essay or article up on my blog. I have an obligation now to write something half-way decent.  Continue

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David Jones

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-JqH1M4Ya8&w=560&h=315%5D

 

 

Look up here, I’m in Heaven!

I’ve got scars that can’t be seen

I’ve got drama, can’t be stolen,

Everybody knows me now

Look up here, man, I’m in danger!

I’ve got nothing left to lose

I’m so high, it makes my brain whirl

Dropped my cellphone down below

Ain’t that just like me?!

By the time I got to New York

I was living like a king

Then I used up all my money

I was looking for your ass

This way or no way

You know I’ll be free

Just like that bluebird

Now, ain’t that just like me?

Oh, I’ll be free

Just like that bluebird

Oh, I’ll be free

Ain’t that just like me?

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What’s the deal with the little peek-a-boo game the WordPress Follow followbutton plays?  Is it just me or is it seriously maddening?  Exactly what is the magic movement that causes it to appear and then suddenly disappear as I get too close?   I mean, I don’t know anything about coding but if I did I’d say something like, “That’s just bad code there,”  or something like that.

Melting WordPress Logo http://www.blogherald.com[/caption%5D
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Another Introduction

I find it impossible to introduce myself in writing to strangers, telling them a little bit about me in a way that helps them understand who I am. I worry about the  image my self-description creates.

knit

WTF?

I’m certainly not a gray-haired granny knitting booties from a rocker but I do have nine grandchildren. I don’t knit, though. I try it every couple of years. My fingers are too fat. The work is mindless. The instructions are the stuff of metaphysical science and I can’t understand them.

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Look at all that Traffic! Where’s Everybody Going??

In recent months I’ve developed an internal debate about what it is I’m looking for on social media sites.

Each morning, shortly after getting out of bed, I open the Facebook app on my phone. It’s gradually become part of my wake-up routine and yes, that means I’m reading about my friends’ family dramas and favorite brownie recipe as I sit on the porcelain throne.

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Blogging. Why?

Why?

Why?

I’m posting a link here to a blog I read today and it expresses exactly how I feel.  It’s as if she peeked into my head and pulled out all the nagging, second-guessing, head scratching and self-recrimination in that half-empty cavern and threw them on a public post using clever words and perfect phrasing about why I continue to write. In particular, why I blog.  Continue reading

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More Than 50 Years After the Movement–I’m Finally Burning my Bra

pinkbraIt’s been more than 100 years since the first bra patent was issued in the U.S.  Think about that.  100 years.

New advances in fabric and hooks and fasteners and wires and padding and straps and God knows, sex appeal have been unleashed on a grateful nation of amply and otherwise breasted women. Continue reading

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