Feeding the Seagulls
A woman feeding seagulls by the sea.
Feeding the Seagulls
A woman feeding seagulls by the sea.
Twitter: The Rise of the Personal Question That Isn’t
Recently I have noticed individuals tweeting as if they were people, asking questions and getting 120 or more comments. They ask a question like “What was your first OS” or “What is your current setup” or other questions. These are generic questions that everyone has an answer to, so everyone answers to them. Those answering think either that they will get a personal answer back, or that they will increase their visibility by answering to these questions where no one cares about the answer, except marketers.
These questions are simple, and brilliant in their deceptiveness. They give the illusion of a personal question, but require no timeline reading, no investment of time or attention. Just broadcast a generic question, and wait for answers.
When I see that a tweet has three hundred answers I usually don’t bother to answer. I look for one on one conversations that may expand to four or five people, but no more. I have no interest in listening to a crowd that does not listen back, and by listen I mean read tweets.
I come from the age of chatrooms and web forums, an age where we were part of communities where everyone knew our name. I come from the Cheers age of the web. “Hello everyone”, “Hey norm”. An age where presence and time meant visibility, rather than algorithm seduction.
The accounts that I start to see more and more, are just noise. They don’t give me a reason to spend hours on the web. They give me a desire to do something else.
This morning I did do something else. Clothes washing, looking at kindles and learning about what service workers can do, by a four year old course that seems out of date. It wasn’t part of learning path I would have dumped it and moved on. I find it hard to watch courses where I can’t get practical experience. I will find relevant information to put the theory I am learning, into practice.
And that’s it for today.
A Vaccination and A New Car
I haven’t written about the Pandemic in many weeks, because not much has changed. We’re in it for the long haul. Until the vaccine I believed and hoped that governments would attempt to get to zero new community transmissions as had been the goal in New Zealand. With the arrival of the vaccine that hope faded. Now it was just a matter of waiting for many months for enough vaccines to be produced to vaccinate us all.
I have no hope of normal life returning before the Spring or Summer of 2022, because with the arrival of the vaccine, governments had even less pressure to get the community transmission rate to zero. I went from hoping that the pandemic would end within two months of whatever day it was, to knowing that it would be another year. The vaccine, rather than fill me with hope, emptied me of enthusiasm.
As soon as I was able to sign up to be vaccinated and within two weeks of signing up I got my first vaccine. I also got a new car on the same day. Driving a new car on the same day as you are vaccinated is not ideal. You need to get used to the new car, and you’re not one hundred percent, due to the vaccine and your immune system being more active than usual.
Aside from being a little tired, having some redness, and having a very weak headache I did not suffer. In around two weeks I will get the next shot and then I will be done with vaccinations until the third dose, at some point in the next six months.
I went from driving an old diesel car with a pollution category rating of C in Geneva, to one with a pollution rating of A. It’s smaller and more environmentally friendly than the old car.
I wanted to replace the old car with a car that I could sleep in, if the drive to my next adventure was long, but with that type of car being just outside my budget I chose to go for a smaller car instead. The advantage of small cars is that they’re easier to drive, to park, and they’re cheaper to run.
Due to us being in a pandemic, and people not being as cautious as they could be I have hardly used the car. I go to the shops and that’s it. I would do more, but if you go to non essential shops people stand too close, and if you hike on narrow paths people walk too close.
I consider that this summer is another lost summer, the fourth in a row, and I’m thinking of 2022. I’m also afraid that after the last four summers I will not be able to revert to old habits of doing things with groups. No car one year, a broken arm the second, and two summers wasted due to a pandemic. The pandemic was weeks away from being over in June last year, when I stopped writing about it. That’s why I stopped writing about it.
Now we’re still in the pandemic, and the only way out is for humanity to be vaccinated.
The Year-Old Pandemic
Thanks to the incompetence of leadership during this pandemic Switzerland went from a low of 21 cases per day in June 2021 to a high of 3600 or more over Christmas. This is really a shame. For a short period up to the 21st of June Switzerland really looked as if it would end the pandemic.
On the 21st of June the government made a mistake. It reopened society. The rational was that the pandemic would soon end and that slowly we could return to life as normal. Within a week or two the number of new cases started to go up again, but rather than go a step back until the number went back down the government went ahead with the next diminishing of sanctions.
Over time, we could see the number of new cases climb and climb and I really expected to see a peak within two weeks from the 1st of August. It came about three to four weeks later and that’s close to when the second wave was declared. Bad decisions continued to be taken until it was decided that people should have their Christmas and new Year. Two weeks after all the Christmas shenanigans were over tightening came back, and instantly the number of new cases went down.
We’re now a year into the pandemic with little chance of the pandemic ending anytime soon.
As I see it the government has two possible avenues. The first is to vaccinate everyone, but the drawback is that you need vaccines to vaccinate people, so for now this idea is on hold. The second idea, and this was definitely possible in June, and is still being proved by New Zealand, is that you can end the pandemic with proper government directives.
Last week Switzerland finally got down to just 1000 cases per day, which is excellent news, and with a little effort it looks as if the pandemic could end sooner, rather than later. Unfortunately the government decided to reopen society yesterday, so we are now condemned to go through another wave of infections and the end has been blown away by bad policy.
One weakness during this pandemic is that lockdowns and restrictions have been pictures as political rather than scientific. As a result of this people are guided by their emotions rather than their rationality. This irrationality means that people fail to see that the sooner the pandemic ends, the sooner normal life returns.
The more often society reopens, the longer the pandemic will last, and the longer the pandemic lasts, the more businesses will go bankrupt. It makes sense to have a lockdown like we had this time last year, for the pandemic to end, so that life can resume.
There is another cost to the pandemic. Teenagers are unable to have a normal university experience. Add to this that around 36 percent of homes in Switzerland are one person and this is a theoretical 36 percent (I don’t know the actual number of people) who might have gone without a hug, a kiss or a handshake for almost a year by now.
In the 21st century plenty of people live alone, and when you live alone during a pandemic it implies that you do not see many people. In fact the only person you see during the day is the cashier, if you buy food.
Switzerland decided to close petrol stations on Sunday, and my habit of seeing one person in the physical world per day was lost. I sometimes go three to four days at a time without speaking to another human being.
This pandemic is teaching us to live in absolute solitude, for days at a time with no contact, and weeks, months or even seasons without even a handshake or hug.
I don’t watch normal television anymore. If a podcast has someone speaking about relationships I pause or stop listening. I avoid films. I avoid certain topics in podcasts. I listen to very little music.
We’re in a pandemic, and we live in solitude. Normal people think “the pandemic will take two years to resolve, and it isn’t that bad”, but to people in solitude it is that bad. Solitude is fine, as long as it is not made to feel like isolation, and that’s why I changed my media consumption habits. I went to be comfortable in solitude, not distressed in solitude.
With how people behave, and how the government behaves, we are in for a few more months at best. Maybe the summer of 2022 will be less lonely.
Looking Back In Time
For a few days now I’ve been looking through thousands of pictures to make sure that they’re synced from iCloud to the Photo app before they’re deleted. In so doing I noticed how far in front of a group I was hiking a few years ago. Instead of hiking with the group I was so far in front that I could get group shots without trying. Eventually, they did pose, as if it had been intentional rather than my walking habit.
What you see in the pictures is that I did stop and I was with the group a lot, waiting for people to catch up, take pictures as they did, and then go fast again. During a more recent hike I found that I was fast until 3000m and then I slowed down to become one of the slowest. I don’t know whether it was lack of energy, which it could be, or that I’m not used to being at altitude. This will be especially true this summer after two summers spent at low altitude.
If I was an extrovert I wouldn’t be walking at the front of the group taking pictures. I’d be in the middle having conversations, and if I was having conversations then, then I wouldn’t be writing so many blog posts now.
Normally I’d look at the images and I’d enjoy them, and that would be it. As tomorrow is the day for Valentine’s Day content I can squeeze this post in. It’s because I saw a woman smile at the camera in so many images that I wish I had been closer, rather than at a distance. I am thinking of the opportunity I had but didn’t consolidate.
It’s a cruel paradox of life that we will see the same individuals for years of sporting activities without fail and yet when we’re interested we only see them at three or four events. I often joke “everyone I appreciate leaves”.
Not that it isn’t fun to pretend that I care about Valentine’s day for the commercial reason I actually care about the day because back in 2003 I got my driving licence and that was the start of me having the freedom to drive myself without having a passenger. Yes, there is a pun in there. My first drive was to drink hot chocolate with a girlfriend and a best friend, who was also female. That day was special. The freedom of driving a car, the freedom of the open road, the freedom not to wait for a train or a bus. The freedom to have all of the adventures that I write about in this blog.
I could write more but I think it’s time for me to go for a virtual bike ride as it’s windy and rainy out in the real world.
cities | Geneva | lifestream | Swiss walks | Switzerland
City Cat Sitting.
For the first time in my life I am cat sitting. I’m used to village cats and this is a city cat so I don’t know how much time I need to spend with the cat, how much I need to play and more.
When I look after toddlers I know that I have to be attentive to them from the moment they wake up to the moment they nap or sleep. It’s a challenge to have that level of endurance.
I’ve started the first 24hr day of looking after a cat and so far it seems that I’m more attentive than I need to be. I feel like I should keep the window open and keep the cat entertained but this is a cat we’re talking about. They entertain themselves.
If we were in the middle of summer I would go for three to five-hour rides taking advantage of the new starting and endpoint. As we’re in the middle of winter I’m waiting for a film festival to start. As soon as it starts I will have something to do in Geneva. For now, I’ve been walking around and playing Ingress.
It’s nice to be so close to the centre of Geneva. I can walk everywhere within half an hour to an hour. Geneva is a small city when you know it. There is no need for buses, trams, taxis etc. Usually, something like going to the Apple store would be an expedition because it takes a 20-minute walk, a train, and then another 20-minute walk. Today I could do the walk within 20 minutes.
We will see how my impressions change over the coming days.
Spring and summer are playing with us
Spring and Summer are playing with us. A few weeks ago it was warm and sunny. It felt as if summer was finally here and that we could start planning outdoor activities that don’t require enormous amounts of fossil fuels, like skiing and snowboarding do. 😉
We had the rain and the cold and when the rain and cold grew tired the wind came by and replaced it. This was a moderately strong wind. Some gusts were strong enough to make me deviate on the scooter and strong enough not to be able to wear a hat. The wind was also strong enough to damage trees, blow plastic around the place and even to make you feel like you were walking through a wind tunnel rather than down a road between fields.
The wind did seduce boats into breaking from their moorings, tree branches and trees, from falling from above onto forest paths and even for a blue sky to emerge as water struggled to congregate in a single place. For the last two days we could see the Mont Blanc in most of its glory.
The two problems that we face with the wind are that it makes moving around harder because instead of cycling at 30 km/h with a 30 km/h wind you’re cycling at 20km/h with a 50km/h headwind. I didn’t try because the wind plays mind games. You feel like you’re unfit despite not being. I also found that when walking it dries out your ears and prevents you from listening to podcasts while walking.
Imagine, walking for an hour or two, deep in thought, rather than having your thoughts led by someone else.
Whilst it is nice to walk between the trees there is a danger of falling branches and other debris. You can hear the wind blowing above and on the trails you can see all the wood that has been loosened. Imagine if you were looking for firewood and were only allowed to pick up what had already fallen to the ground. You’d be happy.
The Moléson VF with the Narrative Clip 2
The Narrative Clip 2 is a specialist camera that can be programmed to take photos at regular intervals whilst you enjoy activities. This is sometimes referred to as life logging. The idea is that you wear the camera either on clothing or place it somewhere where it can capture the passage of time.
For this event the camera was worn around my neck and took pictures throughout the activity. As you can see from the last image I had the Ricoh Theta S on a monopod and the Sony Xperia Z5 compact for other pictures. You do not see that I had a fourth camera with a 30 times optical zoom.
The camera took over four hundred images during this event and I chose just a few. I avoid sharing images of people unless I have their informed consent. I share the images that best represent the pleasant moments.
If I took the time I could rotate this camera to be horizontal and I could capture daily timelapses. Every time I go for a bike ride or a hike it would capture regular images. The camera has enough battery power and you can keep the camera in your pocket until you want to start logging the event. When the event is finished you can place the camera back in to your pocket and head home for example.
An improvement which I have recently noticed is that when you put the camera to charge it can automatically upload the day’s images to the narrativeapp website and you can then select what you want to share.
As cameras get smaller and more portable and as they become more specialised so we have an opportunity to get different types of images. One is for time lapses, the other has a powerful zoom, the third allows us to capture spherical images and the fourth is practical for sharing to social media.
advertising | facebook | lifestream | social media | Social Media Deontology | social media living room | social networking
Social Media and The Human Return on Investment
Social Media and the Human Return on Investment, because contrary to popular belief we use social networks to socialise, not to shop.
As we grow older and more mature our close network of friends changes and evolves. We go from school friends to university friends and then to professional friends. In the process we move from a village to another village, from a town to another town and eventually from one city to another. In the process the links we have with some friends strengthen and others degrade over time. This is modern life.
I find it hard to discern whether the return on time invested on social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and others is decreasing because people’s understanding of these social networks is shifting or whether it is related to growing up. As the people I know get married and have children their priorities change and privacy becomes more important. We have to keep the children safe.
Facebook, as a social network is less engaging than it used to be. The people I have as friends post less frequently, the events we can participate in together is shifting and the content shown in timelines is evolving. To compensate for the decline in friends engaging in social networks like twitter and Facebook people are following publications, brands and news sources. This flow of information is tailored to the lowest common denominator. The sensationalist writing style discourages me from following these sources of information.
I have a concern that what were social networks until two or three years ago have become advertising networks on which people occasionally socialise and interact with other individuals. I feel that a bigger and bigger portion of the time that people spend on advertising networks is looking at mainstream content and comments. On Facebook as I scroll down the timeline I notice an increasing number of adverts. Personal posts are less and less frequent. Has the community left this “social” network?
I have spent years thinking about online communities and how they interact. During this time I have seen the ebb and flow from one type of community to another across multiple platforms and applications. Within the next two to five years social networks will be virtual reality environments such as we saw with World of Warcraft, Everquest and Second Life. The question is whether people will want to socialise in virtual reality or whether it will be populated by gamers.
Every online social network is stigmatised. This stigmatisation prevents people from fully exploiting the potential of social networks. We see this stigma through the use of dating apps rather than Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and other social networks. Dating apps are stigmatised but at least you swipe left or right and you’re done. ;-). You’re only “active” for a few seconds at a time. On Facebook and twitter you need to be active for hours, days, weeks or even months… You have to be careful. You may be stigmatised. 😉
Now that most people see social networks as a waste of time it gives us more time to do other things. It gives us time to read, to do research, to watch television and even to go two or three hours without looking at a mobile or computer screen. Imagine that. 😉
I believe that on the one hand the stigmatisation of Social networks as a waste of time has discouraged people from using them to their full potential. As a result of this people feel comfortable spending ten to fifteen minutes a day on these networks. On the other hand I see marketers, public relations specialists and advertisers push for their campaign to be seen. As peer to peer communication goes down and human return on investment (ROI) decreases, and as marketing campaigns take over the timelines they are effectively closing the door on people’s motivation to spend time reading through their timeline.