Category: social media
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The Demise of Shortened Google Links
Reading Time: 2 minutes Next year [all goo.gl shortened links will be dead due to the planned obscolence of hyperlinks](https://9to5google.com/2024/07/18/googl-links/). Any website, blog, or social media site that used Goo.gl shortened links will find that their links are worthless from that point on. ## The SMS Era on Twitter URL shorteners thrived for a while…
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The Hypothetical Attention Pyramid Scheme
Reading Time: 2 minutes I loved the idea of Substack as a replacement for a few minutes, or maybe a few hours. I loved the notion of a writing community for people to share ideas, and written words. I lost passion when I saw that it was an attention pyramid scheme. ## What is the…
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The Pleasure of Looking for New Routes
Reading Time: 3 minutes For several years I explored every route that was walkable from my village. In the process I found loops that took up to four hours to complete. When there was no traffic they were all pleasant, whether it was wet, dry, hot, cold or windy. As cars and driving re-emerged plenty…
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Exploring with Komoot and Meetup
Reading Time: 2 minutes It’s easy to find a group, and to do the same thing, again, and again, and again. Each year you do the same things in the same order, at the same time. It becomes routine. You get used to that routine. You don’t deviate. That’s where Komoot and Meetup come in.…
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Of Glossy Mags and Social Media
Reading Time: 3 minutes Many years ago I liked to get mags. I would look at the choice of mags every time I was in a magazine shop. I would even buy some every so often. Eventually I stopped I stopped, not because my desire to get mags was gone, but because the return on…
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Algorithms and Social Media
Reading Time: 3 minutes Recently I have been thinking more about trolling. I have been thinking about why, I, and others, appear so negative or toxic on social media. I believe that one reason for this is that algorithms drive conversations and popularity, rather than time devoted to social media, and conversationalism. ## Return on…
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The Spontaneous Activity
Reading Time: 2 minutes For years I did activities with people, usually not as an organiser for one very simple reason. Micro-managers. These are the people that have an opinion, and a schedule, that want to take control of a simple activity. These people take a spontaneous activity and make it a nightmare. For me…
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Boy Sober and Algorithms
Reading Time: 3 minutes Today I spotted another clear sign that modern social media are toxic and unhealthy. I see this through the [boy sober movement](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jun/10/no-dating-apps-no-dates-no-exes-no-hookups-whats-driving-the-boy-sober-trend). > A new trend is sweeping TikTok: #boysober. Its rules? No dating apps, no dates, no exes, no hookups. Thousands of women are uploading videos describing why they have gone…
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The Fediverse is Dead to Me
Reading Time: 3 minutes Yesterday I defederated my blog from the fediverse, and I removed the plugin from my blog this morning. I will probably never return to the Fediverse, whether Mastodon or other, for the forseeable future. ## The Hostile Response The reason for this is the following. A person asked a question. I…