Why social media 10 cc

 The things We Do For Love…Well Maybe

Like walkin’ through the rain and the snow when there’s no place to go”

No this isn’t a recitation of the. 10CC classic and I’m not feelin’ like a part of me is dying… the thing is it’s 3:39 AM and yes my mature adult liquid processing biomechanics have prompted me to side and complete a frequent function.  Which is of course a fancy way of saying once again I’m up to go pee.  And per usual my day begins by checking out the newest episodes of  a couple podcasts, and scanning a few apps to see if there were any  little numbers otherwise called notifications that needed attention.  Then I’m thinking to myself—“Self, why in the world do I care about these notifications and this “social media?”    This leads to. How many hits (downloads and views) have my contributions to social media had lately?  That in turn sparks the pondering of “am I doing social media like oh let’s say this blog for attention or because it’s my way of contributing to the active creation of a culture I want to live in?  

Well clearly it must be a little of both or I wouldn’t have a tote board down on the right hand side of this blog.. and yet this morning it was clear that I usually and almost always check that number to see if my writing is sparking the thoughts or musing of folks who are constantly pounded by worn out simple mass media themes.  Today… it really did hit me that many  people really engage in creating content to make others smile and think, offer public information etc.  Some do this to sell and convince others of things… yet many do this for the reasons I do… for LOVE”

I write this blog and do the podcast and dribble on facebook and twitter  because it promotes LOVE 

L—is for Learning and Laughter

The entire purpose of doing my social media  has only two important  aspects… learning and laughter.

Nothing gets published or distributed if I haven’t learned something that inspires me to share.  But learning  alone isn’t usually quite enough this social media effort encourages  me to find novel ways of connecting everyday things and that for me usually involved a bit of humor.  Oh and humor produces  groans?—well mostly, however sometimes there is laughter.  Laughter. Is incredibly good for all of us so this is a healthcare blog?  Okay let’s not go overboard You know like asking if Dracula always asks for a plasma TV or being concerned. For mummies because they rarely can relax and unwind.  So I do these things for the lounge of learning and sharing that learning and  for the promotion of laughter.

I—Observations and Obligations

Thanks Steve E..This social media  I offer just is a sharing of slightly strained and modified observations designed  to say.. what if we reconsidered things?  What if sorted stuff in slightly different piles prior to putting them on the shelf.  What if we left wiggle room in order to change our minds and experiment with new options? What if we used observations instead of declarations of certainty.  Observations show beliefs without demanding to be declared the winner in the knowledge war.   

Oh and then we do the social media thing because when the universe, the grace of the universal sound, “God” if you will ..the collective soul… provides  a being with some insights they are probably shareable need since generosity is good.. I shouldn’t be the only one learning from my mistakes… in other words we owe each other the lessons we have gathered and to me this is an OBLIGATION of sharing to be done.   

V—Vanity

Look… I do this because I believe  I have something to offer and that what gets put out into the seeking peace and joy universe has value (another V word).  I could and often do.. share  a lot of my content in non-socal media ways… but these social media platforms  show me the data.. They show me that others have used some of their valuable time to read or listen.  In short, they stroke my vanity and answer the question… does anyone out their  understand or want to understand  my mind, my spirit, and frailties?  Well over the past four years some 40,00 individuals or bots have spent an average of 8 minutes a week  taking in my observations and if you trust the analytics…every little bit of what I sling out hits the fan of at least 48 people per day every single day… So… maybe  my vanity creates value?

E—Exploration

Doing these social media prompts me to explore things I never would have researched and shared without the outlets I take advantage of.  For example I’m preparing to look at a very in-depth  social media campaign on  aging and things like community-based and nursing home care.  To do this I have started to explore all types of angles including the economics.  Doing this led me to comparing our social treatment of the price of gas to the cost of nursin home or institutional care.  So  doing this has revealed that the way we determine. And publish consumption numbers related to gasoline  allows folks to present use  at anywhere between about 350 gallons per capita to around 500 and some would even say it’s closer to 700 gallons… Each one of these numbers  is true in it’s own way… so … when someone says they only want the facts let this be known… the facts are only step one… exploring what the facts mean to others and to you is where the richness lives.   So we explore to find facts and then explore  these facts and our souls to offer and share meanings… So “seeking Peace and Joy” prompts me to explore a little and then explore some more…. 

Summing up.. 

My social media  is one of the “things We do for Love”.  If you are reading this you are doing it with me… ooops that sounds kind of creepy and probably has weird social connotations… but seriously… let’s keep loving each other  enough to learn, observe, use our vanity to create  valuable content and keep exploring always instead of being afraid… 

Yes… as we approach a new year…

Keep “love—ING. EACH OTHER 

Love you all… just not all at once LOL. See you in 23

Eight Line Rhyme—Holiday Edition

Days ago the retail dash

Wrapping Paper  now in trash

Piles of gifts but low on cash

Still seeing lights but some won’t flash

Budgets? well they’re mostly ash

The Grinch gave back the ole’ who hash

Now chips and booze we find our stash

As we await the New Year’s Bash

-Holiday Scene

Four forces four years

So this concludes the entries about the four forces that I think sneak up on us these days and I wrote about these as a conclusion to four years of thinking about seeking peace and joy and what things I have become aware of ironically today is the solstice which begins a time when there will be more light in each day it is also four days until Christmas where more spiritual light begins for many people so that’s enough of the number four read the below check your awareness and tomorrow starts a new year a new day a little more light I hope merry Christmas happy four happy solstice

 

What Will you Do in These Waking Moments?

Well… I left these last four entries hang in order for almost all the regular readers here to have plenty of time to read and think… now, as promised, some concluding remarks…sort of.

It makes some sense to prattle on about the four forces in the order. We placed them out on the table, however, they are forces that mingle so some combinations will be offered out of order.  

Industrialization and seeking peace and joy

The world has —all 8 billion of us—built the most productive  human race in the known history of the planet.  We’ve formed processes and people that can produce material goods  in an amazing fashion.  We’ve as a planet adopted the narrative  that “if you work hard enough you can have  more and more” and that more is better (of course some are claiming the counter to this saying minimalism  is the way to go.)Yet the irony here is that those preaching  the minimalist approach seem to attempt to preach it more everyday to more people all the time and appear to be arguing that we need  this life theme to replace our current one.  There doesn’t seem to be  a middle ground being offered… again dualism seems to be winning out.   there also down’s seem to be any recognition that what is minimal to one might just be extravagant. To someone else… We don’t seem to hear anyone  suggesting that some folks need a lot of props to write and tell their life stories while others  just need a piece of chalk and a sidewalk.  Why is it that we are afraid to adopt complexity and ranges of successful. Paths?  If we admit there could be lots of life stories to choose from do we create a threat to our security?  Is  there a fear in trying to put together our peace and joy puzzle if it has 100 pieces and can once together look like four different things instead of pulling out the same old 10 piece puzzle that can only look like a sailboat?  

Science—really?  

Let’s say  we go into our favorite neighborhood  establishment  where everybody knows. Your name… no not Applebee’s …. And we had a hankering for a Long Island Iced Tea.  Would we know if it tasted good or not—I believe so.  Would we like it  if we had to judge the taste of it  by drinking each of its elements or ingredients separately?… If the bartender set each out  clearly and said drinking each one after the other is the same as taking  in the potent cocktail… would you say or think damn right?  The point is… do we get meaning about experiencing by breaking things apart and defining  things that way.  if you even say “not always” then maybe seeking peace and joy requires knowing and using  a lot of different lenses to view things, a lot of different tempos to play the notes, or setting off down a lot of different roads to see what destinations might be out there or more importantly what journeys  are awaiting a curious mind.  The science story goes hand in hand with the industrial story… Yet if we only had one book to learn from what richness would our education lack?  

Dualism in foreign affairs (and in the ways we understand others etc.) 

It’s hard to admit  we want to belong. And we want to be different just like everybody else.  We want to be afraid of the same things as others why… because at it’s simplest core… in an attention economy we have elevated  to mythic status the importance of what other people think about us.  If we just wanted to share what is unique about  you what would social media look like or would we even have  it?  It’s hard to tell others what we experience and who we are without telling people what you are not… I’m not a Democrat or a Liberal.. or A conservative or a Republican or a socialist or  a Methodist or a New York Yankees fan.  These may be all good things to know…but what does that tell you  when it comes to knowing  which shoe I put on first?  Getting to know someone isn’t easy…but really getting to know someone is the best compliment  you can give them in some ways.  However, imagine trying to learn about someone  by starting  the questions you ask them by saying things like… Whall we go out to dinner—You don’t like pineapple pizza do you?  Or “I was going to wear a green shirt you hate green right?”   Sure that sounds  odd…but how often do we speak the loudest about the things we think others  will hate with us?  Maybe  we start seeking peace and joy in the company. Of others by exploring three, four, or five, things about them  instead of repeating the same old paper. Or plastic questions?  The point here is not just that we overuse defining people by learning about. What they don’t like—we often use the same questions  and they are way too often  either this or that choices.  We seemingly feel comfortable with forcing the extremes to be put out there front and center.  Now when things are interconnected  so often in today’s world we are left  dazed and confused  if the cause of something  (or the blame for something) isn’t clear and simple.  It is hard to seek peace in a world of complex challenges if we expect simple and clear paths and solutions so maybe expecting  dual contexts just doesn’t help?

Now I’ll get to the media  matters in a second… right after a little summary. You see  seeking peace. And joy isn’t as easy as it used to be.   Why?  Because the huge “stories we tell ourselves” the forces so to speak became such a part of our contexts that it  became like breathing or blinking—you are experiencing. It most all the time, yet aren’t really aware of the meanings being constructed with it.  

Now let’s talk media… You see media once was the great smoother.  It taught generation after generation. In this world the same industrial/scientific/dualistic story/myth for a century or more and now well now… competing stories and media interference and static create a whole new era where  the youth build their own worlds to live in and they mingle the virtual and the actual physical worlds.  A poor child in  the real world can be a wealthy game player.   Now in the world of JFT and crypto… the greedy and the wealthy are once again trying to gain control of the narrative and evidence suggests  it could happen, and then again maybe not LOL?

As the old narratives fall apart they become like the highway  that you used to drive without noticing it until  the pot holes  started  giving you flats….   

so what conclusion  are there… 

The forces that have brought our ship to here remain pretty  large, however, now we can and probably will become aware of them as they fall to pieces.   In seeking peace and joy it might be best if we are aware of the forces we have ridden and start to experiment  with new ideas..you know stay ahead of the curve so to speak… At the very least start to admit these things aren’t the same and that we live in a world where acceptance and negotiation  are going to be far mor the norm than ever before … Fortunately  acceptance allows us to gain the most from change, bargaining allows  us the chance to clarify our  true values, and adopting  different views lets us see many  more aspects of life and thus have a lot more chances to see what is possible and good.  

anyway… read the four previous entries and be ready  to salute the forces that  have flooded your soul and then let your awareness provide. The light for many paths  open on the seeking peace and joy journey.  

Peace.