Let’s Try This Again
July 1, 2020 at 9:42 pm | No Comments »I meant to take a break sure. But not almost three years.
Some background. I started this site to familiarize myself with the web. That turned into a blog. All hand coded. (You can still find the original, early 2000’s site where I ranted about Bush 2’s mishandling of the Sept. 11th attacks and aftermath deep in the archives somewhere.) I felt good about it.
Then CMS became a thing and I switched to Moveable Type before settling on WordPress. Updates were regular and varied. Next, I decided to build my video skills (instead of paying others to shoot/edit) and I jumped into vlogs. About the same time, social media came along. I dived into Instagram early while it was still independent. Tried Facebook and hated it. Avoid Twitter but finally gave in and sort of fell in love. Bit by bit, this site became little more than a repository for the YouTube videos. Kind of pathetic.
I always intended to get back to writing and photo posts here but the next video kept looming. Finally we arrived in the Fall of 2017. I was in the middle of editing videos documenting our Helsinki and Vienna trip. Then I hit the motivation wall. I just couldn’t face the thought of opening the video editing application. I decided to take a few weeks off. That turned into months. Then years.
So now it’s 2020. The world seems be unraveling before our eyes. But I haven’t been silent. All my output has been at Twitter and Instagram, where I’ve been documenting our shelter in place adventures with a daily photo. This site sat forlorn. Almost forgotten save the periodic, unsolicited message from domain vultures hoping to purchase the name for a song.
In June, #StopHateForProfit got my attention. I’ve toiled as an advertising creative for several decades so seeing names like Unilever, Coca-Cola, and Target vowing to pull ad dollars and/or go dark on Facebook-owned properties, I paid attention and started thinking about my own uneasy relationship with the social behemoth.
As I said a couple of paragraphs up, I don’t like Facebook. In fact, committing Facebook suicide a few years ago remains one of my favorite accomplishments. I’ve hung onto the Instagram account because I like photography and follow a number of interesting creators. Still I’ve been uncomfortable with the platform since the Facebook takeover years ago. I don’t like stories and never post them. I have scaled back on filters as iPhone cameras have improved. And I hate the algorithm for the way it garbles my feed and tries to push the most popular content down my throat.
All of which is a long winded explanation to justify my decision to join #StopHateForProfit and go dark on Insta for at least the month of July.
I’ve got thoughts about continuing my daily photo posting here. Maybe I’ll even move the first 100 over from Instagram. I might even finish the Helsinki-Vienna videos. Not sure and based on my recent track record, I’m not making any promises.
Stay tuned.