Tag: Internet

Wil Wheaton, The 21st Century and Trollish Sucky People

Carl Setzer

I’ve been following Mr. Wheaton’s blog about as long as he’s had it. Went from the first page, to Wil Wheaton in Exile (when his site got gummed up and he migrated to a WordPress hosted site), and so forth. I’m a Trek fan who really appreciated Wesley Crusher. And I appreciate his openness in regards to his struggles with clinical depression.

Recently, there he crafted a blog post expressing his disappointment with Lego. They launched a Next Generation line of characters. Wesley Crusher is crying. I thought that was pretty petty of them, and was remarkably unimpressed with a company that, I feel, has done a great job in so many other areas. He and I agree, his fans had a wide variety of responses. What you should expect.

Today he posted an update to the situation. So, some crappy bloggers took his post, misrepresented him, and then invited the loathsome hoards to descend upon Mr. Wheaton. I’ve seen this so many times, and truly hate it. It’s a wearying exercise, trust me. In my decade+ of blogging, I’ve dealt with this myself. Fortunately (at one level), not at the scale he’s dealing with.

Sucky, crappy people seem to have the run of the internet and we have little-to-no recourse, save blocking and deleting each turd left in our blog’s yard. It’s annoying enough to deal with the petty negativity. Lately, this crap has been filled with violent threats, racist vitriol, rape threats, threats against families and children. This simply frustrates me to the point of near rage.

What to do? Well, we can report those who cross the legal lines (threatening to rape or kill some is a crime, dumbasses!). But, how often does anything come from that? I’ve long recommended ignoring them, yet that doesn’t seem to work all that well.

That’s the deepest frustration: our powerlessness to stop this nonsense. Not without damaging the free-speech quality of the internet. At least, I’ve failed to see a viable solution emerge. I’ve mostly abandoned comment-threads. There are days I want the old internet back. Where people were (much more) decent to one another. Maybe that’s me hearkening back to time that didn’t exist. But I will still wish for a world where people interact with respect and dignity. So I dream.

I Love XKCD

Carl Setzer

Soberingly powerful. I would never guess a web comic based on stick figures could craft such gut-wrenching stuff.

XKCD is amazing! Check them out now.

Internet Weirdness

Carl Setzer
Turkeys compete in a Turkey Stampede race during the annual Kern County Fair in Bakersfield, California, on September 30, 2017. The turkeys chase a small remote-controlled truck carrying food as bait

So full of weirdness
The internet is awesome
Life in the future

Arguments On The Internet: A Haiku

Carl Setzer


Online arguments 

Publicly correct their faults

So tempting sometimes 
Irs so easy to get caught up in how wrong some people can be that we lose sight of our deeper values. 

Our Dependence On Internet Access

Carl Setzer

Dancing bits and such
Doesn’t seem like all that much
Work stops without access

Today: Of Note On The Internet

Carl Setzer

Dr. Anna Haus’ Forgotten Clinic In Germany

The most recent update from the Edge of Humanity, this one features many haunting images of this forgotten and neglected space.

I’ve always been fascinated by places like this, that people simply forgot. This home (I believe they both lived and worked out of this space) still has a Steinway!

How do such things slip from our consciousness? To the point of destruction by neglect.

That would be interesting to explore.

This is fascinating and worth reading.

Vlog update: August 11, 2016 – Evolution of “The Media”

Carl Setzer

 

Side note: I know I need to have the camera sideways, but am still getting the hang of that layout. It is rather awkward.

A vlog post: Pokemon Go

Carl Setzer

Pokemon Go is quite the thing right now. There’s stuff to learn with all this.

Morning meditation on Twitter

Carl Setzer

Laying in bed
Warmth pervading
Safe and comfortable
Cold lightly touching skin
Adrift in this sea of
Knowledge. All things
Available immediately.
This 21st century 

Twitter, Facebook and the next thing

Carl Setzer
social-media-collective

I’ve thought a bit lately about social media platforms. For me, Twitter seems to becoming more dominated by brands and “community” profiles. Most of my recent new followers have not been individuals, but brands/services. But that’s really only a piece of the pie.

From a US/western cultural perspective, Facebook and Twitter have probably hit their highest volume. I expect there’ll be incremental growth, but the ability to really leverage these two mostly consists in engaging folks already there. And there’s the digging through the morass of content; EVERYONE is on Facebook, nearly everyone is on Twitter (at least as far as brands go).

There’s something to be said, though, for being part of a community as it launches. Early users of sites that become popular end up with richer connection opportunities. Now, the glorious question is “what’s going to be the next big thing?” Welp, god knows. The best way is to be dipping your proverbial toes in everything, which is what I try to do. Whether Instagram or Snapchat, I’ve made it a point to explore them. I also make it a point to keep “young folks” in my life, and ask them what sites/apps they’re using.

No, I’m not projecting the death of Twitter, or Facebook. I do see these platforms evolving, though, and somewhat stagnating. For me, I want to be aware of what’s coming, where the cool kids are. Living ahead of the curve has been a desire for ages. As much, tech-wise, as my budget allows. By establishing presence on newly minted app and web goodness, I seek readiness to pivot as the winds of social media life flow.