Eyes Wide Open

My Macintosh computer came preloaded with a bunch of stuff I never use. Even if you are on a Windows or Linux machine, I’ll bet that there is a row of icons that you’ve rarely opened. On my machine, there are also a bunch of programs that I have recently refused updates for. At this point, I’ve killed the updates because the new corporate model of business is not to sell you the app, but only annual access to the app. You are also then tied to a contract for monthly payments, illogical, and barely functional updates that may not work, or that complicate your workflow. It’s a business model designed to enhance a tech bro’s or tech sis’ bank account, not your daily life or workflow. Eventually they’ll make it impossible to use the old versions, and I’ll spend long hours hunting down reviews for simple products to replace them with; I have very little use for fancy, barely functional special features.

Just Say No…

Wherever I can, I have begun to say no to this exploitative system. But sometimes it’s hard. I have to design work for the laser in a program that will output compatible files that the laser will run. Zing! They got me there. Luckily, the tech ignoramuses can’t reach their greedy fingers into the carving shop. If I need a graphic for a design, any JPEG reading and printing program will do, and I can select at will. In extremis, there are pencils and tracing paper at hand – just like in the old days. Carving itself remains a manual art – wood being removed by sharp steel tools.

The Blog

So where do I spend most of my screen time, not having fallen for the enrichment schemes of the already filthy rich? On my web browser Safari. There, a huge proportion of my time is spent on WordPress, where I have my blog. Not only do I write my own daily posts, but I scan and read the posts of fellow bloggers. There are blogs on any imaginable subject; just look for them. Frankly, I have no qualms about this preoccupation. There are the pragmatic, fanciful, speculative, and literate.

I probably follow too many bloggers, and can’t make my way through all the posts in the time I can allow for reading. I find myself, by turns, amused, entertained, enlightened, educated, enraged, and bemused. Over time bloggers seem to form informal communities. We discuss a wide variety of topics, exchange views, and develop concerns when a friend fails to post. Humans carry forward into the blogosphere their normal social habits, and it’s engaging.

I suspect that if you search far enough, you’ll find some dark corners. Also, WordPress is not the only blogging platform. What lurks in those corners I don’t know. Nor am I interested in exploring them. I can find all the social dysfunction on other social media platforms, the news sites, and TV.

If you are reading this blog and others on the internet, you are participating in an interesting electronic furtherance of the ancient human social trait of communication. Keep those posts coming.