I am rather aghast to realize my last post here was from the Day Before Lockdown.
We are healthy. We are OK. I have stupid random tachycardia attacks, under a cardiologist's supervision, and I'm having my teeth fixed and we are both getting our booster shots this week.
Doomscrolling on Twitter throughout the first OH GOD 21 months of Pandemic felt both necessary and nasty. I still do it, several times a day. Hours on end. I retweet a LOT of shit. I really want to keep to Weird Twitter posts but it's been impossible to ignore TFG crap and not keep retweeting critical information. Somehow I've amassed over 1140 followers. Yay? Lots of people retweet my retweets. Yay? Lots of people seem to like my replies to tweets involving art or birds or publishing or politics. Yay? Yay!
Twitter recently reminded me of my 12 year Twitterversary. Twelve years?! I joined Twitter in order to share orchid meetings. Now I'm a communist. No, wait, I was always a socialist, raised by two socialists, so "now I'm a socialist" isn't strictly accurate...oh never mind, it's a Twitter joke.
I won't give up on Facebork just yet. I don't have the negative experiences so many people complain about.
"Oh my terrible family and their terrible pro-Republican and crazy Q posts!" Well, I hardly have any family, and I certainly don't have any family on FB. So I don't see that.
"Oh those horrible people I went to high school with and I'm forced to see their terrible pro-Republican and crazy Q posts!" Well, I still have BFFs from high school, and I'm friends with nearly 100 of the wonderful and amazing women who were my classmates. We gladly attend our 5 year reunions. No stupid dramas, no bad memories, no bullies to shudder and commiserate over. My school was hardly typical, of course. But again, seeing those women posting their triumphs and lows on FB makes my life better, not worse.
"Oh those terrible rabbit holes people fall down and become radicalized!" Well, I don't fall down many rabbit holes, I guess. I have extremely fixed online interests: orchids & rare plants, SFF books, birds, knitting and cooking. I don't deviate from those groups. I don't go hunting for trouble. I don't WANT to see politics on FB. I see plenty of it on Twitter, where it's much easier to ignore or engage anyway. My friends do share political views and posts, but--I know!--THEIR VIEWS ARE MOSTLY SHARED BY ME. I don't have friends who are assholes with views strongly opposed to mine. (LOL of course I'm convinced that I'M Not the Asshole either.) So I'm not forced to see that shit on FB.
If I were bored? If I were at loose ends and actively looking for rabbit holes that might hide toothy tentacles? I still wouldn't find shit I'm opposed to. I'd rather read a book or watch TV. I'd rather watch Curse of Oak Island or the Weather Channel than go down FB rabbit holes into bullshit and madness.
But that's just me, I guess. And several hundred of my friends. I am always grateful for my friends. Most of whom are real people to me, not just FB photos and posts. I'm lucky and I know it. But even so, I'm not on FB much these days. It's not as much fun as Twitter for me, but I do treasure the long personal posts my friends share. And it helps me remember birthdays!
Speaking of friends, I'm also grateful that we've been able to have lunches out with friends again, and weekend knitting, and weekend dinners at their homes. We were able to go to the Catskills twice this summer. We're so lucky and we know it.
I still can't read at my old pace...finishing books just takes me forever now. I'll link to a few of my recent Goodreads reviews in another post.
