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There are some things to complain about with .social but people will complain about anything here. For example that I am posting this from a mac and "only" using firefox.
Don't let it bug you too much. If you feel that .social works its a fine way to participate.
I suspect there is a high correlation between thinking "social media is so terrible" and being very much bombarded by the very worst nonsense, scams, influence campaigns, and time sinks.
I tend to say "I love social media, I use it every day and I learn so much from it. It makes my life better."
People look at me like I have five heads.
One more hurdle to having these conversations is how many people will say "oh I don't use social media. It's so awful."
How do you know?
And it's mostly true. They don't use it often, but well they were planning the garden center picnic on Facebook, your nephew uses it... a dozen other things.
These social media users don't really see themselves as social media users, No! that is some young person taking selfies or photos of their food.
They can't be in danger of being influenced. Right?
I keep thinking "who makes the perfect little lunch?"
I can't prove it's something that has happened many times, but the way that it enfolded made it seem that way.
To be honest when she lifted the lid I was expecting the same.
Sometimes you see someone and they are just... very memorable.
And people say ants are weird.
Only then did she place down the tiny fork and then with her right hand reaching across her lap, she lifted up the lid from its resting place on the dark-blue cloth. Gently, tenderly she placed the cloth into the box folding it yet again and then with both hands, she replaced the lid.
The immaculate lunch was over.
6/6 End
Central Park is very strange.
She ate each row, each perfect bite from left to right, one after another and then she paused, removing some object, perhaps a divider from the box and then from it lifted something a bit bigger something more like a sandwich or a small roll: this she ate in precisely four exacting bites.
5/
It was a very small lunchbox, more like a large jewelry box than a lunchbox at all, and I could not quite see the contents from the place where I sat.
Nonetheless I watched as she removed some implement for eating a dainty fork held between two fingers, a little spear for grabbing perfect morsels, and in this way, she ate, and although I could not see *what* she was eating, I could tell that whatever they were they were in rows.
4/
She lifted it directly upwards and then holding it aside with one hand, she removed a single folded dark-blue cloth napkin from the box. This she placed on the bench beside her, smoothing it once and then on it she placed the lid.
Lunch Had Begun.
3/
It was like a jewelry box, but I would soon discover, it was in fact, her tiny immaculate lunch.
I began fiddling with my book, with my phone and the other excuses I’d made for coming to the park, but I couldn’t help glancing over at the woman seated motionless with the austere lacquered box on her lap, her hands at its side, as if waiting to remove the lid.
And then, exactly at noon, when the bells rang: she lifted the lid. 2/
Mini Fiction: the tiny immaculate lunch
I noticed her when I entered the park because she had taken the very best seat on the very best bench and although that annoyed me, I had to admire her taste. She understood where the best light was at this time of day, and she sat there with the immaculate lunch on her lap, motionless.
By the time I was seated (in the second best spot in the park) I was surprised to see that she hadn’t moved at all. The small lacquer box was still on her lap. 1/
Baby got side?
The hatred comes from a place of deep trauma and betrayal.
For many people programs are immutable. They just are the way that they are. Thinking about a computer program or search engine as something that you could shape or change to suit your purposes isn’t what our computer education teaches.
People expect to work within the limits of the applications and software— not play a role in shaping its design.
RE: https://mstdn.social/@KentNavalesi/115605106392628909
I want to highlight this response because I often feel this way. But, many of the people who have found their way to the fedi are already interested in software. It can be alien to your ‘average person’.
Just the other day my mother asked: “Why do I see posts from people I don’t know on Facebook?” I explained that was the algorithm. ”So, someone *else* just decides what I see?! that’s awful.”
She only just noticed! But, she seemed more open in that moment to learning about alternatives.
I was painfully bad at social interactions when I was a grad student. Didn't learn people's names I just focused on solving problems and learning more math. Going to lectures, taking classes, getting good grades. I thought that if I just worked really hard I would naturally be recognized and move to the next step. This is naive and not how it works.
WHO do you want to work with? You need to get in their face and show you exist.
I think I could do it now with what I have learned.
I am "ABD" (all but dissertation) what I learned the hard way from trying and failing to get a PhD in mathematics is that you really need to think about who will be your advisor and form a relationship with that person. They need to be someone who you can learn from who is willing to be invested in your growth. I struggled to find an advisor and watched as other people would get handed problems to work on (and ended up helping them with those problems) but never was that person.
Cutest photo ever. The machine is just jealous of you two.