Category — Microblog Mondays

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

*******

It is very difficult to not react to negative headlines. Back in the olden days, the newspaper was the newspaper. It was designed to provoke a reaction, but it wasn’t designed specifically to provoke a reaction in you. Everyone on your street who received the newspaper saw the same stories on Monday, and they didn’t see new stories until Tuesday.

But now, the stories you see are sometimes not the same stories other people see. News sites create so much content, and the algorithm can decide what to put in front of you based on what it believes you want to see (or provoke a reaction). The top of my news site is exclusively headline news, followed by opinion pieces on how AI is going to take everyone’s job, followed by articles about retirement. I never see sports, even though I know that section exists in the newspaper. I never see entertainment. Clearly, they showed those articles to me at some point, I didn’t click, and now they don’t show them to me at all.

My point: We have begun reminding each other in this house when we’re being distracted by headlines designed to distract us from real news, or believing a possibility just because the algorithm has delivered 12 opinion pieces over 12 days about the same topic. Instead of reacting, I remind myself that I am being manipulated by what amounts to advertising. It’s just advertising to get me to click or distract me from focusing on something else.

*******

Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts connected to businesses or sponsored posts.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

*******

I was not going to play Shuffalo, even though I loved the little drawing and the concept of the game: You keep creating anagrams, receiving one new letter each level. I was not going to play Shuffalo because I assumed it was like the new Slate games, similar to the New York Times games. They hook you with a few free rounds and then close it off behind a paywall.

But so far (knock on wood), the Shuffalo drops into my inbox around 11 am every week day. I am so happy to see it that I’ve actually been reading the New Yorker more often because of these warm feelings. So well done, New Yorker.

My recommendation: sign up for the daily reminder.

*******

Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts connected to businesses or sponsored posts.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

*******

For whatever reason, I still had free access to the New York Times mini until about a week ago. It didn’t shut off for me when it shut off for everyone else, and I secretly hoped that my account had slipped through some crack and would go unnoticed for years. Not the case. It was a sad day when the little lock appeared on the mini.

I tried a handful of other mini crossword options — Washington Post, LA Times, Apple News, etc — but the closest one I’ve found to the New York Times mini is Crossherd. The clues feel like New York Times clues, even if the interface looks different.

*******

Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts connected to businesses or sponsored posts.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

*******

We own several immortal animals — a quokka, two polar bears, a puffin — and a stone in the Tower of London, but I just learned that we could sponsor a book in the British Library. It would kind of become your book. I mean, you couldn’t take it out of the library, just as I cannot remove my immortal quokka from Rottnest Island, but knowing it’s kinda sorta (not really) yours will make your heart explode in happiness.

Sponsoring items makes a really cool gift if you’re struggling to come up with something good right now, and if you go for something already being conserved, you can feel pretty good that it will hopefully still exist for the rest of your life.

*******

Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts connected to businesses or sponsored posts.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

*******

I have a new game I love called AITA Guesser. Every day, it pulls three real AITA situations from Reddit, and you have to guess how people voted. So you’re not voting whether YOU think the person is an asshole. You’re voting on what you think other people think about the person. Or sometimes I guess what I would have voted if I had encountered this situation and see whether I align with the majority.

I’m enjoying this game so much in a way that I’m never drawn to actually reading or voting in AITA posts. I guess it’s the difference between seeing whether I’m right or wrong vs. giving feedback to a stranger.

*******

Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts connected to businesses or sponsored posts.