You start writing a blog post, and sometimes, at some point, it just loses its joy.
Yeah, I was going to write about the lying Ryan Lochte and the other Olympic swimmers, and how he particularly was the Ugly American abroad. And Rio 2016 spokesman Mario Andrada downplaying their actions may be a case of white male privilege– OK, probably is, while the black girls’ hair is analyzed.
And I was going to write about the Louisiana flooding and whether there was enough media coverage – the New York Times acknowledged it was slow on the story, but I saw it daily on TV – and which politician should visit when, and whether Obama was responsible for Katrina.
And there’s this story about Donald Trump’s health report that was released in December of 2015, when most people thought it was bogus. So why is it a big news story only NOW? Because there are folks with a conspiracy theory about Hillary Clinton’s health, which Trump has helped spread, which the Democrats are contradicting.
Plus stuff about Paul Manifort and the Russians, and California fires, and explaining that this story about Obama banning the Pledge of Allegiance is bogus. I had thoughts on all of it. But then I realized something, that was just for a while, a little more important to me.
That is: a team from Maine-Endwell, NY is in the Little League World Series, after going 19-0. The hamlet of Endwell is in Broome County, where Binghamton, my hometown, is the county seat. “It’s the first time in over 35 years that a team from anywhere other than New York City has represented the Mid-Atlantic region in Williamsport.”
M-E won its first LLWS game on Thursday, 7-2, over a team from New England, Warwick North (Rhode Island). The team will play today in the double-elimination tournament, which means that, if they should lose today, they’re not yet eliminated.
I need to get a different take on the news for a while and may take a hiatus from the cares of the world, especially on Facebook. Instead, I will concern myself with fastballs and turning the double play, for a little while. Well, except for the stuff I’ve already written, and if something REALLY big happens…
In the last several years I have found that I myself have had to take extended breaks from Facebook and public blogs like Newsvine because, although social media has the theoretical potential to be a valuable communication device, more often it is used as a means of catapulting the Stupid and Nasty. The “Vast Wasteland” of television has nothing on the Internets.
A great round-up as ever. I have to say though that I rather like the idea of Hillary taking naps. Given the state of world leadership, I’d prefer one or two them them to chill out in the afternoon and let the rest of us get on with running the world!
The “vast wasteland” of television is LEARNING from the internet. The local news here now hypes everything “clickbait” style: “The amazing reason why you should drive carefully today” (Spoiler alert: kids are going back to school).
This is why I just stopped with a blog. Someone else said something similar, or said the same thing but better, or I just felt no one would read it, or something. Something that would suck the joy right out of it.
Well, I would have read it, Chris…
I know and I appreciate. But a lot of what I want to write about makes me tongue tied and many of my opinions are pretty nuanced or complex. Fracking, GMOs, abortion, racism, how science is taught, feminism, homophobia, Islamophobia, the hijab, mathematics, terrorism…
I’ve started posts on all of these and deleted them. They become too big, or I’m afraid I’ll be misunderstood, or someone said it better.
The nature of my mental difficulties is such that I get overloaded after a while and need to take huge breaks from both the news and from blogging. It is, without fail, every August that I start to get really… impatient with the news. Especially in election years. I spend too much time on social media, particularly Tumblr, and by the end of summer you’re just ready for everyone to go back to school or work or whatever because everyone (including me) seems as volatile as a sleepy toddler. I want to stay informed, but I don’t want to be mired in so much of the negativity that I can’t find my way out of it.