Not being involved in my writing & publishing for a long time now, I do feel as if I have been in a coma for four years and finally come to, leaned over and checked up on my online social media - and immediately wished I hadn't! The online environment as morphed and evolved to the point that I feel like a stranger in my own home and realise that the slightest mistake could get me banished for life!
Politics. Seriously, everything has become so political now. I'm a writer and I don't want to upset people just because I think, for example, that Trump is a danger to the world, people kill people but guns do it a lot faster, Brexit will hurt those who voted for it the most and Meghan is far too beautiful to be a princess. Errrr, think it's best if I stay away from that, not respond to any of this ranting political nonsense. Honestly, it's a minefield out there! So it's best not to get involved, keep my views to myself and to just ignore all of the politiking that has suddenly sprouted up all over the internet.
Gifs. Why so many gifs???? Too many people now post inconsequential Tweets and then add a ridiculously annoying moving picture to get your attention. The internet is full of inconsequential crap - nothing has changed there but if you post such tat, and you need to add a silly, irritating gif, why bother posting the message at all?
She/her or he/him. WTF? I saw this weirdness all over the profiles of everybody I was interacting with. I thought maybe it was a new law to identify one's gender but no, it appears to be a completely voluntary thing to do!! Now I'm a man of the world, and I've met a lot of people who have challenged my idea of male or female or something else, and yes, it can be embarrassing not knowing whether to refer to a person as a guy or gal or whatever, but this does not and should not apply to a very obvious woman saying she's a woman and should be referred to as such, or to me saying I'm a man so please refer to me as a he/him. Really, I shouldn't need to tell you that and if you were to refer to me as anything else I'd suspect you are either blind, drunk, spoiling for a fight or plain stupid. I understand, from what I've discovered, that it is to support those that are less straight forward. Now I love the idea of supporting and valuing minorities etc, but whatever next? Do I add 'heterosexual' to support gay/lesbian folk etc? 'White' to support ethnic minorities? 'Average height' to support 'vertically challenged' people? Where will this all end????
