Gamesmanship

Guys, guys, guys.   I'm tired (again) after a long day in which I was on another long video call in which I am only realizing now I got a call from my mother that I couldn't take and didn't call her back because I was being called to dinner, which my husband had kindly made, when I got off. 

I had a nozzle clog with one of my printers, which can happen, but in this case when I was doing the unclogging, the thermister wire finally gave way.   It was a part that was in need of replacing but I was holding out and it had not only had its time, it let me know so with some sparks when I tried to adjust the nozzle after turning it back on.   The sparks were my stupidity from doing something while the printer was on, hence the stupidity. 

So I had a printer down with major repairs needed.   I worked on that while on the call and it struck me as I was talking about various things, that social media today is all about gamesmanship.   There are tactics you can employ to gain followers, subscribers, likes, and comments.   These tactics play against or prey on people's psychological tendencies.   If your motivation is good, you can get your message across, but you can do just as well if you have a more negative goal in mind.   

It's interesting, coming from the position of someone who knows almost nothing about the various platforms by intention.   I've avoided them for a long while, although I have created accounts on all the main platforms.   I don't post and only have them for when someone sends a link to something so I can see what they've sent.  

The advantage I have now is that it's not me, just the persona that is Filament Stories, which suits me just fine.   I'm still surprised though that doing one thing versus another can make huge differences in how a piece of media is suggested by the platforms and their various algorithms.   It's so interesting.   And I'm so much a neophyte in all of this. 

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Baby Talk:  Why is it children still drop into baby talk when they've gotten in trouble or are unsure of something?  I wonder how old I was before I stopped the baby talk altogether.   Sometimes they're having fun talking in funny voices, but sometimes it's just baby talk.