There’s A Time And A Place

There’s A Time And A Place was Originally Posted on September 15, 2013 by lavarock

We communicate but in different ways and styles. For example, I use Tblog primarily as a way to pass along some interesting information and commentary. “Interesting” may be in my view and not in others. However, this blog is generally not forced upon anyone and should someone not find it interesting, they don’t ever have to see it again.

So I throw in some “what is happening here on the farm” stories, some “I saw this odd thing” items, some “here is a way to make technology work for you” and some “save money this way” items. On occasion I throw in a bit of how I think our government could be managed better.

I use Facebook to an extent, but don’t post there very often. Sometimes I just make a humorous reply to someone elses posting. I have been known to post replies to news items, correcting some bad reporting or offer a differing viewpoint that other responders fail to see.

I also post in 2 or 3 online forums, a local forum for people wanting to visit or move to Hawaii, one involving voice over IP telephone services and finally a forum about consumers and saving money.

What I don’t do is get into heated debates about any subject because most times neither side wins. By getting into protracted debates each side gets their point out there and others get dragged into the fray. Often nothing is ever decided and both sides go away to fight another day.

As I aged, I realized and accepted that I don’t know everything and when someone makes a statement and I counter, I can let it go. Others can take or leave my opinion if they want. I could be wrong, no matter how much I believe I am right. In that case I let the other person go on and be wrong, if they are.

So with that all said, I have an issue with Facebook. It has its good points, being able to see what people are doing, where they are and keep in touch with each other. I have many friends whom I worked with, will never see again, yet we can communicate. With most of these people I get along. Then there are people whom I have met or have linked in, and we may share a bit of commonality with.

So see if any of these people ring a bell in your life.

There is the cat lover. Of maybe they have a cat, had a cat, just like cats. Fine, but posting a cat photo every day gets boring.

There is the politician who thinks the world would just be a better place if XXXX was in office and their party was in charge of the world. Every word out of their mouth is vote for this, contact your congressman about that, sign this petition, and so on. Every time you bring up an event, they turn it into a political discussion of why your party doesn’t get it.

I just don’t care to see a photo of EVERY plate of food you eat, every airport you have been in this week, 42 photos a day of stuff, or whatever. There is a word I learned growing up. Restraint.

I admit to posting a few of all of those, talking a bit about my dogs, an occasional meal photo, a trip I’m on, some strange clouds or yes, even a photo inside Walmart on a big football game day showing the store completely empty. But I do it rarely. I do have a life outside politics, outside traveling, outside farming, outside… well… OUTSIDE.

I try to get away from the computer to not dwell on one topic over and over and over.

There is a person on facebook who has a medical condition. They post about their condition, how others interact with them, how we all should know about this condition and it just goes on and on and on. Since that is all they talk about, and I’m not interested, I tried quietly disconnecting from them and then was confronted with “don’t you like me anymore”. Sigh. It’s not that, but I don’t get the same value from your posts that you do. Perhaps it’s just me but I can understand there are many people who find my posts boring.

When I was a DJ, I would talk and play music. My talk was a lot like the blog and Facebook (well before either). It was NOT a John Boy Walton diary entry, just shorter observations. My feedback was whether anyone took the time to call the station (we were very informal and the DJs answered the phone when it rang). Also, being in a small town people would come up to me and say that they enjoyed this or sorry, that just went over my head.

I used to tell people on the radio that we could tell how many listeners we had at any given time. It was somewhat based upon the very old TV show Romper Room where the teacher held up a hand mirror, which turned clear so she could look through it and, looking at the camera said things like, I see Lucy and Tom and there is someone who is not minding their parents, etc. So in my radio joke I told listeners that we could tell how many people were listening based upon the power meter I had on the transmitter. Just like the electric company, they have meters to show how much electricity is being generated and drawn from its customers. Our radio waves are electricity and the more people listening, the more power is drawn from out signal. Take any item, bread, gasoline, etc and the more people who use it, the less there is and you can measure that.

How else do you think we can tell you which station is more popular during periods of time? As you can guess, just like a telephone, radio and TV work the same way. We at the transmitter can watch and listen to you just as you do to the performers. It is a two way street and… ah… ok, no, it doesn’t work that way either (only computers can monitor you like that).

Nobody knew much about Nielsen sampling surveys, and most had never been called on the phone, so I was safe in my joke.

If I was a lecturer, I would be constantly looking at the audience and if people would start to fall asleep or start looking at their watch, I would change pace or stop.

On the internet we don’t have that type of subtle clue, we have a way to disconnect. We hide entries or drop people or skip reading this or that.

So if I seem distant or uncommunicative, I may just be looking at my watch!