Testing, Testing...Maybe

It may be time to start writing again. Maybe. I still have things to say. Things somebody might be interested in reading. (Or maybe not.) But I find trying to cram my thoughts into Twitter frustrating and I grow more disgusted with myself for being on Facebook every day.

As a matter of fact, I'm not sure I'm happy with any social media. I still have my Flickr account. It no longer allows me to email my pictures in (doubling the time it takes me to post a photo) so I'm not happy with them either. (Especially seeing as they charge me for the privilege.) Part of writing this post is to see how annoying Google's Blogger platform might be. I'm already hesitant about it because...

The price of "free" is becoming more and more apparent every day. Just as we (adults) knew it would. Our privacy hangs on the very thin thread that no one is really interested in us. Companies are interested in our data...and they have it. But companies are not really interested in me as a human. Companies are interested in us as customers. Sources of revenue. But no one is trying to use the fact that my wife broke her kneecap and I won't get to photograph the biggest rodeo of the year against me. Well, not until I make the right (wrong?) kind of enemies. Right now, the people that run the social media companies are just trying to make money off of all that.

How long does it take to get to the hospital from here? Google maps. What's the doctor's telephone number? Google him. Best put it in my calendar so I don't forget the time. Now Apple knows. Delete the rodeo from my calendar. Apple knows that now. It really doesn't take that long to figure out what I'm up to. And as long as no one *person* cares about it, we don't care. But it's not hard to envision a scenario where suddenly, a *person* does want to know something about us. By then, it's too late. All the information is out there. It might be hard to get to (I bet not. It's gathered to be sold. Easily.) but not impossible.

So, it's not beyond the realm of possibility that the company that insures my wife's soon-to-be-surgeon has already paid another company to see if we've ever sued another surgeon. Does my bringing that to your attention have a "chilling effect" on whether or not you might ever consider suing a doctor in the future? Yeah, "free" does have a price.

I'm thinking I might want to pay for my own blog site. (Actually, I already do. The Photography Park is still a dream.) And then there is testing out all the fronts (Blogger, WordPress, etc.) We'll see.

Don Brown
November 4, 2019