№ 351. Social Media = Drug

Social Media

“It’s a social-validation feedback loop … exactly the kind of thing that a hacker like myself would come up with, because you’re exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology. The inventors, creators – me, Mark [Zuckerberg], Kevin Systrom on Instagram, all of these people – understood this consciously. And we did it anyway.”

№ 172. Me, My Selfie and I

Who are these millenials hiding inside Gen X suits? 

The world is in capable hands, no? These kids will inherit the earth.

They like selfies, traveling and social networks. Their lives are dipped deep in tech and indulgent ecology. Yes, they swim in it like prehistoric life in the primordial soup.

Are these accurate and fair descriptions? Does it matter?

1. Self-centered,
2. tech driven and savvy,
3. unafraid to explore the physical and virtual realities and the spaces in between,
4. sexually fluid and less inhibited,
5. very visual or aural or make that sensual.

№ 101. "Really, can these puns go any Führer?"*

"Somebody said, grammar is already a pain so why should you be so, too?" (Source unknown)

"Well, it's good to be right and it's fun to be a schmuck about it, too." (Source withheld upon request for fear of cyber bullies)

--------

"Q. I answer our company’s main phone line, and frequently get calls for myself. Today when someone asked for me saying, “Is Charlotte available?” I responded, “This is she.” The caller promptly corrected me, informing me that I should have said, “This is her.” Which is correct?

A. Your response was the correct one. “This is she” is grammatically correct. The verb “to be” acts as a linking verb, equating subject and object. So this is she and she is this; “she” and “this” are one and the same, interchangeable, and to be truly interchangeable they must both play the same grammatical role—that of the subject.

However, this rule gets broken all the time. I suspect that people expect an object (as is correct for constructions such as “you slay me” or “what’s wrong with me?” or “go talk to her”) so they choose an object, unaware of the nature of a linking verb. Now both forms have come to be accepted if not acceptable; it’s a matter of how formal you want to be. If you’re a 1950s-style Hollywood garage mechanic who grudgingly picks up the phone, with greasy hands, when nobody’s “manning” it, the conversation might go like this:

Hullo?
Hey, Charlie?
That’s me, Mac. Whaddya want?

You can try to avoid the issue by using your own name, rather than a pronoun: “this is Charlotte” is never wrong.

The who/whom question is similar. Though “whom” is correct when the objective form is called for, it can sound put on; it seems to draw attention to its own correctness. In any case, if we were all as proper as you are, proper grammar wouldn’t sound wrong to anyone." (Chicago Manual of Style)

--------

ebaumsworld

Bento Box:

*The title is lifted from Frazel's YouTube comment.

№ 100. Well? Well,.... well. Well(!)

"You are more nuanced than the narrative you try to fit yourself into, more complex than the story that 'should' be happening."---Thought Catalog

№ 94. A Day in Haiku and Four Decades of Life

A girl, alphabets
On her hair, loads bullet thoughts.
Her first line of fire:

Fugitive motions.
But first, a lucid repast
Of flambéed delicts.

An apt harvest from
A vale of verified mirth.
Next array, the cub.

The tiger’s outlier,
Defying academic
Gravity with wit.

At last, a thriller,
Pages from either leisure
Or legal skirmish.

Sweet life at four-one
A quid pro quo of prudence
Levity and wine.

from Adventurer by Fate

№ 40. Lux

coloribus

Often, I need to be reminded, usually, with blunt force and trauma. It's necessary to inflict cracks on a thick armor so that light can seep in.

Thanks Bb for the facebook post.

№ 22. Minding the Gaps

I won't fall because
My steps will mind the pavement,
By peeling off illusions.



Bento Box: "Minding the Gaps" is from the reminder to London commuters, "Please mind the gaps...". When I first heard it spoken in a very English accent, in the tube, in Islington station, I thought COOL. Way cooler than the 7*C spring weather, then. I shall return.

№ 20. Can You Be My Friend?

Bento: Thanks S for posting on Facebook.