Sitting here on our computers at the end of 2022

The algorithm can offer some facts and reviews but it can’t show you what it feels like to matter.
You can go on google and Facebook and find where places are. But you don’t get to talk to the people in these places. The internet can give simple information but it can not give the deeper knowledge of a place than actually going there can. The algorithm can offer facts and a review of different places, but it can not hear the rhythm or the feel of the folk who live there.

The internet has given us many things but we should be more worried about what it has taken away. We can support the workers from giving likes, or comments, on their/our Facebook pages. But real solidarity comes from joining them on the picket line. We can complain on-line and vent our disappointment on the closure of the places we deem to love. But they can not be saved by our love alone, but only through our action. The information found on the Internet can feel precise, and can sometimes give us hope but it is incomplete. Because we mostly search for that which we can agree upon, rather than the root causes of our hardships. And for that matter that which could improve our happiness. We can not live without Information Technology, but we somehow need to free ourselves from the predatory tentacles of the algorithm (self included).
One of the best times, at this time of year I enjoy is a day or so after the new year celebrations, after folk have exhausted themselves with all of the razamataz, and haven’t quite got back to work yet. People just seem to be a bit more chilled out and relaxed in that small space between the end of the seasonal decadence and the soon-to-be clutches of the job. A good time maybe to start reading a book, or think about weaning ourselves off the internet and start to wonder what the f*** is going on here.
Best for 2023