Little Time With Big Impact On Social Media

I was asked how I can handle being on social media so much. Good to know that my digital sweat is paying off somewhere.

In short, the answer is that I practice at being an efficient user. I've worked to figure out places were I'm spending time making decisions or dwelling for too long. Then I remove/adjust those places.

Here are two of the major areas where I save time online.

Posting:
As far as my regular content goes, I jot down, photograph, and document my thoughts/experiences. Then, at certain times during the day, like after breakfast or dinner, I go to that archive and blast out the content quickly. Since it's been sitting in the back of my mind or has been noted for a while, I usually don't need to think much about what I'm creating.

Reading/Consuming/Checking:
Reading social media can be a huge time drain, so I only check/reply to social media in certain lag moments that have a capped time limit. Like when I'm boiling water, toasting bread, sitting on the toilet, waiting in the grocery line, etc. There are a ton of these little moments throughout the day that require us to just wait around for minutes at a time, so I put that time to use.

For example, I have a Star Wars discussion group that I engage in. Without being disciplined, it can take up all of my day. So for less than five minutes in the afternoon, I scan the updates and make *quick* comments. I then close down the browser. Later in the evening (after dinner), I do a deeper read, make longer comments, and post new content. This happens with multiple online destinations, and takes at most thirty minutes.

None of this interrupts the "me" time though. That's priority, and part of what I think allows me to just get online, do my thing, and then get off at designated points during the day.

Let me know your thoughts.
- Mr Benja -

I Stripped Down My Web Site To This

I never made much of a point to mention that I stripped my website down to a simplified blog format. It's faster to produce, update, and edit this way. If you'll notice, MrBenja.com now sends you to this blog.

I'll continue to post here, and get everything sorted out on this platform with the old content that is scattered around the Internet.

Between this and social media, I think I'm good.

- Mr Benja -

I'm In An Upcoming Game Development Book

When I was a kid, I worked hard to make gaming my career. I thought about it since elementary school. BUT I never thought I'd end up making a sports game, especially not one from Rockstar Games.

So if you look at the first game on the second row, you'll see the box cover for Table Tennis. It's making its mark as a standout cover in a sea of sameness. When the book gets closer to release, you'll hear me mention it a bit more.

Check out the author and the Minds Behind the Games Series at PatrickHickeyJr.com. Also, if there are any questions about the game or the development, I'd like to hear them.

Thanks.
- Mr Benja -

How Monday Became My Favorite Day Of The Week

All my life, I've heard people talk about how bad Mondays were:
"Bad case of the Monnnndays?"
"Must be Monday!"
"I hate Mondays"
"Welp...it's Monday. Back to work."
And expressed as an emoji, "😒".

So...I think we've habitually developed a national day of negativity.
That's kinda lame.

So in the past few years, I've switched my thinking on the day.
I did it by celebrating New Years more and more.
After I started taking New Years seriously*, things began getting better for the year.
I was having so much fun with New Years optimism, that I started working towards monthly goals.
It was like I had twelve mini-New Years celebrations every month.
After that...you guessed it, weekly.
And the final switch was when I got a calendar that started the week with Monday.
That cinched it for me.
With a mindset that was all about embracing about new beginnings, I just didn't see Monday as a bad day anymore.

Now, every seven days, starting with Monday, I look at my calendar and expect better things to happen in the week.

The only bad part about it is...eh...nevermind. It's Monday right now. I have a good week ahead of me.

Read More:
When I proclaimed New Years as my favorite holiday.

- Mr Benja -

Our Thinking Is Changing

All this technology that we are using to broadcast our ideas has done something to our thinking:

If we have a verbal thought, we Tweet it.
If we have a thought to show and tell, we YouTube it.
If we have visual thoughts, we Instagram it.
If we have thoughts that need to be share with Friends, we Facebook it.
If we have thoughts that we need to share with randoms, we Reddit it.
If we want to dance like everyone is watching, we TikTok it.
If we want to throw some art to the world, we ArtStation it.
And if we have slightly deeper thoughts, we blog about it somewhere.

In other words, these social media outlets have become extensions of our brains. (And there are many of them.)

If you step back and think about it, it's kinda weird...and amazing.

Can't Stop, Won't Stop...Keeping Things Going In 2020

I usually don't talk about my resolutions, but in a general sense, I'll put this generalized version out there for the Internet.

I don't plan on stopping.

I might change direction.
I might go off-screen for a little while.
I might do something you don't approve of for a bit.
I might take planned rests.
...
But I'm not stopping.

This is my doctrine.

The energy flow will keep going strong. What that means as far as particular output is yet to be seen. But I'm thankful to have the opportunity to share with you.

Have a good 2020 everyone.

What We're Calling Social Media Is More Like Social Telecasting

I just realized something.

Although interactive, newer social media platforms aren't really trying to connect people like before. They're not conversation platforms, but are more akin to telecasting platforms. They're set up so that everyone gets their 15 minutes and can spend money to use and access it. Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube follow this paradigm I'm calling social telecasting.

That's a different point of view from the genesis of online communication, which came from telephone and mail systems. That would be your multi-directional communication platforms like text messaging, Facebook, email, forums, Discord, and Twitter.

It's like television and radio when compared to telephone and the water cooler.

I say this after hanging around some kids and watching how they used social media. It's like they were maintaining their own unscripted reality shows via the social broadcast platforms. BUT they actually communicated via messaging apps, phone calls, and in person.

This got me thinking about how I have been using (or misusing technology). Because to have a conversation, you still need to have an audience that you are talking with and listening to, not simply broadcasting your video at.

Minor shift in thinking with possibly major ramifications for me.

It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year...So Don't Be Stressed

Those old song lyrics from "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" by Andy Williams just popped in my head. For some reason, I associate this song with people running around being stressed about Christmas and getting their shit together to please live up to some crazy expectations for the holidays. If you get caught up in all the hooplah, it all starts feeling like one big act.

It's a marker of holiday stress.

But I have a rule: "Don't Be Stressed"

It really is a wonderful time. You just have to make sure you keep your wits about you. Because if you don't, that holiday stress will creep in and have you feeling shitty.

I suppose the hard part comes in living up to society's expectations while forcing a smile on your face. Hell, I just saw a couple arguing over a Christmas tree that I'm not even sure they could afford.

There's no need to overspend.
...no need to get fat (or fatter).
...no need to force yourself to get romantic.
...no need to please family members.
...no need to get pissed at TSA officials.

Just have the most wonderful time of the year.
...and don't be stressed.

People Need To See Validation, Not Just Results

After months of low-engaging posts on a topic (elsewhere, not on this blog), I decided to post a link that grossly generalized a topic to the point of lying. Everyone jumped on it as if it were fact. At that point, I realized that no one was reading and considering what I had been saying all along. They didn't believe me. BUT they believed this link from a dubious source because it "looked correct".

I really had to stop and think about that. The people that I was posting to KNOW that I have credentials and KNOW that I don't post without thinking, but that didn't seem to matter to them. This got me going on human nature again...

See, people are funny creatures. Regardless of the quality and the results of a thing, humans will require a heavy amount of weight to our requirements for validation of a thing. It's pretty amazing and a bit disconcerting.

What am I getting at?

There is no intrinsic value on it's own. That's nearly impossible.

People assign value based on many contextual factors that may have nothing to do with the actual value they purport to want. Hopefully, the truth can be gleaned from those many factors.

It's the white lab coat effect.

Scenario: If a barefoot person in jeans on the side of the street told you to take some pills they gave you, you'd probably tell that person to go to hell.

• You could know that they are a doctor on vacation
• You could validate all of their claims with a quick Google search
• You could know for yourself that the information about the pills is sound
• You could personally know the doctor in question
• You could have a valid reason why they'd have pills on them
• ...and so on. 

After all that, people still wouldn't trust them completely because they aren't wearing a white lab coat and standing in an office. That context is too strong to overcome with mere truths. Our minds would deny ourselves until we got over whatever mental barriers we had constructed. We simply wouldn't have the proper context we desire for that situation to make sense. 

Personally, I've been trying to battle this in my life, but the need for "proper context" is legitimately difficult to get around. I'm not immune to these mental barriers, I've just started trying to think about them.

I wonder what the proper context is for validation nowadays. Likes? Retweets? Influencer mentions? Guest blog posts? Podcast appearances. There seem to be a lot of them.

You Should Be Starting Your Resolutions Now. Quit Screwing Around.

Someone just posted that we should take about a week to ponder our resolutions for the New Year. WRONG. That's weak.

You should have been pondering that for the past two months and using December to practice getting in the habit.

UPDATE: This is an older post that got updated for this year. Basically the same message.