I just had my cellular data plan shut off…deliberately. My talk and text plan still allows basic communication when I am out and about. Let the great experiment begin!
Chris
Head In The Clouds
Since a month ago I decided I was going to start a new photography project entitled “Palm Sunday”, and then promptly shot over 100 diverse palms in the same Sunday, that project was over immediately. I’ve been looking for another project and then I finally looked up.
Living in a coastal community, the skies and clouding hit differently here. So, I thought I would give that a try with all of the challenges involved like the various lighting and cloud formations. Let’s see how long this one lasts.
The Hipstamatic 366 project is still going strong
Algorithm Is Going To Get You*
The issue with algorithmic feeds on social sites, is the fact that they assume you would like your future to look like your past.
Did you linger or read over an article? Well then, here’s more. Liked a video? Yes, have some more of the same old crap.
*With apologies to Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine
The Matrix Has You
It is 2024 and the Matrix is real. Of this there can be zero doubt, if you consider your daily screen time. The digital avatar of you online versus your physical meat space in the real world. Are you intellectually honest with yourself?
Can you feel how disproportionate this balance is?
Data-less
I pulled the trigger on my decision to remove the data plan from the iPhone. By next week it will be just talk and text.
168/366
I set a photography goal for myself to shoot a photo with the Hipstamatic every day, for 366 images this (leap) year. Today is day 168. I had them all on my photo website that I recently took down but for now, I’ll just add a few from the past two weeks here.
Read-O-Matic
I want to design and place a machine to fill up with books that people can purchase on the go as opposed to them buying a soda or a snack. I know we will all be a lot healthier.
They remind me of the Little Free Library stands all across the country, of which I used to be a curator of one back home.
They also remind me of the Art-O-Mat art vending I’ve seen in Las Vegas.
Retro Denbow
As part of my mission this year to “de-bullshit” my life, I’ve been contemplating acquiring a dumb phone and with luck, my carrier has exactly one model. It’s features are the ability to talk, text and take crap-quality images and that’s it. The carrier representative must have thought I was mentally unstable for even thinking about it and maybe he’s right. I currently have the iPhone 15 Pro Max which, for only a few more months, is the best on the American market. So “why go backwards?”, he asked.
I love the iPhone, but apparently I love it too much and I want to reduce my dependency on it.
Then I got to thinking, why not remove all the apps off of the iPhone except for the phone, messages, the camera and photo apps? Why not have my carrier remove the data option from my plan and I pay less? Hmm.
Scroll Your Own Way*
*with apologies to Fleetwood Mac
Scrolling is a tool of our current digital existence, no matter how much we dislike our dependence on it. This is because most people are scrolling on an app platform where they have little control on the content they see.
Social media algorithms mean you don’t see the posts of everyone you follow. You see only what is currently popular from some of them. Plus you see other stuff you don’t follow that their algorithm “think you might like”. Popular means engagement, so the original post is swarming with comments from strangers. You also see ads everywhere that often takes over the original material you are trying to consume. The interface itself is urging you to scroll! Like! Subscribe! Buy!
No thank you.
Digital life shouldn’t be this way. The best way to consume media is not with social media anyway. It exists on websites – blogs, news, magazines, opinions. Millions of new, and better quality articles created every week.
But you don’t want to visit dozens of websites to find out what’s new. What you need is a way to have the website content you choose come to you, when you want it.
This solution exists already in the form of a little known technology called RSS. It exists in the background of almost all websites. It’s a way for RSS apps to subscribe to that websites content and receive new articles when they are available.
In the RSS context, “SUBSCRIBE” doesn’t mean you pay, nor do you give your email. In fact the website owner won’t even know you’ve subscribed at all!
It’s like podcasts — but for reading.
This is not a paid sponsorship, but an RSS reader such as the no cost app called NetNewsWire. It shows you articles from your favorite blogs and news sites and keeps track of what you’ve read.
This means you can stop going from page to page in your browser looking for new articles to read. Do it the easy way instead: let a feed reader bring the news to you instead.
If you’ve been getting your news via Facebook and Twitter — with their ads, algorithms, user tracking, outrage, and misinformation — you can switch to your news feed reader to get news directly and more reliably from the sites you trust.
Take back control of your scroll. Scroll your own way.
Start with two or three sources. Maybe a news site and a couple of blogs you like such as, oh, I don’t know, chrisdenbow.website. His RSS feed is simply: https://chrisdenbow.website/feed
Give it a go, and after a few days, you’ll feel something magical happen. You have an app with a feed you can scroll through that you completely control. You decide what is in there. There is no algorithm. Just the latest posts from every site interleaved in reverse date order.
You don’t even need to leave the app to read. I subscribe only to full text feeds, so the entire article is readable within the app. No cookie pop ups or confusing menus to navigate.
There’s no comments or likes. If you no longer wish to see posts from a particular author, you remove their feed from your app and you never see them again.
Everyone should have the ability to scroll your own way.
While typing this up, I obviously sung this in my head the whole time.
Bring Your USB
Say what? A social file exchange for designers, artists, DJs, writers, musicians,
researchers, engineers and anyone of interest. I’ve had a content club on the brain for the past few months and just discovered this. I am on the waitlist but from everything I’ve seen so far this will be a blast.
Premise: The Black Rabbit
In a city that never sleeps, where the lights cast long shadows and secrets are hidden around every corner, there exists a woman known only by her enigmatic alias: “Black Rabbit.” Her real name, age, and origin are mysteries, shrouded in layers of deceit and allure. Black Rabbit is a master of seduction and manipulation, weaving a web of temptation that ensnares anyone foolish enough to fall into her trap.
By day, she blends into society, a chameleon with a disarming smile and an air of sophistication. She frequents high-end bars, exclusive clubs, and upscale events, always on the lookout for her next mark. Her attire is always a calculated mix of elegance and allure, designed to captivate and intrigue. At night, she transforms, adopting her Black Rabbit persona—an intoxicating blend of danger and desire.
Her lair is a hidden sanctuary, accessible only through a labyrinth path of secret passages and forgotten alleys we would call “rabbit holes.” It’s a place where luxury meets menace, with opulent decor masking the underlying threats. Once inside her warren, her victims find themselves trapped, their senses overwhelmed by the seductive atmosphere. Black Rabbit uses her charm and cunning to extort money, secrets, or favors, ensuring her power and influence continue to grow.
Those who resist or attempt to escape face her darker side. She’s not afraid to use violence to maintain control, leaving a trail of fear and whispered rumors in her wake. Her allure is both her weapon and her shield, allowing her to operate just beyond the reach of the law.
In this city of shadows, Black Rabbit is a legend—a symbol of the seductive dangers that lurk beneath the surface, a reminder that even the most captivating beauty can conceal a deadly snare.
Frequency Illusion
The frequency illusion, also called the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, is a cognitive bias in which someone learns a novel word or concept—and then “suddenly” encounters it everywhere, whereas in fact it it is just more salient because it has been recently observed.
Psychology Today magazine
When we learn a new word, discover a favorite car, or unearth a previously unknown historical fact, and then come across it multiple times in short succession, the frequency illusion is at work.
This cognitive bias leverages the brain’s penchant for pattern recognition: We direct selective attention to our novel discovery and scan the world for matches. We choose what to focus on and confirm more sightings of it—involving another cognitive bias, the confirmation bias, as well.
For me personally, I was not overtly aware of this phenomena until I read the Rabbits novel series. After that and ever since, I have seen multiple references to rabbits everywhere without actively searching for them.
We remember what we prime the mind to attend to. If we select a new concept, we’ll identify that concept more often; the minds will actively seek out more stimuli related to that concept to seek confirmation.