The biggest news of the day is the cold temps. 35 now and headed straight for a hard freeze over night tonight. On one hand that’s rotten as all the annuals including the veggies will be done done. But, I’m not too terribly upset, you know, having neglected that garden for so long this growing season already.

The hard freeze also means I’ll get some relief from my seasonal allergies which had a real hex on me this year. The “Jumanji” year, according to my daughter. On December 31st when the ball drops we’ll all say Jumanji 3 times and be released from this hazardous game. If only.

When she said that I had to admit I’ve never seen any of those movies. Neither the original nor the reboots. Might be something to add to my list. Yeah, that list of movies that people say “wow, you have to see that” and I just shrug. Who has time for that?! 🤷‍♀️

I guess all the variations of terrible occurrences that have been prevalent in 2020 are reminiscent of some twisted game people are stuck in. She didn’t go into a ton of detail explaining, but I get it. The world is in ruin. It’s every person for themselves.

What I did make time for to watch this week was the Netflix documentary “Social Dilemma” that’s a cross between explanation of what goes on behind the scenes at the big tech companies, interviews with people in the know, and a dramatization of a family torn by their addictions to their devices.

The whole thing was disturbing. It makes me want to delete all the apps off my phone. And I’m not even a big user of the social media apps. Neither are my kids thank goodness. C hates that crap and refuses to create accounts. Z has insta, and Snapchat and FB but does not use them much. She uses Discord mostly which is kind of a gamer platform. But all platforms are subject to the same issues.

The sick part of the underbelly of the internet is that it’s not just social media. Data is out there on everyone. Just googling something builds a profile on a person and the information you are “served” is tailored based on that and your geographic location among other things.

We can’t seem to get our act together on healthcare reform in this country enough to make small improvements yet we can feed people information enough to sway elections. That’s disturbing.

And it’s not just the US, it’s global. The real pandemic. More of a threat than any virus that threatens to decimate our population. The internet is destroying the fabric of our societies. Using our humanity against us. We’re reduced to being “users.” Pawns to be played to some agenda that’s not visible to us.

It’s bigger than serving up adds or click bait to get consumers to purchase goods. It’s feeding information that is tailored to keep you clicking. Like a mindless lemming.

I think back to a few months ago when I watched the Ted Kazinski documentary and can’t help but glean a connection. I can’t help but think that Ted’s not wrong. He may have been mad, and amoral but some of his ideas are spot on.

Then I think about that day in May when I was so beat down with bad news of the pandemic and heard a news story that with all the shut-downs and shelter in place orders, the emissions recorded had dropped to the lowest they had been in a long time. And that felt like a silver lining.

Humans can’t get their act together to turn things around with climate change so Mother Nature is doing it for us. Unleashing a pandemic on us.

Where’s Thanos when you need him?

Too far??!! Yeah. Probably.

In any case my brain can’t help but see these connections everywhere. And want to make some changes in my life. Starting with my electronic device. And my kids’ and also having more conversations with them about what the merits are of being a good human, and citizen, and understanding that moderation is key in a lot of indulgences.

Screen time and Participating in social media are just two things. There’s also a need to fact check and not blindly believe what you read.

Anyway. Enough of that soap box. I’m out of time and need to get on with my day and doing what needs doing before that hard freeze.

Good riddance seasonal allergies!

~Miss SugarCookie