Nerd Church - The Writer Diaries: Blogging Ain't Easy!

Blogging takes a lot of time and work.

I don't wanna be one of those 'poor me, blogging is so difficult' bloggers, because at the end of the day, if I didn't love it, I could find plenty of other ways to spend my time.

But bloggers do a whole lot more than you might think.

Nerd Church - Internet Pitchforks: The Cases of Elisa Lam and Nicola Bulley

 

Warning: this post discusses sensitive topics, including but not limited to - missing people, unexplained death, accidental death and drowning, murder, internet harrassment, mental health problems

Links may also contain distressing content.

Disclaimer time: I am not any sort of scientific, legal, sociological, or psychological expert. I'm a chick with an internet connection.

Comics Wrap-Up - Somehow, Again

 

It's Thursday, (somehow, again,) this is Dora Reads, let's get some comics-y superhero-y goodness!

Nerd Church - The Best and Worst of Humanity

Warning: this post talks trolls and bigots, but mostly in the abstract sense

The internet is an interesting cesspit.

The best and the worst of humanity in one place.

(Thank God it's not still 2016 - for graphic imagery and threats, that year has thankfully yet to be beaten for me.)

Nerd Church - Competing With A Dancing Monkey For Your Attention

Sometimes it feels like I'm jumping up and down, trying to get attention for my writing, my blogging, my whatever-ing...

...only to get lost amongst all of the other people jumping up and down and vying for your attention in an increasingly noisy world.

Nerd Church - Ensnared In An ARG

 

Sometimes, when you're watching a series of nerdy video essays, you realise (about 6 videos in,) that you've become ensnared in an ARG 😅

...and there's no hope after that 😈

ARG stands for 'Alternate Reality Game.'

(Not to be confused with Augmented Reality (AR) games like Pokemon Go.)

They're not what everyone would automatically think of as a 'game' 

- they're less like a video game or a sport, and more like a choose your adventure book, especially those Goosebumps ones they used to do. (Shout out to my fellow 90s/00s kids!)

And even that doesn't cover the half of it.

Oh boy does it not cover the half of it...

Month In Review(s) - November 2021

 

OK, this post is a bit later than I intended, but December's hectic at the best of times, so... let's just do this -

November's over, and here I am standing in December wondering how we got to the end of 2021, when it feels like it never really got started in the first place.

This year's felt like the hangover after 2020, and never really moved past that. 

Or is that just me? How has your 2021 been, dearest nerdlets?

Nerd Church - There's So Much Noise

The world is full of noise, right now.

We manage to make a lot of noise which is only partly literally audible.

But the world is full of noise, all the same.

I guess it always was.

It's just that we gave each other (metaphorical) megaphones and made it a shouting contest.

And then we beamed those megaphones into your homes, your businesses, the palms of your hands, 24 hours a day.

Nerd Church - But There Are No Saints, There Are No Sinners: The Extremes of Opinion When Public Figures Die

 

(Warning: this post discusses death (which you probably figured out,) suicide, grief, mourning, online abuse, domestic abuse, racism, colonisation, ableism, ageism)

Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, died on Friday. He was 99 years old, nearly 100.

...As seems to be the norm, the world then descended into extreme points of view.

Especially the Internet, obviously, because the Internet is like every extreme dialled up to the max.

Nerd Church - I Scaled Back on Blogging In August. Have I Learned Anything?

I don’t know why I need to keep learning the same lessons in order to actually, y’know, learn them, but…

I do? I guess?

Good habits are much easier to break than bad habits, dearest nerdlets! 

So anyway, let’s back up and rewind and all that jazz -

In August, I decided to scale back to about one post a week, instead of my regular 3 or 4 per week. I also took a break from my regular series – Comics Wrap-Up, Friday Fics Fix, Nerd Church.

This was so that I could have chance to do some goddamn blog admin for once, and try to get a handle on my socials, make something that at least vaguely resembles an actual posting schedule, make a plan for updating old posts, etc. etc. 

Nerd Church - Online Responsibility (All The World's A Stage)

I think one of the primary responsibilities we have in life is to not hurt people.

The thing is, not everyone agrees on what, exactly, that entails.

A lot of people don't think that that responsibility to not hurt people covers saying cr*p online, for example.

It may not hurt someone physically, but what we say online can have serious repercussions. 

And the more 'influence' we have - online or in the mainstream media - the more responsibility we have to consider the consequences of our actions.

The world is full of nuance and 'what ifs' and 'but what abouts' - I'm not going to deny that. It's the way things are.

But I think that, in general, you have the responsibility to think about the ramifications of your words before you say them (whether that's verbally or online or whatever.)

Nerd Church - Supporting Black People, Trans People, and Black Trans People

(Warning: this post discusses racism, Transphobia, and racist, Transphobic, and Transmysogynoiristic murder.)

Brief note before I start: 

Please, please, please remember that we are still in the middle of a global pandemic with Covid 19/Coronavirus - a pandemic that disproportionately takes the lives of People of Colour/BAME people.

Stay safe. 

KEEP SOCIAL DISTANCING - 2m/6ft apart if possible. 

Stay home when you can. 

Wash your hands A LOT. 

Wear a face mask if/when appropriate.

 

Once again, the rights and lives of Black people, Trans people, and Black Trans people, are under threat.

I'm privileged in that I'm a White Cis woman. 

And after all the media attention has died down, I will still be a White Cis woman, and Black people will still be Black, and Trans+ people will still be Trans+.

Nerd Church - The Benefits Of (Sometimes) Switching Off

(Warning: this post discusses Coronavirus/Covid-19, although it's v. brief, I promise!)

Turn off the apps and tabs you aren't using, log out of social media, and let the noise just... stop for a while.

Hooman beans aren't meant for screens - not 24 hours a day, anyways.

I'm not saying 'turn off the evils of technology and become one with the universe' or whatever the latest anti-tech line is.

(Side note: these lines always seem to be spouted online. #JustSaying.)




Technology is a tool. An exceptionally useful one for so many people.

But you don't hammer nails all day, every day, do you? (Wait... do you?)

Even the most fervent lumberjack has to put down the axe every now and then. (Axe... chainsaw... I don't know wtf they're using - ask them!)

Nerd Church - Think Before You Speak

Social media. 

Love it, loathe it, or (like most of us) find yourself somewhere in between.

Whatever you feel about the ol' socials, sh** escalates fast online!

I... kind of think that a lot of the escalation is related to people not having some sort of filter between their reaction and their mouths/fingers

- (talking and typing - I mean talking and typing. Minds out of the gutter nerdlets!)

Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

The Five Year Blog Anniversary Post! (Ft. My Wisdomous Blog Advice)

It’s Halloween! And that means it’s my blog-anniversary-thingummy! Woo!

So let’s have an awesome-sauce post with the following awesome features:

• me giving what is most probably contradictory and confusing blogging-advice

• me ruminating on my 5 years (5 years!!!!) of blogging

• me generally over-using both exclamation points and brackets

(There was probably too much caffeine and/or YouTube consumed in the making of this post. #JustSaying.)

Nerd Church - An Unpopular Opinion On the 'Don't Feed the Trolls' Campaign

There's a new campaign in the UK using the previously informal hashtag of #DontFeedTheTrolls.

The Center For Countering Digital Hate advises that you don't engage with trolls. 

Ignore, block, report. Rinse, repeat.

Now, that's certainly not a bad option for dealing with trolling.

And you should ALWAYS feel that you can use the mute, block, report options, or some variant thereof, if you want to.

Cos you owe no-one, and you need to protect your mental health. Take care, ok?




So, what's my unpopular opinion?

Nerd Church - 4 Rules For World Leaders on Twitter

I can't create world peace.

I wish I could, but dude, they won't name me supreme leader of everything.

So I can't do anything about Syria or Russia or chemical weapons or drone strikes or any of that stuff. Much as I'd like to.

What I can do, is explain 4 rules for world leaders using social media (and, let's face it, Twitter in particular,) that will stop us all from escalating things quite so quickly.

Nerd Church - The Age of Media

(This post contains gifs with jerky/not smooth motions, which may cause problems to those with photosensitive medical conditions such as epilepsy or migraines.)


We live in a world of media.

Mass media, social media, targeted media - it's all there.

And yet Media Studies and related subjects are often criticised and seen as 'easy.'

The fact is, Media Literacy is something we all need - urgently - in today's world.

Too many people are left illiterate in this area. And in a world of Trumpy McTrumpface and all the other sh**, this IS NOT GOOD.

So today, my nerdlets, I'm going to attempt to show you why you need to start thinking about this - and how you can do that:





What counts as 'media?'

The Internet, social networks, magazines, TV, film, music, and, yes, even books. That's just a few.

Media is modern life - modern popular culture, the modern world.

via GIPHY

Why is it important?

It's important because we need the relevant critical skills to analyse and think about the media we consume.

We need to understand what different pieces of media are saying about topics, and about groups of people.

All human beings have biases, therefore all media has biases.

So you can't trust everything you see.

You also have to realise that every part of the media you consume is part of a wider picture - it's all telling you something, whether intentionally or unintentionally, and you need to be able to figure out what that is.

via GIPHY

Where can I start?

Media literacy isn't something that you just magically acquire.

I personally think it's something that you have to develop over a lifetime (although many may disagree,) but the first step is understanding that you need to know more.

And while the obvious place to start in the digital age may seem to be Google, it can often be difficult to figure out what to search for, and what sites are useful.

via GIPHY

Here are a few websites to get you started:

• TV Tropes - this is a huge resource of recurrent themes, stereotypes, and symbols, within all aspects of the media, complete with examples (the site started with TV themes etc. - hence the name.)

• BBC Bitesize Media Studies homepage - this is based around a Media Studies qualification in the UK, but the information is relevant all the same. The representation section in particular may be useful to you.

• Common Sense Media - this is a site with a focus on media literacy for kids, and is aimed primarily at parents and educators; it does have some really interesting articles and resources which I'm sure you'll find useful.

OK, I hope that's useful guys - go be awesome! :)





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