schneefink | Entries tagged with thoughts

jae asked about the advantages of Tumblr for someone who likes actual interaction and discussions. I've been thinking about this recently: I don't think that's what Tumblr is for, but it does have its upsides and reasons why I'm using it.

I started using Tumblr when I wasn't feeling well. I don't think that's a coincidence: at that moment, there were several things Tumblr did for me better than Lj/Dw. First of all, it's low-pressure: there are no instances where I feel like I should comment on something, or maybe want to say something and don't know what, and then feel guilty about it. Nobody cares if I comment or not. When I'm not feeling up to social interaction, Tumblr lets me watch my dash from a safe distance.

At the same time Tumblr is great at giving me the illusion of interaction and the benefits that come with it. I get notifications when someone likes or reblogs a thing that I (re)posted, and that makes me feel good because I could show them something that they liked. When I'm posting something on Lj/Dw and don't get any comments and I happen to feel insecure I start to worry that I'm not interesting enough; on Tumblr I don't care, because commenting is not part of the culture.

Tumblr is great for procrastination: it's relatively guilt-free because there are thousands of people using it for that exact same thing. I browse Lj/Dw and read about great stuff people have accomplished, travels or stories or crafts etc., and when I feel insecure that makes me feel even more so; but I browse my dash and know that everyone else here is also procrastinating.

It's also good for quick smiles: there is a lot of very funny stuff on Tumblr, also some great art and pictures, that I would not find otherwise.
Sometimes I also find information, although in general I'm rather annoyed by those who treat Tumblr as their news source because it's extremely unreliable and absolutely no substitute for newspapers. But interesting facts about historical figures sometimes appear as well.

Sometimes the reason why I post something on Tumblr instead of Lj/Dw is laziness, because on Tumblr I just post a link and that's it while on Lj/Dw I want to write a comment or post several things at the same time, but that's mostly because sometimes I think entries I write have to be interesting. Tumblr is extremely low-pressure in comparison.

(Sometimes I use it as bookmarks, because I still don't have pinboard, my browser bookmarks are horribly disorganized and my documents full of links are getting long and unwieldy. But that's not really what it's for.)

During vacation I had no internet for a week and I didn't miss Tumblr at all, but I did miss my flist/reading list. I caught up on my flist/reading list afterwards, I didn't care about my dashboard. Tumblr has very few lasting things, and it's not a good place to make friends. I tried messaging people a few times, but it's awkward and not remotely the same as on a journal.

Now that I'm feeling better ( \o/ ) I find myself preferring journals to Tumblr again: I missed the social interaction that seemed too difficult before, I enjoy comments and discussions again and I enjoy that this place feels like I'm surrounded by friends instead of strangers.
But now that I've started, as with many things, it's hard to quit Tumblr ;) I'm trying to cut down on the tumblrs I follow because it makes procrastination almost too easy, but that's hard too because many of them do post interesting/funny stuff. At least I've made some progress.
I don't think I want to quit it entirely: I genuinely enjoy the art and the weird kind of humor. But scale it back a bit, so I have more time for journals. Or, um, actually being productive. Ahem.

What do you use Tumblr for, if you have one?

Crossposts: http://schneefink.livejournal.com/68306.html

Every once in a while I watch truly eye-opening documentaries. (I should probably watch more documentaries…) "We Feed the World" was one of them, a documentary by Erwin Wagenhofer about the food industry; his second film, "Let's Make Money", was very good, too, but by then I was no longer surprised to hear about corporate corruption.

I also liked a German documentary about a businessman (Friedrich Karl Flick) who regularly bribed politicians, solely for the reason that before hearing about that case I had always thought that Austria was much more corrupt than Germany could ever be. In hindsight I realize that I just hear more about corruption in Austria, but it was still weirdly reassuring.

Another one that influenced me was "Enron: The smartest guys in the room." I was lucky enough to watch it before taking an accounting exam, and watching that film was all I needed for motivation. It convinced me that accounting was something interesting and very much worth knowing about. Also: more corruption! I had never heard of Enron before and it was fascinating to learn about. Just as I was fascinated when I first found out what really happened at Watergate. America is a big country, no wonder there's a lot of corruption, but the individual acts – the sheer audacity! – are still surprising.

Today I watched "Hot Coffee." Just as I was told I would be, I am now very sorry for ever making fun of the American "frivolous lawsuits." Bah, now I hate that term. (Although to be honest I'm still curious about the law forbidding sex with porcupines.)
This documentary is kind of scary. The judicial system is a pillar of our society, imo the most important one, and if it doesn't work properly… not a good thought. I know that documentaries are never impartial, but still.
Wikipedia tells me that Jamie Leigh Jones, the woman featured who had to fight six years for a court hearing instead of arbitration, who accused her co-workers of drugging and gang-raping her, recently lost the court case. The sex was "consensual". A spokesman of her ex-employer said that "We are deeply gratified that the justice system has worked." Ugh.
Judges are elected by the public in the U.S.? Is it the same way in other countries? I have no idea how exactly it is in Austria, but I will check. I think they just sort of get promoted? We don't have enough judges (and state adjudicators!) anyway. I never wondered about that. The way these elections are manipulated is frightening, but on the other hand, there is probably at least as much possibility of manipulation if the judges area appointed by politicians. The way American elections are influenced by TV ads and the influence TV apparently has in the U.S. is frightening in general.
I want to debate caps on damages in debate club. I think it would be interesting. (This last week where the Euros in Galway and the motions made it clear to me that there are way too many things I don't know enough about. On the other hand, that's what I always think before getting a motion.)
And I have always read the fine print on any contracts I sign (it really annoys the people at the bank, let me tell you, especially when you ask questions), but in the future I'm going to double-check. As an aside, I'm glad president Fischer finally heavily criticized Uwe Scheuch's disregard for the court sentence. How that party can stake a claim for government participation – which they already had once! – and potentially get almost a quarter of the votes is scary all in itself.

Next I want a documentary about internet freedom. Starring the British Prime minister, David Cameron, demanding that people who plot violent protests not be allowed online social media, the German politicians demanding the abolishment of anonymity on the internet, the regime in Turkey for installing mandatory statewide online filters - and that's just the politicians in Europe.

Crossposts: http://schneefink.livejournal.com/22761.html

This week I had surprisingly many discussions about feminism-related topics. One about child custody, one about gendered spelling, one about a women's quota in supervisory boards and yesterday was the strangest because LB thought he was talking about unclear phrasing in an article and didn't get that he sounded like he was dismissing violence against women. And also a few talks about the negative image of feminism and what is considered modern feminism. I'm tired. (Mostly because of my wonky sleep rhythm and study workload, but this didn't help.)

When arguing with my father (moderate conservative) I always "lose": he went to law school and later went into business law, he's well versed in politics and media, and he can argue well. Even in the topics where he doesn't "win" by default because he knows far more about them (how to argue for or against a law if one doesn't know exactly what the current legal situation is and what exactly the law would change?) he always brings up good points that I have trouble countering. Which is good! It makes me think and teaches me about the other side and stuff. It is frustrating at times, especially when I know I'm right but can't communicate it, can't convince him because I can't argue well enough, but I know what to expect. Anyway I'm getting better.

Talking with LB about it is different. LB recently started complaining about a teacher who constantly talks about sexism against women in two different subjects: it was getting boring, he already got it thank you very much, discrimination against men was not addressed at all, and it felt like the boys in the class were being directly accused of being sexist pigs. (Having had the same teacher myself I agree that she is occasionally boring and repetitive.)
Now LB and I grew up fairly sheltered (white middle-class academics' kids who kept to themselves, never had difficulties in school etc.) I know that he grew up thinking and is convinced that women and men are equal, but he doesn't get exactly how much this is still not the case. He sees the difference in wages, but not the difference in perception. He thinks women should not get jobs instead of better qualified men just because of a quota, but doesn't understand how many men get jobs instead of better qualified women just because of their genitalia already. When he talks about "male plurals always automatically refer to men and women equally" I shake my head about his idealism. When I talk about sexism in society he feels defensive and brings up examples of discrimination against men.

I want to make him get this, I really do - he's smart, he's for equality, he's my brother - but I don't know how. I sent him two links, Privilege 101 and The Male Privilege Checklist (and also some statistics about domestic violence and violence against women because seriously, "I don't know what kind of violence they were talking about, maybe some of them considered storming out of the house violent?" is not an appropriate response to "one quarter of women experience violence at least once".)
He hasn't reacted yet. I'm looking forward to the next discussion.
If LB doesn't get it I have little hope for society in general -.-

Crossposts: http://schneefink.livejournal.com/17345.html

It´s nearly 6 pm and I haven´t done much today except sit in front of my laptop and surf the internet. (And eat.) I should be studying, ironing, cleaning and doing various other stuff. This is nothing new.

What´s interesting is that today I can pinpoint exactly when I started "wasting time". Today in the morning I spent a few hours reading various very interesting and thought-provoking blogs and articles about topics like feminism and rape culture, gaming fandom, and Libya. Sure, I could have studied during that time, and that would have been more "productive". But I got something out of the time investment. The same when I read through the RaceFail link round-up, read a Privilege 101 post or a linkspam about transsexuals: I invested time and got education back. And it was worthwile. (I could have chosen a better time for trying to catch up on RaceFail than the middle of the night before exam week, but I´m glad I did read it.)

Then around noon I started reading fic for half an hour or so. It was a good fic that genuinely interested me; I´d read it before, but it was a good reread. Still not a total waste of time, although first doubts start to creep in.

Next I´m organizing my link documents, catching up on the "check out later" bookmarks and WIPs. Not a waste of time, but I´m painfully aware that I´m only doing it to avoid studying.

By now I´m refreshing my flist/reading page every couple of minutes as well as various other pages in search of entertainment and to escape from studying, all the while feeling terribly guilty that I am not, in fact, studying, and also that I haven´t studied yet.
This is the moment where I should make the effort to shut down the computer, if I didn´t need the damn internet to study. Argh.