Back again with a quick hit before I board a plane for other destinations. We have our weekly hero, a look at corporate media in the two-party era, my new camera (again), an AG23 update and the demise of the world in the over-culture era. Take your pick, tourist, gun or car culture. So have a look, have a listen and let me know your thoughts on these things.
Create: For What It’s Worth Episode 016
Comments 8
That was a good 40 minutes to have going in the background as I was doing some other things. I only joined social media sites 3 years ago (late 40s). I was making a career shift and was involved with a startup that completely failed. Shame, too, I liked the app, and I’m not much of an app user. I was doing some of their social media work because the people I was working with, while incredibly smart, knew less about social media than I did. One bright (or bad spot) was that it got me back into photography after a decade + break. I reluctantly signed up for FB, and initially thought I had to have it as a freelance photographer. I plan on deleting it, held onto it this long because for a while I was shooting live music/arts, and the Events tab was pretty helpful.
Grew up around guns and was in the army. Liked shooting but overall was never all that comfortable around guns. I’ll never understand our gun culture. On my drive from DC to Seattle saw loads of open carries in coffee shops. I never once felt safer. Oh look, there’s a good guy with a gun. I don’t know who you are, what’s going on in your life, whether you have anger issues, or how proficient you are with that thing. It’s even worse at protests. I take photos at a lot of protests, and the paramilitarism (new word) is crazy. This is a great country, but the gun culture is one of the reasons I’m looking at long term exit possibilities. Other countries view our gun obsession as madness.
Really enjoyed the close. The issues are complex. Nice to hear them discussed without people shouting over one another. Tourism culture has huge drawbacks and costs. But I also remember 10, 15 years ago people lamenting that Americans in general didn’t travel and didn’t understand the world around us. Specifically, I remember during the Obama/Biden McCain/Palin race – stats came out pretty regularly bemoaning the small percentage of American passport holders. Now millennials have passports and they’re ruining the world (hey millennials, please read that with a heavy dose of sarcasm).
MSNBC and Fox are terrible. I’m used to Fox being terrible. MSNBC snuck up on me, though. I can’t remember the last time I had a TV. Since leaving government I’ve become much more aware of the dangerously high number of former generals, diplomats, and intel folks on the MSNBC payroll. They need to shut that $hit down. It was much better back in the day when that demographic wandered off quietly to Maine after retiring. (And then we get back to things being complex – if those ex-gov folks want to help send their kids to college, they need to keep working.)
Author
Scott,
I think at the base of all these issues is the fact Americans are poorly educated. And this isn’t a crack at teachers, not by a long shot. The entire system is failing, and if you only get a GED the range of knowledge is SO small and so incomplete that it’s almost impossible to compete. We also don’t know our history so we make it up, choosing fabricated narratives that sing with your beliefs. I’ve said this from the day Trump got the nomination. If we elect him we deserve the fallout. And we’ve been getting hammered for three years. And, I don’t see anyone beating him in 2020. I think we would be better off if we just traveled internally, at least more than we do, and with an open heart and not a judgemental view. I can’t stand when I hear friends in cities talk about “flyover states,” as if it’s not an insult. And then these same people acting surprised at the 2016 election results. A total disconnect. After being in this house for a few weeks I realized the only thing I can watch on TV are science shows. The rest is too much.
Geez, sorry, I didn’t realize how long that reply was. I hope that doesn’t deter others from commenting.
Author
Scott,
Nah, not at all.
Hello Mr. Milnor,
I’ve been listening to your podcast and really enjoying it. I couldn’t agree more with your points. Recently I read a fantastic book from Cal Newport called “Digital Minimalism: On living better with less technology” and you can learn a lot about social media, what’s there end game and how to use them better or not use them at all, depending what you really want. Although I am not a fan of social media I am a fan of technology and I wanted to ask you what’s your opinion regarding smartphone photography. I print a lot but usually small prints and instax (I have an instax printer) and I was considering buying an iPhone and try it out. What’s your opinion? Have you done any project using just your smartphone?
Thank you!
Author
George,
Thanks for taking the time to write. I’ve heard about that book from several people so it’s on my list. And apparently, he’s got more books as well. I know a lot of folks who love their smartphone and the photography that comes with it. Me personally, I’ve never enjoyed shooting with the phone, and I don’t like using the same device I use for email and texting to make my images. But, as you know, I’m not a phone fan. Like you, however, I do find technology interesting. But for me, I’d rather keep my photography separate. Finally, I don’t feel the need to share my work right away. I think it lessens the overall impact.
Yes he has more books and the one I am reading right now is one of his (“Be so good they can’t ignore you”). The reason I was asking about phone photography is not about sharing since I have reduce to the minimum my time in social media (actually I use them once a week), it is because the phone is always on me, small, light and send the pictures immediately to my instax printer and then the photo enters in my journal. Anyway thank you for answering my question, probably you are right about keeping the photography separate.
Author
George,
Sure, that makes sense. And really, anything that gets you snapping is a good thing. The phone does allow for specific things, especially in sensitive areas.