Facebook ain’t what it used to be

One of the nice features of Facebook is that each day (under memories) it will show you all the posts you’ve made for all the years you’ve been with the platform. It’s fun looking back over the years. But increasingly I’ve noticed that there are fewer post in recent years and not as much engagement.

Years ago, I could have long conversations with people from all over the world on Facebook. One particularly engaging post started off with me asking what the difference was between ketchup and tomato sauce. There were 64 comments. It was fun discussing peoples’ understanding of what each word meant. I had other interesting conversations about the ‘rules’ of writing and other topics.

Facebook isn’t a particularly ‘social’ medium anymore. Oh, I’m still there and I’ll stay because I have friends and relos  who I stay in contact with through the platform. But for my writing connections, I’m pretty happy with Bluesky. It’s a nicer, more comfortable alternative to Twitter. I left Twitter years ago because I wasn’t using it and didn’t much like where it was headed. As an aside, I find it hard to understand why anybody who knows anything about marketing would rename that well-known brand to ‘X’. Oh well. The Bluesky marketing people have more sense. Their icon is a blue (Twitter) butterfly (X). Clever. You’ll find me on Bluesky as ‘gretavdr’.

Which leads me to Donald Trump’s latest ideas about Gaza. Get all the people out, clean it up, demolish the still-standing buildings, get rid of the tunnels and make it into a place where people can, you know, actually live, make a living, work. Reactions have been that’s stupid, illegal, outrageous.

And probably it is. The thing is, so far, nothing has worked to prevent the endless cycle of war in the Middle East. The West has poured billions into Gaza which exists on welfare. Much of that welfare is siphoned off by Hamas to build tunnels and buy weapons to attack Israel. Welfare is not a solution; it simply finances war. So how do we fix this? Iran and its proxies Hezbollah. Houthis, and Hamas are intent on destroying Israel. A two-state solution will only work if both parties agree and while Israel is prepared to give it a go, the Palestinians won’t.

Back when I was a working person when we were confronted with a difficult problem that couldn’t be solved in the usual ways, we’d have a brain-storming session. We were encouraged to come up with ideas, no matter how silly, do some lateral thinking. That’s what Trump’s idea is. Let’s see if we can get the Muslim states involved in coming up with a solution. It doesn’t have to be like this. Have a look at what Lebanon was like in the 1960s.

On the home front my laundry is set to become much more usable on Monday. I’ll share before and after pics next week.

Apart from that I’m making slow progress on my latest book. But hey, slow progress is at least progress. Two new characters have announced themselves and I let all of them tell me what to write. After all, they know what they’re doing. On that subject, let me share with you J.R.R Tolkien’s thoughts on writing. I can relate to that.