Some good advice

Allan Jacobs, a Baylor professor and author of numerous books is also a thoughtful blogger. Of late he has been addressing the digital media/always on culture and its associated problems. Today, he posted some very good advice. Here's an excerpt, but it definitely is worth your while to read the rest of the (short) post:

1. You can stop reading Twitter and Facebook, you can stop watching TV “news,” you can stop listening to loudmouthed podcasters.
2. You can change your news consumption to a weekly cycle rather than a daily – or hourly – one.
3. You can spend more time with monthly or quarterly periodicals; you can read books — even old books.
4.You can also listen to music, ideally music not served up to you algorithmically. Buy one CD or vinyl record per month and listen to it all the way through, multiple times. Retrain your attention.
5. Go outside as often as you can, ideally without devices. Work in the yard, or just walk around. Pause occasionally to take a few deep breaths. When you come back in, do not head straight for your device; instead, make a cup of tea, straighten your shelves, or pray.

This, in conjunction with his advice earlier today (reposted from a year before):

A year ago I wrote: “Wondering how to decide what to read? Here’s a simple but effective heuristic to cut down the choices significantly. Ask yourself one question: Does this writer make bank when we hate one another? And if the answer is yes, don’t read that writer.” The same rule applies to TV, radio, podcasts. If their clicks and ratings and ad revenues go up when we hate one another, flee them like the plague they are.

Yep. Don't feed the trolls; they will get bigger and eventually will be able to eat you. You deserve better than that! You were made in the image of God; don't live like you weren't!

We see as in a mirror

Saw this yesterday:

Although Facebook is properly classified as "social software," it is more accurately categorized as mirror-ware, a whole new kind of social that consists only of us and our self-projections. And it is that mirror, that seductive invitation to reflect us and only us back to ourselves that damns us.

Wait, it gets better:

On Facebook we never think outside the four walls of the self, and we need never imagine readers different from us. We expect neither argument nor curiosity nor challenge. Just a thumbs up or down.

<idle musing>
Hmmm,,,seems the perfect medium for our narcissistic society, doesn't it?

I just read this today:

Go now, write it on a tablet for them,
inscribe it on a scroll,
that for the days to come
it may be an everlasting witness.

   For these are rebellious people, deceitful children,
children unwilling to listen to the LORD’s instruction.
They say to the seers,
“See no more visions!”
and to the prophets,
“Give us no more visions of what is right!
Tell us pleasant things,
prophesy illusions.
Leave this way,
get off this path,
and stop confronting us
with the Holy One of Israel!"—Isaiah 30:8-11 TNIV

</idle musing>

Slave labor

Another reason I don't shop at Wal-mart. Read the whole thing here:

The 2500 workers at the Anowara Apparels factory in Bangladesh spend all day sewing jeans, primarily for the Faded Glory brand of clothes sold at Walmart. They are 90% young women, some with families to support and others trying to simply scrape a living together. The women make between 11 and 17 cents an hour sewing jeans, and they're expected to produce at least ten pairs an hour. That means they make less than two pennies for each pair of jeans they sew. Recognizing the gross underpayment of these workers, the Bangladeshi government has suggested raising the minimum wage to 35 cents an hour. Walmart has responded by lobbying against Bangladesh's efforts to fairly compensate workers and decided to keep their staff living in abject poverty.

<idle musing>
I'm reminded of the passage in the book of James (5:4-6):

Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self–indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.

</idle musing>

HT: BJ

The next big thing

Ok, blogging is now passé; everybody is doing it, or has done it, or thought about it. Time for the "next big thing" to come sweeping through the waters. (insert relevant Acts 17:21 reference here). Are you ready? I think I know what it is...drum roll please.

<marketing mode on>
This last two days have seen a plethora of bibliobloggers joining Facebook. Yep, either they have recently joined or have recently decided to become active there. So, Chuck Jones, former Research Archivist at University of Chicago and now in Athens, Greece, formed a new group— The Ancient World Bloggers Group. All are invited to join in the fun. It was a conscious decision on Chuck's part to call it "Ancient World" to avoid being too narrow and limiting it to bibliobloggers only.

So, come one, come all and join the latest thing! Yes, you too can be a part of the new buzz and gain bragging rights (or is that rites?) as someone on the bleeding edge of what's new and cool!
<marketing mode off>