Hollywood Endings

Have you ever noticed how most movie and TV show phone conversations never end in a socially-appropriate manner? Most of us were taught by some authority figure regarding how to answer the phone. I remember it actually being a unit in my elementary school. The teacher brought out dummy phones and we had mock phone conversations, rehearsing how to answer and how to end a phone call. Later in life, business etiquette lessons stressed how to conduct business phone conversations. In any case, just hanging up on someone was considered rude. Both parties were supposed to verbally indicate that the conversation was over, perhaps by rehashing the main points, thanking the other person for their time, or providing a friendly farewell. Most movie and TV show conversations end with none of this. Someone just hangs up. Is this lazy writing or do Hollywood writers think this is how most phone conversations really end? It wouldn't be the first time Hollywood writers habitually got something wrong about phone calls. If you remember from the 90s, you rarely saw Caller ID used in a movie or TV show. At the time, most landline phones in Hollywood were unlisted, so Hollywood writers didn't use Caller ID in their personal lives. Watch almost any movie or TV show from the era and they'll refer to "tracing the call" to discover the phone number in situations where an average Joe would just look at the Caller ID. Do folks in Hollywood just hang up on people to end their phone calls?

Home Turf

The more I think about where I'm going to end up as G+ winds down, the more I'm convinced I'm going to take a step back, way back, from social media. I've been wandering around in the realm of social media since 2006. I have primarily been a content creator. I greatly enjoy writing. I enjoy scouring the web for newsworthy material. I enjoy sharing my opinion on newsworthy material. I enjoy meeting new people and having a good conversation with them. I enjoy being able to be authentic. G+ provided me with all of this, and no other platform I've tested has come close to replacing it. I don't like the idea of rebuilding, and as I see people scatter to different platforms I see rebuilding as being the major project. I've met a lot of wonderful people thanks to G+ over the years but I think it's time to wrap it up.

Since the announcement that G+ was ending, I've looked at Pluspora*, Facebook, MeWe, and Twitter as possible replacements for what I like to do online. All have been found lacking in one way or another. Pluspora* is clunky and I'm not going to sideload a mobile app to be able to use it through an app on my phone. I worry about its longevity since it is privately-supported. Facebook, dear god no. Although my Facebook activity has increased, I just can't use it for what I like to do. MeWe has too much eye-candy for me. I don't want pretty. The neo-Nazi fan base also troubles me. I also get to much contact spam from that platform. I just can't go with Twitter. Although it's an easy platform to which I can post links, it is not a platform I can use for conversations. Threads are too hard to keep together and follow. I'm just not a hashtagger.

That leaves me with my own blog, which you are reading now. Until someone convinces me I should be elsewhere, I'll be here, doing things my own way. If you wish to follow me, I'll post links to this blog everywhere before I shut things down elsewhere. My contact information remains the same. My email address is a matter of public record. My phone number is accessible for most people, with texts being greatly preferred over calls. I can also be reached on Hangouts and Facebook Messenger.

In my migration plan, I will continue to post to G+ but will move more of my posting activity to my blog. When I decide to flip the switch on G+, all of my activity will be on my blog, with links occasionally shared to other platforms. I don't plan to have conversations on other platforms, but anything is possible. As I stated at the beginning, I'm taking a step back. I'm not going away.

Been Away Too Long

I've apparently been ignoring my blog since August 2014. I should probably correct that.