YESTERDAY PEOPLE IN MY WORLD talked about two diverse topics: 1) Twitter icon, acceptance of new “like” paradigm and subsequent “heart” emoji; & 2) marijuana, legalization for all uses of said within our state.
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Screenshot from my Twitter feed.
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ALL DAY WHEREVER I WENT, online or in real life, I read or heard a variety of points of view about the above two issues. Everybody had a strong opinion, sometimes logic-based, often loudly stated, but freely given.
Thus in the spirit of being a transparent blogger, and a pleasant real life human being, I’ll tell you what I think about these two topics. That followed me like a lost puppy everywhere I went yesterday.
I don’t really care.
I have no strong opinion about either of these issues.
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WHICH IS NOT TO SAY that I’m ignorant nor waffling under the strain of deciding what I think. No, it’s just saying that because something happens in my world, does not mean that I have a strong opinion about it.
I have preferences, but being an introvert I often keep them to myself. Or only share them with people close to me. Like you, my gentle readers.
To wit, here are my preferences about yesterday’s topics: 1) I’m not thrilled to be an adult using a cutesy emoji to communicate that I like something a fellow adult has said on Twitter; & 2) I’m not for the carte blanche legalization of marijuana sold through ten monopolies.
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Story here.
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I GET THAT PEOPLE ARE frustrated by intractable problems in this world, so they overreact to smaller issues believing they have control over them. But yesterday, y’all outdid yourself dithering and worrying about icons and pot.
Kind of gave me a headache, if you want to know the truth of it all.
And I have to wonder, once again, why I bothered to pay attention to the people spouting off about these issues. Will I never learn to ignore the babble?
THE SPECTACLED BEAN 
Interesting post today. I hadn’t heard about the emoji thing. Maybe that was just in Ohio. But I did hear about the pot debate. Like you said, many people have very strong opinions and let everyone else know what they think. I’m not sure I would want to have young kids in this society today. Way too many decisions!
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Beth, the Twitterverse went bonkers yesterday about the change in icon. On one hand it was funny, but on the other hand it was tedious. As for pot, once it became clear about who’d benefit from the sale of it here in Ohio, the issue took a nosedive. Many people may want weed to be legal, but no one is willing to let 10 monopolies control the substance.
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Sometimes it’s really difficult to ignore the mosquito buzz without feeling the need to swat. Screens are good.
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Amen, sistah! I’ll be installing some immediately. Perhaps buying some OFF as well. 🙂
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Awww Philmouse! You have a way with words!
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I heard about the emoji thing on NPR of all places. I guess that makes it an important issue. I’ve never really liked Twitter so I really don’t care. Didn’t they have some sort of like button already? Marijuana is a pretty hot topic. I’ve got mixed feelings about recreational use legalization but I’d like to get medical use passed in my state.
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Zazzy, the button on Twitter changed from favorite/star to like/heart. Different meaning + look. In the big scheme of things, it’s no big deal. But in the social media microcosm, it caused angst & gnashing of teeth, so to speak.
I agree with you about the marijuana topic. Medical is good. Recreational, I dunno. Maybe. Just not for me.
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I saw a lot about the heart vs. star thing too, but most of it was humorous. I joked that the heart is far too intimate for this introvert. Feels weird to click it. 🙂
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Carrie, I agree that it feels weird to click a heart. It’s like I’m in 7th grade dotting the letter “I” with a it. Also, isn’t a heart symbol sometimes considered to be a butt shape? That’s not a good connotation either.
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Haha, no, not good at all.
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Hahah – I didn’t care about the Twitter thing either. Whenever I’m out in public, I can’t believe how many people are talking about Facebook. It makes me crazy when there are so many more important things to talk about.
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Sheila, your FB analogy is exactly why I got such a headache yesterday. Of all the problems in this world to focus on, emojis and joints aren’t the two that immediately come to my mind. It was, like Philosophermouse said above, a constant buzzing of mosquitoes. Most annoying and it wore me down.
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I’m always stunned that people can get worked up about the stupid. I miss the word count on the Word Press reader but do you hear me bellyache about it? (Well, maybe a little bit!) The marijuana issue is just another version of politics. I understand it is helpful for medical purposes for some people. Fortunately I don’t have one of those issues (I have others but chocolate seems to help). I hope those people can get it.
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Kate, you said it! The politics of the pot issue is a mess. Intentionally so, I’d say. No Mary Jane here for the moment, but I’m betting that the next time the issue comes up the discussions will be more nuanced, allowing for a distinction btwn medical and recreational use. Then we’ll see what happens.
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I hate election time.
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Me too.
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I obviously did not know about the Tweeter thing, and I only knew about the Ohio vote because I have four Ohio bloggers I follow. Was there Mary Jane in Monopoly? Collect $200 for puff puff passing Go and mellow out on Free Parking…
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evilsquirrel13, that’s about it. Just like a Monopoly game. Ohio politics. So weird. And currently still doobie-free.
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I have no problem with pot being legal. I live in Colorado and the state had not fallen into criminal chaos as the naysayers said would happen but I would have voted against these two issue just for the way they are written. Garbage in, garbage out.
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la p, interesting observation about CO. I imagine that eventually OH will legalize pot, but it needs to be done in a way that seems forthright, not underhanded. This attempt seemed sneaky, which didn’t fly around here.
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I don’t do twitter, thus I’m not entitled to an opinion, but a like is way different from a heart emoji. I may approve of someone’s tweet(?) without loving it. 🙂 As for the Mary Jane, I voted to legalize it here in Washington, and now wish I hadn’t.
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Margaret, you’re right. Each emoji has a different underlying principle. I don’t see why Twitter doesn’t offer both emoji, but that might be too nuanced for them. So, whatever.
I didn’t vote to legalize pot here because to make it so one had to also legalize the acceptance of monopolies, which I won’t do. So for the moment we Ohioans are marijuana-free, in a legal sense that is.
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As for the Twitter thing: Behold the field in which I grow my fucks, and observe that it is barren. I heard that somewhere and loved it. I am so beyond caring about that whole thing that I can’t even see it anymore. They could throw a pile of smiling poop emoji on it and I wouldn’t care. Why exactly IS there a smiling dump emoji, anyway? And where’s the grinning urine droplet? I feel like we should have an equal opportunity thing for human waste here. Piss is getting shafted.
As far as pot goes in WA, seems to be fine. The only thing that’s really crap is that patients who have a medical pot card for some reason pay more (??) for pot than recreational users. Why is this? I have no idea. Otherwise basically nothing has changed. I guess now it’s nice that you can go to a store for your pot instead of buying it from the creepy dude in the park? Pot isn’t my thing, so I don’t really care about that, either. I suppose the state is probably happy with the additional tax revenue. Pfff.
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Adrasteia, brilliant observation: “And where’s the grinning urine droplet?” My suspicion is that given time, it’ll be available somewhere. And. there. will. be. controversy.
I’m like you in that I have no interest in smoking pot, so in many ways this issue is moot for me. I’d like to see medical marijuana available here, for a reasonable price, but after that I’m indifferent to recreational use. I figure that the next time we vote on this issue the supporters will have a better worded initiative that’ll pass. But only time will tell.
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Not being a member of the Twitter community, I was incredibly confused by part of this discussion. (So it mattered even less to me! LOL.) I do get surprised by how invested people on Twitter and Facebook get in such things; however, I try to remember how nervewracking it is when my blogging platform decides to switch things around. A little different, but Change is difficult for many people.
I wonder why you can’t just click the Actual Word “like”. Does there have to be an icon?
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nance, I was amazed by how adamant some people were about not using the new icon. I feel silly clicking on a big red heart, but I can do it. My only thought about why Twitter uses icons instead of words is that one icon translates across all languages while words would be different all over the earth. Icons are probably easier in the long run.
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Duh. Of course an icon would be more universal than a word. Can I plead a Moment Of Sheer Idiocy? I’d hate to think I’m one of the Ugly Americans who assumes the world speaks (or should speak) English. Sigh. Thanks for having a brain for the both of us this time.
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🙂 Don’t be hard on yourself, you’re not on Twitter so you haven’t seen how it works. I follow ppl who write in English, but occasionally slip into Spanish or French. Twitter can be most interesting!
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