What does "trending now" mean to us. "TRENDING NOW Judge Judy" is what I just read?
Has the dam just burst?
Trending Now! Does being named in trending now mean a good thing?
I thought maybe I would like to be trending now. Do you want to be trending now? It is a phenomenon that was not here last century. It appears to be massive in scale. And it appears to effect our lives, either directly or because it effects others like President Obama.
Who regulates Trending Now? Who regulates tweets? How much energy does it take, both human and power energy?
You know what? I do not really care what the answers are, but I do want people caught up in this activity to ask those questions.
The party line
For those younger than I: a party line was a single telephone line that served multiple users. Generally each home would have it's own ring but all the homes on it could pick up anytime and join or listen in on the conversation. There were operators who were people who actually plugged in a line and then unplugged it, or could get "Anne" on the phone for you because the operator knew Anne was down at the Soda Parlor.
It was a bazaar system, but for some the whole phone thing was weird. I think in my home you had to be 12 to get to use the phone. In town, our phone number was 3249. When we finally got a phone out in the country it was 3276, I think. I believe my family held on to that number and party line. We just kept opting out of upgrades and I do believe it is the only remaining party line in the country. Don't worry no one else is alive or using it but us.
My grand parents never saw a cordless phone.
Power, airwaves and cancer
In my day I was lucky enough to work on two lawsuits involving people suing for damage caused by the energies used in power and phones.
The first was a family with a huge amount of cancer that lived under some of those massive power lines, ultimately it included neighbors. That buzzing sound and static electricity had to have caused the problems. We were wrong. What caused the cancer spike, were PCBs leaking from transformer boxes. Horrible stuff which now the US is virtually free of, but developing countries are still combating.
The second was a very rich man that had a fancy car phone back in the eighties. These things were huge affairs and cost up to five bucks a minute for local. The man was dying and he was sure the phone pulses were what caused his ill health. We were wrong. Turned out the ride from place to place prior to the phone was a time of quiet contemplation away from the rigors of the world. The phone gave the man not a minute of peace and stress eventually killed him.
Back to Trending Now.
Trending and tweeting will not kill you. Being constantly aware of the unbelievable amount of data will not kill you. The radiation and electromagnetic charges will not kill you.
I simply suggest that all that surrounds it leads to life styles and exposures that may not be best for you.
Answer me this; do you spend as much on the gym each month as on your unlimited data plan? Do you spend 1/5th the time in exercise, meditation or prayer as you do on your phone? Do you sit up and listen to your lover as many times a day as you do read what is "trending". Have you ever sent messages while driving? Have you ever been with your child and diverted attention to your device?
Does "trending Now" make you happy?
Are you happier on your device than off of it?
That Boy don't Tweet
Peace be to all you Trenders and goodwill toward man and woman.
If you got this far in this article thank you. But I would much rather you just ignore me and grab some sunshine and close your eyes and breathe deep for a moment or two. And pray I never Trend.