You would think that a couple snow days would equal more reading, but nope. I’m remote and my daughter does homeschool lessons. We were as busy as ever.
But maybe we were a little cozier and not as worried about moving super fast. And maybe there were loads of warm drinks as we watched the snow come down and down and down.
We are supposed to get more snow this weekend which might throw a wrench into our plans. But that’s okay. We’re more than happy to snuggle under a blankie, and this time, we’ll actually be able to get a little more reading done.
And with that said, let’s take a look at what I did get around to reading.
Reading Social Media News
Meta is doing away with moderation in favor of community notes. Is this great? No, but I can’t argue with them about the fact that their moderation process was making A LOT of mistakes. I’ve been victim to a few that were clearly mistakes and I had no way of having the mistakes corrected. So although I’m not happy about the reasons behind this change, I’m choosing to take a wait and see approach on this one. I have seen plenty of changes that have made people leave platforms. Some of those changes actually helped and those people have sheepishly come back. So I’ll wait to see if this is one of them.
With that said, there are a lot of changes happening at Meta. There aren’t great reasons for it other than potential political gains, so that leads me to wonder if the focus will move further and further away from user experience. It seems like a network that isn’t concerned with user experience could start losing users forever. So there is always the possibility that this is the beginning of the end, because there is no such thing as being too big to fail. But we just won’t know until more time has passed and we can see what happens.
Reading Books, Books and More Books
Past
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles broke my heart all over again. It’s the great American adventure with the idealistic dreams of boys who don’t know better. Or maybe they do. Just when everything seems to go wrong, it goes so very right. You want the best for every character. When they get it, you cheer. When they don’t, you cry. This book is so immersive that you feel like you’re on every adventure with them. It’s a struggle to not flip the book back to its first page so I can relive these adventures all over again right now. But alas, I shall wait for the next time this books calls to me from its place on its shelf. Score: A+
Present
On the other hand, Orbital by Samantha Harvey is starting off as a much colder book. The writing is absolutely beautiful but it hasn’t taken me in as much as I want it to. I think it has real potential as I follow along what’s happening in a space station. And maybe the location and professional aspects are the reason for the coldness. I guess I’ll find out as I dig in further.
What are you reading? What books are you looking forward to?