The More Social Networks There Are the Less I Want to Use Them #
There’s been an influx of new1 social networks recently, such as Threads,
Mastodon, and Bluesky. And to some extent, I’ve tried to keep up with them. But
if anything, I’ve noticed that my use of social media, in general, has been
dropping.
I used to use Twitter for talking about everything, and Instagram for posting
my photography. But then Glass came along and for a while my serious
photography was going there, and then BeReal made me want to save a photo for
them every day. As for text content, there’s been Micro.blog,
Mastodon, and Threads that I’ve tried as alternatives to
Twitter.
However, all I tend to use now is just Instagram, Twitter/X, and Mastodon.
Instagram is where my friends and family tend to be, and that’s where I post
photos of what I’m up to, and also any real photography. Mastodon is where
I’ve found a lot of tech bloggers and developers have flocked to, so I’m there
for that crowd. And I still haven’t given up on Twitter/X, because I’ve found
it to still be the best place for current events, football content, and
a bunch of tech people are still there.
And when I say, I use these three platforms, that’s not the same level as
before. I used to try and read every tweet in my timeline, both on Twitter
and Mastodon, and I’d spend countless hours scrolling through Instagram.
Now, I’ve got notifications turned off for everything, and I’d say I browse
Twitter/X slightly regularly. But I only really go on Instagram and Mastodon
now when I want to post something. I haven’t found them to be good places to
browse. I get too sucked in when using Instagram, and I haven’t yet cultivated
a good enough following list for me to spend a lot of time in Mastodon2.
I’ve found that right now, I’m more interested in people in the real world than
on the internet. That’s not a dig at anyone I’ve talked to online. But it
doesn’t replace talking to people in the physical world.
I think the reason why I’m preferring to write for my blog over social media,
is that it’s a more biased relationship. It allows me to collect my thoughts, and
then express them in whatever form I feel fits the content and context. And
then if people want to reply in any way, they can do so via email, Mastodon, X,
etc. But, at a slower pace, and also in any which way they feel relevant.
The real-time speed and perceived urgency of social media are reasons why I’ve
stepped back from it a bit. So, if you’ve sent me a message online or by email,
know that I’m probably not ignoring you. I either haven’t got around to
reading it yet, or I haven’t yet found time to think and reply.
People tend to think that I’m a bit weird, because I’m quite fond of a long
train journey. Especially when I’m travelling alone. I find it a much more
enjoyable experience than any other form of travel.
When I think about why this might be the case, the word that immediately comes
to mind is “slow”. But that’s not quite the exact reason. I think it’s because
the experience of a long train journey is that it feels slow. Not as in it
feels like it’s taking too long, instead, it feels slow because the journey is
more relaxed.
This may be just me. But when I get on a train, whether I’m trying to get
somewhere urgently like a morning commute or a long journey where there isn’t
really any rush, it’s like I’ve given myself an allocated amount of time to do
whatever I want.
Let’s say you’re on a 3-hour train ride. You know that you can’t influence the
duration, and avoiding any possible delays, you also know the time of your
arrival. Which means, for a period of time, you’re free.
You’re free to spend your time reading, watching a movie, listening to music,
or even just some time to yourself to sit and think while you look out the
window. Better yet, you could do a collection of things.
I tend to use that time to relax, listen to some music, catch up on social
media, maybe watch a video or read something, and probably a good chunk of it
is spent looking out of the window, while my mind wanders.
I may be alone in this, but a journey in a car or plane is always second best
to a train in my opinion. Especially when compared to being on a plane. The
whole ordeal of rushing to an airport, going through security, finding your
gate, and all of the waiting in between, really bugs me.
A lot of people like to comment on how “chilled out” I am. Like it’s just
a part of my personality. But I think it’s more something that I’ve learned to
cultivate. Maybe I’m calmer than the average person, but I think it’s
decisions like taking the slow option, not rushing myself, or inviting any
unneeded stress that makes the difference.
Written: On a train journey from Kings Lynn to London.
I’ve just come back from a few days in Devon (while occasionally popping across into Cornwall), and across the weekend I experimented with quite a few of my cameras. I had my iPhone with me, of course, so those photos were posted to my Instagram stories. I’ve got 2 film cameras that I used, including my recent addition, which I will send off to be developed soon. And I also took my Fujifilm X-T100, on which I used primarily my XC 35mm F2 lens.
I’ve gone over the bulk of the photos from the X-T100 and iPhone, and did a bit of editing in Capture One (which I’m definitely enjoying using), so I thought I’d share them here.
The first few are from around where we stayed, which was a shepherds hut in Hollacombe, Devon.
I also used played around with Halide’s macro mode around here.
iPhone 13 Pro | Ultra Wide | ISO 200 | 13mm | f1.8 | 1/24s
iPhone 13 Pro | Ultra Wide | ISO 64 | 13mm | f1.8 | 1/39s
We visited a place called Speke’s Mill Mouth (weird name), which had a waterfall that I couldn’t quite fully capture on my X-T100 (I’m starting to think I need a wider lens option).
iPhone 13 Pro | Ultra Wide | ISO 32 | 13mm | f1.8 | 1/220s
iPhone 13 Pro | Ultra Wide | ISO 32 | 13mm | f1.8 | 1/412s
The rest of the photos are from a place called Clovelly, a private village in Devon. We actually had to pay £8.50 each just to enter. However, it’s full of nature and unique architecture, and it’s also on a pretty steep hill which leads into a small harbour. So there were plenty of photo opportunities.
iPhone 13 Pro | Telephoto | ISO 32 | 77mm | f2.8 | 1/179s
I’m currently on holiday in Lanzarote, which is one of the Canary Islands. It’s technically part of Spain, but it’s closer to the western coast of Africa.
We spent all of today travelling around the south side of the island, and ended in a place called El Golfo, which has some very rocky beaches. It resulted in some interesting photos that I thought would look good as mobile wallpapers, so I spent some extra time seeing what else would look good, and I came up with 12 different options!
I’m currently on the way home from a little trip to Ireland 🇮🇪, where I have been in Killarney for this years Úll conference. It’s the first ever conference I’ve been to, and from what I’ve heard (and seen for myself), the bar is now set pretty high.
If you haven’t heard of Úll, then it’s best by described by the little introduction on the website:
Úll is a conference for people who build and love great products. We focus on great product stories, presented through an Apple-shaped lens. We treat the conference itself as a product: with a deep emphasis on the attendee experience.
It’s not exactly a tech conference, with the content focussed on personal stories, and thought provoking sessions, that do in-part relate back to technology.
This year the theme was “The Future”, and we certainly experienced that in the Banquet dinner. Where the dessert was a Deconstructed Apple Pie, with the Crème anglaise (yes I googled the spelling) served in a toothpaste-like tube, and some very vibrant Green Apple juice served with dry ice. It certainly all fitted the theme.
I was asked a few times, what my favourite talk was. But honestly, I really liked every single one I got to see. But if I got to choose the absolute fewest that really got my attention, I would choose:
Ben Norris’s talk on sketchnotes, regarding why, and how to use them effectively.
Jeremy Burge’s talk about Emojipedia, where it started, and a few stories about the growth.
Allen Pike’s great presentation about iTunes, and the many errors it harnesses.
Matt Bischoff’s talk about how everything we build is an Ice Sculpture, and why we need to pay attention to how products will end, and what that means for users and their data.
Quinn Rose’s thought provoking talk about you should put people first, and what your legacy will really be.
Alex Cox’s robot-cat inspired talk about machines that take care of their owners.
Alicia Carr’s experience with starting to develop an iOS app at the age of 51, starring in a documentary, and then even featuring in a WWDC intro video.
Daniel Steinberg’s thoughtful talk on why what we do, doesn’t necessarily determine who we are.
That’s certainly one hell of a list, and it still doesn’t show the great talks that I got to experience at Úll.
It wasn’t just the talks either that interested me. Jason Snell hosted Úll Radio, which I think I saw about 90% of the interviews. There was also a live recording of Clockwise, which was hosted by Jason Snell, Marco Arment, Myke Hurley, and Alex Cox.
To top it off, it was packed full of great people, and held in one of the nicest locations I’ve ever been to. I’m coming away with a lot of thoughts and ideas, and a new found love for conferences.
Christoph Neimann, in conjunction with National Geographic Expeditions, has published what he calls an “Illustrated Travelogue”.
During a trip to Norway’s Svalbard islands, Christoph was taking some photographs, but on top of that were his illustrations. The way the story has been published is rather interesting too, with some nice effects, transitions, and the story telling is really nice.
It sounds like an amazing trip, and an equally impressive story.
Track the Countries You’ve Travelled to with “been” for iOS #
If you like to travel, then it’s pretty much guaranteed that you’d be interested in mapping out where you’ve actually been. This is because I’m exactly the same. I’ve come across a few apps in the past that are complex travelling journal type applications, but they never seem to stick with me, because they’re just too much.
Well today I’ve found another app for iOS called “been”, which does the job in a near-perfect way.
With been, you add all the places you’ve travelled to, and it then colours in these on a map. The only choices you have are to add a whole country, or an individual U.S. state. In a perfect world I’d like to specify each city I’ve travelled to, but this is a minor issue.
But once you’ve added your travels, then you get to check the maps out. You can choose to either view a 2D map, or a 3D globe, which can be exported as an image or video respectively. If you want to make your map a bit more specific, then while viewing the 2D map you can select a continent which will show you just that on a map.
Maps
After adding all of my travels, apparently I’ve only been to 4% of the world, which I certainly need to improve on! But I’ve generated both the 2D World map image, and the 3D globe video, which you can check out below as an example.
2D World Map
3D Globe Video
If you want to mark up your travels on a map like I did, then you can download “been” for iOS from the App Store for free! It works on both the iPhone and iPad. 🌍
In a few hours I’ll be on a plane towards Greece, so I thought I’d write something here before I left.
I’ll be in Crete for two weeks, and hopefully I don’t come back too sunburned! (My skin doesn’t appreciate UV radiation as much as others)
I’m not taking my DSLR camera, because my iPhone 5S hasn’t disappointed me yet with the camera quality, so I’ll be taking a few with that. I’ll be posting these to my Instagram, most likely to my Story, because otherwise I may clog up peoples feeds.
So if you want to check out Crete from the eyes of my 5S, then I would suggest you follow me on Instagram, I’m @lordchrishannah. (Yes, I am actually a Lord. I own a square foot of land in Scotland 🤓)
I won’t have too much internet while I’m over there, but I think the Hotel should have decent enough WiFi for me to catch up in the evenings. So I’ll still be contactable, but preferably on Twitter at @chrishannah.
(Also, it’s pretty cool that I can now write random person posts on this blog, it’s one of the main reasons I merged my old one and App Recap!)
