More of the Same

 Right now I am watching a youtube cooking video.  I like these videos because it is regular people.  I like the food network stars too, but I think the phenomenon that happened with facebook and social media began mostly from an unusual foundation of regular people sharing regular life.  And everyone loved it so it changed the world.  But I guess as people monetized things, which isn’t necessarily bad and probably did help businesses whose ads were being ignored, facebook changed. I can’t reach my friends, and this element I am enjoying right now as this random person from Louisiana shows me how to cook candied pecans, is not there as much anymore. I follow a lot of animals online, and definitely things have gotten better since the politics that badgered me during the pandemic.  But I think we have witnessed an aggressive harvesting of our social lives, and a loss of something special that had been gained. Is that how it works?  Were the Hollywood stars of old from a similar harvest?  Hmm, I don’t know. But I think facebook solved what had been a different suctioning of ourselves and our souls by corporations and shark businesses.  And we were stressed and crunched, and then God helped us with a national miracle.  And what do you know, those power hungry money takers found their way in and bought back our whole social lives. Some might say we sold out by logging in, but I would say that is your problem if you think that. It wasn’t so voluntary, it was a cheap dirty swindle.  We will find our friends again, maybe at church, or schools, or work as people try to survive our gutted economy.  And all the people taken advantage of will press on and be the humble heroes just as usual, the people who wake up and do what they are supposed to, tell the truth, care about others, make mistakes, and live a good life while greedy predators with their souls open to a vacuuming abyss attach their leechy snouts to any station of innocence left welcoming the rare repenters who hear the meek mild call of soup recipes and family photos.