Month: October 2022

I have mentioned in a previous blog post that I spend a considerable amount of time on Twitter just scrolling constantly until I hit a point where I’ve seen everything and then will typically go back to the top and start over again. If a question of focus comes up, then, I can definitely say I have little issue focusing on my own account and the people I follow (it’s less than 100, I couldn’t keep up with following thousands of people.)

However, I don’t really pay much attention to what’s going on in a grander scale regarding social media; I only use Facebook for the messenger app to speak with my girlfriend, I don’t use TikTok or Snapchat and while I have a YouTube channel it’s such a niche thing for me where maybe three or four of my friends even look at what I upload because it’s all confined within the Final Fantasy XIV community. It would be nice for more people to have a vested interest in my “content” but I know I’ll never become famous enough as an online personality to make that a job.

And even then, I’ve seen videos from other people that became Twitch famous and how much of your time and effort you have to put into it instead of it being something you once enjoyed as a hobby to entertain your friends. Everything eventually just becomes work and I think that’s where my issues of focus come into play. I can give my attention to Twitter or to games I enjoy playing or anything of the sort but when you are expected to so heavily ingrain yourself in social media as a job I would think it’d start to take its toll on anyone even if you’re not made privy to what’s going on behind the camera.

That being said, I would probably still enjoy being some manner of Internet celebrity as a career even if it meant being one of those ridiculous social media influencers because then I wouldn’t be stuck working a 9-5 for the rest of my life and I also wouldn’t have to interact with as many people in a social environment as often.

I spend an inordinate amount of time every day just scrolling through Twitter. I follow a considerable number of artists that are all generally themed around Final Fantasy XIV given that is the current leisurely activity that takes up most of my free time. In-game screenshots, character portraits, commissions of other people’s OCs (original characters), narrative lore dumps, and of course memes. I don’t normally comment on things but I like and retweet a lot. Case in point, I have made 3,746 tweets (mostly retweets I’m sure) and have liked 5,238 different posts.

Is any of this useful to me? I mean, I get enjoyment out of the things I see people post. It’s not necessarily driving me any closer to success or wealth or anything of the sort but I have mostly filtered my Twitter feed so I only see things I care to see and not be bogged down by political discourse, concerning issues regarding the degradation of society and the world, and things such as. So, to ask if it’s useful to me is a relative thing I suppose. They make me smile and I do really enjoy reading what other people have wrote about their original narratives they have come up with or even in-universe adaptations or the way they perceive things that happen within the game world of XIV. It’s been a long while since I sat down and read a book by a published author but I like to believe I’m reading self-published Indie titles every single day via social media. And that’s a pretty bold statement given things like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are fairly often filled to the brim with crap that you have to sift through to find intellectual stimulation.

I always joke with my girlfriend that every person in America has a personal NSA agent that monitors their Internet browsing habits, history, etc. (Hi Phillip!). But what, if anything, these big platforms get out of me that is actually useful is often unknown to me because I use so many different means of blocking or filtering out ads, except on YouTube mobile where they’re just invasive and getting ad blockers on my phone is sketchy. I’m sick of seeing Raid Shadow Legends ads, by the way. That game is a piece of sh*t.

I’m pretty sure my browsing history has impacted me on other websites where ads still force their way through in spite of my attempts to thwart them. It’s funny when I see one for Final Fantasy XIV because I already play it; I’m sold on it, y’all, your job is done. What else they do with that data seems inconsequential because I just ignore targeted ads anyway and don’t often give into their intended purpose.