As the country moves towards a total eclipse, I have studied the sun, which I have decided is purple. I’ll explain to you later.
Social media has spawned many good things and a deepening number of not-so-good things. In addition to the Troll Division, there is now a PC Division and an Amateur Diagnoses division for people and animals.
I find them all creepy in different ways despite being a Dyslexic who can’t always see straight and clearly. I make a lot of mistakes.
Writing in the open online is both gratifying and suffocating.
I was taught to mind my own business, never to correct people I did not know, and to be polite to strangers. Those cultural ethics have all been washed away by the Internet just like a California flood, and the civility that used to be a common goal or manner has sometimes been violated. Now, it is violated as a matter of course, often by me.
There are no longer any restrictions to obnoxious hordes taking cover behind their computers in their distance and anonymity. I’m working on a healthy response to it.
I wish there were a hearing aid for jerks. I remember my grandfather winking at me as he secretly turned off his hearing aid when my grandmother yelled at him. I feel that way about social media at times.
Last week, a Ph.D. art professor at a very elite college chastised me for daring to question the precise definitions the art Moguls have placed on its terminology (at least the stuffy wing of art Moguls.
I have never been invited to their meetings.
She wrote that her opinions on art terms could not be debated and insisted that I refrain from ruminating about the confusion between a still life and a portrait. Someone might agree with it.
How dare I think about it, she said. I just seemed ignorant.
A school student there rushed to her teacher’s defense and reminded me that Maria’s art degree (master’s in sculpture) was not worth much since she has no Ph.D. like the professor. So, I needed to pay attention to her.
I taught writing at NYU for five years but never finished college.
(Note: This might be a course in Elitism 201 in disguise.) Since I didn’t pass this along to Maria at first, I escaped being thrown out of the house at breakfast.
If you think I don’t like creative stuffpots who tell other people what to do, you don’t want to be near Maria if she is told her artistic ideas are unimportant because she has no PhD.
Another person, eager to defend the professor, diagnosed me as being a narcissist because I wouldn’t say I couldn’t bear being disagreed with, although I’m disagreed with every hour of my life, 24/7, see for yourself. To me, being agreed with isn’t the point.
Thinking about what I write is the point, like it or not.
I admit to being nasty too often in response to nastiness. There’s no real excuse for that. I’m doing much better.
Fortunately, I also have the temperament and skin of a mule. I suspect this amateur shrink has yet to have a Ph.D. in psychology or any training. My real shrink, whom I was talking to that day, laughed out loud when I read the comment to her and suggested I had real problems much deeper than that one.
Curious, one of the amateurs shrinks seems to believe to have discovered my secrets.
He and others believe my life centers only on what people say about me. I think I’m pretty nice to people who are nice to me. But I’m biased.
My therapist and I did both end up laughing, which is rare. She’s pretty serious in her work, and I am a challenge.
(Looks red to me. The offending flower)
I admit that my patience for online know-it-alls and yentas (gossips, pests, and rude people) is wearing thin, especially since I insist on writing openly about my life, and many people find that a target they can’t resist.
Except for the stuffpots, gasbags, and snoots, I’m okay with it. I’m having fun with my delete button.
And now, the latest stink bomb from social media to come on the scene are the Correction Legions. Some people online live to correct other people online. Pornography makes more sense to me; I can’t fathom how people get off on correcting strangers online.
Pamela sent me this message when I put up a red picture of a tulip yesterday. She has the blunt, didactic, and unquestioning vibe that the correctors have. She has no interest in the flower itself, just the color of it as she sees it or a “mistake” if she can find it.
The florist said it was red; a tag marked it red, and I saw it as red. This isn’t controversial, or anyone’s business but mine, but this is America in 2024.
Everyone with a computer is all-knowing and uninhibited. There is no penalty for being obnoxious, offensive, or intrusive on our Internet. Assholes can come to the party for free.
“The first flower picture above is orange, not red,” Pamela announced without further comment.
I responded to her, and Maria said it was my best response to the digital mosquitoes that swarm social media. They bite a lot, but mostly, they itch. There is no spray with which to wipe them out.
Maria is a wise person.
My answer to Pamela:
“So?”
__
Pamela did not respond; they never do. They seem to need to figure out why they say what they say.
She just disappeared, perhaps stumped by my response. Readers, please do us all a favor. Please don’t send me a message insisting that the flower is green, orange, or yellow. It’s not a contest or conversation I want to join; I see what I see.
As you may have divined, I don’t care, blessedly. Although I am 76 years old, I have a lot of better things to do, and I pray I never have that much time to worry about such horseshit.
P.S. The sun’s surface is not really purple, as you might have guessed. It’s actually red. Or orange?
My favorite response to some of these situations – Good to know.
Hey thanks
I really enjoy your flower photos, your writing about Zip. I am watching with interest your progress with bird photography and your writing about the composting toilet.
Thanks Florence, both are moving quickly an well..the toilet is great..
love your response *so*? It’s perfect! In the eye of the beholder…..the photo in question (to me) could be either orange OR red…..or a blend of both if I tried to describe it…..and I don’t give two hoots either way. It’s lovely…..and red sounds good to me and looks good to me. And I find that your *nasty* (if someone wants to refer to it as that) has all but disappeared lately….. Keep doing what you do….and being who you are……and we are all the better for it!
Susan M
Thanks I’ve got a good handle on it I’m having fun.
I bet that Ph.D is from some dime store online college. The arrogance!
I love this: “Fortunately, I also have the temperament and skin of a mule.”
Hilarious! Color is by no means a set thing; it’s a personal perception. Remember ‘the dress that broke the Internet”? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dress
You are hilarious and make me laugh. We are the same age. Seriously with all the shit going on in this country/world don’t these people have better battles to take on? I looked at the red flower again — can’t quite decide if it’s red or orange. How about vermilion. Who cares! And that arrogant professor schooling you on your description of the photo……How many best selling books has she published? Many people who have PhDs are not smarter than the rest of the uneducated masses, they know more facts and have the patience to stay in school forever — for creative types school can be tortorous (spelled wrong ).
Hi Jon,
I have been following you for years. I am also sure many of your readers have as well. If any of them pretend they do not know you are Dyslexic, they are lying. You have mentioned it on occasion. My point is, that I type mistakes in my daily life, whether online or messaging my daughter. Some can be quite funny. Like you said, Who cares or should care. As long as it does not distort the message. People need to calm down. I am glad you can laugh about it now, and just delete these types of people. To the know-it-alls, really, they have nothing better to do.. Again. SO? Perfect reply.
The most important descriptor of the tulip is “beautiful”. And so is its portrait, which I suppose is also a still life.
This is usually a color space or even more often, a calibration issue. What color space do you export to for online viewing? It probably has absolutely nothing to do with her being “rude” but everything to do with what she is actually seeing. I have often looked at your photos and wondered how often you calibrate your monitor, as it appears as if it’s not often enough. Once a month should be the minimum, which is your responsibility as a photographer. Just set your calibration device to remind you to use it once a month, if you don’t already do that. You recently posted a photo of your Boston Terrier in which he is purple, so that made me really curious about how often you are calibrating. Posting images on line is a huge challenge, as not one person sees the same thing. Very few people other than photographers calibrate their monitors, and they are all viewing on different devices, phones, iPads, monitors. All you can do is calibrate your own monitor frequently so you are sure that yours is correct and that it matches YOUR prints. After that, what other people see on their own devices is largely out of your hands. It’s incredibly frustrating, but it’s the world of online photography, you have no idea what other people are seeing, and there is nothing you can do about it. When comments like this are made, you just say, “Is your monitor calibrated? Because as a photographer, of course mine is done at least monthly.” And that’s all the conversation needed. Pamela’s comment doesn’t make her rude, it just means she’s not a photographer.
Thanks Dana, a thoughtful and interesting thoughts. To me, you lose me in tech jargon right off the bat. I’ve been taking pictures for years now and I’ve never heard about calibrations.
Pamela’s comment was rude, not because she had a different understanding from me, but because she was intruding on something that is not her business and assumping I was wrong because she saw it differently.
I didn’t ask for her opinion and don’t much care about it.
You may not be bothered by strangers correcting you daily on social media, often falsely or foolishly. I hope you never have to deal with it. You overcomplicate this pissant issue.
The history of the world will not be affected by my saying my flower was red or orange. It isn’t Watergate, it isn’t even significant. To me, it is red. I don’t need to go farther or to explain it to strangers.
For a stranger to come in and say it wasn’t a given color is something other than what I would do. It wasn’t a question or observation; it was just a statement. And it was both wrong and foolish.
If Pamela thinks it’s orange, good for her. It’s not my problem. I felt it was arrogant and invasive. I only need a conversation about the colors I see if a qualified radiologist makes them, and I will never ask another photographer if their monitor is calibrated. How you set your camera is different from my problem or business. It’s up to you.
Good lord, I work for a living, I don’t put time aside to argue about callibrations or to alter them. What I said about Pamela is what I felt, and I have no apologies for being honest. Thanks for the note. Sorry that purple dogs bother you. It’s not purple on my blog; or to anyone I know of, you may need to calibrate your monitor. I just wanted to let you know that. I just wanted to let you know that I don’t need to know about it. Best Jon and thanks.
Thank you for answering my question that I have always wondered about your work. You don’t calibrate. It’s noticed it over and over when viewing your work. What a shame to put all the time and work in shooting and processing and then skip a step that is so easy, relatively inexpensive and so vital. It’s such a basic step in every photographers work flow. And why would you ask if I need to? I stated that I do mine once a month and before every important shoot.
Dana, thanks again. I’m sorry you seem to be imposing your values on to me, I am not a tech kind of person and I like the phots I’m taking. I’m a rsegular student at the Leika academe I take lessons regularly and the very accomplished teachers see and critique my work. They are happy with my progress, and I am glad. I’m sure we’ll get around to calibrating, but not right now. Because of my dyslexia, I have to go slowly and carefully. I respect what you are writing and thinking, but I am not looking to you for teaching, I love my teachers and don’t need another voice in my head. Thanks for being civil, this is something other than what I need to take up right how for all kinds of reasons. I’m moving at my own pace, and it is too fast at times as is. Best jon
The Grateful Dead taught us, in the song Scarlet Begonias, that “the sky was yellow and the sun was blue.”
This song reminds me of Maria.
https://youtu.be/3QlxSBquv5s?feature=shared
thank you Gretchen for a wonderful blast from the past (SO great)……and timely lyrics too! You made my day!
Susan M
Hey, Jon,
I’ve enjoyed your one-word response to a member in good standing of the Correction Mafia. It gets right to the point!
Here are two more you may want to consider adding to your repertoire. They have both served me well on various occasions:
“Hmmmm…” and “Wow!”
I hope you keep writing. Your voice and photos uplift me — and many, many others. What color is gratitude?
Blessing to you and Maria
Kally
Thanks, Kally, I’m just getting started. Blessings back to you
PERFECT response!! you’re a quick learner!