Checking social media
22/02/20 03:25
My life is busy and I don’t have much time for social media. I know that media is a big influencer and that it is a mistake to ignore it completely, but it hasn’t been one of the priorities of my ministry. I’m not completely ignorant. I have a personal Facebook account and the church has Facebook and Twitter accounts. I post to the church accounts at least weekly. For a while I made up a calendar and made Facebook posts daily on the church account, but when I had to suspend the practice there was no response, so I came to the conclusion that there might be better ways to invest my time. I think that someone who is more media savvy might bring some good things from the church’s social media, but so far that person has not emerged.
I serve on the board of a small non-profit that is undergoing a change in staff and the person who has been handling the organization’s social media accounts is in the process of sharing all of the usernames and passwords with the group in preparation to concluding that work at the end of the month. I informed other board members that I wasn’t the right person to take over that responsibility. I just don’t have the passion and energy to spend the time looking at social media accounts.
As a part of the process, i have been trying to take a regular look at the Facebook app on my phone from time to time. I do it when I find myself waiting. Perhaps I arrive early for an appointment, or someone is delayed and I find myself with odd bits of time. For the most part, I prefer to use these moments for meditation and quiet contemplation, but lately, I’ve been trying to get myself to look at Facebook a little bit to familiarize myself what what is there.
I already know about fake friend requests. It seems that almost every week I get requests from people who are already my Facebook friends to be their friend. The request isn’t from my friend, but rather from someone who is pretending to be that person. I’m not sure why anyone would want to do that, but I’ve learned to ignore those requests. Compared to most users, I don’t have many Facebook friends, and I don’t accept friend requests from people I don’t know, so my task is easier.
The thing I’ve noticed about Facebook now that I’m looking at it a bit more often is that it seems to offer a lot of recipes. Maybe it is just that my friends think about food a lot. Most days there will be a dozen or more recipes in my feed, often multiple recipes posted by a single person. These aren’t the kind of tried and tested recipes that you would get from a church cookbook. Rather they are recipes that are posted by others, sometimes sales departments of foods and other ingredients. They are usually showy videos with perfect-looking ingredients and simple preparation. They never show piles of dirty dishes, spilled ingredients or other things that are a part of my routine cooking. The results always look stunning. On the other hand Facebook doesn’t provide a medium for tasting or smelling the food, so you have to go from the pictures.
Some of the recipes are for things that I don’t think I’ve ever eaten. I don’t think I know what Gravlax tastes like. It is very thinly sliced salmon cured in sugar and salt. I like salmon and I’ve had lox before, so I think I might like Gravlax. It certainly would require a very sharp knife, like the ones used to prepare sushi. Anyway, I didn’t save the recipe, so I might not remember it quite accurately. I doubt I will even remember the name a few weeks from now.
One of the things that amazes me are the many recipes for macaroni and cheese. I think I counted 8 different recipes for the food in one day. The thing that is amazing is that I didn’t know anyone needed a recipe for macaroni and cheese. Growing up I think that the basic way of preparing the dish was to cook the macaroni, removing it from the boiling water just a tad earlier so it is still firm. Then hunks of Velveeta cheese were cut and laid over the macaroni which was then put into a warm oven to melt the cheese. The final step was to stir the mixture and eat. Not being a big fan of Velveeta, I started using cheddar cheese, which is just a tad sticky when melted, so I’ve upgraded to making a simple cheese sauce of cheese with a tad of milk, but the basic configuration doesn’t involve measuring or any special ingredients. I generally use whatever cheese we have on hand and often mix different cheeses if we have small amounts.
And when the grandchildren are around, I’m likely to use boxed mac ’n’ cheese, with the yellow, semi-cheese like powder. A bit of milk and butter and the grandkids seem to be happy with the results. I’m not sure their mother is as keen on the dish as the kids, but I’ve been known to serve it for breakfast if that is what is requested.
Our treasured recipe file and the books on our shelf don’t have any recipes for macaroni and cheese to my knowledge, though there is probably a recipe for it in the Joy of Cooking. I just haven’t ever felt that I need a recipe for the dish.
If you ever need one, just check Facebook. There seem to be plenty of recipes there.
Dessert recipes seem to be very popular on Facebook, too. I don’t think it would be in my best health interests to follow up on many of them.
Maybe I should try taking up the many crafts posted on Facebook instead. There seem to be a number that involve epoxy and I know from experience using the stuff on my boats that I’m really good at making a mess out of that stuff.
I serve on the board of a small non-profit that is undergoing a change in staff and the person who has been handling the organization’s social media accounts is in the process of sharing all of the usernames and passwords with the group in preparation to concluding that work at the end of the month. I informed other board members that I wasn’t the right person to take over that responsibility. I just don’t have the passion and energy to spend the time looking at social media accounts.
As a part of the process, i have been trying to take a regular look at the Facebook app on my phone from time to time. I do it when I find myself waiting. Perhaps I arrive early for an appointment, or someone is delayed and I find myself with odd bits of time. For the most part, I prefer to use these moments for meditation and quiet contemplation, but lately, I’ve been trying to get myself to look at Facebook a little bit to familiarize myself what what is there.
I already know about fake friend requests. It seems that almost every week I get requests from people who are already my Facebook friends to be their friend. The request isn’t from my friend, but rather from someone who is pretending to be that person. I’m not sure why anyone would want to do that, but I’ve learned to ignore those requests. Compared to most users, I don’t have many Facebook friends, and I don’t accept friend requests from people I don’t know, so my task is easier.
The thing I’ve noticed about Facebook now that I’m looking at it a bit more often is that it seems to offer a lot of recipes. Maybe it is just that my friends think about food a lot. Most days there will be a dozen or more recipes in my feed, often multiple recipes posted by a single person. These aren’t the kind of tried and tested recipes that you would get from a church cookbook. Rather they are recipes that are posted by others, sometimes sales departments of foods and other ingredients. They are usually showy videos with perfect-looking ingredients and simple preparation. They never show piles of dirty dishes, spilled ingredients or other things that are a part of my routine cooking. The results always look stunning. On the other hand Facebook doesn’t provide a medium for tasting or smelling the food, so you have to go from the pictures.
Some of the recipes are for things that I don’t think I’ve ever eaten. I don’t think I know what Gravlax tastes like. It is very thinly sliced salmon cured in sugar and salt. I like salmon and I’ve had lox before, so I think I might like Gravlax. It certainly would require a very sharp knife, like the ones used to prepare sushi. Anyway, I didn’t save the recipe, so I might not remember it quite accurately. I doubt I will even remember the name a few weeks from now.
One of the things that amazes me are the many recipes for macaroni and cheese. I think I counted 8 different recipes for the food in one day. The thing that is amazing is that I didn’t know anyone needed a recipe for macaroni and cheese. Growing up I think that the basic way of preparing the dish was to cook the macaroni, removing it from the boiling water just a tad earlier so it is still firm. Then hunks of Velveeta cheese were cut and laid over the macaroni which was then put into a warm oven to melt the cheese. The final step was to stir the mixture and eat. Not being a big fan of Velveeta, I started using cheddar cheese, which is just a tad sticky when melted, so I’ve upgraded to making a simple cheese sauce of cheese with a tad of milk, but the basic configuration doesn’t involve measuring or any special ingredients. I generally use whatever cheese we have on hand and often mix different cheeses if we have small amounts.
And when the grandchildren are around, I’m likely to use boxed mac ’n’ cheese, with the yellow, semi-cheese like powder. A bit of milk and butter and the grandkids seem to be happy with the results. I’m not sure their mother is as keen on the dish as the kids, but I’ve been known to serve it for breakfast if that is what is requested.
Our treasured recipe file and the books on our shelf don’t have any recipes for macaroni and cheese to my knowledge, though there is probably a recipe for it in the Joy of Cooking. I just haven’t ever felt that I need a recipe for the dish.
If you ever need one, just check Facebook. There seem to be plenty of recipes there.
Dessert recipes seem to be very popular on Facebook, too. I don’t think it would be in my best health interests to follow up on many of them.
Maybe I should try taking up the many crafts posted on Facebook instead. There seem to be a number that involve epoxy and I know from experience using the stuff on my boats that I’m really good at making a mess out of that stuff.
