Just for fun bc a random question led to a random response

 My life lately has included barely any social media outside of work related social media……here looking at you Las Casas….but I do sometimes log on to facebook to see if it is still there. I sometimes come across something that really makes me laugh, today the thing sort of went in that direction. One of the brothers (dominican) of a well known priory in that place on the Cam asked a random question. WHAT suggestions do you get for reels and videos? This coming right after seeing the comment by a mom somewhere in the midwest about the effects scrolling has on people’s mental health. She writes some very good essays on substack about spirituality to her thinking was going also a bit in this direction. Both comment and the brother’s question made me stop and think about something I rarely think about: what is in my own social media feed? I decided for this exercise, and so as to respond to the brother, to exclude twitter….yes I know it’s now X but just don’t like the sound of that, so for now twitter. This has allowed me to keep my response light and, yes, fun. SO, what suggestions am I getting?




CATS, lots of cats, and I don’t think it’s just because I follow Larry on twitter (like half of the known world), cats doing all imaginable naughty things from hanging on lamps, jumping on each other, jumping on people, chasing lights, falling down things, destroying trees, getting caught on trees, CATS. It’s like someone guessed I had a simon’s cat mug. THEN come the recipes, cakes, cookies, pies, bread, pasta, sourdough bread, and THEN the third and by far sometimes I feel the largest, Catholic moms, mainly in the US, doing everything from baking to homeschooling, in general showing the world how to live off of the grid (though not so much they don’t have an instagram account) but at least off the grid enough that they do make many things from scratch like dresses, bread, cakes, decorations, while teaching their children, they are also helping at their parishes, helping the sisters of the poor, and basically doing what Catholic moms, since the Virgin Mary, have done: keep the world going, the Church going, alongside raising their own children in the faith-often 4+ children. They fill me with inspiration and admiration, and remind me why I do what I do, so that in some small way I can contribute to their work and aid in helping the world realise the importance of women for every facet of life, and that this is not a thing about power but a thing about loving and respecting each other, and placing back into the world the harmony that God intended at the time of creation.

                                                                                                                                                                            BUT returning to the social media bizarreness that the brother was wondering about: after all of them,  I occasionally get Mennonite and amish posts(I thought they avoided cameras???), especially about weddings and modest dressing. WHY???? and on an even smaller scale videos about Europe’s royal houses without thrones, mainly German, as if these algorithms really did tap into CCTV cameras and from them they can look into my research notes and have come to realise I research the Holy Roman Empire……

BEFORE we jump of the deep end, which we should try to avoid, of thinking the hackers of the world are really united in dominating everyone somehow, I should comment on what the Catholic mom was asking, Why are you on social media and what do you find there? Community? Ideas? Well, I mainly find laughs- it’s the excess of cat posts I get- recipes, some of them are really good, and where to find modest clothes that do NOT include Mennonite cape dresses, but do include shops, mainly in the US, run by I suspect mainly protestant women of different strips. And book suggestions from all those Catholic moms that somehow always seem to discover before the rest of the world some of the best spirituality books being published in recent years. I guess it’s the homeschooling needs. 

AND I can now ask you reader, what is on your reels and videos suggestions? What do you find there? Why do you use it? Does it help you in any way? I suggest you too avoid including twitter in this analysis just to keep things on the lighter side. Twitter is that dark horse that many people question

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