2019: Nobody uses e-mail anymore?

Really?  Nobody?  This is news to me.  My sister recently expressed the same observation alluding to the fact that I communicate with our mother via e-mail, but she's strictly a 'text message girl' and, heaven forbid, that text message be via Facebook's Instant Messenger.  After recently sending her a text from my cellphone (because she doesn't often use Facebook or it's messaging feature) I believe I remember her asking "Since *when* do *you* use text messaging?  I thought you used Facebook Messenger?!" with a similar that 'when did you become current' inference.  This is my *older* sister!

So I did some 'Googling.'  I can't decide if there's really a disappearing act (e-mail's) going on or if it's a concerted effort by corporate America to 'make it happen' in an effort to pave the way for whatever the next 'thing' is to be.

I think the problem people imagine is that their information is not secure and that any one of many people between themselves and the recipient of their e-mail  can be snooping.  Encryption very simply and effectively prevents this.  Could it be that all those who predict the downfall of e-mail are unaware of hope to use it properly to protect their data?

Here's an interesting video:

Why email is obsolete and Steve Jobs knew how to fix it

Perhaps because I work for the government and most of my emails are, indeed, encrypted (not a big deal, you can encrypt your Gmail or even your AOL e-mail) is the reason I don't understand the problem that my sister and others see with e-mail (as they understand it is to be used)?  

Is it that they don't know how to protect their 1s and 0s from Ivan or Abdul?  Or is it that they think it's much more efficient to tap out a line or two (in a code that resembles their mother language but with a lot of the vowels missing - LOL, OMG, BFF, ROTFLMAO, ETC. See what I did there?  :)

We shall see!  My Googling seems to uggest that some folks think e-mailing will be replaced (by something nobody yet knows about) by next year (2020) -- if only they knew, as my sister does:

Nobody emails anymore!

... more later (when e-mail disappears). 

What is a blog and why bother?

Why MyLifeandTimes.Org is here

I may have covered this before, but I thought that this graphic *almost* covered the reasoning behind why I put stuff here.  That reason is:  I wanted to have a 'platform' to stand on and "say" stuff whether or not anybody read it.  It's a very similar disorder, I think, as I saw displayed by people on my first visit to Times Square way back in the day.  Those people were just standing around on their boxes (their platforms) and ranting about whatever - the end of the world and stuff.  I'm not sure if the boxes on which they stood were 'soap boxes,' but I think you get my point.

When I found out about 'blogs,' I thought "Great!  Now I don't have to worry about losing my freakin' notebook (didn't call it a journal or commonplace book back then) *and* I can type faster than I can write - I can back up, delete and change stuff faster.  Little did I know that, for some odd reason, I'd flip my preference back to analog over digital (which is why I hadn't been blogging for so long).

And now I sort of combine the two.  Sometimes something that I post here or see online (on Facebook for example) gives me an idea that I want to write about and put into a journal - and sometimes it's the other way around.  But what gave me the idea for *this* post was something that the 'Star Wars Blog' graphic did *not* mention.

And that is this:  It's all become about money.

After performing my due diligence prior to choosing "Innovative Journaling" as my source for my journaling kit (now called my "Davinci kit"), I'd also researched different types of journals what people do with them (Bullet Journals or 'Bujos,' for example are beyond me -- a system of setting up one's notes and schedules and stuff for those who don't know how to do that, I guess?), I also wondered what the difference was between journals and diaries.  Then I discovered 'commonplace journals' which have been around for literally centuries and are quite different from both journals and diaries.  (Check the links in the previous sentences if you'd like to poke around at those differences)

After educating myself about journals and diaries (and blogs) I happened upon one of those 'suggested searches' that Google gives you when you're looking for other stuff.  That suggested search was "What's the difference between a journal and a blog?"

I clicked the link and found what you might expect:  the analog journal is more private, the blog is online and public, blah blah blah.  But what I've noticed is this:  blogs, unlike their original purposes, have become blatant efforts to make money.  I even tried it.  "Google Adsense" (or whatever it's called) sent me an e-mail to tell me how easy it was to put ads up on my blog tailored to both what my topics were about and also based on the 'clicks' of the visitors.  I figured:  "Why not?"

Humorously, after about a year, they sent me an e-mail notifying me that I was no longer qualified to have ads on my blog!  Why?  Not enough clicks.  Not enough traffic!  In other words:  the portion of any money that Google was to have received based upon traffic on my site wasn't enough so they didn't want to play with me any more.

Back to my research on analog journals vs. blogs, I continued to poke around at other blogs and, with few exceptions, they're all an attempt to sell something.  I'm not sure why, but I was disappointed.

So this here blog is my way of opting out of what other blogs do ... except of course for that link with the monkey which is a blatant request for donations!  LOL!!!

As this is the last entry for 2018, I guess it is only appropriate to close by expressing my wish that you have a happy new year or that you are already having a good one -- no matter which year you're in!

JM(M)