Happy (belated) 4th of July!!!
This will be a light posting month, as summer fills up my calendar. After so long of being cooped up inside, I am looking forward to enjoying outdoor festivals, especially now that I have been fully vaccinated against Covid.
For this month, I wanted to talk about reviews. The reason I review something is because I want to tell the world about something because I like it, think is a useful resource, or both. There is enough negativity in the world. I only have so much time and energy. Why use what I have to analyze and critique something I have no joy in?
I also believe nothing is perfect. Even if I like and enjoy something, there is still something that can be improved upon. Critique should be given with the intent to make it better. In writing groups and workshops, the most helpful critiques are ones that will point out what is good, but also clearly point out what needs work without being aggressive or mean. You can’t improve until you know where you need to improve. There has to be a purpose to being critical, otherwise it is just tearing something apart. I don’t feel that is worth my time and energy.
This is the age of the internet. The internet is a toddler– it rewards attention, but doesn’t understand the difference between good attention and bad attention. Let us say I hate watched all videos of someone’s Youtube channel, then posted a scathing review on my blog. Guess what? The Youtube algorithm only cares that I actually watched all the videos all the way through, which would actually boost the ratings. Maybe even put money in their pocket. Google looks at how often something is linked to. Google doesn’t care if you link to a page saying it is terrible or wonderful.
This age has seen a bombardment of content. There is without a doubt wonderful stuff out there– great books, insightful blogs, educational and entertaining videos. But unfortunately, there is also a lot of crap. With heathenry, there are far too many white supremacist dog whistles a seeker has to learn to recognize and navigate through. This month Sometime in the future I will review Ocean Keltoi’s Youtube channel, who I saw when he was on a panel at Paganicon. After watching his videos the Youtube algorithm started throwing a bunch of Norse religion content my way. One Youtuber who showed up in my feed Ocean had a specific video warning that Youtuber was problematic. It is way too easy to fall down a rabbit hole on social media, and the algorithm doesn’t know if the next video is accurate, just that it is related.
If I can use my site to cut through the bull, and boost good creators I feel like I am doing good. A radio program about misinformation had a guest saying the cure for bad science is good science (unfortunately I can’t remember who said it or even what show it was or when). The best response to bad content is good content. For paganism, I feel a duty to promote good and accurate information because there is a lot of distortions and outright lies out there. For fiction books, I like giving a shout out to a book that does something new I haven’t seen before, has good writing, and maybe is an author I met that I think is awesome.
My pledge is to use reviews to be able to talk about something that I recommend, point out what could be improved to make it better, and not review anything by the same creator for a full year to force myself to find new and interesting things. I also prefer to find hidden gems to reviewing bestselling books. There are multiple bestselling series that I enjoy, but I feel there are plenty of bloggers already reviewing those books. Although I do make exceptions for books I really love and am excited about.
Hopefully any celebrations are safe, and keep in mind any local fire recommendations. Also, get your Covid jab if you haven’t done so. The only way out is through.