SOCIAL MEDIA: WHAT DRAWS ONLINE ENGAGEMENT? FISH STORIES

Social media, the big ones, are visual stimulants.

Who doesn’t pause for the whacky and weird just a little bit longer than they expected?

What shows up and grabs you so tight you can’t scroll away?

If it changes daily, there’s still a common thread. For some it’s the ocean. People can’t see enough water?

An ocean dream usually starts with a picture of the beach at sunset with golden rays playing over happy people, which is a better shot than an overnight tuna charter full of fish blood and vomit.

Thank you, Scott.

Or, it’s a short video of people on a small boat watching a whale surface near them. That’s always awesome.

I was on a beach in Southern California walking the shore when I noticed something in the waves.

Dolphins in nature, a first, although I grew up with Flipper.

I stood and watched them parallel the shoreline, their bodies shimmering in the wavy reflection off the water. I stepped into the ocean just enough for a beach cop to tell me it’s against the law to interfere or interact with the wildlife.

My dolphin riding plans went on hold, but later I saw a video clip of a stand up paddle boarder in the waves get knocked over by a jumping dolphin, which sort of evens the score somehow.

No Social Media For My East Coast Ocean Swim.

Delaware is a private beach state with a line in the sand, a real line, separating public and private. I was on the private side with a girl who had spent her life there.

The private lifeguard took a shine to me while I swam around in the calm Atlantic behind the single-wave breakers.

He waved, so I waved back. He gave me a ‘You Da Man’ finger point, but he was the man, so I pointed back. Then he did the two arm double point wave with the hops. Huh?

I looked behind me. Two fins, bogies at twelve o’clock high. The lifeguard did his job guarding my life, but it didn’t look like he was coming out for the save.

My first thought after seeing those fins? ‘Does splashing attracts sharks?’

Second thought: ‘Why didn’t I pay more attention to the breaststroke in swim class?’ Frog kick and pull my arms back? Is it faster than the side stroke or elementary back stroke?

I checked for the fins. They looked closer. I dog paddled until exhaustion, then switched to every stroke that doesn’t splash, finally breaking out my paddle-wheel-crawl-on-meth with a final burst of panicked adrenaline.

It felt like a chase scene from Kung Fu Hustle with me leaving a speedboat wake behind me.

One-Way Online Engagement Is Still Engagement

A social media hustler is a salesman in the digital age. So is the architect who made the online tools.

A social media blogger is a hustler on the lightning bolt of the wired world.

Then, in the tradition of ‘slow media’, boomepdx shows up with a background that looks like Grandma’s china cabinet re-imagined in a cluster of ‘very expensive’ teapots.

Take a breath. I know you don’t need a reminder, but take a breath in and let it out good and slow.

Haaaahhhhhhhhhhh, like that.

Stick around and read a few posts.

Like this.

And this.

I could go on.

Thanks for the time. Remember the mask, the hands, the distance.