How to Waste Time on the Internet, 3rd period

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon looked a little better this week, though that meant his professional demeanor and dress were probably a bit much for this class.

That wasn't going to stop him.

He nodded to the students. "One of the more popular ways to waste time on the internet is by what is termed 'doomscrolling' - scrolling through social media, particularly involving current news and events, in such an endless way as to invoke a sense of doom. We are going to attempt to scroll through social media in a way that does not invoke doom."

Largely because Jon had no intentions of feeding off his students. But also it was probably bad for their mental health.

He cleared his throat. "One of the better ways to do this is to open the social media site of your choice - today I will be demonstrating with Bluesky," he pulled out his phone and opened it to show the app, "and search for 'timeline cleanse'. This will, unless people are being horrid, bring up things such as cute animals, good news, and generally positive things. This will also work on Tumblr, if you prefer that. You can also just search for it on a search engine. I do not recommend it on the site formerly known as Twitter, as that place is a hellhole regardless, and also supports Nazis and Tories."

Jon had feelings about things.

"So today let's each do that. And share the best thing you find so we can all enjoy it."

Comments

Re: Class activity

[even_bigger_teeth]

Luma was a little skeptical about the sound of this kind of thing, and once she took to her phone to try it in earnest, it wasn't doing a very good job of convincing her. Baby elephant playing in a pool? Yawn. The strawberry-eating rabbit was just going to make her hungry (and not for fruit), and then there was just a bunch of cats.

Until...

"Oh!"

She paused for a moment to watch a dog playing with a balloon with a smile slowly growing on her face.

And after the third time watching it, she promptly went back to the search bar to type in 'more dogs please'.

Re: Class activity

[witchoftheflesh]

Clearly, this meant that Adrian had to show her the video of two dogs playing tetherball.

Re: Class activity

[even_bigger_teeth]

Luma's attention shifted from her phone to Adrian on a bit of a delay, blinking a little at him in confusion until she realized he was trying to show her something on his phone. Her eyes immediately lit up with excitement as she leaned forward to see, and then she had to laugh.

"Oh, that's perfect!" she gushed. "That almost--"

But she stopped, abruptly, shutting down the words that were about to leave her mouth before she could, the flush of amusement draining from her face. It reminded her of something she and Rhys might do, thinking she should set up a tetherball like that at home for them, but the idea crashed hard into the reality that Rhys might never actually do something like that again. Here they were, trying to avoid doom, and Adrian was being so nice to her, and she went and stumbled into the worst thing ever that no amount of puppies playing could pull her back from.

"...is...exactly what I was looking for, yes!" she said, in an effort to recover, and she smiled again, but it was the tight kind that hid her teeth. "Thank you for showing me, Adrian. Here..."

Frantically, she turned back to her phone to scroll for something, anything, to show and distract him with.

"How about this one? What is it they say? Poundsign mood?"

Aww, she almost had it.

Re: Class activity

[witchoftheflesh]

Adrian studied her face for a long moment, expression softly concerned. But Luma clearly didn't want to go think about whatever she'd been about to say, so he simply switched his focus to her phone.

"Hashtag," he said. "I believe it's hashtag mood."

Re: Class activity

[even_bigger_teeth]

"Hashtag?" Luma sounded a little skeptical, like she thought maybe Adrian was pulling her leg, but she shook her head turned her attention back to her phone. "Well, that's silly. It's clearly a poundsign."