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Monday, March 24, 2025

My Praise For the Social Media Algorithms

Juan Brufal

 
William F. Buckley

The circles in a cut tree are called growth rings or annual rings. They are concentric circles that form as a tree grows.

Wikipedia

 

When I look at the thousands of books in spread around my Kitsilano home, I know I have read all of them even though there are some I don’t remember reading.

I believe like those growth rings in trees, those books, and my life experiences are in me and make me the person I am right now.

But I have to add to the above as I believe that those growth rings in me do not stop.

 Few people I know have good things to say about social media. I differ as I know I am getting an art, literary and musical education from them. How is that?

My participation in both Facebook and Twitter/X and until recently in Medium is limited in posting the links to my blogs which includes a photograph. I rarely comment anywhere and I never post either my political or religious views.

But (and important but) because I sometimes write in Spanish and my blogs may have cultural content the Facebook algorithm shows me art that I have never seen before. It introduces me to composers and writers (some that I know). I can say that in the last few months I have been exposed to at least 100 vanGoghs!

With Twitter/X it is almost the same story. I get to read in Spanish both sides of the political views in Mexico and in my native Argentina. I get links to quotes and poems by Borges, Cortázar and other Latin American writers.

I can truthfully assert that my culture is increasing at my age of 82.

The lovely cat painting here is by a contemporary Argentine artist Juan Brufal. I was dazzled by this painting as I have two orange cats.

And in Twitter today there was a link to a TV interview that William F.Buckley had with Jorge Luís Borges. Knowing of its existence I immediately found it in a better link. I would have never known of the existence of this wonderful interview had I not seen it in my Twitter/X feed.

While the knowledge content in my brain is almost full it would seem there is room for more.

William F. Buckley interviews Jorge Luís Borges  ( don't believe the Hoover Institute will sue me for copyright infringement!)