Rants and Reflections
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Delivery Drivers, Doorstep Dumps, and the Death of Basic Human Decency
Modern delivery services have become the perfect symbol of a society that’s lost the plot. If you’ve ever sprinted to your front door only to find a £300 gadget lobbed by your wheelie bin like a rugby ball mid-tackle, you already know where this is going. This isn’t about the odd missed knock. This is…
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Why Zoom Took Over (and Why It Shouldn’t Have)
There was a time when if you wanted to speak to someone, you just… called them. No warning. No scheduling. You picked up the phone, said hello, and had a chat. Simple. Whatever Happened to Just Picking Up the Phone? Then 2020 happened, and suddenly the world decided that even one-to-one conversations needed to be booked.…
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The Algorithm Con – How Social Media Manipulates Us
Algorithms, algorithms, algorithms. That’s all we’ve been hearing about for years now. And here we are, midway through 2023, watching the AI bandwagon race along at full speed, churning out generated content, videos, articles, the lot. Bullshit everywhere, made by AI. And the search results? Completely screwed. Google’s algorithms haven’t caught up. Did they ever?…
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Ragebait, Deepfakes and the Death of Trust Online
This has been bothering me for a while, and it’s finally tipped over from background noise into something I can’t ignore. Ragebait isn’t new. Sensationalism isn’t new. People twisting stories for attention has been around as long as people have been selling newspapers on street corners. What is new is how little effort it now…
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The UK’s Online Safety Bill. A Nation of Crybabies and Thought Police?
The UK’s Online Safety Bill is plodding its way through, and from the looks of it, even the politicians pushing it don’t fully understand what they’re doing. But hey, why let basic tech literacy get in the way of a good bit of moral panic, right? Apparently, we’re all a bunch of dangerous reprobates for…
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I Didn’t Ask For Any Of This – You Didn’t Either
I remember hearing something in the news, years ago, about people saying they didn’t ask to be born. I can’t remember the exact story now. It might have been someone threatening to sue their parents. It might have been one of those social media arguments that sounded completely ridiculous at first, then somehow ended up…
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Notification Spam Is a Lie, and You Already Know It
I’m starting to dread that little red dot. You know the one. The tiny badge that suggests something is waiting for you. Something important. Something personal. And for half a second, your brain does that ridiculous little lift. Then you open it. And it’s bollocks. Another “update available” from a company you’ve never heard of.…
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Stop Blaming Social Media – Parents Need to Parent
What is it with parents, schools, and even government officials banging on about how kids should spend less time staring at screens? Kids should spend less time on social media. We should restrict their access to platforms. We should limit their time on devices. Here’s a radical thought: just take the devices off them. Better…
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Why Hire Experts If You Won’t Listen to Them?
Damn, why don’t business owners actually listen to the experts they hire? I don’t like calling myself an expert. Feels a bit wanky, if I’m honest. But I am hired for my expertise, experience, and knowledge in online marketing, websites, content, and keeping companies at the sharp end of what’s happening. That’s the job. That’s…
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The UN Agenda Hiding in Your Council’s Filing Cabinet
In Summary: Since 1997, over 400 UK councils have adopted Local Agenda 21 frameworks originating from the 1992 UN Earth Summit in Rio, facilitated by an international organisation called ICLEI that councils joined using ratepayer money. Tony Blair challenged all local authorities to implement these strategies by 2000, and though technically voluntary, the frameworks quickly…