What do Instagram Faves Reveal?

 

Due to health-issues, for most of 2024 thus far I have been mainly avoiding the majority of my social-media. However, looking at images on Instagram (IG) is mostly innocuous and does not generally cause me anxiety nor stress.

I wondered what my favourited (in IG-jargon ‘saved’ images) might say about me. The reader can come to their own conclusions. However, below the screenshots of all my favourited images from 1st January to 31st March I have attempted a very light-touch analysis for anyone interested.

For myself, it helped me reälise that these past few months have not been all doom-and-gloom, but pockets of stimulation and interest.

*

*

So what themes appear? I have attempted to group labels under general terms. These are then listed alphabetically.

Arts:

Aboriginal Art, Art, Artworks, Cinema, Collage, Colours, Dance, Elias Alpha, Illustration, Landscapes, Literature, Mosaïc, Music, Oriental Art, Painting, Photography, Portraiture, Sculpture, Tattooing, Textile Art, Tristor Blue, Western Art.

Attire:

Clothes, Fashion, Garments, Sex-Clothing, Underwear.

Beliefs:

Christianity, Humanism, Jesus, Religion, Spirituality.

Books:

Bibliophilia, Comics, Harry Potter, Le Petit Prince, Libraries, Literature, Reading, The Little Prince, Webcomics.

Buildings:

Architecture, Colour, Décor, Design, Furniture, Homes, Kitchen Design, Rooms, Ruins, Svenskt Tenn™️, Urban Landscapes.

Emotions:

Affection, Affinities, Comedy, Encouragement, Humour, Interactions, Laughs, Motivational Messages, Relationships, Smiles, Tenderness.

Entertainment:

Games, Jigsaws, Lego™️, Television.

Food:

Baking, Cakes, Cheese, Cooking, Cuisine, Drinks, Eateries, Eating, Fish, Gastronomy, Pizza, Prawns, Prosecco, Recipes, Restaurants, Salmon, Seafood, Sushi, Wine.

Health:

Covid, Disabilities, Health, Health-Issues, Chronic-Illness, Health-Messages, Ill-Health, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.

Language:

English, Etymology, Foreign Languages, Languages, French, German, Spanish, Words.

Mythology:

Angels, Demons, Dragons, Elves, Fauns, Chinese Dragons, Chinese New Year, Saint George, Saint Michael, Unicorns, Vampires, Wood-Dragons, Year of the Dragon, Year of the Wood-Dragon, Zodiacs.

Nature:

Animals:

Bears, Birds, Cats, Feathers, Foxes, Greyhounds, Owls, Sea-Life, Tigers, Wolves;

Plants:

Floristry, Flowers, Fruit, Gardens, Garden-Design, Garden-Landscapes, Nature, Skyscapes, Trees, Vegetables, Waterways, Weather, Woodlands.

Occasions:

Chinese New Year, Palentine’s Day, Saint Patrick’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Year of the Dragon, Year of the Wood-Dragon.

Politics:

Advocacy, Political Messages.

Sexuality:

Bears, Beards, Bellies, Bodies, Body-Imagery, Breasts, Chests, Daddies, Erotica, Gingers, Hirsuteness, Homoëroticism, Homosexuality, Jockstraps, Kinks, Kissing, Leather, LGBTQIA, Masculinity, Men, Moustaches, Rubber, Sapiosexuality, Sex, Sex-Clothing, Queerness, Underwear, Wimmin/Women.

Travel:

Andalusia, Australia, Austria, Brazil, China, England, Finland, France, Japan, Leeds, Locality, London, Manchester, South Africa, Spain, Trains, USA.

*

In conclusion, my life seems to have been much fuller than I had reälised. I am so glad I made the effort to review my first quarter of the year. I feel far more positive about my life than I did prior to this endeavour.

Does the language we use include or exclude?

Anyone who follows me on my social media (Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn & Twitter) will probably have noticed that I am a reader of Joint Public Issues Team (JPIT)'s blog and sometimes repost or refer to their articles. The perspectives are those of four UK churches who work together ecumenically: the Baptist Union, the Church of Scotland, the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church. During my lifetime I have regularly attended churches of all bar the Scottish member. I was a sunday-school teacher for two of them. Nowadays I feel attached to the Society of Friends, the Quakers. The commonality is our pursuit of social justice.

I subscribe to JPIT's email newsletter and today received:

Rachel reflects on the Anti-Trump Protests which happened all over the country last week. 

The author writes that she and the other quarter of a million or so demonstrators are angry:

"Trump represents a toxic cocktail of misogyny, racism, xenophobia and lies."

But note what's missing from this statement: inter alia homophobia, classism and disablism (ableism). There is no attempt to be all-inclusive. The statement by including only certain examples with no caveat, excludes other areas of hostility and discrimination. One way the sentence could be rewritten to be more inclusivist is as follows:

Trump represents a toxic cocktail of hate and lies. Amongst other things, he is a misogynist, racist and xenophobe.

The blog-post continues with a laudable assertion:

"We believe that everyone is made in the image of God and is entitled to dignity and respect and therefore, that discrimination is an assault on the image of God."

By using the term "everyone", this is an all-inclusive statement. However it is then immediately qualified by the very next sentence.

"We believe that everyone is equal in the eyes of God regardless of race, gender or nationality and all are welcome to be part of the body of Christ."

The "everyone" in this sentence has been limited. Again note what's missing: inter alia, sexuality, creed, class, age and disability.

The United Nations (UN), in article two of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states:

"Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status."

The UN by using the phrases "without distinction of any kind", "such as" and "or other status" ensures that all are included and none are excluded from its definition of "Everyone".

Not only does what we say convey meaning, but what we do not say also is open to interpretation, to inference. If we use exclusivist language, then some will feel or believe themselves to be excluded. Others will take our views as exclusivist of certain groupings.

If one uses the search-box on the JPIT's site, one will find no results for "homophobia", "homosexuality", "homosexual" nor "sexual orientation". There is only one mention of "gay" in a fleeting reference to the mass-murders in Orlando in 2016. By contrast the terms "disabled" and "disability" (but not "disablism") connect to several articles. JPIT raises many important questions and encourages its readers to take action. Are the folk behind the site and its contributors deliberately excluding some groups? I hope not. I suspect that the likelihood is that the matter of being inclusive just had not occurred.

None of us, including myself, are perfect: we all exclude others, either wittingly or unwittingly. Nonetheless, I encourage us all to try to be more inclusivist in the language we use.

Tumblr & M.E.

At the beginning of August I wrote a blog-post entitled "Ads Are Killing Tumblr" in which I explained my reasons for departing Tumblr. However, having pondered how Tumblr currently works, I realised I could still use it and avoid the vast majority of advertisements, especially the moving, flickering ones which give me headaches due to neurological issues. I am not going to publicly detail how I get round the ads; but if one sufficiently deliberates the workings of Tumblr, I have no doubt that one will find a way.

So, one may be wondering why I have come back to Tumblr; what attracts me to the site. Well, if you read the aforementioned article, one will be aware that I have a brain issue. I suffer from Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (click on the phrase below for more articles and information), commonly abbreviated to M.E. and known as C.F.S. in the United States. I suffer from progressive aphasia (ICD-10 G31) which leads to an inability to comprehend & formulate language thus difficulties with reading, writing &/or speaking. This symptom without the speech difficulties I also endure is better known as dyslexia (ICD-10 R48), which for me is usually temporary but has lasted for periods of up to six months: sometimes as a result of exertion or post-exertion; at other times for no apparent reason.

Looking at images then means I can continue to stimulate my brain and imagination, even without the abilities to read and write. Also by sharing them, I am able to engage in some social activity (for I am mainly bed-ridden - approximately eighty percent of my time), whereby I can see others sharing the images I have posted to my own Tumblr-blog. For me that is more interaction than I would otherwise experience in my bed-cell. Additionally, this does not drain me emotionally and physically, as would real person-to-person communication and socialising.

Above are some screen-shots of crippledqueeranglo-europeanranter. By clicking on one or other of them, one can obtain a larger image. The site contains images of artworks including paintings, art photography and statuary. I should point out that my tumblr-blog is not safe for work (#nsfw) due to containing nudity and some erotica. So then, if such may shock or even offend the viewer, do not visit my site! Those of you who do take a peek, I hope you enjoy. ;)