Grandad at the Disco

I have been at this since 2003, long before I had any other form of social media presence. 

A couple of years ago I acquired a pair of scurvy lurking haters, who used their own social media accounts to mock me as forsaken human remains waiting for blog views.* 

The thing is, the title of my page is a bit of a giveaway when it comes to the solipsism at the heart of the exercise. An audience was always factored in from the start as a bit of a nice to have. 

Still, this year has seen some surprising growth, at least in certain categories of content — my movie musings in particular drawing in an average of five hundred and in some instances over a thousand separate pairs of curious eyeballs. 

I shall be bearing this in mind next time I get excited over 30 likes on an Instagram post. 

However grandad at the disco** blogging might now seem, I am taking it that this year's viewing stats suggest that in this instance at least, it is still some way from irreversible obsolescence. 

On the subject of social media toxicity, I can strongly recommend David Baddiel's BBC2 investigation of the topic. 

These days the UK even has a HateLab, apparently keeping a watchful eye on the ways that down-melting digital envy and antipathy spill out into noxious behaviours the 'real world'.

Happy New Year to one and troll. 

* They would later inform the authorities rather unconvincingly that they had no idea I even had a blog until a telephone tip-off came in late at night from a friend. 

** This is surely one Hogmanay where grandad would be best advised to stay well clear of the disco.