CHEWIE:

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. This is the 411 From 406, and my name is Chewie. How are you—friends, family, cohorts? How are you this evening?

It has been a while, but I’m gonna come to you again tonight and just sort of ramble, I think. I don’t particularly have an agenda.

I am solo this evening, unfortunately. It’s been… I don’t have Mr. Pip here with me tonight. I’m actually on the way to pick up my son from his girlfriend’s house—my 15-year-old. Of course, he dates a girl who is a lovely, lovely lady and a nice gal, but of course she lives 30 minutes from home… and he doesn’t drive yet. So when he gets to go see his girlfriend, somebody has to go drive him down there and pick him up.

She actually lives pretty close to where he goes to school, and I believe her parents picked him up from school today, and then I get to go get him tonight. So… I guess the good thing is that I’ve got some time to record a podcast and just kind of ramble and talk about some stuff.

I’m not quite sure when this one will drop. The last solo podcast that I did, I was actually reviewing a WWE show that I had watched—Extreme Rules—and I actually got in a car accident on the morning that I was recording that. I don’t know that you can necessarily even tell when it happened, but that actually did occur while I was recording it.

As of this recording, I have not posted that particular episode. And then, subsequent to that, Pip and I actually recorded another episode where we chatted about our kind of “definitive roles.” Like, if I say, you know, “Actor A,” you think of this role.

We had an awesome conversation around that where we talked for about an hour or so. As of this recording, that episode has not been released yet either. But I was actually just talking to Pip earlier this evening, and he said he’s finishing up editing, and that should be done here in the next couple days. So I guess the good news is: if you’ve been waiting for content from the 411 From 406, it is coming.

I apologize for not being more regular with our recording schedule. The reality is, life gets in the way sometimes, and it is what it is.

That being said, thank you for listening this evening—or today—or whenever you’re listening to us. We really do appreciate it. We listen to the comments, we love hearing feedback, and we love interacting with our fans, so thank you very much.

If you haven’t yet, please subscribe and click the like and give us a review and all that kind of good stuff.

So… let’s see what’s going on in the world.

COVID continues to rage. And now the conversation—at least nationally—is vaccines and vaccine mandates and boosters, and are people going to lose their jobs if they don’t take these mandates… all sorts of stuff.

And, I mean… it is just… I started this podcast well over a year ago now, right at the very beginning of the pandemic, and I’ve talked about it on several occasions. And I just cannot believe that we are, you know, well a year-plus into this thing with—unfortunately—what feels like no end in sight.

And again, I’m not gonna get into the politics of this. I’m not gonna get into my feelings of this. I’ve even recorded a podcast about my personal experience with COVID. I did have COVID after I was vaccinated.

I guess what has me thinking about this today is: there is just so much divisiveness in the world today around seemingly every single topic.

Everywhere you turn there’s an argument to be had. Everywhere you turn—online, at least, let me preface that—there is an argument to be had. And it’s not just with internet trolls, right? It is with people that are your friends.

I’ve been kind of getting into this—I won’t even call it an argument—it’s a conversation with a very good brother of mine that I’ve known for a hundred years. We might have been in kindergarten together. So he and I talk on Twitter pretty regularly, and he and I tend to kind of get into it. And again, it is always very respectful, but that is draining, right? Just having those sorts of conversations is draining. Or at least it is to me.

But on the flip side to that, I try really hard not to create an echo chamber. I try really hard to communicate with people and talk with people and be around people that don’t necessarily have the exact same opinion about the world that I have. I think that is vitally important.

So again, I’m kind of of two minds on this, right? On one hand, I don’t necessarily like the conflict, but on the other hand, I want that conflict sometimes. I don’t know… it’s just been a lot lately for me personally.

The other day—I’m recording this, it’s Tuesday evening—I think on Sunday evening, there was a 60 Minutes interview with a gal who’s known as the Facebook whistleblower. And this was, I believe, she’s a 37- or 38-year-old woman that left Facebook… and on her way out the door took—I believe—tens of thousands of documents or pages of documents… that essentially show that Facebook has acted in ways that benefit them and their bottom line at the detriment of its users.

And I don’t think that anybody who really understands social media… I don’t think that would really surprise anybody.

I think what has been an eye-opener for some people is the extent to which they did that, and the extent to which they have been—sowing the seeds, for lack of a better analogy—sowing the seeds of discontentment… sowing the seeds of violence in some degrees.

There was a portion on that 60 Minutes piece that even talked about the January 6th insurrection and those kind of things, and about how Facebook… not how they were a part of it, but how the platform was used as a way to kind of put those things together.

And really, the interesting thing that I took out of this was: obviously Facebook has billions of users. I think the number that I saw today was 2.9 billion users—something on the order of 60% of all internet users on the planet.

So if you think about that… six out of ten people across the globe that have the internet, they also have Facebook. Which is pretty staggering.

I can’t think of another platform or program or app—or however you’re getting on Facebook—I can’t think of another one that has that sort of reach. Maybe Google? Maybe… I really don’t know.

But I guess my point, and why that’s so troubling, is when you understand just how they are manipulating their algorithms to show you things that you are going to engage with—and by their metrics, engagement is a like or a comment or this, that, and the other thing.

Really what they’re looking for… they are looking to serve you that content where you’re not only going to engage once, but you’re going to engage multiple times—whether that means a back-and-forth conversation, whether that means sharing… whether that means staring at a video for two, three, four, five, ten, twelve minutes.

That’s what they’re looking for, because the bottom line is: the longer you’re on the app, the more money they make.

And when you’re talking about conversation… what’s the best way to get a really good “conversation” going? It’s an argument, right?

And that’s what this whistleblower kind of brought to the forefront—she basically has proof that shows that Facebook is giving you content that they know is going to piss you off.

And again, I don’t know that that necessarily shocked me. I guess when I took a step back, I don’t think it was surprising. But I think it’s really important that people understand that.

Social media is a great way to communicate. It’s a great way to keep in touch with people. I don’t know that it is necessarily a great way to have long-form discussions. I don’t know that it is necessarily a great way to have—for lack of a better term—a debate on a particular topic.

I think that is much better suited to a podcasting format… or better yet, being face-to-face with somebody, because there’s just so much that is lost in translation when you’re talking about sitting behind a keyboard or sitting behind your phone. You’re losing the inflection in your voice. You’re losing facial recognition. You’re losing the idea of sarcasm—those kinds of things.

I don’t know about you, but I live in the world of sarcasm and memes and GIFs and those kinds of things. I’m one of the most sarcastic people that you’ll ever meet.

But a lot of that is lost when you can’t look at me, and I’m poking fun at something—you may not even understand that I’m poking fun at something, right? So a lot of that is lost.

And quite frankly, that’s one of the reasons that I have really, really enjoyed this podcasting experience—specifically, obviously, the ones when I’m doing it with Pip—because it’s an opportunity for us to talk.

We actually don’t typically record the video, but we see one another—we typically do them on Zoom. And not only is he my best friend, but it’s a really good opportunity just to kind of get some human interaction… and really kind of long-form conversation.

And again, that’s not to say that I don’t talk to my family or my wife or my kids, but it’s just different.

So… yeah.

I guess the other kind of big news is: I talked about how Facebook is a great way to communicate and keep in touch… well, as of this recording, yesterday, Facebook was down for like almost the entire—half a day, the entire day, what have you.

And it was really kind of weird because you’ve got some people that don’t use Facebook, right? Had no idea. “Oh, it was down. Whatever.” I really kind of envy those people, because what that tells me is that they don’t use Facebook, obviously.

And I don’t know why they don’t. I don’t know if it’s because they have chosen not to, or they don’t see the value in it, and what have you.

I know a lot of people use it to communicate—not only Facebook, but Messenger and WhatsApp and Instagram—so basically their entire platform of products was down for the better part of the day.

And it’s funny coming back to it today—there’s a lot of people that I think really kind of had a come-to-Jesus moment yesterday and understood when they went for an extended period of time without those apps: “Oh, I really use these apps a lot… maybe too much.”

So it was just kind of interesting. I read a couple interesting threads about how people were reliant on it, and how yesterday was so weird for them, and this and the other thing.

I don’t know—maybe in the end it was a good thing that it was down.

I do have to admit that there was a part of my brain—the kind of conspiratorial part of my brain, the tinfoil hat part of my brain—that said: “Hmm… it’s kind of interesting that this whistleblower story came out on Sunday night, and then boom—Monday, Facebook is just down for an entire day.”

Is there validity to that? I don’t know. Probably not. But you know what? If you really start to go down the rabbit hole—and especially if you believe everything that this whistleblower has to say… and quite frankly there’s no reason not to believe her… you know, she’s not— I don’t think she’s gaining anything out of this.

It’s not a very big leap to say, “You know what? Hey, maybe they want to skip that news cycle. Maybe they don’t want that particular story shared. Maybe they don’t want people understanding what’s going on behind the curtain at Facebook.”

I don’t know. Who knows? It’s an interesting thought process for me. It’s an interesting conversation to have.

I watched a video at my lunch hour today about a doctor that specializes in the ketogenic diet—low carb, high fat. It’s a doctor that I’ve been watching for the better part of six months or a year now, and I’ve grown to respect his thoughts.

And he went on YouTube and did an entire conversation about how he and his practice are going away from Facebook, going away from Instagram.

And really what he was saying was: he has a pretty substantial philosophical difference with the way they’re running their business. And quite frankly, I tend to agree with him.

If this is the way they’re choosing to run their business, maybe I don’t want to use their platform either. And I can completely understand that.

I think rather than go off the platform completely—now I’m talking specifically about Facebook—I think I’m going to change the way that I interact with the platform. Or I’m going to at least be more cognizant of the way that I interact with the platform.

On my personal page, I tend to stick to family stuff. I share family photos and activities and those kinds of things. It’s pretty rare that I post an opinion on there. It’s very rare that I talk about politics or anything like that, outside of the occasional local politics thing just because I am an elected official.

But even for that stuff, I rarely, if ever, put that on my personal page. I would put that on my elected official page or those kinds of things.

I really try to segment my activities on Facebook specifically. I have several different pages.

So like on my Kill The Can page, as an example, that’s where I talk about quitting dip and quitting chewing tobacco. I rarely let that blur over into my personal life.

And you can make an argument purely from a marketing standpoint that maybe I should blur those lines better, but that’s kind of the way that I’ve chosen to do it.

I also have a page—406 Northlane. Obviously that is more of the type of content that you hear on the podcast: memes, GIFs, jokes, sarcasm… that’s where I share the links to this podcast and those kinds of things.

That is primarily kind of a silly page, and it allows me to post some kind of edgy stuff and some funny stuff and that kind of thing. But rarely, if ever, on that page do I post anything in my personal life.

Again, that’s the way that I choose to interact with Facebook. I use it a lot to communicate with people and keep in touch. And I think that’s probably the way that I’m going to continue to use it—and again, be very cognizant about the things that I share.

I don’t click on Facebook ads, and I have never clicked on Facebook ads, and I do that on purpose. I do that on purpose because I do work in marketing, and I understand—even before this whistleblower—I’ve understood for years how they’re making their money and those kinds of things.

It never ceases to amaze me… perfect example: I was looking for a wallet the other day. It’s called a Ridge Wallet. If you’re not familiar, it’s about the size of a credit card, and it’s got elastic on it—it expands—and it can hold up to like 15 or 20 credit cards.

I did a Google search for it, and I was having a conversation with my son about it, and sure enough… what do I see in my Facebook feed the next morning? Ads for Ridge Wallets.

So let me tell you—if you don’t think that your Facebook feed is being driven by what you search, and candidly what you say… believe me when I tell you: your devices are listening to you.

I mean, they just are. They just are.

Now, that’s not to say anybody should be shocked by that. When you pick up your phone and you say, “Hey Siri,” “Hey Google,” “Hey Alexa,” how else do you think they’re hearing you? That’s because they’re listening to you.

But with that convenience comes a potential downside—they’re always listening to you, right?

But if you are cognizant of that and you understand what’s going on, then you can kind of mitigate it a little bit. Again, especially for me personally, I just never click on an ad because I know that it’s feeding into that. And that’s just kind of a philosophical thing that I’ve always done.

What else…?

Like I said, Instagram was down. There was a part of that whistleblower thing that was talking about how Instagram was really unhealthy specifically for teenage women. And I have a feeling that’s all about body image and this, that, and the other thing.

And I could totally see how that would be the case too, right? Everybody’s got a filter. Everybody is living vicariously through their feeds. They’re looking at who’s eating what and who’s traveling where and who’s wearing what and who’s skinny and pretty… and I could totally get that.

Again, I didn’t really mean for this to turn into a “bash all social media” thing, but it was kind of top of mind—certainly in the news in the last couple days—and so I thought I would jump on and give you some thoughts.

Again, I’m not quite sure when all of these podcasts… at this point, when I get done recording this, this will be the third one that is recorded. I’m not sure which order they will all be released, but hopefully you enjoy them all.

Hopefully, if you haven’t yet, you will subscribe and leave us some comments, leave us some feedback.

Again, my name is Chewie. This has been the 411 From 406. I appreciate you listening.