Here’s another short post before I get dressed and head off to breakfast. I heard that Elon Musk’s offer to buy Twitter for $44 billion was accepted. Musk, who is the South African born CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, is, according to Forbes, the world’s wealthiest person. For some reason, that’s not enough for him. He wants to control a huge, global, social media app, too. I think there is a concern when the wealthiest people control the media…. But then, I guess that’s how it’s always been, since the days of kings and queens.

Musk says wants to “eradicate fake accounts” and “relax its content restrictions”. I guess this means that Donald Trump will be allowed to get back on the platform and spread his vile brand of disinformation for the clueless and selfish.

I never was a big Twitter user. I have an account, but i don’t use my real name on it, and I very rarely tweet or read the contents of Twitter. The one exception is when I recently had issues with my bank account. I went on Twitter to see if I was alone. I wasn’t. But after a couple of weeks, got tired of Twitter and went back to my usual habits. I thought I might switch to Twitter, given my annoyance with Facebook. But now that Elon Musk is buying it, I think I’ll pass. I don’t need more social media in my life.

I’m not a huge social media consumer. I don’t do Instagram, Tik Tok, or LinkedIn. I do have a YouTube channel that I use occasionally, and of course I’m on Facebook. Frankly, I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Facebook. I think it’s gotten too big for its britches. But, Facebook also happens to be the easiest way to keep in touch with friends and the few family members I still talk to. I have been giving thought to leaving Facebook, though. I wish someone would come up with something better.

I don’t think Elon Musk is going to change Twitter for the better. He strikes me as a voracious and power hungry person who likes toys. Twitter is probably just going to be a toy for him. But as I barely use Twitter, this decision probably affects me less than it does people who like the platform more than I do. Musk says that Twitter clamps down on “free speech” and he wants to change that. On the surface, that sounds good and noble. I don’t know that it’s going to work out that way.

I just find it disheartening that there are so many greedy, power-mad people out there. I’m pretty tired of all of the bad news, too, and the negative responses people have to everything. I am naturally a pretty negative person a lot of the time, anyway, so I don’t need any help.

Oh… how I miss the days when my biggest dramas came from writing on Epinions.com, and some of my biggest excitement came from seeing how much I made in income share. Sadly, time moves on, and things change. It would be nice to hear some good news… but at least I’m on vacation, and we’re discovering some beautiful places, good wines, and excellent food in Italy. It could be worse, right?

By the way… masks are still big in Italy, but most people don’t wear them properly. I guess I can understand why they’re slower to get rid of them here, given how hard this country was hit with COVID. But it’s really something when Germany and Switzerland are less anal retentive about public health measures than Italy is. On the other hand, again… people aren’t wearing them properly, anyway.

Today’s post is the 1500th on this blog… Go me!