Image by Stefan Rüdiger, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.
Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:
1. As a creative person, I have often suffered from periods lacking in productivity. For fellow writers and artists, the feeling of writer's block can be a crippling and demoralizing experience. This article explains the history of writer's block and techniques that one can practice to overcome it. Having procrastinated on my creative projects during the better part of a decade after earning a Bachelor's of Arts in Communication (with a concentration in Print Journalism), I know the depression that can come from not producing creative work. If you find yourself in a similar situation, give the aforementioned article a read!
2. For a visual treat, check out this gallery of panoramic photos that experienced technical glitches. Some of them are disturbing, some funny, and some border on psychedelic.
3. An interesting analysis of the pitfalls of Internet media explores various ways that corporations and governments manipulate news via the mainstream media. Techniques such as favoritism in search engines, misleading and clickbait headlines, siloing and polarization, enforcing copyright laws only when they use copyrighted material in a way the copyright holder disapproves of, blatant Internet censorship, and paid commenters are just some of the methods that are used to sway public opinions, report misinformation, and essentially get away with lying to audiences. Always consider your source, be open-minded to information that conflicts with your own opinion, and do your own research!
That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.