Bald is beautiful.
This has been my mantra since my 30s. I didn’t notice the bald spot until my mid-20s. I thought to myself, You’re tall. No one will notice that small bald spot. Problem is, that bald spot grew until it was too tough to ignore. So, I fired it before it quit. This means that I started shaving it before the spot took over the top of my head. Yes, bald is beautiful. Balding is, well, less desirable for most. After all, in terms of desirability, there’s a laundry list of leading men who’ve donned the chrome dome crown. They’re my heroes. I go back as far as Telly Savalas from my childhood. Other bald warrior heroes include Michael Jordan, Bruce Willis, and Samuel L. Jackson. They owned their baldness. I wanted to own that look, too. My wife got on board a few years after we started dating. We started with clippers. There are guards for clippers that range from “0” on up. The lower the number, the closer the clip. We started with “2” and gradually moved down to “0.” Soon I wasn’t using a guard at all. Around my early 40s, razors were introduced. It was an expensive move because, well, have you seen the price of men’s razors? Not cheap. When you’re trying to maintain a clean bald look, you’re shaving at least 3 or 4 times a week. On good days, the razor moves at a steady pace, leaving no stubble in its wake. On bad days, you need a tourniquet just to stop the blood flow from countless cuts. My kids have never known Dad-with-hair. My wife laughs when a kid makes the unusual request for me to grow it out. “No one wants to see that,” is my reply. My kids also laugh when, while gaming, I create an avatar for myself. “Dad, that doesn’t look at all like you,” one kid will chuckle. “Your (avatar) has hair, and not just on his face.” This is certainly true. Some Nintendo games, for example, give me the option for creating what’s supposed to be a lookalike figure. But it looks nothing like me. What’s odd is that Nintendo give us older guys options for facial hair, but no options for the bald look. A friend who battled cancer and chemo treatments lamented this deficiency in games to me a few years ago. “I’m not bald by choice here,” he said, after a particularly rough radiation run. Having lost all his hair, he said, “I have the option to create an avatar with no eyebrows, which I don’t have right now, by the way. But my avatar still has hair on his head? Doesn’t look like me at all.” Of course, this isn’t true for all avatars. For example, programmers for services like Facebook and Bitmoji provide bald options. Now it’s time for the rest of the tech industry to step up and recognize our shine. We need avatar programmers to hear us and see us (even if they need sunglasses to lessen the glare from our shiny heads). Many of us didn’t choose to be bald, but we own the look and (mostly) love it. It’s time for the rest of these programmers to fall in love with our look, too. There’s a new video app attracting thousands of new users with one powerful feature.
Zynn is the newest player in the social video sharing app world. It’s features and layout look nearly identical to rival video app, Tik Tok. If you’re unfamiliar with platforms like Tik Tok, they’re used to create and share short videos of people singing or lip-syncing, dancing, performing funny routines, and, with the help of some clever editing, sleight-of-hand magic tricks. Like Tik Tok, most of videos on Zynn are less than 10 seconds long. Videos are in fixed vertical positions unlike other platforms that force horizontal or square formatting. Then why is Zynn currently among the top 10 free apps on both Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store? Simple. Zynn is paying us to watch. Read more at https://www.vindy.com/life/lifestyles/2020/06/new-video-app-zynn-pays-users-to-watch/ (may encounter paywall). Sadie burst into my office in tears.
“I’ve… ruined… the whole… thing,” she cried, her words broken by gasps for air. “There are cockroaches in my house and no one on the island remembers me.” About a month ago, I bought “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” for the Nintendo Switch. It was a big purchase as video game prices go. But this is a pandemic and I’m on the hunt for things we can do together as a family. Cooped up in the house on crappy weather days? No problem. Flip on the Switch and craft tools and furniture, build homes and stores and make new animal friends on our family island. We didn’t know much about the game before we played it. We knew it was a huge hit by the posts we saw on Twitter. It was the No. 1 best-selling game in March, and second in April. “Finally,” I thought. “Something that doesn’t require killing zombies.” Sadie was the first to play the game. What we didn’t know at the time was that the first person to play the game would become the island representative. She named the island “Apple” and set some decisions in motion that impacted play for the rest of us. She invited a curator to locate his museum on the island. She built Nook’s Cranny (a kind of trading post) and the first bridge. She sold land to new villagers. All was well on Apple until Sadie made some risky choices this past week. Read more at https://www.vindy.com/life/lifestyles/2020/05/animal-crossing-nh-brings-family-together/ (may encounter paywall). After months of teasing changes to their conversation tools, Twitter officially announced major upgrades to how we control replies to our posts. This is good news for people who have been avoiding the microblogging platform because of its reputation for fostering online negativity.
It’s true that some people abandoned their Twitter accounts years ago because they were unable to control unwanted replies. I’m all about free speech, but unrelated, negative replies made it hard to have meaningful conversations with people who wanted to interact with me. For example, I received everything from replies that encouraged debate and sought clarifications to “You’re an idiot” (negative) and “Buy these sunglasses for $9.99” (unrelated) to my tweets. “Since last year, we’ve been working to give people more control over their conversations, starting with the ability to hide replies,” Suzanne Xie, Twitter’s director of product management said last week. “We also began trying out new ways to start conversations.” Now Twitter is testing new settings that let us choose who can reply to our tweets and join in on our conversations. Read more at https://www.vindy.com/life/lifestyles/2020/05/twitter-expands-on-conversation-tools/ (may encounter paywall). Like many of us, Twitter employees are working from home during COVID-19.
So it wasn’t surprising to read that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey told his employees that they could continue to work from home. What was surprising, however, was that Dorsey told his employees they could work from home “forever.” “Forever?” one of my friends tweeted with a mind-blown emoji. “Well, until you’re dead,” I replied. “That’s not forever.” “Or maybe you can work for Twitter from the great beyond,” he added. “Oh, wow. Yeah, forever…” I replied with a smiley-faced angel emoji. That word — forever — seemed stuck in the writing craw of columnists and pundits all over the world in the days following Dorsey’s announcement. While critics gnaw on the ripple effects this “new” policy could have on work culture, it’s important to note that it’s not actually a new policy. Read more at https://www.vindy.com/life/lifestyles/2020/05/working-from-home-is-not-a-new-concept/ (may encounter paywall). Social media platforms are reporting an increase in daily active users over the last few weeks. As the pandemic and stay-at-home orders linger, it’s easy to understand why.
We want immediate information about this new world we’re living in almost as much as we crave connections with our friends, families, co-workers and peers. There’s really no better place to get both right now than through our favorite social channels. While we’re sharing on Facebook, Twitter or some other social soup du jour, it’s easy to forget that we’re expanding our profiles. We’re influencing others, leaving lasting impressions, and (sometimes) perpetuating negativity. “During this crisis, your social media image is the last thing you’re probably worried about,” said Catherine Bosley, an online advocate, journalist and national speaker. “There’s plenty of reason to put more thought into what we’re posting now.” Bosley offers tips to follow when reviewing our social media actions. Read more at https://www.vindy.com/life/lifestyles/2020/05/put-a-more-positive-spin-on-negativity/ (may encounter paywall). “Time to make the doughnuts.” I said this while my children sat in the living room eating Froot Loops and watching cartoons.
“Wait, you’re making doughnuts?” Ozzie asked as he sat down his cereal bowl. “How do you do that? Can I help?” What he obviously didn’t know is that I was referring to the long-running Dunkin’ Donuts ad campaign from the 1980s. In the ad, Fred the Baker wakes up early every day to get to the bakery to make doughnuts for his morning customers. Fred would say to his wife, “Time to make the doughnuts” as he donned the Dunkin’ cap and headed to work. He never seemed angry about having to work so early, but he always said his patented line with a slight sigh to express exhaustion. I like to think that Fred considered it an honor and duty to the serve the people of his town with fresh doughnuts each day. When I left the living room to walk upstairs to my makeshift home office, I was reminded of other important cultural artifacts my children have been deprived of over the years. “How do my kids not know about Fred?” I thought to myself. “What else have they missed?” This had to be remedied. Read more at https://www.vindy.com/life/lifestyles/2020/05/pandemic-opportunity-for-pop-culture-lessons/ (may encounter paywall). Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part column on dating during a pandemic.
Jill has been quarantined in her small apartment in a Cleveland suburb for two weeks. She was in close contact with someone who contracted COVID-19 and, under doctor’s orders, was required to stay away from others for 14 days. “The problem is, I had just met this guy,” Jill said. “Well, kind of.” “We hadn’t met face-to-face yet,” she clarified. “We matched through a dating app, and we were supposed to go on a first date.” That first date never happened, Jill explained. Once he learned she would be indisposed for two weeks, he lost interest. “I was kind of bummed because we had so much in common,” she added. Jill, a recent divorcee, has been using dating apps (four apps, to be exact) and interacting with potential dates, but has never found the spark. “He wasn’t a good match if he wasn’t willing to wait for me, right?” Jill’s not the only relationship-seeker testing the pandemic dating waters. Read more at https://www.vindy.com/life/lifestyles/2020/04/online-dating-during-quarantine-is-rough/ (may encounter paywall). Editor’s note: This is part one of a two-part series.
Through the smoke-filled, dimly lit fraternity house basement, I saw my future wife. She was standing with friends while Snoop Doggy Dogg’s “Gin and Juice” thumped in the background. Red Solo cup in hand, I shuffled my way across the damp floor to say hi. We could barely hear, let alone see each other. She smiled. We talked and laughed. I was predictably awkward (she’s way out of my league), but she agreed to go out on a date with me anyway. Well, sort of. I’m not sure anyone actually dated in college in the 1980s and ’90s, at least not in the traditional sense. What our society defines as dating ritual often includes asking someone to dinner, setting a pickup time and looking our best in hopes that chemistry and luck lead to a second date. But college dating was a different experience. We’d pick a movie at Blockbuster, order a pizza and hang out in the living room of someone’s apartment — often with roommates lurking about. Read more at https://www.vindy.com/life/lifestyles/2020/04/pandemic-dating-is-reminiscent-of-the-80s/ (may encounter paywall). Although my Facebook friends are stuck at home, it looks like they’re learning new skills.
It’s easy to understand why. As stay-at-home orders continue, we have a little more time on our hands. Rather than go stir-crazy, some of us are using this as an opportunity to explore, experiment and learn. One friend posted, “When life gives you lemons, you learn to make a lemon meringue pie,” complete with pictures and the recipe she used. If you don’t already know this, the meringue part is a challenge even for skilled bakers. While the pie looked amazing, it was her comment—the twist on the old lemonade-from-lemons phrase—that caught my eye. When live gives you something bad (i.e., pandemic), you use it your advantage (i.e., make something better). It’s like the lyric from Lizzo’s Grammy-winning Truth Hurts. She’s dumped by her boyfriend and uses the bad experience to her advantage. She sings, “Fresh photos with the bomb lighting, new man on the Minnesota Vikings.” Whoa. She’s dating an NFL payer? She sings about how her life is much better without the ex. Lemons to lemonade. One of my friends is learning other types of recipes. He had his own lemony twist on the old saying. “When life gives you lemonade, you experiment with different combinations,” he posted with pictures of fancy cocktails. He’s a mixologist, but his bar is closed during the pandemic. He’s using this time to test different combinations for a future cocktail menu. Both friends admitted to a little help from the Internet. Like them, if you’ve got a smartphone, it’s never been easier to learn new skills. Thanks to how-to videos on YouTube, do-it-yourself guides from home improvements stores like Lowes and Home Depot, and a seemingly endless list of other free educational resources, you can learn just about any new skill. While you’re at it, try earning a certificate. Search “free online course certificate” in whatever field you want to explore. The results might be surprising, and possibly a little overwhelming. I’m interested in learning more about artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). I set the date search parameters to show me only the best results from the last month. This is because many online learning hubs have been posting new or updated, free courses and other resources every day since the outbreak. What’s better is that some results take the guesswork out of your search. For example, last month, Forbes published a list of the best, free, online AI courses. I can pick from a ML crash course with Google, Elements of AI at Helsinki University, CalTech’s intro to ML through edX, and several others. Some lists give important information for making the best selection. Class Central, a clearinghouse of the best online courses, provides information on start dates, star ratings, and delivery platforms (Coursera, edX, Udacity, etc.). You’ll find overviews, learning outcomes, and a syllabus for each course. If you’re concerned about course length (you can usually complete a course in a few weeks), check out the self-paced options. No matter what new thing you try while you’re stuck at home, don’t hold back and be sure to share your results with the rest of us. Email me at acearnheardt@ysu.edu and let me know what you’re learning. |
AuthorDr. Adam C. Earnheardt is special assistant to the provost and professor of communication in the department of communication at Youngstown State University in Youngstown, OH, USA where he also directs the graduate program in professional communication. He researches and writes on a variety of topics including communication technologies, relationships, and sports (with an emphasis on fandom). His work has appeared in Mahoning Matters as well as The Vindicator and Tribune-Chronicle newspapers. CategoriesArchives
July 2023
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