By HILARY GAVIN
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1384558033141754
15 minutes of fame – Wikipedia
I SUSPECT everyone of us living in Britain today – excluding those who pride themselves on being total philistines – has heard the late New York artist Andy Warhol’s famous quote: “Everyone will be famous for 15 minutes“.
Well, folks, it appears I had my ten minutes or so in the limelight last week after being covertly filmed getting a ticking off by a female police officer at an ESSO petrol station in Bognor Regis.
Now, I can’t say for certain why the staff at the garage and the female PC acted individually in the way they did, but I can say that even I found this clip* shared by South Coast Live amusing.
In my defence, I filmed myself explaining the run-up to this incident in a vlog* post as I was driving home and stopped my car beside a narrow country road with a ditch running alongside it.
To be honest, I was finding it hard to compute why this police woman had acted in such a bizarre manner after my car had broke down in an adjacent road to the garage.
And I should say that I also wanted to film the homemade placards locals had put up to implore motorists to slow down on the road to prevent ducks being run over and, quite frankly, massacred there!
Sadly, I have to report that my life is still as stressful as it always is because I had no idea why my trusty old Nissan Micra let me down over the past couple of weeks and I had to call out the RAC twice.
Anyhow, if you click on the link to my Facebook Local Reporting Commentary Page above, you’ll discover that the connector to the terminal of my car battery had somehow worked its way loose.
Of course, being without a car is a bit of a pain especially as it is peak season for my caravan holiday let at Seal Bay in Selsey, but I’ve no doubt that I’ll find ways to weather the storm.
If I’m being totally honest, I can’t remember when I last posted my “weekly” local reporting Facebook news round-up, so I’m updating my WordPress blog here so you can visit it (link above).
As you can see, I’ve embedded the YouTube trailer for one of my favourite geeky movies set in the earlyish days of the Internet and simply entitled The Net starring Sandra Bollock.
Such a talented comic actress, and I can’t help feeling that Sandra would be a fun pal to hang around with in real life.
Anyhow, you could say that I was caught in out dystopian modern-day computerised digitalised Net last week after I unwittingly became a social media Facebook “celebrity“.
I’m afraid I’ve been too much of a scaredy-cat to read the flippant schoolyard bully comments Facebook users must have undoubtedly written about me after watching this South Coast Live clip.
Suffice to say, this is why I was so keen to drop my freelance journalist and writer business card down the protective vest of the female PC who was screeching at me to “Get Back, Get Back.“
We’ve simply got to clean the money-grabbing Closed Source of social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, up to prevent harmful bullying online especially among the young.
With this in mind, I’ve embedded the YouTube film Code For The People by Bao Nguyen where you can see “true geeks” explaining how Open Source internet platforms such as WordPress websites can dovetail with AI (Artificial Intelligence) to benefit global society.
Yes, readers, I don’t quite understand the Silicon Valley jargon too, but I applaud any move to make Big Tech safe for us all.
Hilary Gavin
Excuse typos.
- It appears Big Tech (or I) have changed privacy settings so the embedded South Coast Live clip and my Facebook vlog isn’t showing up. Pity, but it all goes to show that we’ve been, and still are, behind the curve when it comes to social media.
Timeline of social media – Wikipedia
Big Tech vs. Creative Arts: What’s at Stake? – Hilary Gavin
Reviving Local Journalism: A Call to Action – Hilary Gavin
By HILARY GAVIN
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Hilary Gavin
Freelance Journalist & Writer
6 Southover Way
Hunston
CHICHESTER
West Sussex
PO20 1NY
Tel: 07940 444664
Email: grumpywoman@hilarygavin.blog
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