JASIMO’S BLOG

I didn’t have to post this on Threads, so I will post right here.

If you just come to my blog / website to learn about physical media inspiration, then right on — here’s a high-five for you! You’re doing your part by paying less attention to the current streaming trend that is unfortunately going way out of its head as big media companies control the consumer through constantly inflated prices, convoluted choices and a flurry of broken promises.

When I declared a personal vendetta in gathering movie discs in 2023, I never had imagined how powerful the impact would have become, and it’s happening right now. The first movie I put on my shelf was EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE in brilliant 4K. Then, as I gathered information about the rise in vinyl record sales, I knew it was indicative that physical media was going to enjoy a resurgence. 

Since that time, I still hung around with streaming. Mainly YouTube in support of content creators including ASMR practitioners and Mexican weather girls to be exact. Just a proud old man doing a very proud deed.

Oh yes, I’ve tested a couple of music streamers like Spotify and got around to using Paramount Plus because of the old Nickelodeon shows that resonated with my youth. Once I suffered fatigue out of content searching and endless scrolling through complicated menu systems and interfaces, I decided enough was enough.

You may have noticed that there is a new page being added to Jasimo’s Blog, and it’s all about multimedia related to physical media in the form of video reels and pictures like you would normally catch on Instagram or TikTok. Anything from compilations of specific movies on a particular subject to thrift store hauls, that is what the whole feature is all about. Be sure to check out this page as I will be adding more content on a random basis. 

Which leads me straight to Social Media. Honestly, folks, I’m not happy with its sorry state of affairs, particularly in the case of Meta and its frustrating product line of social apps. Should I attempt to even bother to continue feeding a hungry algorithm with some addictive ‘content’ of relevance that keeps people scrolling day by day? My instincts say “no” solely to the one platform largely to blame right now and that’s Instagram, a consumer product that is being treated like garbage. Just recently, millions of Instagram users including Yours Truly have taken their grievances to Threads as they vent over steep declines in engagement and viewership numbers over months on end. Fewer accounts are following and liking other accounts, and some are going the distance to say that a technical glitch is responsible. I firmly disagree.

What’s worse is that effectively on October 30th, Meta begins to ‘scrub’ through your websites including mine for any and all of your data used for A.I. training purposes because you’re using Meta platforms. While this change applies to business accounts, no one including myself ever has a clue to what will happen to your data under personal accounts because it’s a proven fact that the language in ‘terms and conditions’ are misunderstood and can be written vaguely. It sounds a lot like what happened earlier this year with the destruction of books — remove the binding and tamper with the author’s written pages used to train A.I., which is a sheer travesty and a desecration of history, heritage and real independence. Users are loudly complaining that their content will be used without their permission, but I guess this is business as usual for Meta, alright

The best thing I could tell you is that if you’re not happy with the way Meta is using shady tactics like ‘punishing’ users like myself for lack of consistent posting or other account-related issues, then by all means don’t support them. In fact, that’s exactly what I did by quietly deleting all of my Instagram (and Threads) accounts. Personally, I think their algorithms are biased for a social media platform that is known for being very fickle — most often, it prioritizes creators who post actively, keep up with trends and create so-called “compelling” content. I wanted no part of all that.

Lately, I posted an Instagram reel of about 30 horror movies and it only registered five views — previously, over half of my reels turned up over 150 almost every time, which is still low but still respective of a one-man project, but still needed more to keep me from being discouraged from using Instagram. Horror movies are the most sought after among a bevy of collectors, so the reel should have performed way better than 5 or 150. I’m not a creator coming up with trendy topics and sensationalism because I create stuff independently using artistic expressions — somehow, one has to choose a platform online to share his / her work in order to spread the word out to people who are interested enough in the things you care most. Technically, numbers should not really matter when it comes to views and likes, but it is when you’re working too hard on social platforms like Meta’s product line of social apps under too much policy.

I can’t run a marathon just to stay relevant or exist in front of millions of people addicted to their feeds. Yet, this is the state of Instagram and all of Meta, making hundreds of millions in mint on advertising, forced subscriptions and data harvesting. All of this is going on while stirring anger from users who find out their accounts have been terminated without hope for an appeal or exact reasoning as to why. All because of a minor issue, infraction or just some rogue AI bot trained and authorized to ‘delete’ you whenever convenient, as in THE TERMINATOR — that would be considered legal by now.

Only one reason stood for me to keep my Instagram account in the first place, and that is I enjoyed viewing photos and reels of the content creators and celebrities I proudly supported. Nothing comes close to that experience now, and I can see why search engines like DuckDuckGo have gotten putrid in recent years at bringing you the results you want. The majority of images that get spit out look like they come straight out of 2011.

I do much better, if not sensationally better, on TikTok even after more than three months of being there, so that’s where all the action is going to be from this point forward. One video reel I posted about a thrift store haul of 2000s movies set to a Pussycat Dolls pop ditty managed to score well over 1,000 views, which is a first-time achievement. I have to question whether spam users were responsible for the high amount of views, but that is difficult to prove and pinpoint. As it stands, I take these numbers into account and call it mission accomplished.

But… I firmly believe TikTok will do the same thing like Meta, and that is to screw up everybody. Find reasons to harvest our data and cancel our accounts in order to moderate and maintain the integrity and safety of the platform. Creating and uploading and watching and commenting about videos peacefully was supposed to be easy and it has never been this difficult.

The new videos page on this website is a safety net in the event TikTok no longer needs me for any valid reason. If it gets too uncomfortable for me to continue using social media, then I’m absolutely out of it. Creative freedom is the primary goal and this WordPress site(s) is home base for all of my creative output and creative control. All it really needs is support from people like you, the ones who grew up with DVDs, VHS tapes and anything you can stick inside a device. They are also the ones with the power to make physical media more relevant again in this relatively unstable time for content consumption… and all of social media.

After three and a half years, Instagram didn’t work out for me in the long term, but TikTok has better potential when it comes to reaching viewers and engagement. I hope it stays that way. The link to my TikTok account is right here.