Say What Now?

 

 

Have you ever written a review on Yelp? Because if so, they might owe you some dolla bills.

APPARENTLY there are some people in California who think that their fervent writing of Yelp reviews means that they're Yelp employees, not contributors. They claim that the website is so successful because of their reviews, which is somewhat true. Apparently, there's a whole Yelp hierarchy where you earn points and status with every review that you leave, and there's a subgroup of "Yelp Elite" member. Yelp provides perks in lieu of monetary compensation to these people, and apparently that's what they're so angry about. Perks may include badges, social media promotion, free food and free liquor. Wait.... this is a problem? You're pissed about free booze?

Here's what: is there something in the water lately? What is with all the "BUT I AM AN EXPERT! I AM A WRITER!" special snowflake garbage? Whether or not Yelp contributors should be considered employees (they shouldn't), the entitlement here is astounding. No one forced you to write Yelp reviews until your fingers fell off, and no one pressured you to write a misleading review except for yourself. If you don't like the way Yelp handles their reviews, stop leaving reviews there. And DEFINITELY stop calling Yelp a "slave ship." Are you FOR REAL? You remember ACTUAL slavery, right?

TechDirt, Image

 

Rejection. We've all felt it.

One of my favorite bloggers, Rachel, wrote the best article on rejection and what she's learned from it. She discusses the feelings we've all felt at some point in our lives, whether it was professional, personal, or somewhere in between. Rejection is hard, and sometimes, learning something from it is even harder.

Here's what: It seems like every article written by a millennial lately has been some defense of "this is why we are the way that we are." While that's all well and good, at some point you have to stop talking about it, and start being about it, and that's exactly what Rachel does. Accept the facts as they've been given to you, figure out how you can use them to better yourself, and move on.

Levo, Image

 

Do you call yourself a feminist?

Recently, Kelly Clarkson stated that she didn't identify as a feminist because she thought the word elicited negative feelings in people, and quite frankly, it's something I felt like I could relate to.

It's hard to identify as a feminist when there are radical organizations like Femen who don't represent REAL feminism at all. But that's the dichotomy that most people get stuck in pretty often, right? Identify as something, get associated with the absolute worst parts of that thing, and then.... what do you do at that point?

Here's what: if the singer behind a song called "Miss Independent" doesn't feel comfortable identifying as a feminist, there's a problem, right? Feminism is incredibly misunderstood and often used as an insult. (Do NOT get me started on Rush Limbaugh and the term "feminazi.") But what do we do about that? How can we teach people that being a feminist is a GOOD thing? That we're not all man hating, bra burning, 'I don't need no man' crazypeople? I value my independence a great deal, but that doesn't mean I don't love coming home to a man I'm very deeply in love with. And why shouldn't I love that? There's no reason it has to be one or the other.

Time Magazine, Huffington Post

 





Say what now?

I've decided to rework my Weekly Roundups (again). I know a few people like them (Kate, you're the best!), and I enjoy doing them, but they never get as much action as other posts, so hopefully I can make them more interesting or appealing or whatever.

In case you had forgotten how awful Leann Rimes was, she posted a helpful reminder on Twitter on Tuesday:

Hahahaha right? Because adultery is HILARIOUS!

Here's what: I think it's wildly unfair that in cheating situations, the woman takes a lot more heat than the man does. I also don't think cheaters are all bad people JUST because they cheated. But this is straight up unacceptable. Bragging about how you're a homewrecker? Joking about how you broke up a home when there are children involved is just BEYOND. Also, why does she feel like she needs to keep reminding us she had an affair? Is it because it's she knows she's been irrelevant for a few years now? I think it might be.

I love North Carolina, but it's becoming harder and harder to defend this fabulous state.

On The Daily Show on Wednesday night, Don Yelton, a Republican strategist and self-proclaimed bigot, defended the Voter ID law that is supposed to be enacted in 2016 by saying that it's not racist, the main purpose is to "kick Democrats in the butt!" Thanks for explaining that Don, now I feel a lot better.

But did my main homie Don stop there? Nooooooo sir! He went on to say that it wasn't fair that black people got to say the N Word and white people don't, he's not racist because HE HAS A BLACK FRIEND, and he said that the witch doctor picture he posted on his Facebook was making fun of President Obama's "white half, not his black half." 

Really.

Here's what: It is astonishing that people still think saying things like this on national television is okay. Also, it'll be interesting to see how this plays out in North Carolina. So far, Republicans have been able to hide under the "but what about FRAUD?" umbrella, but my main homie Don absolutely admitted that it's to hurt college students, lazy blacks, and the democrats, thus ruining any legitimacy the law COULD have had. 

Update: as of this morning, the Buncombe County GOP has forced him to resign. Good job, my friends. 

Have you ever worried that the Internet is taking up too much of your time?

So on average, people spend 100 minutes on the internet each day. When you spend those 100 minutes a day, that means you're losing 27 minutes of work time, 29 minutes of leisure time, and 12 minutes of sleep. 

Here's what: I would argue that throughout the day, there would probably be 27 minutes that you weren't being work-productive anyway, and most people use the internet as part of their leisure time, so I'm not sure I would count that as "lost" time.

I would ALSO argue that just because you're on the internet doesn't mean you're not working or getting other things done, you know? It's totally common for people to have gchat or Twitter open while they're working, because neither of those things require 100% concentration. 

Either way, the only thing I thought when I read this study was "......only 100 minutes a day?"

The entire study is here but it costs $$ to download. The Washington Post's breakdown is here.

What do you think of this new format? I think I'm into it so far.

Happy Friday!