Staying Sane on Twitter: The Golden Rules…

happy birthday to you print

Twitter is a place where you could very easily lose your faith in social media or, worse,  lose your faith in people along the way. But taming the noise to create a bearable ‘X’ might still be possible… I recently took a few months away from Twitter and spent a lot of time thinking about the good and bad to be found there. Returning because I missed the craic from the New and (inexplicably) Unimproved Stormont, I also missed the …

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Has Social Media Reached a Post-Echo Chamber Era?

neon signage

I’ve stopped all social media for a bit, except to post the odd pretty picture on Instagram’s slick but mercifully deserted Threads app. Here’s why… The Covid and Brexit eras have seen an increase in a distinct pattern of online behaviour: the act of posting wilder and wilder ‘takes’ to move the focus from a wider issue and draw attention back to the individual. At any cost. Most importantly, the act of building a ‘tribe’ in the process has become …

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Ssshhh…Let’s Take a Beat…

green trees in front of window

There was something striking about the reaction to this excellent BBC NI story by Robbie Meredith about the brave stance taken by school student Angel Mhande, who spoke up about her personal experience of a specific book being used as a GCSE text. Angel explained that it’s “really uncomfortable sitting in a classroom where we have to listen to racist slurs and comments” during discussion of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. This insight from Angel needs no more discussion …

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We Need to Talk About The Harmful Kinds of ‘Influencer’

Increased awareness of how content by dangerous, high-profile misogynists like Andrew Tate has an impact on society, and especially young people, has perhaps drowned out awareness of other harmful types of harmful social media personality further below the radar. Specifically, social channels like TikTok are being flooded with low-end grifters posing as respected influencers. Some of them are very close to home and may well be pulling in attention or even money from people you know right now. For example, …

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Autism: A Few Words* For Family and Friends of Late-Discovery Autistic People

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Have a family member going for a late-discovery adult Autism diagnosis? Maybe a friend has talked more and more about understanding their own ‘traits’? Or you might be confused by, even wary of, Autism’s terminology? There might be something here in my recent journey to understand my own Autism that you might find useful. Of course, every individual’s experience and every person’s Autism is different and – most of all – no voice is more important than that of your …

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Talk Like A North Antrim Native: A 101

The North Coast of Northern Ireland from Ballycastle Beach in Country Antrim. In the background is the coast of Scotland which is only 13 miles away at this point.

Very impressed with this Belfast Live guide to some of our wonderfully thran placenames but, as a frequent favourite subject on Twitter, I reckon we can take it a step further here. The Belfast Live version includes, for example, the correct pronunciation of ‘Doagh’ as closer to ‘Doak’. For brevity this is a very good explanation for how the name is said. Viewers of a north of the north inclination will know, however, that the 100% authentic pronunciation of Doagh …

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Dear GB: Worried About Brexit and Northern Ireland? Read This…

blue red and white hand paint

For years now people in Northern Ireland have watched some in GB fret and beard-stroke about Brexit “causing a return to violence”. The comments continue to this day as if, subconsciously disappointed by the continual failure of war to reappear, saying it more often might make it more true.  Here’s two bits of homegrown-in-NI advice for those with concerns: 1, That Sea Border  The ‘sea border’ is the kind of symbolic playground shoving match we’re used to having all the …

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A Maddening Mess: One NI Mental Health Patient’s Diary

A member of our family has serious mental health challenges. This statement is a just a few short words, but anyone who has ever used this phrase, or similar, will understand that there’s something often unseen about everyday life for those who use these words. And it needs to be seen by everyone. It’s this: the exhausting task of swimming against the endless tsunami of ancient processes, red tape, disconnected departments, delays and jaw-dropping inefficiency blocking the path to treatment. …

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Neurotypical Nonsense: A Beginner’s Guide

It all started with a trip to the funfair, complete with its overload of noise, lights and crashing machinery, and a casual remark from my bemused oldest: “what is this neurotypical nonsense?” And so, the Big List of Neurotypical Nonsense was born. And we’re going to share some of it here. Neurotypical nonsense is, according to my two proudly Autism spectrum teens, anything so ludicrously head-wrecking it could never have been invented by an Autistic person*. Because if it had …

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That DUP ‘Doff Your Cap’ Ethos: Time is Running Short…

As a close witness of the DUP’s surreal days in control of Ballymena’s council chamber in and around the 1990s, the recent conduct of Gregory Campbell has a very distinct echo of the way those DUP councillors spoke about those who didn’t look (or think) as they did. It was summed up perfectly back then by a Nationalist friend in Ballymena who wasn’t the only person to explain that, partly as a result of DUP councillors’ actions, he felt “tolerated in my own …

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We’ve All Been Infected With a Covid Side-Effect… And There Is No Cure

In The Comey Rule then-FBI Director James Comey, played by Jeff Daniels, remarks that the Bureau losing the trust of its public is nothing less than “a bell that can never be unrung”. Similarly, the information vacuum created by the NI Executive’s confusion, frequent poor leadership at individual level and – in places – crude self-interest during the Covid crisis created a space now occupied permanently by cranks, conspiracy theorists, attention-clamouring ‘influencers’ and small government hyper-fanatics. In particular, and this …

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MLAs: If You Can’t Raise Your Game Now…

It would be interesting to know how many people who were eager for the return of the Assembly now feel the same way after witnessing the spell of – largely – flailing around, procrastinating, point-scoring and mixed messages we’ve endured since Coronavirus really hit the local headlines. And one place where the true motivation, character and talent of individual political representatives has been laid bare? Social media. While some are making their mark, the old fallbacks of political bunkers, blame …

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A (Brutally) Honest Visitor Guide to Belfast

City Hall image for Honest Visitor Guide to Belfast

A side-effect of Belfast picking up tourism awards across the world? Visitors are now shepherded from one pre-packaged tourist ‘experience’ to a generic theme bar, finishing in shoebox glass hotel with the paint still drying on the walls. In days gone by a local would tell you about a great wee pub, a gem of a ‘chippy’ or the best place to find a cheap pint any day of the week. But times have changed, the city has changed and …

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The Problem With (Earthly) Blind Faith

A quick observation about the devastating, unfolding story around the loss of Wrightbus jobs in Ballymena and the interwoven fortunes of Green Pastures Church. Look carefully at the wider issue and you’ll see one of the significant downsides to a church gathering a vast amount of money, power and influence: it becomes too big for some, even on a subconscious level, to criticise. This means defensive barriers begin to be erected as almost reflex action. Let’s treat Wrightbus and Green …

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Gun Control: If Even NI Can Get It Right…

In response to yet another mass shooting in the US, a quick note about one of the many ironies of life in Northern Ireland: we have extremely high levels of *legal* gun ownership. But legal gun ownership in NI is very tightly controlled. And successfully too. It really isn’t rocket science. As I understand it* applicants for a firearms certificate simply have to… Prove why they want a gun: Be it for agricultural reasons, target shooting at a club, clay …

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Skills Shortage? Don’t Make Us Laugh

Recent debate around a ‘skills shortage’ in Northern Ireland seems to be running in a surreal parallel universe to the actual job adverts those in the local employment market spend so much of their time scouring. Let’s take a closer look at the near-billion pounds hospitality industry as an example of a stated skills shortage area: there’s little evidence to an outside observer that the pay and conditions often offered to hospitality employees represent much better than a ‘bare minimum’ mentality. …

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Islay: NI’s ‘Hidden’ Whisky Island Neighbour

Longread What if someone told you we have a relatively untalked-of, world-renowned island destination, full of stunning views, good food and A LOT of even better drinks, a stone’s throw from NI’s shores? For our recent honeymoon, myself and the newly installed Mrs Johnston took to the globally celebrated, whisky-producing island of Islay. And if your first question is ‘where?’, you’re in for a shock. That’s because it’s just one hour from Ballycastle. One hour. Why have I called it …

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Union vs United Ireland Declared a Draw! What Happens Next?

In these increasingly dramatic, uncertain and downright bizarre political times, one suitably off-the-wall scenario is good fun to imagine: what if London and Dublin stepped in and gave the dysfunctional Stormont 12 months to reach a permanent solution to the constitution and identity debate. Otherwise – sick of policing the NI naughty step – they’d step in with final rulings of their own. So, the parties would be warned that this post-deadline decision by the two governments would – intentionally …

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Let’s stop rearranging the border deckchairs

The distracting haze of our daily media sideshow – such as a severed wheel clamp, Jamie Bryson’s travel plans or a loaf of bread – brings with it the side-effect of obscuring an otherwise glaring point about our political tug-of-war. As sure as a new day brings with it a new ‘issue’ just divisive enough to keep the airwaves full of noise and drama without the effort of digging too deeply, it will also bring more and more material in …

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Did PSNI just change the script?

One standout take-away from the Belfast Telegraph’s ‘BelTelBomber’ piece was an unexpected response from police which cut to the very core of how large organisations deal with the media in two interesting ways. Firstly, a recap: the Belfast Telegraph’s story followed up on the Manchester bombing by sending a reporter to visit local tourist attractions, complete with a backpack, to check if he could do so without any checks. The newspaper’s front page was given over to the piece along …

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