It has been very nice to receive concern for my general mental well being after exiting Facebook. I turned off notifications a year or so ago and have hid the app from my home screen. I haven’t deactivated it because I still share my blog posts through the platform. The Australian media (some more than others) have had a campaign against China which stems from US policy that Australia follows (probably more than the US itself). Because of my interests in Feng Shui and Tai Ji I would share little bits of knowledge on Facebook. With the general community siding with the sentiment of politicians and media even my most innocent post will be politicised or turned into a ‘debate’. My main interests in Chinese culture are intellectual rather than political. I do have a strong leaning to socialism in my own political opinions and thoughts. I feel as though I am getting a bit of a backlash from the general sentiment in Australia that is popularised currently. I personally don’t feel Facebook is the best platform for debate. Also I don’t go looking for debates when I post an aesthetic or cultural piece of information.On another note my youngest daughter dropped in this morning and we had pancakes. My eldest daughter had been in Sydney but we didn’t get to meet up. I am glad both my daughters got together though. 

Just to change tack again I find these little moments more appealing than any post on social media. I pay good money for this blog so I might as well make it front and centre in what I share in public. Also it shields me from direct attacks that you can’t encapsulate in the context given. For example someone will watch the news or read an article. Let’s say it is covering the anniversary of the Tienanmen square riots. Then someone sees a picture of a Chinese compass on social media. They may make a connection and feel impelled to seek opinions that are out of context. Generally this is known as ‘context collision’ though I think the term has changed in the past few years. Also I find the lack of engagement in general a pertinent sign of the attention span available on social media platforms. I don’t want to feel like a brand. Because I have a business account on Facebook I generally find myself going into a world of competing brands. I am more or less a cultural consumer of Tai Ji and Feng Shui culture as I pay for my participation through my trainers business. That means that I can’t ‘sell’ or advertise those ideas as that isn’t my business. My own business is art and writing and I make zero dollars from it and don’t really advertise a failing business or failed business.

One of my dreams would be to become a Tai Ji master and be able to teach but I don’t have the skills for a few years yet. Or maybe an assistant teacher but there isn’t as much interest as I wish there was. Even my teacher has only a small following of dedicated students and he has mastered around ten different styles of martial arts, not to mention his knowledge of Feng Shui, TCM, Calligraphy and more. My trainer remains undefeated and he knows that the world is ruled by jungle law. He has had to train for a long time to reach that level. I know that I would be hard pressed if I did go into teaching because I would have an army of people trying to defeat me. That is it though. People will always want to pick on each other and undo each other’s interests. Keeping off social media was on the radar for a while as nobody in my Tai Ji group uses social media except WeChat. It may look ridiculous to think keeping off social media will make a big difference to my mental health but in another way I don’t have to deal with hundreds of people taking my posts out of context. There are only a few who will react but that is enough to drag you into other contexts that you may not be interested in. So to just recap, you only have a limited amount of time to reach your goals and get where you want to. I can’t bring people into my world and I can’t let myself be a ‘brand’. First and foremost I got places to get to.