Franklin Taggart's Unconventional Life Blog

  It's been easy to talk about the worst parts of the tech explosion, artificial intelligence, and social media experience. It's noisy, confusing, often unpleasant, and complicated. It's not easy to navigate. Algorithms think they know what you want, but they keep showing you stuff that you wouldn't choose for yourself if you had time to decide anything.  I was on YouTube this morning, looking at the hundreds of videos that were being promoted on my feed. The thumbnails all look the same so as to seem generic. While the once popular promise that the internet and social media were going to offer endless possibilities to be uniquely yourself, the movement seems to be more toward homogeneity. I don't have a lot of time to watch, but I need a better way to choose than endless scrolling and filtering. I've grown more weary of the online world, and I often wonder how useful it really is. There was a gracefulness about the card catalog at the library that made the expe...

Update: I've found since this was first posted that there are a couple of other prominent publications called An Encouraging Word. The new name for this weekly message is Inbox Encouragement.  I’ve been moved lately to do whatever I can to put some more light into the world, and I’ve decided that’s what I’d like to do with all my methods of communication including writing, music, podcasts, and teaching. I’ve decided to refocus the primary intent of my email list to share messages of encouragement and gratitude. I’ve become overwhelmed with the amount of negativity and discord among my large circle of friends, and I just don’t want to feed that beast any more than it already eats. I will be writing Inbox Encouragement every Wednesday, and I’d be honored if you’d be willing to receive it. I believe very deeply that there is abundant hope for humanity, in spite of all that we see happening. We humans have the capacity to experience an infinite expansion of our consciousness, and...