Firefox browser asked users to explain what they are grateful for. I answered "Pocket", their service that appears on the temporary page when starting a new tab. Pocket uses the space to offer links to articles that have appeared somewhere on the internet that seem of interest. As with many products, there is a free version and some more advanced versions that cost. Until today, my free version did not display the number of articles I had saved but I knew it was high. Today, for the first time, I opened a Pocket app on my smartphone and that app told me that I have over 2500 articles saved.
That number reminds me of my ebooks and other over-grown files. The internet invites that creation of writing, of "content". This blog and the many others are written by someone and that someone may be trying to express, to create good writing, to educate, to sell:
How many blogs are there in 2020? There are over 600 million blogs in the world today, out of over 1.7 billion websites. In the United States, there are over 31 million active bloggers posting at least once per month.Jan 2, 2019
How Many Blogs Are There? (And 141 Other Blogging Stats)
I have never thought of myself as a shopper but I do see many articles mentioned on Pocket that are of interest. I suspect artificial intelligence or other mechanisms are at work to try to funnel me articles that seem like they would be of interest to me.
So far, each article links to the source publication and includes the name of the author. There are authors' names that I recognize but I often wind up searching the name in Google to see something about the background and history of the writer.
Using Firefox, just about any page that shows up anywhere can also be saved to Pocket. Like an over-active squirrel, I keep saving items of interest that I may want to get back to, even though I already have way too much saved.
When humans developed language, they invented a tool that can communicate valuable information but it can also convey dreams, hopes, fears and jokes. It is the same problem I have in a library but there, the limited strength of my arms affects how much I can carry home. It is so much easy to quickly save something of interest to be read "later". I am not sure when "later" will get here.
