I just had to share this brief but fascinating article about a study that demonstrated internet trolls are in fact sadists. Check it out here.
reading
Take 2 Books and Call Me in the Morning: British docs prescribe books for patients
Therapeutic reading?
Imagine popping a couple chapters of a book instead of two of these.
Newspapers are reporting that doctors in the United Kingdom will be prescribing self-help and health books as reading material for those suffering from a variety of mild-to-moderate mental ailments, such as mild depression, anxiety and panic attacks. The CEO of the British charity the Reading Agency, Miranda McKearney, explained in an article in The Guardian, “There is a growing evidence base that shows that self-help reading can help people with certain mental health conditions to get better.”
Wales has already started the recommended reading program, with England scheduled to start in a few months. Continue reading
Movies vs Books: in theaters 2013
Living in Los Angeles, I’m pretty much surrounded by billboards. About half of these advertise television shows or movies. These billboards are usually lost on me because I neither own a TV nor go to the movies.
And then, there was the trifecta of Fall 2013. Continue reading
How you should read a personal essay
The subtitle to this essay should read: the post in which I vent about people being mean to writers other than myself
I don’t just frequent Tablet as a writer, I frequent it as a reader. So, when an article went up today by someone I’d heard about earlier this week (thank you Pop Chassid for your link to Altar online), I decided to read it.
It was an essay by Tova Ross about why and how she stopped covering her hair. Now, anyone who has bothered to look at my photo to the right of this post will have noticed something: my hair is covered. I have covered my hair ever since my marriage and do so joyfully.
Reading a personal essay isn’t about judging, it’s about considering a different viewpoint
For Tova Ross, this mitzvah was not so joyful. If you want more details, go read her essay.
The story almost immediately went viral, but not for good reasons. Continue reading
My latest obsession: comparing the numbers of comments to the numbers of “likes”
Okay, I’ll admit it: there are better ways to spend my time. But for some reason, I have recently become obsessed with the following question:
Why do some articles get many “likes,” but few comments, and some articles get many comments, but few “likes?”
Until recently, I never paid attention to the social network shares on my articles. I paid attention to the comments so I could monitor and respond to them, but I didn’t watch how many people “liked” my article, tweeted about it, or whatever. I guess something happened when I finally joined FB myself.
First, I found myself comparing the rates of “likes” vs. comments on my Tablet articles, then I noticed the same discrepancies on other people’s articles.
I get that it’s easier to “like” than to write a whole comment. I do. Also, “likes” get shared with other people readers think will enjoy or appreciate the article. And that explains why some articles (the most recent one I wrote, for example) have a “likes” to comment ratio that far favors the “likes.”
Do more comments than “likes” signal dislike?
What I don’t get are the stories that move in the opposite direction (including one of my other articles). What makes someone comment, but not “like”? Because they’re mad at me? Because something I said incensed them? Is that it?
Do you have any insight on this issue (as a reader, writer, marketer, or publisher)? Please share it in the comments below.
Prejudices, or how we pick what we want to read now, next or never
My sister attended Conservative rabbinical school here in L.A. back when I was a California greenhorn, still getting confused because the ocean was to the west instead of east, that people called flip-flops slippers and jimmies, sprinkles. At the time, I was exploring Orthodoxy, but shared many of my sister’s friends from the UJ (now American Jewish University) and her Conservative synagogue. Despite my move to Orthodoxy, I remain friendly with many of her friends and colleagues.
Recently, one of my sister’s classmates came out with a book. Naturally, I was excited, so I checked read the synopsis on Amazon.
Rebecca Klempner 