High Anxiety

What makes you most anxious?

One of the things that is making me anxious lately are all these random new bloggers who are sharing my posts and linking back to me. Removing the reblog button used to eliminate this issue, but they seem to have figured out how to do it anyway. Unlike that past bad guy who was simply stealing our words, these new bloggers aren’t doing that. They are properly linking back with only a snippet (and the image) posted at their place. But why? Why are they doing this? My posts are always irrelevant to whatever theme they have, and the really weird thing is that often their main blog doesn’t even seem to exist when you click the icon. So, where, exactly are my posts posted when there is no main page? I guess I could stop answering these Daily Prompt questions and maybe this issue would go away, but I like the questions! Some of them anyway.

I do not allow their linkbacks to appear in my comment section because I don’t want to encourage this practice. I suspect that the only reason these bloggers are reposting stuff from us is to get more traffic, so I’m not going to help them with that. You might have noticed that I pretty much NEVER reblog anything from other bloggers ~ I am not necessarily opposed to it, if it’s done in context, but I prefer not to. Of course, I link to others when appropriate for credit, but except for quoting stuff on Wednesdays, I prefer to keep my blog exclusively for my own jibber-jabber, chitchat, and pointless meandering.

I am going to try not to worry about this, just like I have decided not to worry about all the randos who have begun to follow me since I started answering the Daily Prompts. I used to methodically delete anyone who wasn’t (in my opinion) a real blogger, but it became too onerous a task. So I leave them moldering away on my follower list, and my count is thus a lie like everyone else’s. Before this onslaught of randos, my ratio of views to followers made much more sense. Now it’s completely skewed because none of these marketing bloggers and no-blog followers are interested in actually reading our posts, commenting, interacting, etc.

Other than that, here are some things that make me anxious, in no particular order. Note that these are things I mostly imagine, since I generally avoid experiencing nerve-wracking stuff directly. Flying. Heights. The vastness of the ocean. The vastness of space. Bugs. Parasites. The ever-increasing threat of WW3/ nuclear war. The distinct possibility of the US being taken over by Christian extremists/ white power freaks. Not having enough money in retirement. Identity theft. Scammers. Dangerous drivers. Driving generally. Dealing with anything car-related. People appearing out of the blue to cause an argument or create drama. Being code master in Codenames. Eating too much salt. Gaining weight. The endless nothingness following death. Anything bad happening to my daughters. Gatsby’s eventual demise.

PS: High Anxiety is another one of those films I found hilarious when young and absolutely hated when I tried to rewatch it in my dotage.

~*~
©️2023 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.