WordPress

It has been almost a year since I started posting blogs on Word Press. I was getting frustrated with other social media that I had been using. I felt that Instagram was too superficial and commercial. Facebook was too political, nasty and negative. I was looking for something better and, for the most part, I have found it on WordPress.

I enjoy the opportunity to be more creative on WordPress. I enjoy meeting people from different countries and totally different walks of life and getting to actually know them on a deeper level as neighbours and friends. I enjoy the time and effort people put into sharing their posts. WordPress is a deeper, more personal experience.

The only issues I have with WordPress are the technical challenges that it presents. Much of my time at work over the past couple of decades has been dealing with technical meltdowns, glitches and the like. I have had more than my share of such nonsense so it is not something that I look for in a pastime.

The most persistent and annoying issues I have are relative to the WordPress Reader. The search tool is so frustrating, I generally cannot even find my own blogs on it let alone anyone else’s. Having found a blog I want to read, I often cannot download the pictures or video clips or my phone locks up. I have no idea why. I can download an entire set of commercial drawings from an electronic planroom on my phone but my phone has to be constantly restarted when I am trying to use WordPress.

The most bizarre issue I have had on WordPress happened when I was setting up my account. I went through the entire process, including choosing the name – Retirement 101 with AnneMarie. That was where I was at – navigating my own path to retirement. WordPress, in its infinite technical wisdom, decided to name my website ‘seclusion101withAnneMarie.com’. Why? I never asked for that website name. I am fairly sure I didn’t agree to it. Was someone in the black hole of technology anticipating the pandemic of 2020 and the social distancing that it has created? No idea. My website needs work to look more professional but I think I am going to have to live with the seclusion that comes with my web address.