It’s supposed to be that when you’ve had your heart broken enough times, in the same way every time, that it will shrivel up into dirty coal and you will inevitably love less and sleep worse. Or you smarten up and guard your heart and give it a little more wisely next time.
Which brings me to hearts and stars and likes, the digital shorthand we've come to understand means… appreciation, I guess? Not love (sorry, hearts), not achievement (did you really earn that star competitively?), not even really liking something, necessarily. But it's the best we've got on Facebook, and Instagram and now on Twitter, where social networkers are losing their minds over Twitter's decision to change Favorites/Stars into Likes/Hearts, bringing it more in line with other sites/services.
Are you surprised, really? Twitter, in a crisis of leadership and grasping for new users that has overtaken the company in recent years, making its peaceful bluebird seem more like a chicken with its head cut off. Of course Twitter made a decision people would hate. That’s kind of what Twitter does these days. It feels arbitrary, and truth be told, it probably is. I would not be surprised if Twitter backtracked, or brought back the Star (O, star of wonder, shining bright with bookmarking) in some form. Backtracking on bad ideas is another thing Twitter has swiped from Facebook.
The larger lesson, tech-using friends, is don’t get too attached. To anything. Ever.
All the things you love about your iPhone? They’ll probably be changed, stripped out, “enhanced” in a future software update.
Counting on unlimited storage on Microsoft's OneDrive service because you invested in its Office 365 ecosystem and were promised such? Guess what? They lied. On Monday, Microsoft reneged on its promise of unlimited storage, blaming its most storage-gobbling users as if they were breaking some unstated law, and once again proving that like AT&T, Microsoft doesn't know how words work, particularly the word "Unlimited." They walked back the service dramatically and punished all current and future users, not just the ones doing the most uploading.
Appalling. But not surprising.
My own personal heartbreak of late was when “Rock Band 4,” the rebirth of music games, returned to the next-generation consoles. I remember how invested I got in building up my track list on the Xbox 360, all those add-on packs, “Beatles Rock Band.”
But now I do all my gaming on a PlayStation 4 (sorry, I still don't have an Xbox One or plan to get one anytime soon) and there's no way to export all those hundreds of songs I bought to the new console even if I went out and spent $250 for the "Band in a Box." And those instruments I kept carefully stored up in the attic? They don't work on the PS4 either.
I got too invested, fell too in love with the idea that the ecosystem I was invested in would always be there for me and love me back.
It was a mistake. When it comes to technology, you can fall in Like, you can even heart the things that please you.
But don’t ever get too invested in things ever staying the same.
It’ll only break break your heart.
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