❄️ Right in the middle of February, another snowstorm hit the city. February always felt like the worst part of winter for me. It feels like we’ve been in winter forever. Spring still feels far, and December seems like yesterday. The only good part is that daylight increases steadily, and it’s a short month. Oh, TGIF! 🌨
#winter #TGIF
🧠 It is well documented that social networks are a great source of dopamine. Likes, retweets, etc., all contribute to providing the much-needed boost that we, as humans, are in constant need of. I’m ok with that. You might think that I’m no different. You are partly right. But, as a writer, I also get my dopamine when I hit publish. That’s the one source that I’m trying to prioritize. Not always easy. 💉
#musing #socialnetworks
🤦🏻♂️ Today, I just found out how to use Remark.as for commenting on a writer’s post. On the same occasion, I found out that many people were replying to my posts. I didn’t get notified by this, and I’m unsure how to enable this. 😳
I wanted to let you know that I read them all and thank you in advance for your comments and remarks. I’m highly appreciative of that. 🙏🏻😊
#meta
🤨 Even though I moved my newsletter home a few months ago from Substack to Ghost, as explained here, people are still subscribing to the newsletter on Substack. I’m happy to welcome new subscribers, but I need to register them on my Ghost instance manually. What else could I do? 💡Update my signup newsletter telling them about the new place! ⚠️
#newsletter #bloggerlife
👨🏻💻 I think it’s important that you know a bit about who’s behind this continuous musing feed. So, here you go.
Dear visitor, welcome to my blog. My real name is JF Martin, but I prefer to be called Numeric Citizen in cyberspace. This is my pen name (learn why I’m using this name). I’ve been an IT (Information Technologies) professional since the early nineties. I’m 58, I’m probably getting old, I know. I have many hobbies, but writing is the one that’s taking up much of my spare time. I spend about twenty hours a week on writing and publishing (fully documented here). Why? Get the answer in “I read, I learn, I write, I Share”. As explained in this post, I write about my passions, which revolve around Apple, photography, privacy protection and climate change.
As you can see, I have more than enough interests to inspire me. So much so that they are the source of my monthly newsletter.
You can find more information about me here.
That’s about it! 😳😅
Last updated: 2026-05-09.
📚 While looking around me and paying attention to the generation that follows, I see most people on their screen looking at videos (Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, etc.). I rarely see someone reading on their screen, even less a book. I find it troubling in a few ways. First, I think people are becoming lazy about getting new knowledge and culture. Second, it’s harder to read than watching videos. Third, attention span has never been this short in the younger generation.
When I write an article with an average read time of more than four or five minutes, I know before hitting the publish button that very few people will read it. Those who do are probably older people. I might be wrong. I hope. 😒
Do you feel the same way?
#reading #writing #musing
🤔 When thinking about my newsletter subscribers, I often think about them as being people attending a class or a presentation: each newsletter being some sort of a presentation. According to my recent analytics, 45% of my subscribers read the newsletter. If I continue with the class or presentation analogy, this means more than half of the people who show up don’t even bother listening to what’s I’m saying. 🤨😔
Some writers prefer newsletters instead of having a blog, thinking they have a more personal relationship with their readers by sending them an email. Allow me to think differently. 🤔
#newsletter #blogger #bloggerlife #musing
📝 As I gain acquaintance with write.as, a typical blog post content and format is settling in. Each blog post has to be short (less than 400-500 characters), contain highlighted words for improved readability, include tags at the end, a few emojis and optionally a “Discuss” link to invite the user to comment. Each of these posts should require less than 10 minutes to write and publish. 🏷
#blogging #writing #blog #tips
🔗 When I write articles or blog posts, like this one or this one, I’m trying as much as possible to include external links. For link posts, it’s obviously mandatory for citing the source and the context. For other types of content, external links might guide the reader to read complementary content. Whatever the reason, adding external links can be time-consuming. My experience (and analytics) show that less than 10% of the visitors will click on them. I wonder if the time it takes to include these links is worth it. Do you visit external links when reading an article or do you find it distracting to do so? 🧐
#blogger #writer #musing
🧠 Every day, I learn a few new things about write.as. Today it’s about using tags and the reader mode. I went back in time to add those to most of my past posts. They are helpful, for the reader and for me the writer.☝🏻
#tools #writeas
