Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for December 12, 2021

Before: People blamed their mother.

Now: They blame Mark Zuckerberg.

If you are addicted with social media blame yourself.

electronic Tower of Babel…like nearly any tool, useful and dangerous in certain hands or circumstances…

What’s rat’s mouth have to do with this, Doc?

So ask me why I don’t, and won’t, have one of those things. And to think people actually pay good money to be totally spied on by those things.

I leave my phone on the charger except when I’m going out. (I hide my keys under it so I can’t forget to take it with me). Oh, and I have a very inexpensive plan that gives me zero data unless hooked to wifi.

So I have to go sit with my laptop to get all that connectivity…

Before social media, they blamed TV. Before TV, they blamed paperback novels. Etc, etc …

The problem: There’s a bunch of meanies out there.

The solution: Pay no attention to them.

Wonderful, Rat. Go celebrate with a beer.

Hey Doc, why does your diploma say “Certified Televison Repairman?”

I’m sensing a theme here, Pastis.

So you means ignorance is bliss, eh, doc?

I will now bless all of you with the irony of responding to today’s strip on social media.

Very astute therapist.

Naaah, that can’t be it.

It’s not the device, it’s the anti-social media apps. I don’t use any of them and I’m happy.

I checked out of Facebook, Twitter, and cable news. Somewhat happier now.

Well Rat now that you had your breakthrough ……. Party On !

Is Mr. Pastis OK? He’s done a few strips now along these lines.

News media also.

Social media = social disease

It sorta mirrors life in general: It will always be what you make of it. Your choice.

I miss the trillions of dollars we spent on satellites, fiber data links, and cell towers.

What is the difference between a daydreamer, a psychopath and a psychiatrist?

The daydreamer builds a castle in his mind, the psychopath lives in it and the psychiatrist collects the rent

and mine being the only sane one among the billions of nincompoops spouting off their gibberish; tis a hard row I tow , a Sisyphean task never to be completed.

Social media has ruined everything. That’s the cause of your sorrow.

I turn on my phone about every three months just to make sure it’s still charged in case I need to call work to say that the ferry isn’t running and I won’t be at work today. Maybe tomorrow though. I hate texting.

If they do a 2020s remake of SCTV – instead of TVs flying out of windows, it should be mobile devices.

Come on, Pastis, we already know your feelings on the subject! Just tell everyone to cancel their wifi already.

Devices have caused suicides, murder, rapes, massacres, wars…..

The internet and some of it’s sites have become a weapon of mass destruction

The internet is bitter sweet but needs more surveillance

My device comes in color s,like a rainbow

GASP! Doc, did you really think that may be a possibility?

9/11 happened 20 years ago

Yeah yeah yeah cell phones bad, but you think maybe if your job stress, living situation, and finances haven’t improved that could be the reason you aren’t happy?

I use social media, but it’s heavily filtered:

On Facebook, I only “friend” people I’ve met in real life…and if their posts offend me (which is rare), I unfriend them.

On Twitter, I only follow people who are writers; mostly all their posts are about writing and the struggle to get published. I’ve never had to unfollow anyone.

On TikTok, I just follow people who post funny videos. I block anyone who posts political vids or vids on how their “side hustle” brings in $10,000 a month, or Life Hacks that aren’t hacks, etc.

And THAT is just one of the reasons that I don’t have a cell phone! Well, that, and the fact that I don’t have cell coverage where I live. I had one when I was working as an Over-the-Road truck driver, but I haven’t had one now for over 5 years. And even then, I only used it for making and receiving PHONE CALLS, no games, no apps, no texting, or anything else, since it was a simple “Capt. Kirk” style flip phone. And, amazingly enough, I don’t miss it whatsoever.

Mine is Flip phone, only for calling or occasional texts.

This place is about as close to a media app as I get. And I get my news from EU/Canadian sources.

Maybe you should be able to handle yourself with your phone.

As Charlie Brown shouted to Lucy in “ A Charlie Brown Christmas”: That’s it!

Wow, it has been 20 years!

Simple. Too much information. Over stimulation.

I shut ALL news, commentaries, social media, and I sleep so much better. Find a new hobbies or go help someone.

I cut back on my social media and it does improve my outlook on life. I didn’t see the need to cut it all the way out, just cut back by about 30-40 percent, so I still get my social media connections, but less negativity.

I’m no doctor, but if his finances haven’t changed in 20 years then I’d think that was a good enough reason to be unhappy.

Exactly

Remember that day Facebook went down? Do you remember hoping it never came back?

The worst is not getting any likes on Go Comics!

There’s always an off switch……

Nailed it.

Another home run Steph.

While the shrink is spot on to something, this strip has been removed from Twitter, Facebook (or whatever its called this week), CNN-MSNBC-et al, Google, Apple and Android iPhone platforms and the Ban Hammer has struck for life. And Mr Rat is the better for it. Me, too. :)

I think there’s more to it than living in an age of technology… but I would agree this is one piece of the puzzle.

20 years? That’s one old rat.

There seems to be no cure.

Rat is suffering from Boredom because he never changed his lifestyle.

I have spent my whole life avoiding people I don’t like as well as not paying attention to them. Social media, texts, etc., allow people into your life you would avoid otherwise, and people think you must react instantly to any contact they make or they attack you. No wonder narcissism and spinelessness are on the rise.

“He’s got it! By George, he’s got it!”

Long lived rat.

Given he’s a rat that’s been alive 20+ years, he should be feeling pretty good about himself.

“Back to Rule One: no news broadcasts at meals, no newspapers. No shop talk, no business or financial matters, no discussion of ailments. No political discussion, no mention of taxes, or of foreign or domestic policy. Reading of fiction permitted en famille—not with guests present. Conversation limited to cheerful subjects—” Robert A. Heinlein

We get it, Steph. You dislike social media.

They need a vacation

Ya think, Rat?

Or is it just that the static, stale routine has got you down?

Anybody been able to verify in the least the claim that Pearls Before Swine was “removed” from a number of sites as someone claimed? The only reference to anything like that I’ve found was that there was a brief series of the strip with Guard Duck staging a military coup that were submitted beforehand but would have coincided with the January 6th insurrectionist attack on the Capitol Building of the United States of America, and that was done by the distributor because it was inadvertent but still would certainly have been in poor taste.

Sure seems to me that the claim is BS as usual from one of a bunch of the usual sources of said BS.

I love this comic, so true!

And some of us use them and aren’t affected in this way. I’m tired of this kind of exaggeration and disappointed that this has become the punchline of the majority of recent Pearls installments. Stephan, can we talk about something else?

The citizens of Samarkand were happy until the Genghiz Khan slaughtered them all because of the acts of their rling class of which they were ignorant. Oh! Ignorance IS bliss.