Pondering Social Media and Bone Broth

I've had a pleasant day, filled with this and that, friends and festivities. This morning we did 'work' then this afternoon Miles and I headed to the Cathedral with some friends for a session with one of the education officers there. As ever, the staff were superb, the Cathedral was awe inspiring, and all the more enthralling for the throng of choirs practicing their carols!

Having heard a story of angels, made an angel and been on an angel hunt around the Cathedral, we wandered into town for a coffee, or in Miles' case a warm frothy soya milk with a splash of chocolate syrup. Chatting with a wise mama, who gives careful consideration to her children's nutrition, the subject came round to bone broth.

Was that an euuurgh I heard? That's how I initially felt. It reminded me of a replica tool I saw not long ago, which was used in the Crimean War to extract bone marrow from bones for nutritional purposes. I've not been able to look at a Crunchie bar since seeing that tool and now here was this learned mama telling me how she's taken to cooking up bone broth and feeding it to her family.

Having gotten over the initial distaste, at doing something which I guess has gradually become totally alien in modern day life, I'm now quite intrigued. A quick Google has come up with a million and one reasons why we should all be eating bone broth. It's packed full of bio available minerals - something our modern diet lacks. Save for the cost of cooking it (cooking times seem to vary from a suggested minimum of eight hours to two days) it's cheap.

I have to say I'm intrigued, but still pondering. There's some thing which tells me that animal bones are 'high risk' in terms of potential pathogens. I may well have to do more research before deciding whether there is a place for bone broth in my life!

Just to add, the picture above is not of bone broth I've made. I've just stuck up a picture of someone else's bone broth so I can get used to what it looks like.

I've also pondered today how I feel after reducing my Facebook usage by 90 or so percent. I feel good; darned good. I get the impression that as Facebook continues to grow, blogs seem in somewhat of a decline. Que cera, I guess that was inevitable. Surely people only have so many hours in a day to sit in front of a screen. They just can’t be doing it all!

Does it really matter though? Is there any real difference in putting yourself ‘out there’ on a social networking site as opposed to on a blog? Well, after a few weeks partial abstinence I have to say there is a difference, for me anyway. I think Facebook has a tendency to be more superficial than blogging. I think it’s set up in a way to encourage quick snippets of chatter, akin to what you may have to someone filling up at the next fuel pump. I don’t think it’s a great platform for airing controversial or emotive issues, unless of course you really don’t care whether or not you naff off a whole host of your friends (and I use the term ‘friends’ ever so loosely there). It’s struck me that one of the problems with Facebook and other social media sites, is that some users seem to forget that they’re on a social platform akin to standing next to someone at the filling station. They spout forth their controversial views about religion, health, childcare, food choices etc as if they were speaking to their nearest and dearest – who may well, unlike their Facebook friends, love them unconditionally.

Sure, Facebook has its place and I’m pleased to say it’s now found a comfortable place in my life. Apologies if this is becoming boring. I know this isn’t the first time I’ve used this space to ponder my relationship with Facebook. Probably won’t be the last either considering the huge part social media plays in modern day communications. I’m just pleased to be in a comfortable place with it, and having at least started to figure out what it is about it which used to make me feel so distinctly lacking joie de vivre.