Facebook's monopoly needs to end

Editor's Note: The Snooze Button Generation originally published "100 Nonfiction Books I Recommend" in 2019. As we read more books worthy of recommending, the list continually updates. Today, "Careless People" by Sarah Wynn-Williams enters the Humanity in the Digital Age category.

 

Back in the day, I used to criticize television for being too addictive and manipulative, especially to uneducated folks, and I felt TV typically promoted lowest common denominator thinking. Then, undoubtedly, somebody would say, "Well, you can always turn it off."

OK, fine, true, the "you can always turn it off" retort perhaps worked with TV. But you just can't say the same about FANMAG (Facebook, Apple, Netflix, Microsoft, Amazon and Google) because it's impossible to escape these tech giants in everyday living.

The United States government — and the world's governments — desperately need to reign in these behemoths, especially Facebook and Google. Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism (2025) by Sarah Wynn-Williams strangely does not have Facebook in its title, but it is all about the author's seven years at Mark Zuckerberg's company that conveniently refused to consider ethics in its drive for expansion and profit.

Facebook, now called Meta, is a morally reprehensible corporation that willfully targets the vulnerable for engagement and by doing so, has worsened modern living. The corporation contributed to the end of local news media. It basically created selfies and self-centered advertising and echo chambers. It changed business and commerce so much that actual Facebook is passé now, and we live in an engagement-centered Metaverse that is at best amoral, but most likely completely immoral.

Facebook also has changed the outcomes of elections — especially Donald Trump's victory in 2016. Wynn-Williams honestly and skillfully walks us through her experiences at the company as its global public policy director. She confirms things about data and engagement that we suspect and a disregard to morality, and she has first-hand experiences of this. At the end of the day ... Sarah Wynn-Williams is a hero!

It make sense to me that Wynn-Williams originally is from New Zealand because I just don't see an American having the moral fortitude to stand up to Big Tech and stand up for important issues. Honestly, I am not even sure many Americans even care that much about the oligarch system of capitalism and Big Tech's rampant, hostile, unregulated take-over of modern economics, politics and socialization. To me, many Americans appear happy to over-consume, be overweight and live in a chubby haze of ignorance.

Americans, by and large, are on a toxic hamster wheel of constant work and consumption, and they just want to be obsessed by minor issues, celebrities, fear, misinformation or nonsense. Many have zero capacity for system thinking and realize that when FANMAG's market cap is bigger than nearly all countries, except maybe the U.S. and China, we have a real problematic balance of power shift that is not at all moral.

Wynn-Williams' book is masterfully written as it walks us through the glee in which many of us thought Facebook could be to the gross muck it is today. To me, a painful highlight of the book is when she explains how Meta seizes upon teenagers feeling worthless and how it markets to them in those moments.

Other eye-openers are the details on how Facebook literally put people on the ground in the Trump 2016 campaign and market ads of issues important to specific, vulnerable people on both sides. What stood out to me is that the Trump campaign and Facebook also posted constant anti-Hillary Clinton ads to liberals who were in the Bernie Sanders camp and minorities who were undecided.

The book also made me realize how billionaire oligarchs remain in power for lifetimes, while politicians come and go. It also made me see a few positive details and signs of hope, such as how Brazil was on the forefront of tech regulation and how Australia's ban of social media among teenagers should be a global regulation.

Careless People devotes a lot of time to Zuckerberg's goal to make China a client of users. That never happened, but China remains the second most lucrative market to Meta because of its ads. A quick aside: Why are people so worried about the Chinese government having access to data when the tech companies already have it and are using it against us with constant guerrilla engagement strategies and marketing?

Facebook started as a way to connect with friends, and it soon contorted to political marketing and product marketing without any ethics behind it. Engagement, engagement, engagement. We owe it to ourselves to stay away from the toxic site.

Searching for Sasquatch

Apparently, I find it a good idea to camp — like sleep in a tent — every 36 years. I recently camped with a group of five at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, and the trip functioned as a reset to my take on modern living.

OK, this was the first time I camped at an actual site with specified slots. A bathroom, fully equipped with 5-minute showers for a dollar, hung out right by our slot. The last time I camped in a tent that I remember was the start of my junior year in high school when I went on a wilderness retreat with fellow St. Ignatius high schoolers.

Immediately, my mind clung to that trip 36 years ago when interesting character Dan Cavoli ran it. I remember going to the bathroom in the middle of the woods with nobody remotely close to us. Honestly, I highly doubt this scenario would fly today. Would I send my teenager to Mammoth Cave with a group of teenagers with only one adult who wasn't even a current teacher at the school?

Interestingly, these thoughts crept in, only after a phone call to my brother, Fred, who informed me that Dan Cavoli passed away last year. But I was calling Fred to determine where exactly he proposed to Judi in Big Sur, which he did. And, man, he picked an ideal spot. Totally beautiful there. Like, wow.

It was only after my trip, when I pinned down Fred, and was like, "Dude, where exactly did you propose to Judi because I'm pretty sure I was just there?"

And brother Fred responded, "The sun, sky, clouds, ocean mist, mountains, floral landscape and rainbow all came together at the top of the heavenly plateau way back in 2011."

Presumably, the exact spot was at a scenic overlook in Big Sur. I had thought it could have been Pfeiffer Beach, which is pretty breathtaking.

I'm open to camping more. I won't be a camping addict, but I'd do it again. Some overly use the word "glamping." But I think camping often is like that, especially at a camp site.

Matt Kalinowski, a good friend for the past 25 years who I have referred to as "The Polish Falcon himself," is a big-time camper, and he helps me see the major value in unplugging and getting out in nature. A Southern California native, Matt transplanted himself to Portland, and that's only helped him become a wily, skilled, adventurous sort.

"It's the purity of being human," Matt said. "Everything is so defined. You have fire, shelter, food, water, and you cover them in certain ways. There's a beauty to focusing on the basic elements we need."

Matt does a lot of camping in the summer in Oregon and after 2020, started doing solo trips. He has so much experience that he's safe and prefers to be outside of campgrounds. So he's out on his own in the wilderness and estimates that he does about 40 nights a year in the wilderness. 

"When you go with groups, you're lucky to go once or twice a year, coordinating everybody's schedules," he said. "I did my first solo trip, and it was amazing. It can be scary. You hear everything at night, and out here in Oregon, we have Sasquatches and shit."

This past week, in fact, Matt was here:

But Matt is on a different end of camping as me and my buddy, Tony Deville, who was kind enough to invite me on the Big Sur trip. Tony has only camped three times, but did some pretty darn scenic places, including Malibu and Yosemite. We were with an extremely experienced camper, who took us under his wing to show us some basics and somehow stay patient. That was much-appreciated.

Camping with Tony is exceptionally enjoyable, partly because of his horrific fear of bears. The good news, which we didn't learn until the last day, is that there are no bears in Pfeiffer State Park. However, on the final night, we kept hearing rustling and twice shined our flashlights upon a raccoon, which once scurried up a tree.

This raccoon, obviously, had a sweet tooth because Tony was concocting creative camp-fire marshmallows that involved strawberries, and that had to be accidental raccoon bait. Eventually, strangely, it appeared that an old lady was close to our camp site. She was out of breath and coughing. The lady was real close, but I wasn't positive it was indeed an old lady.

I asked, "Are you a person?"

Tony added, "Hey, man, are you alright?"

Our flashlights shined upon the raccoon, again. Terrible cough for that raccoon. Perhaps it's around too many camp fires at Pfeiffer. Can't say we found Sasquatch, but we did find an out-of-shape raccoon with a sweet tooth.

Dad wisdom sneaks in at Sunset

I stumbled across something unexpected a month ago, and it caught my eye. It was a tiny, makeshift memorial in Sunset Beach.

A handful of rocks and artifacts commemorating lost loved ones scattered among a small garden. The memorial seemed so random, so genuine, so public. It stuck with me, as I continued my walk through Sunset Beach onto Bolsa Chica, a California State Beach.

For my first Father's Day without my daughters, as they went to Taiwan to deliver the ashes of their maternal grandmother, it got me thinking more about my dad and less about me as The World's Greatest Father (tm).

My dad, the XMan, exited planet earth 14 years ago, and his spirit remains in me — forever. Fourteen years later, we have new perspectives, refreshed thinking, and whites says things like, "Oh my God, I didn't even realize Sixteen Candles was racist."

In a passing conversation, I once referred to the death of my dad as a "tragedy," and a good friend of mine questioned that. He asked how old my dad was. He was 63.  Then, he questioned if it really were a tragedy, and in the conversation, I realized I was so privileged that I never had really faced what I term a "profound lost."

"Sixty-three," my friend and journalist Don Jergler said. "That's tragic. That's just young."

Now, Don has a completely different story than me with his dad. Don had an older dad and lost him when he was 22. I lost my dad at age 37. His dad, Don Sr., died at 70 after a bout with lung cancer. He describes his dad as a workaholic and smoker for 30 years. He fought in World War II out of high school and later had a stake in the construction company he was employed.

"His knees were shot from hockey and construction," Don said. "He had always wanted to move to New Mexico, but he never got to enjoy his retirement."

Nor did my dad, the XMan. When he departed in 2011, it was a shock to me and my loved ones. His death came out of nowhere for us and blindsided us. The World's Most Dependable Man, my cousin Steve, was among those shocked, and six years later his mom, my Aunt Chris, passed away. Aunt Chris' passing was not sudden.

The World's Most Dependable Man's dad, my Uncle Steve is 80 now, and he spends a lot with him.

"The thing I think is that he irritates me, gets on my nerves real quick," Cousin Steve said. "I get over that real quick, though, because he's not going to be around forever. I sat with my mom and spent a lot of time with her. I'll never have that time back. And once parents are gone, they're gone. And parents probably can get on our nerves more than anyone."

Pondering my own dad's demise, I turned to my buddy Will Stecher, a history teacher at the high school I've been for 17 years. Will lost his dad at age 13, and after knowing Will for years, I never really asked about his dad and learned a whole side of him I never knew.

"He was only 39," Will said of when his father passed away. "He had juvenile diabetes, and we lost him. ... My dad was a single dad, and my mother was an addict."

As I memorialized my dad, who I love beyond belief, I realized that I was actually fortunate to have such a loving dad for my formative years. Often times, a good dad is hard to find.

Perhaps my XMan was my role model to be such a close presence in Sophie and Chloe's lives. I hope I'm not too close and give them proper space. But I know the love I have for them is felt, and understood, by all. It feels good to know that is felt, realized and accepted. Actually, it turns out these girls have love all around them as stepmom Dina loves them dearly as does their mom.

Back to Will Stecher, who explained to me his upbringing and father figures and where he is today. Will was extremely close with his grandfather and remains close with his dad's younger brother, Uncle George.

"My dad worked hard, all the time, but he was there," Will said. "I think about him every day. He was one of the best men I ever knew. I always think, 'What would my dad do?' ... The best advice I would give to any parent is to be there. Show up. That's what matters most."

Chloe improves this blog

Editor's Note: Snooze Button Generation founder and CEO Joe Stevens is insisting on including three quoted sources in each blog entry now. He is saying that three sources is the minimum needed in a basic journalistic story. While that convention may hold true for pithy sports reports, Stevens may have a conflict of interest with his so-called sources. For example, in this month's "journalistic" entry, he interviews his wife, mom and oldest daughter. I mean, come on!

Chloe Stevens is pretty amazing, and this blog does not have space for all of her over-the-top, pre-college accomplishments.

But what I can say is that she is so inspirational to this dad that the Snooze Button Generation (tm) blog will be changing its format — hopefully forever — to include at least three quoted sources in each entry.

Now, back in the day, having three quoted sources was the norm in certain journalistic pieces, but that's pretty basic. Journalists need to seek truth and balance, and the more sources in a story, the better. Presumably, having a formulaic, three simple-quote story isn't too sophisticated, but for the Snooze Button Generation blog, it may improve the first-person, Op-Ed type of stories that appear here.

Subconsciously, I believe Chloe had something to do with this. She has a modus operandi of leaving things better than she encountered. That happened with various aspects of high school. I believe she embodies such excellent traits, including persistence, integrity, honesty and empathy, that she inspires others around them to be better version of themselves — her dad included.

"Chloe is diplomatic and emotionally intuitive," said Dina, my wife and Chloe's stepmom. "She's a good soul and can be funny. She has a good sense of humor. She's a good kid. She understands emotion on another level."

Perhaps an unexpected benefit from having divorced parents is seeing how people live similarly, but also differently. When I grew up, as a youngster, I just assumed all families did things how mine did. Later, I realized the differences and wiggle room that people have in everyday living, from food to sleep to routines and more. Perhaps being in a divorced situation forces kids to be a little more resilient, open-minded and learn how to deal with different people.

Chloe and I are big proponents of routine. I like a set schedule, and then I like to bring out my creativity within the context of that schedule stability. However, I need to plan more spontaneity — joke intended.

Ok, so, Chloe — whom I used to call gumball as a baby and toddler— I just feel I've had a special bond with her from the day she was born. She's like a daughter to me. Well, wait, uh, she is indeed my daughter.  

"I probably live in her shadow," Sophie said of her younger sister. However, when pressed on what exactly that means, Sophie did not elaborate.

Chloe will be joining Sophie at UC Berkeley in August. Sophie is studying computer science, data science and applied math and will land on one of those for her major. Chloe will be in Berkeley's aerospace engineering program.

With these two daughters each valedictorians (perfect 4.0 GPAs) at Millikan High School, it could be easy to pretend there is a link between parental love and accomplishment. Absolutely not. Whatever these two do, this dad would support.

Contradictorily, it is nice to brag that Chloe was captain of her badminton team, got to play violin alongside the Long Beach Symphony this year, will have passed 13 AP tests and got a medal for being one of Millikan's top math students. Perhaps she's been elite when it comes to learning for a long time.

"Chloe astounded everyone when she began reading the Harry Potter books at age seven — with comprehension," Chloe's grandma, Anne Stevens said. "She was just such an easy child, and she always was, and is, such a pleasure to be around."

The other day, Chloe was saying that pretty much anybody can learn anything if they focus and try hard. Her dad agrees, but would add that there needs to be authentic learning conditions supported, first, by the parents and, second, the schools and teacher.

Nowadays, and even back when I was in school, I notice that learning is often performative or just short-term memory games and we're just pretending to read. Nobody really reads To Kill a Mockingbird. Right?

Honestly, as an educator, my best advice in raising kids would be 1) love them, yes, love them with all of your heart, and 2) read actual books as opposed to going through reading motions. The parent needs to read, too.

Chloe read with her dad every night before bed until the middle of middle school. She lasted until she was bombarded by homework. This dad is utterly proud of her, not because of her accomplishments, but because she is a responsible, empathetic and loving person.

"She's exceptional, unique and incredible," Dina said. "There are too many adjectives to fit in your little blurb, Joe."

Meaningful work combats cortisol

In his famous 2008 book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell asserts that the three key components of meaningful work are autonomy, complexity and a clear relationship between effort and reward. I believe those elements make sense, yet I wonder if they hold true in our digital, AI world.

Meaningful work. What does it entail? How many of us have it?

Luckily, I have had two professions — journalism and education — that warrant meaning. Using Gladwell's definition, autonomy, complexity and reward (good enough reward, I suppose) have been a part of my careers. Thank God for that because I spent 12 years as a journalist and 19 as an educator. That's a big ole chunk of time.

I consider myself privileged to be fortunate enough to choose professions because I know that many have no choice, whether it be out of financial necessity, family or cultural norms. I am hoping that youngsters don't feel too much pressure when it comes to making a living and make wise choices on their career path.

My unsolicited advice to any youngster about to embark on an occupation or study for one is to understand that professional growth and development is a cycle. I stumbled across the illustration above with "The Cycle of Meaningful Work," and I find that it rings true.

In work, or even in one's personal life, discovering, learning, building and thriving are crucial. Meaningful work is never finished, and that's a good thing. If we ever feel as if "we've got this" or "been there, done that" or "this is so easy, I can do it in my sleep," I highly doubt we are professionally fulfilled.

Another way to look at our professions, or personal lives, is to point out how important learning is. I was stuck in a minor rut last month, and part of the reason was that things had gotten a little stale. Finally, I had a spring break, which was exceptionally late this year, and I reset my mindset.

But I worry for those who can't reset, or are stuck on the hamster wheel of meaningless work. Last year, the Surgeon General released a report called Parents Under Pressure that pointed out 41 percent of the 63 million parents in the United States said that they were so stressed they could not function and 48 percent of parents reported they felt "completely overwhelmed."

It seems to me that modern work typically involves the cell phone, which is an omnipotent stress-inducing cortisol machine. We might think the phone is a dopamine-eliciting, pleasure-inducing toy, but, nah, in order for the algorithm to keep the user there, it constantly enacts, or tries to enact, cortisol.

The state of the news media, politics, TV shows and movies, by and large, is a cortisol factory. But for anybody lucky enough to have lives with meaningful work, whether it be professional and/or personal, I say there is a chance this combats stress.

For anybody without meaningful work, I wonder if it is a perspective issue, or if their job truly is toxic. Good coworkers, and a sense of belonging, go a long way. But chances are, based on the Surgeon General's report, that our fellow coworkers are completely stressed. How does that affect everyone?

I don't have any simple solution for combatting chronic stress, but there has to be hope. We all can put ourselves on a path to finding meaningful work, or we can revision our current work. Maybe, only maybe, we can lose some of our stress and find more joy, and meaning, in our lives.

Attention doesn't equal cool

Editor's Note: Although a lot of the focus of this blog entry is the deleting of the Pokemon Go app, Snooze Button Generation founder and CEO Joe Stevens reinstalled it about two weeks later. Say what? He says he was walking much less without the app, and he "claims" he can handle Pokemon Go without it overwhelming his life.

Try as I might, but this Gen Xer just can't stay addicted to his phone — like the Gen Z kids. At the end of the day, maybe we more seasoned folks aren't meant to be on our phones so much. Oh well.

Last week, I took a major step in curbing my phone use by deleting Pokemon Go. I went on a field trip to spa-like Cal State Fullerton, tried to do a Pokemon party with a student and then realized he was playing the game the whole time and even walked into somebody.

Wait a second. Is this what I look like when I'm mindlessly spinning Pokestops and collecting constant Pokemon? Ugh. I don't want that.

I deleted the app, and my life almost instantly got better. The curious thing is that I just wrote about my Pokemon addiction two months ago. Perhaps that blog entry made me realize how silly it was. While it's great to walk 30 miles a week, do I really need to be on my phone during those miles? And do I really have to walk 30 miles every single week?

This whole Pokemon Go addiction, just to be abruptly deleted, has me pondering how pop culture has gotten so ephemeral that I need to reevaluate where I spend my time. Also, I am wondering if our attention-economy pop culture world now is destined to be utterly uncool because of its tech-enforced, engagement-calculating parameters.

Surprisingly, I find my time — and attention — valuable, and I just don't want to waste it on mindless scrolling or the completely unnecessary 24-hour news cycle or Podcasts (I much prefer music). Yes, I will indeed live the majority of my life away from tech and pop culture, but then what do I do when I want to dabble in a movie or TV show or music or whatnot? I'm not deleting all of pop culture from my life, like Pokemon Go.

This blog functions as not only a record of my life, but a record of pop culture for Gen Xers in my demographic. A topic needs to grab my full attention for me to write about it, and I've noticed some things that have grabbed my attention have come and gone, like the wind, Bullseye. They're gone now. Poof. 

The Podcast SmartLess and Costco jump to mind. Against my better judgement, I lauded SmartLess two years ago, but I had already seen that the Podcast's utter focus was commercialism. Then, it became even more commercial, and even more commercial, and I haven't had a desire to listen for a long, long time.

Last year, I wrote about how I finally succumbed to joining Costco. That membership lasted a year. Hey Costco, I'm good; your novelty wore off. Plus, my family prefers its big-box items from Target, so OK then.

As I ponder my reversals on Pokemon, SmartLess and Costco, I guess it all goes back to the first Noble Truth of Buddhism. Nothing is forever, and this is painful.

While I am not sure the Buddha envisioned that truth applied to Pokemon Go, I believe that truth is important to remember as the world often appears to be changing with warp-like speed. But is it really?

I'd like to think people are the same as 30 years ago. But perhaps modern technology, like comments on YouTube videos, brings out the worst in people. Perhaps modern technology pushed individuals into being way less cooler versions of their ultimate selves. 

Media-wise, if we're living in this winner-take-all, attention economy, then it's exceptionally hard for anything to be cool in that space. I mean, really. Once anything goes viral, isn't it passe by then? If the masses determine what gets attention, isn't that completely uncool and unworthy of our attention? 

It's kind of like when the frat boys started to like Pearl Jam, and we just knew, OK, Pearl Jam just isn't worth our attention any more. But now, it's not just the frat boys, who happened to be in college by the way, adding the likes to Pearl Jam. It's everybody. I mean everybody.

And it doesn't matter how uneducated, or clueless, one is. Your phone attention counts as one engagement as does the engagement of The World's Most Sophisticated Man. But, wait, isn't it highly likely that more uneducated folk are on their phones longer than the smart ones? Of course. Ahh, no wonder the world looks like it does!

It reminds of a George Carlin joke: Think of how dumb the average American is. Then, understand that half of the country is dumber than that!

And now, these people, who do not have the capacity to read full-length books, have slot-machine supercomputers in their pockets. Buzzes, beeps, memes, a red circle with a number in it, zero regulation — how could society not denigrate?

But, alas, I'll still hit up pop culture to escape that ugly truth, and where I put my attention is crucial. While White Lotus and my glorious Cleveland Guardians appear absolutely worthy of it, I have to be pretty discerning with my attention.

John Mulaney, for example, had a killer show about L.A. about 10 months ago, and now it's no longer about L.A. and is about nothing in particular. Totally uncool now — but at least the show's opening sequence remained.

Creative nonfiction at its highest level

Editor's Note: The Snooze Button Generation originally published "100 Nonfiction Books I Recommend" in 2019. As we read more books worthy of recommending, the list continually updates. Today, "Levels of the Game" by John McPhee enters the Sports category.

Blown away.

It's been a while since I've felt blown away by a book, but John McPhee's Levels of the Game (1969) did it to me. I must admit that right off the bat, I was skeptical because of the publication date.

One Hundred Nonfiction Books I Recommend overflows with 21st century books. Levels of the Game is only the 13th book I recommend from the 20th century, and only the fifth prior to 1990. Y'know, it goes back to how our reading minds have contorted in the digital age and how many 20th century books can't compete with our 15-tabs-open, notification-receiving, Podcast-listening digital minds.

Upon publication of Levels of the Game, Robert Lipsyte of The New York Times wrote: "This may be the high point of American sports journalism."

This is not hyperbole to say that Lipsyte was correct. It just very well may be the high point of sports journalism. Of the 10 categories of books I recommend, sports books are the weakest. It's not out of not reading these books, or giving them chances, but they too often are mere commercial products extolling heroes. Then, when I read the sports books that supposedly have chops, I react with: "Eh, doesn't do it for me."

In Levels of the Game, the narrative thread is genius. It follows just one match, a semifinal in the 1968 U.S. Open between Arthur Ashe and Clark Graebner. This was the first U.S. Open in the open area, and that means it was the first time pros were allowed to compete against amateurs. It used to be only for amateurs.

Both Ashe and Graebner had amateur status and earned no prize money from their matches. It was a time when they both arrived at their match via subway, and Ashe was a lieutenant in the Army while Graebner was — and still is — a paper company executive in New York City.

The match is significant because two Americans are facing off in the semis whereas no American had won the U.S. Open at Forest Hills in 13 years. The winner would have a shot at defeating either a Dutchman or Australian for the title. 

McPhee reports the path of the match and highlights significant points throughout the 150-page book. Early on, the reader realizes that McPhee has traveled to Richmond, Va., to interview and report on Ashe's background and Cleveland, Ohio, to report on Graebner. By the way, as a Cleveland native, I had quite a bonus to hear about him graduating from Lakewood High and his family moving to Beachwood as his dad attended dental school at Case Western Reserve.

One way I approached the book was to not look up the result to keep it a bit of a cliffhanger. I assumed Ashe probably was going to win because, honestly, I had never heard of Graebner. But Graebner won the first set 6-4 and had a pretty untouchable serve, so let's just say this, if you don't want a spoiler's alert, stop reading here.

The match itself is secondary to exploring the lives of the two, who were Davis Cup teammates and comrades. On Ashe's side, we see what life was like, training under Dr. Robert Johnson, who created a tennis academy for African-Americans in Lynchburg, Va. We also see glimpses into Ashe's father, Arthur Sr., and learn that Arthur Jr. lost his mother at age 6 when she was 27 and had complications from a pregnancy.

In Graebner's world, we see how he was an only child, and he and his father were obsessed with tennis. Graebner, who wore black glasses and had a striking resemblance to Clark Kent, was a power server in a time in which players still used wooden rackets.

When the match gets tied 6-6 in the second set, the narrative shifts to the players' assessment of each other as well as their different ideologies. Then, a lengthy quote from Ashe that extends beyond a page explains his relationship with Graebner, his humanity for the Clevelander and the complexity of Ashe's empathetic position in culture, despite facing many oblivious to society's ills.

The nuanced quote is so insightful that it probably doesn't serve it well to take any of it out of context, but here goes: "(Graebner's) a nice guy, but he has become accustomed to instant gratification. As soon as he wanted something, he got it. Put all this on a tennis court, and the high-strung part, the conservative, and the need for instant gratification become predominant."

In era before tiebreakers, the match gets tied 6-6 in the second set. Graebner finally loses his serve for the first time in the match to conclude the second set, 8-6. So weird to think of that game, that moment. Where would we be if Graebner holds on?

In the third set, Ashe leads 6-5. It's Graebner's serve, and Ashe takes a love-15 lead. McPhee points out that at this juncture, the two have played 186 points. Each player has won 93 points. But from then on ... it's all Ashe. He wins that game and the match in four sets.

Ashe goes on to win the U.S. Open final the next day, and he also wins the Australian Open (1970) and Wimbledon (1975) in his career — three Grand Slam titles. Beyond tennis, Ashe had a gift for diplomacy and leadership, and even when Levels of the Game was published, he had visited the White House four times by age 26.

Toward the end of the book, Ashe says a few memorable things, including the constant judgment and stress he faced. "It's a great feeling to away from all this crap in the United States. Mentally and spiritually, it's like taking a vacation. It's like going from New York to the black world of Richmond and Gum Spring. Your guard goes down. Everywhere else I go, my sensors are out. Everywhere."

A few pages later, McPhee explains a lot of the criticism Ashe endured. Then Ashe, who we lost at age 49 in 1993, answers the criticism with an eloquent, three-page quote in the final few pages of the book.

My favorite part of the quote is this: "We'll advance by quiet negotiation and slow infiltration — and by objective, well-planned education, not an education in which you're brainwashed. Education reflects a culture's values. If that culture is warped, you get a warped education."

Pokemon goes into addiction

One glorious Saturday afternoon in November 2013, I stumbled across a Lord of the Rings pinball machine for sale at Cal Bowl in Lakewood. I  snagged the thing and tuned it up to perfection. It might remain my most prized possession.

Ten years later in November 2023, Chloe randomly was playing Pokemon Go. I was curious what she was doing and announced, "Well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em."

Every since Space Invaders entered my life in 1980, video games have been a part of it. Soon, it was Mario Bros. and Tecmo Super Bowl on Nintendo, and now, this Pokemon Go thing, I must admit, is a full-on addiction. I think it's a healthy addiction, but I'm not 100 percent sure.

I just won't stop playing. Most weeks, I walk more than 50 kilometers (31 miles) to get rewards from the app.

For those who know the game, you will not need this brief explanation. Pokemon Go is an augmented reality game that was globally popular as soon as it came out in 2016. Augmented reality means that it combines real world and computer-generated content.

So I'll be walking down the street and see a mural in real life, but then that mural will exist on my phone as a Pokestop to spin (click on), collect as a postcard and get rewards. That's pretty cool. I've collected more than 12,000 of those. ... Whoa. I've saved 650 of them.

And then there's the characters, the Pokemon. There are more than 1,000 of those. They're cute and collectable, kind of like virtual Beanie Babies. I've snagged more than 14,000 Pokemon. ... Egads.

When I'm pretending this isn't an addiction, I liken it to the best Fitbit ever because it rewards me for walking. Good deal!

Walking in different places is my favorite thing about it. Without that, I wouldn't do it. Chloe recently had me download the new Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket, a virtual card game. It doesn't work at all for me. It has nothing to do with walking. I'm not a fan of non-physical video games. Pinball and Pokemon Go at least involve some sort of physical element.

For a lot of 2024, my singular focus in life was to evolve the Pokemon legendary character Zygarde to its fullest form. That meant I had to walk path upon path to collect 250 Zygarde cells. You can only get three Zygarde cells per day, and it's erratic how many one gets for a path. Sometimes, it's zero. And sometimes, I just didn't see them. Getting those cells took forever.

Finally, this past November 2024, I fully evolved Zygarde, and that's the picture of him above. After that mega-accomplishment, I figured the game was over. But then, I just kept playing. I still collected Zygarde cells (I'm not sure why), then I figured out how to use Reddit to find raids and collect legendary Pokemon. What was happening here?

Dude, it is a full-on ADDICTION. Pokemon characters are ranked on a scale of zero to three stars, and typically, there are three versions of each Pokemon like baby, teen and adult. I pretty much have three stars of every Pokemon in every version. Wild!

And I have my Pokemon into teams. I have nine different teams of 18 Pokemon on each. That's 162 specialized Pokemon for my criteria. My most important category "best buddies" just grew to 20. You get a best buddy when you earn 300 hearts with the Pokemon you choose as your sidekick, and getting one best buddy is a pretty lengthy process.

Look, enough already. This all is craziness. It's obsessive video gaming. It's one thing to use Pokemon Go as motivation to walk, but then, why am I putting hours upon hours into the game at home without walking? Where is the justification for that?

I see the mindless phone consumption of my students, and by George, I don't want to be like them. I want to be mindful, and I don't need to devote my life to Pokemon Go. I'm better than that!

In this blog, I've often written about and recommended books that questions social media, the phone and our current attention economy. Reader, Come Home and How to Do Nothing are my favorites. Right now, I just finished a book in a similar vein, Bored and Brilliant by Manoush Zomorodi.

I couldn't agree more with the premise of Bored and Brilliant, that to be more creative, we have to embrace boredom and not give away all of our break moments to screen time. Our brains need time for space, and nowadays, so many people don't give themselves a break away from their phones. For me, I actually am excellent with phone discipline — except for this Pokemon Go thing.

In Bored and Brilliant, Zomorodi suggests deleting the app that we use most and see what happens. She quotes author and tech behavior expert Nir Eyal, who says we should ask this question: "Is this product serving me or hurting me?"

I've had social media off my phone for years and am disciplined enough to look at the news (DW from Germany is what I prefer) only once a day. But the reality is that the kid's game, Pokemon Go, probably isn't serving me any more. Yet I'm confused because it often gets me out to walk. And that's a good thing.

I am thinking of deleting the app, but I just don't know I can do it.

Alive at 27?

Happy New Year!

... And now let's talk about dead rock stars.

OK. It might seem like an odd topic as Baby New Year slides down the firefighter's pole of life into 2025. But I've been thinking about dead rock stars a bit since the Morrison Hotel in downtown Los Angeles caught fire a few days ago. Perhaps this year, too, this blog will go back to its original focus — pop culture of interest to Gen Xers.

Somehow, the Morrison Hotel endures, even though Jim Morrison has been deceased for 53 years. Morrison, as many are fully aware, is on the list of dead rock stars at age 27. ... Gone. Gone as a mere youngster.

Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin are the most significant members in the 27 Club. They all were hugely famous singers, and I realize something else. They're all American.

That's got to mean something. I mean, we have other a few others in the unfortunate 27 Club that are British, including Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones and Amy Winehouse, who died in 2011. But Jones was no singer, and Winehouse is pretty late to the game as the only significant 21st century member of this unfortunate club in my estimation.

The 27 Club is a decidedly American phenomenon, and it's got to mean something about our culture. Right? Well, let's explore. 

Truly, if you took away the Americans, there really would not be a 27 Club. Also, let me mention that famous downtown New York artist Jean-Michel Basquiat is in the club, and Mississippi bluesman Robert Johnson — described by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as "the first ever rock star" — started the club when he died at 27 in 1938.

As Sinead O'Connor might sing, "nothing compares to..." these American icon deaths at 27 — or really American icon deaths at any age. Paul McCartney, 82, is still going pretty strong for his age as is Mick Jagger, 81. If the United States has any vague counterpart to those two Brits, I'd go with Michael Jackson (dead at 50) and Prince (dead at 57). Both had drug-related deaths.

I am not qualified to talk about addiction, or mental illness, or even life if the limelight. But the premature deaths of all of these American pop icons has to mean something. And it's just now that I'm mentioning mega-icons James Dean (dead at 24) and Marilyn Monroe (dead at 36).

I suppose all we can do is accept the fact that on some level, American pop culture has been toxic, absolutely toxic, for decades. So, yeah, we're heading into 2025, and my wish remains that American culture would become a little less toxic. But I just don't see that happening.

On Christmas Day, I noticed that the most streamed movie on Netflix was Carry-On, a mid movie that probably keeps your attention but has no real substance and is about terrorism at LAX. Merry Christmas!

Also on Netflix, it aired two highly watched NFL games, and as anyone knows, football is the most violent sport on planet earth. Somebody might say that's not right. What about boxing or MMA? But football is played on such a ginormous scale in the United States — and is such a fabric of American culture — that I deem it as more violent than any other sport. American football is hardly played in other countries, by the way.

Dead rock stars, the NFL, some guy named Jake Paul, divisive politics — when the market place dictates the culture, the lowest common denominator prevails. We all lose. We all lose because we are indeed better than this junk.

The market place determines way more than pop culture in the United States nowadays. Gen Z is the most stressed generation in history, and a big part of that is the impending doom of trying to maximize themselves as human resources. Kids are forced to think of themselves as human resources exceptionally early in life. I mean, in the Long Beach Unified School District, for example, students pick their high school and a career pathway when they are in eighth grade.

I just feel we need some type of return to humanity and not human resources. We have signs all around us that this market-first American culture does not work. On the pop culture front, I see a huge desire for us to have music and books and movies that have staying power and are not so dang disposable. We're so desperate to have that — and feel that — that many now look back on 1988's Die Hard as "a great Christmas movie."

We want culture with staying power. We want McCartneys and Jaggers. We don't want disposable pop stars and movies.

Dead at 27?!? I actually wonder how many 27-year-olds are truly alive. I bet by the time many turn 27, they are just working their butts off on hamster wheels of paychecks.

I hope to god our kids are alive at 7 — although I hardly see any playing outside. I hope they're also alive at 17, but the ones I see are so stressed about their schoolwork and getting into college that I question if they actually enjoy that age.

This wide-open marketplace comes with a price, and I don't think it's a stretch to say part of the cost of this disposable culture is the destruction of American icons. OK, then. Happy New Year!

Gen X college holds own vs. Gen Z

It's time for me to battle Sophie. Mano y mano.

I grew up on games and competition, and we played constant board games, cards and HORSE. Was it too much competiton? ... Probably.

Sophie is a bit of a gamer as well, and I just concluded a trip to the Bay Area in which Dina, Chloe and I spent Thanksgiving with the eldest daughter. She is a sophomore at UC Berkeley, and we did indeed play a family game of hearts when we visited. ... Gamers.

But I feel the need to compete more with Sophie. We don't need to grab a basketball and get in the driveway and play a no-holds-barred game of one-on-one like in The Great Santini.

Rather, I say we go toe-to-toe and compete with our college lives. Whatcha got, Sophie? Bring it. 

I must say that college appears to be a much, much different experience than when I attended in the early 1990s. But which experience is better?

Now, are our experiences in any way indicative of every person of an entire generation? Well, uh, yes, indeed, they are! I went to The Ohio State University, and, overall, my college experience was positive. But the question is: Who has a better college experience — Gen Z kids or us Gen Xers?

1) Social Life. I assumed the Gen Xers and I would win this in a landslide. I am still friends with many college buddies and feel a connection with a vast number of college peers. Gen Z kids seem more concerned with their phones.

However, Sophie has quite a network of friends through her dance troupe, and she appears to be doing perfectly fine socially. I am also impressed that she does not drink any alcohol, or do any type of drugs, and that is excellent. For a lot of us Gen Xers, beer fueled our social lives, and when I realize that #MeToo moments were happening a lot, it knocks us down a peg. Winner: Tie

2) Academics. I had the freedom to study whatever in the world floated my boat, and I tell Sophie she has that freedom as well. I landed on English, and I enjoyed the freedom of coming into college undecided and finding my way.

Sophie, on the other hand, is majoring in computer science, or some sort of computer-science related field. As a parent, I believe it is my duty to support my daughter's pursuits and not criticize them. But as a writer, I got to question computer science. I mean that field hardly existed when I was in college, and what is the allure of computers?

I get that Gen Z kids love their phones, which are basically magical calculators. But for me, I wouldn't devote my career chasing digital waterfalls. However, Sophie's courses look quite more in depth than me, remembering that Samuel Taylor Coleridge was a Romantic poet. Her course work is way beyond calculus, and she took a fascinating neuroscience class about how the brain actually works. Winner: Gen Z

3) Emotional Life. I am not so sure I considered having an emotional life when I was in college whatsoever. In fact, the term "emotional intelligence" was not even coined until the 1990s.

Sophie is pretty chill and adaptable. What impresses me most is how she handles adversity. She's got grit. On the flip side, I see a lot of older people still emotionally immature. I've often said that there is a distinct lack of emotional education in the schools, but then it is reasonable to develop emotionally on our own. Winner: Gen Z

4) Spiritual Life. After being raised Catholic, it was nice to get to college and realize I finally didn't have to sit through masses any more. Thank God! But that didn't mean my spiritual life was over. Instead, it started a lifelong search for meaning and a spiritual life, and the dropping of Catholicism actually improved my spiritual life in the long run.

I did not raise Sophie with organized religion, and I believe she is open to many faiths and spiritual approaches. But for her generation, I wonder what the deal is. Many just blindly follow the faiths of their parents, or community, and I believe the United States is in the midst of a spiritual crisis. Heck, Dwight from The Office wrote a book called Spiritual Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution.  Winner: Gen X

5) Sports Teams. I just don't see how Cal can possibly compete with The Ohio State Buckeyes. Yes, the Bears had Aaron Rodgers and Marshawn Lynch, but come on? The Bucks are in a different echelon.

Plus, somehow the Big 10 has 18 teams now. Say what?!? The AFC has less, with 16 teams. The economics of college sports is just totally whack and goofy. What is going on here? Winner: Gen X

Well, there you have it.

At first glance, it appeared that Gen Z was in a runaway with a 2-0 lead over Gen X when it relates to the college experience. But then, buoyed by spirituality and sports teams, Gen X caught fire and forced a tie.

So it turns out that the college experiences between the entire generations of Gen Z and Gen X are even — even Stevens. 

Let's do the Time Warp again

It's astounding. Time is fleeting.

Oh thank God, the 2024 Presidential Election will end — hopefully, maybe — this week, and I'm not sure any song sums up the state of U.S. politics more than Time Warp from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

What is going on here?

I hardly see any conversations occurring in the country about the key issues of the day — the wealth gap or health care or military spending or school-to-prison pipeline or globalization. The state of media has become such that the idea of having a public discourse of important issues is long gone, replaced by he-said-she-said talking points to get elected, memes and 10-second video clips.

If I thought the state of public discourse was at all-time low heading into the 2020 election when I blasted Facebook and the state of media, is it any better now? But let's look at me, the writer, here. You're getting this commentary from a former staff writer at newspapers for 12 years, and newspapers and network news are now referred to as "legacy media."

You're getting this commentary from someone who felt there was a semblance of public discourse back in the 1900s and early 2000s and maybe even the early 2010s. But now?

Madness takes its toll. But listen closely, not for very much longer.

One of the main issues in this year's presidential election is the repeal of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court in 2022. OK, that was quite a move. It's now again a hot-button topic, and, yes, it's important. But it's obscuring other important issues. 

While the federal government and Supreme Court could be coming together to balance the absurd dominance of Fanmag (Facebook, Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon and Google), like European countries are attempting to do, the Supreme Court instead overruled abortion. Hmm.

That egregious ruling pulled many people's eyes off many pressing issues of the day, including trillion-dollar technology companies' dominance in the market place. Instead of focusing on that issue, and a boatload of other important issues, we're debating abortion rights again.

I thought we, as a society, agreed about the legalities of the touchy subject of abortion. It's really more of a moral issue than a legal issue. Right? But Roe v. Wade, which was ruled upon in Jan. 1973, is a debate again 51 years later.

(Refrain: All) Let's do the Time Warp again. Let's do the Time Warp again.

Another key talking point in this 2024 Presidential Election is immigration, securing the borders, etc. But here's the problem with that. California, the main border state and gateway to immigrants, went through this in the 1900s — the 1980s to be exact.

Back in the early '80s, California saw a huge influx of immigrants, and that led to a whole lotta racism and struggle, but landed on legislation that then saw 3.5 million legal immigrants come into California between 1984 and 1994.

Nowadays, the outdated immigration system isn't working, but there are easy fixes that everyone, regardless of political party, agree on. And here is what is baffling. Immigration is by far impacting California more than any other state — not even close. Yet in California, immigration is not a hot-button topic like it is in non-border states.

(Refrain: All) Let's do the Time Warp again. Let's do the Time Warp again.

Look. The Snooze Button Generation prides itself in being a nonpartisan blog, and we're not promoting a certain candidate here. We're simply saying that the state of political discourse is at an all-time low. It's obviously because of how we obtain news — or opinion masquerading as news.

I'm hoping that this is the nadir, and we somehow return to reasonable, issues-related discourse. But I'm worried that with our echo-chamber, smart-phone world, we'll never return to actual issues again. Perhaps the advancement of all this personal technology has an inverse effect on many individuals' personal progress.

(Refrain: All) Let's do the Time Warp again. Let's do the Time Warp again.

Active aging enables freedom

Well, another year has sped by in my aging process, and I turned 51 on Friday. I'm loving this aging thing and have accidentally committed to something called "active aging." Love it!

The World Health Organization states that the four pillars of active aging are health, lifelong learning, participation and security. Huh? I got to think about those pillars and explore them. I invite you to do the same and Benjamin Button your life.

Health is the No. 1 pillar of active aging. Health is extremely important to me and may be more complicated than it seems. I used to only think of health in terms of mental and physical health. What else is there?

Like many, I discovered the Wellness Wheel, and I realized that health has eight components. To be committed to those, we'll probably need an action plan as opposed to a vague idea. Actually, we'll probably need eight action plans.

Next pillar of active aging: lifelong learning. The great news about being a high-school teacher in my 50s is that I am totally relevant and the kids see how dope and fire I am. Kidding!

The good thing about being an aging high-school teacher is that you are forced (I'm pretty sure you're forced unless you're oblivious and stuck in the past) to update your operating system and do your best to see the world through your students' eyes. Of course, that is impossible, but you can glean A LOT from the youngsters' perspectives.

Lifelong learning? Of course. I might be getting certified in scuba soon, and I count myself fortunate to have a career that enables lifelong learning. Hey, don't just listen to me. Billionaires should not exist, but billionaire Mark Cuban once said, "Whatever job you take, you're getting paid to learn. And once you accept money for education, that's a good thing. But once the education stops, you got to pivot to something new."

Excellent point. And monetizing learning? I can sign up for that.

Pillar No. 3 is participation. Oh boy. That's a big one, especially in this era of echo chambers and online rabbit holes. I'm not so sure human beings participate as much in their actual communities as they used to because of all the online distractions.

Again, for me, I am part of a school community so that's at least something, but I definitely can work more on being a part of my community and connecting to others — perhaps through more activities.

Security concludes the pillars, and it is nice that I'll have a teacher pension when I retire with some solid retirement accounts. But not only that, teaching is such a secure living that I again feel fortunate for that career. I fear for corporate folk in their 50s in which they could be replaced by someone younger and cheaper.

I guess with these pillars, I'm realizing that high-school teaching, when done smartly, helps one's health. Of course, I've run across frazzled, unhealthy teachers who haven't quite gotten to the Wellness Wheel yet. But there is hope for everybody.

Our emotional, spiritual, intellectual, physical, environmental, financial, occupational and social health all matter, and I say that best way to improve those is to start small and build on our tiny, healthy habits.

Freedom is the cousin of discipline, and a little discipline, connecting to what is important — our health — will help us with happy, fulfilling exists. Active aging, ultimately, allows us live the lives we actually want.

The art of overachievement

It feels great to overachieve. But what does that even mean?

Achievement and goals can be tricky to gauge because we usually move the goalposts back once we achieve something. So in a way, we can never fully achieve anything if we keep moving those goalposts.

Of course, I need to talk about my Cleveland Guardians, who had the best record in Major League Baseball at one point this past month, only to wobble to a 2.5-game lead in their division.

Heading into the season, I would have just been happy for the Guards to have a winning record — for sure. But then, they swashbuckled to a 58-37 record at the All-Star Break, so it was reasonable to move those goalposts to “I hope they get a bye for the first round of the playoffs!”

By any metric, the Guards have overachieved this season, but if you think about it, practically anyone who is a professional athlete has overachieved. Of course, there are exceptions to that, such as the Philadelphia Phillies' Bryce Harper, the No. 1 overall pick in 2010 and an All-Star at 19, now in the midst of a 13-year, $330 million contract. With that background, it's impossible to overachieve. Right?

But for most not in the Bryce Harper stratosphere, becoming a pro athlete usually is a celebration of overachievement. With the Guardians, they always will be an overachieving team because of their low, low payroll. They started the season with the fourth lowest payroll in baseball, only to collect a couple midlevel veterans to have the eighth lowest payroll.

Let's put this payroll thing into perspective in the non-salary cap MLB. The Guards' $106 million payroll is nearly one-third of the Yankees' $316 payroll. Two players — Shohei Ohtani ($70 million) and you can actually pick one of six other guys and I'll go with the Angels' Anthony Rendon ($38 million) make more than our entire team. So let's just repeat: The Guardians always will be an overachieving team because of their low, low payroll.

But the fact that the Guards compete and frequently beat these overpriced dudes makes their success even sweeter.

The Guards' Jose Ramirez leads the way with the overachieving. He’s been spectacular for us and has only played Cleveland, but because of the small market and his less than adonis-looking body, he often is overlooked as an elite MLB player. He is on a contract that in the realm of reality is astronomical — seven years, $141 million — but in comparison to elite MLB contracts, he might still be overachieving.

 

As I get older, I understand that goals are important, and I’ve been goal-driven throughout my life. But finally, I see that the process matters as well. Baseball, to me, warrants more of a focus on process than most other sports because of its linear nature. One pitch at a time. Base to base. One, two, three strikes. Three outs. I find a unique mathematical beauty to the game. 

To truly overachieve, one must embrace the process, and my Cleveland Guardians have turned that process into an art. Yeah, I could get hung up on some front-office moves that actually hurt the team, or I can get frustrated because they've come down to earth and are 19-22 since the All-Star break.

But, nah, let's enjoy these hungry rookies and youngsters try to maximize their talent by playing smart, fundamental baseball and enjoying the art of base running, fouling off pitches and overachieving.