Happy Weekend! We flushed out a few original ideas today; the impact of social media and streaming should you work out when you are sleep deprived, and we ask: can you cancel a punk? Read on for our thoughts, from us to you!

Visual Capitalist wrote a great piece on The Social Media Universe. We have also written on social media in the past. What we like about the Visual Capitalist work is the content with the design.  

The number of Monthly Active Users is staggering; we looked up the number of people on the planet with access to the Internet. It's about five billion; if three billion people are active on Facebook every month, that's sixty percent of the population on one platform. We would have to do additional research, but that number can be jaw-dropping. With that level of penetration, no wonder Zuck thought the Metaverse would work!

Cable cutters continue to move from traditional cable TV into all streaming services. One of the differences between traditional cable and streaming is the Guide. Traditional cable TV has a guide that tells you what's on when you are in front of a TV; streaming means you can watch anytime you want. If you have ever sat in front of a cable TV guide and changed channels for hours and not made it through all your cable channels, you are not alone.  

Streaming came along, and traditional channel surfing changed. Intention increased; you have options, but they are for shows and movies, and now you pick one and play it, like a record from the old days.

Then there is Youtube, the beginning of the seven-minute show. In the days of network TV, a typical thirty-minute sitcom would consist of twenty-two minutes of the show and eight minutes of commercials, give or take two minutes, depending on the episode and time of day. Streaming highlighted this when they moved some shows to a platform without the commercials. Youtube or content creators on Youtube decided highlights would be great on the Youtube platform.  

There are lots of social media programs and streaming services out there. Why do Facebook and Youtube dominate?

Google owns Youtube, and Google has been innovating the use of Algorithms since it launched. Facebook took the algorithm and added the collection of personal information to a new level. The ethics of algorithms and collecting personal information will continue, but the numbers speak for themselves. If people were outraged about the personal information collected and used by Google and Facebook, the usage could reflect that. Instead, three billion monthly active users tell a different story.

A story idea that came from a real workout this week. For all sorts of typical reasons, maintaining a good sleep schedule this week has yet to happen. A skipped gym session led to a doubled-up gym session the next day. Certain weeks a cardio one day and a strength session the next fits the schedule best; when the plan fights back, it's decision time. This story starts with Johnny, our publisher, with additional input from the writing team.

The original plan was to hit the gym, lift weights for forty-five minutes, and then participate in a fifty-minute spin class after several days of six hours of sleep per night. Thirty minutes into weight training, all the weights were becoming harder to get through.

As a lifelong fitness-crazy person, I have stopped workouts short in the past; today, I thought about it. After a pause from the weight training, I did go in and hit cardio with the fifty-minute spin class. Cardio in the mornings is one of the best things I can do for idea generation, and it's where this article began. After a strong spin class, I returned to the floor to finish the weight training session. I had more strength after cardio and finished weights without a problem.

Was my weak weight training session due to a cold muscle start, lack of sleep, or both? We did some research, and the findings were similar to what our bodies tell us.  

We found an article on NBC News about times you might want to skip a workout. Sleep deprivation is one of those times. This article doesn't go too deep, but it does mention that sleep deprivation affects focus and can also increase your risk of injury. We will have to dig a little deeper to determine if it's detrimental to working out tired muscles. In other words, would the science support that if you made it through the workout, even though you were tired, would you get the same muscular, cellular, and physical benefit you would get if you were not tired?  

The double whammy of being sleep deprived your discipline declines, and your appetite increases. According to Lisa Cottrell, a licensed psychologist board certified in behavioral sleep medicine. Here is what she says about hormone levels and cravings when you are sleep deprived:

We have thousands of quotes and pictures strewn crossed so many hard drives. Time to start adding them to the newsletter. This is a good Saturday quote, do one small thing today. We’ve been writing and publishing every day for sixty-six days; what started as a small thing has grown.

There is a lot of talk of cancel culture, and we are trying to figure out what it means. Where is the line between being canceled and being anti-establishment punk?

A punk rock attitude is about being true to yourself and not giving others power over your truth. Punks have never been about going after anyone else, objectifying others, or feeling better than anyone else. It was born as a reaction to all of those things by others, especially by industry and establishment. When we fight, it is for people without a voice and against injustice, or that’s what we hope it’s all about. Bono calls it “A Punk Rock Promise”; our goal is to keep it!

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With A Shout Team