Tag: Digital

Happiness Engineers Are Worth it When it Comes to WordPress.com

I have spent well over a decade working as a UX specialist — designing digital experiences, evaluating interfaces, and thinking deeply about what makes a product genuinely useful versus merely functional. In that time, I have reviewed, tested, and worked inside more platforms and tools than I can count. I approach every product with a trained, critical eye. I notice the friction. I notice the gaps. I notice when something has been built with the user as an afterthought, and equally, I notice the rare occasions when a product genuinely delivers on its promise to make your life easier. My experience with WordPress.com’s Business Plan has been, in this respect, a standout one. And the reason — more than any feature, any storage allocation, or any SEO tool bundled into the package — comes down to something profoundly human: the Happiness Engineers. This post is my honest, experience-grounded account of what it is like to use WordPress.com’s Business Plan as someone who has been building, managing, and optimising websites for many years. It is also, at its heart, a celebration of what genuinely brilliant customer support looks like when a company takes it seriously enough to build an entire team of expert professionals around it.

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The WordPress.com Business Plan: What You Are Getting Into

When I moved to WordPress.com’s Business Plan, I was not a newcomer to the platform. I had been using WordPress.com for years — managing my blog, publishing content, and navigating the ecosystem with the confidence that comes from long-term familiarity. But as my website grew in ambition and complexity, I needed a plan that could keep pace. The Business Plan delivered that.

The plan opens up a meaningfully expanded toolkit: the ability to install third-party plugins, upload custom themes, access advanced SEO tools, and work with significantly greater storage capacity. For someone building a content-driven website with professional intent, these are not luxury features — they are operational necessities. WordPress.com’s Business Plan provides the flexibility of a self-hosted WordPress.org setup within a managed, consolidated environment where hosting, domain management, and site editing all remain under one roof. That consolidation has always been central to why I choose WordPress.com, and the Business Plan takes it to its logical and most capable conclusion.

But if you asked me — as a UX specialist with more than a decade of hands-on experience — what the single feature that defines the Business Plan experience truly is, I would not mention plugins. I would not talk about storage. I would not even mention the SEO integrations. I would tell you, without hesitation, about the Happiness Engineers.

Happiness Engineers: The Best Feature in the Business Plan

I want to be precise about this, because precision matters when it comes to making a strong claim: the Happiness Engineers are, in my view, the best feature included in WordPress.com’s Business Plan. Not the most technically impressive. Not the most visible. The best. And I mean that with the full weight of my professional experience behind it.

Happiness Engineers are WordPress.com’s dedicated support team — a group of experts who are employed directly by Automattic, Inc. – the company which WordPress.com is part of – the organisation responsible for stewarding the platform’s development and ecosystem. They are not outsourced, not scripted, and not limited to sending you links to a help documentation page and hoping for the best. They are knowledgeable, engaged, and — most importantly — available. Through WordPress.com’s Business Plan, you gain access to Happiness Engineers via live chat, around the clock, every single day of the year.

⌚ Twenty-four hours a day. Seven days a week. Real, expert human support, whenever you need it.

I want to sit with that for a moment, because it is easy to gloss over it as a line in a feature list. But if you have ever spent three hours trying to resolve a plugin conflict at eleven o’clock on a Sunday night, or discovered a broken layout minutes before a post was due to go live, or found yourself staring at an error message that makes no sense at all — you understand exactly what it means to have immediate access to someone who genuinely knows what they are doing and is there to help you.

What Makes the Happiness Engineers So Remarkable

As a UX specialist, I think about support experiences the way I think about any designed interaction: through the lens of what the user actually needs in that moment, and how effectively the system delivers it. By that standard, the Happiness Engineers are exceptional.

Every Happiness Engineer I have interacted with through WordPress.com’s Business Plan has demonstrated a deep, expert-level understanding of the platform. These are not generalists reading from a troubleshooting script. They know WordPress.com’s architecture, its plugins, its themes, its hosting environment, and its quirks with the kind of fluency that can only come from immersion. When I bring a problem — whether it is a CSS conflict, a stage-site hands-on intervention, a plugin gone wrong and identifying it, or a question about optimising a particular element — I receive a response that reflects genuine expertise, not approximation. Oh, and they are very friendly too.

But what elevates the experience beyond mere technical competence is the manner in which it is delivered. The name “Happiness Engineers” is not accidental. It reflects a philosophy embedded in Automattic, Inc.’s company culture — one that values human connection, patience, and genuine helpfulness as core professional qualities, not optional extras. In every interaction I have had through WordPress.com’s live chat, I have felt that the person on the other side of the screen was actually invested in resolving my issue — not managing me toward the quickest possible exit from the conversation. Varied engineers have taught me unique things, and helped me when critical errors almost left me fainting. That distinction is enormous, and any UX practitioner worth their salt will tell you that it is also rare.

A Breath of Fresh Air in a World of Automated Support

We are living through an era in which customer support is being systematically deprioritised across the technology industry. Chatbots answer queries with the confidence of people who have never actually used the product they are pretending to support. Help centres balloon with documentation that answers questions no one is actually asking. Support tickets disappear into queues measured in days rather than minutes. For users of digital products — and particularly for independent creators and small business owners who rely on those products to run their work — this erosion of genuine human support has real and material consequences.

Against this backdrop, the Happiness Engineers feel like a breath of fresh air. Not because they are doing something revolutionary, but because they are doing something that has become genuinely uncommon: they are showing up, they are present, and they know what they are talking about. Every single time, at any hour you need them.

I am a UX specialist. I have spent my career designing experiences that are supposed to make people feel supported, informed, and capable. I know what good looks like, and I know how infrequently it is achieved. The Happiness Engineers are there to make sure you achieve it. This is why they often ask the blogger what it is that they are trying to accomplish. Your dreams, their support. Consistently. And on a platform as widely used and technically complex as WordPress.com, that is a genuinely impressive operational feat.

The Priceless Value of Expert Help on Demand vs. Shortcomings

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I use the word “priceless” deliberately, and I do not use it lightly. There is a version of the word that is hyperbolic — a throwaway superlative emptied of meaning by overuse. That is not how I mean it here. I mean it economically. I mean that the value delivered by having immediate, expert, round-the-clock access to WordPress.com’s Happiness Engineers exceed expectations. The only challenge is that the average blogger cannot afford the plan. This limits their opportunities for growth and business. Yes, running a business on the platform is costly, and making a satisfactory turnover is not easy, let alone quick. Yes, all businesses have business costs, and running a blog is no exception when you want to monetise the platform.

Consider what the alternative looks like. Independent web developers charge hourly rates that, in professional markets, can run from £50 to well over £150 per hour. A single session resolving a technical issue — if you can get one scheduled in a reasonable timeframe — can cost more than a monthly Business Plan subscription if you were a one-person-enterprise. Freelance WordPress.com consultants are not available at midnight on a Saturday. They do not respond within minutes. And they are not employed by Automattic, Inc., which means they are not embedded in the platform’s own ecosystem with the insider knowledge that Happiness Engineers carry as a baseline.

What WordPress.com’s Business Plan gives you, in the form of Happiness Engineers, is the functional equivalent of having a highly skilled, deeply experienced WordPress.com expert on permanent retainer — available at any hour, through a live channel, at a fraction of what independent consultancy would cost. That is not a marketing claim, it is a valuable resource and asset. Such a material reality has made a tangible difference to how I manage my website and my time. I earn, learn, and fulfil my passion this way.

Conclusion

WordPress.com offers a great deal to the serious website owner — flexibility, power, and a managed environment that removes much of the infrastructure overhead of running a professional digital presence. But for me, with more than a decade of design and blogging experience behind me, the feature that stands above everything else is the human factor. The Happiness Engineers, employed by Automattic, Inc., available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, through live chat — experts, every one of them — represent something that is increasingly difficult to find in the technology industry: support that actually works, delivered by people who actually care.

If you are considering WordPress.com’s Business Plan and wondering whether it justifies the investment, let me offer you this: before you weigh up the plugins or the storage or the theme customisation options, think about what it would mean to never face a WordPress.com problem alone again. For me, that is the answer. And it is more than enough.

6 Jun 2026
My Honest Opinion of WordPress.com After More Than a Decade of Using It

There are few opinions I hold with more earned authority than my opinion of WordPress.com as a platform. I have been using it for over a decade, managing my blog through its many iterations, updates, interface overhauls, and evolving ecosystem of plugins and add-ons. I have watched it grow from a relatively straightforward blogging platform into what is now, by a considerable distance, the world’s most widely used content management system. Through all of that time, my relationship with the branch of the broader corporation has been one of appreciation, occasional frustration, and — ultimately — continued loyalty. This piece is my honest, experience-grounded assessment of what WordPress gets right, what it gets wrong, and why, despite its imperfections, it remains the platform I continue to choose for my work.

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Why I Chose WordPress in the First Place

When I first began building my blog, the landscape of website-building platforms was markedly different from what it is today. Squarespace was still finding its feet, Wix and Weebly were in its infancy, and the idea of launching a content-driven website without knowing how to write code felt genuinely daunting. Competitor projects from Google, for example, were mediocre to say the least. But WordPress was different. It offered something that felt, even at the time, unusually generous: the ability for an ordinary person with something to say to build a real, functioning, professional-looking website without needing a development background.

That was, and to a considerable degree still is, the foundational appeal. WordPress lowered the barrier to entry for content creation in a way that was genuinely democratising. It told writers, entrepreneurs, journalists, and creative professionals that the web belonged to them too. And having spent well over a decade inside its ecosystem, I can say that this original promise has not been entirely broken. It remains one of the most accessible serious publishing platforms available. And with my plan, I have lovely and friendly engineers willing to address my constraints.

The Simplicity Argument — And Why It Still Holds

The primary reason I continue to use WordPress, and the argument I find myself making most frequently when people ask me about it, is one of simplicity. Not simplicity in the sense that WordPress is a beginner’s toy — it is not — but simplicity in the sense of consolidation. Everything I need to run my website lives in one place.

Editing, hosting, software update / upgrade, and domain management; are all accessible from within a single, coherent ecosystem. I do not need to navigate between several separate platforms, manage multiple billing relationships, or reconcile incompatible systems when something goes wrong. When I want to publish a new post, adjust my hosting plan, or update my domain settings, I go to one place. That single gathering point is not a luxury — it is a genuine operational advantage, particularly for someone who is running a website independently and needs their time to be spent on creating, not on managing fragmented infrastructure.

For entrepreneurially minded individuals who are building a website as a serious business asset, this matters enormously. Time spent wrestling with the plumbing of a website is time not spent developing content, building an audience, or growing revenue. The consolidation that WordPress offers is a practical efficiency, and in over a decade of using it, that efficiency has compounded meaningfully. Furthermore, there is 24/7 expert help available for those who like me use the Business plan, that’s priceless.

The Ecosystem: Power and Possibility

Beyond its core functionality, WordPress has an ecosystem — of themes, plugins, developer documentation, community forums, and tutorials — that is virtually unmatched among publishing platforms. Whatever you need your website to do, there is almost certainly a tool within the WordPress ecosystem to help you do it. Want to add an online store? WooCommerce. Want to optimise for search engines? Yoast or Rank Math. Want to build custom landing pages? Elementor or Beaver Builder. The versatility is abundant.

This extensibility is one of WordPress’s greatest strengths. It means the platform grows with you. A blog that starts as a simple collection of posts can evolve into a fully featured digital business — complete with email marketing integrations, membership tiers, and e-commerce functionality — without ever needing to migrate to a different platform. That scalability has been enormously valuable to me over the years, and it is part of what keeps WordPress relevant in an increasingly competitive landscape of website-building tools.

Where WordPress Falls Short: The Jetpack Problem

No honest assessment of WordPress would be complete without a frank acknowledgement of its shortcomings, and mine begins with Jetpack. Jetpack is Automattic’s flagship plugin suite for WordPress — a collection of features encompassing site security, backups, performance optimisation, spam filtering, and analytics, among many others. On paper, it is a compelling product. In practice, it is one of the more persistent sources of frustration in my relationship with the platform.

The issue is cost. The Jetpack add-ons are expensive. What was once offered as a relatively inclusive suite of features has, over time, been increasingly fragmented behind tiered subscription plans that can add up quickly, particularly for independent bloggers and small website owners who are not operating with a corporate budget.

This is not merely a financial complaint — it is a philosophical one. WordPress built its reputation and its enormous user base on the promise of accessibility. When its most prominent plugin ecosystem feels designed to monetise that user base through escalating subscription costs, it creates a tension between the platform’s founding values and its commercial direction. I understand that technology companies need sustainable revenue models. But the pricing trajectory of Jetpack, in my view, risks pricing out the very creators — independent bloggers, small entrepreneurs, early-stage website owners — who made WordPress what it is.

The Balance: Is It Still Worth It?

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Yes. And I say that not out of uncritical loyalty but from the position of someone who has genuinely evaluated the alternatives. I have looked at Blogspot, explored Wix, Weebly, etc; and considered the appeal of platforms for content-focused publishing. None of them offer the combination of flexibility, consolidation, community support, and scalability that WordPress.com does at this level of accessibility.

The Jetpack pricing is a real frustration, and it is one I hope Automattic, inc. takes seriously as competitive pressure from alternative platforms intensifies. But frustration with one corner of an ecosystem is not the same as dissatisfaction with the platform as a whole. My blog continues to run on WordPress.com. My content continues to reach its audience through WordPress. And when I sit down to write, edit, publish, and manage my digital presence, I continue to do so in one place — which is, ultimately, exactly why I chose it more than a decade ago.

Conclusion

WordPress is not perfect. No platform that attempts to serve millions of users across an almost incomprehensible range of use cases could be. But it is honest, powerful, and — when you understand its ecosystem — genuinely empowering. After more than a decade of daily engagement with it, my verdict is one of informed appreciation: a platform that has earned my continued use not through marketing, but through the practical reality of doing what it promises to do, more consistently than any of its competitors. The expensive Jetpack add-ons are a blemish on an otherwise remarkable record. But a blemish, in the end, is not a dealbreaker — and for now, WordPress remains my platform of choice.

4 Jun 2026
32 Keyboard Shortcuts and Commands for macOS Sequoia (2025) – Printable Guide
As someone who spends long hours optimising websites while managing health challenges, I’ve discovered that mastering keyboard shortcuts is one of the most powerful ways to reduce cognitive load and reclaim energy for creative and healing work.

macOS Sequoia (2025) has refined many shortcuts and introduced smarter window management and AI-assisted tools. Below is a carefully curated, expanded list of 33 essential and advanced keyboard shortcuts, grouped by category, with practical tips for real-world use.

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System & Navigation (Master These First)
Command + Space – Open Spotlight (the fastest way to launch anything).

Command + Tab – Switch between apps. Hold Command and tap Tab repeatedly

Control + Command + Q – Lock screen instantly.

Command + Option + Esc – Force Quit window.

Control + Command + Power Button – Force restart.
Command + Shift + 5 – Screenshot & Screen Recording toolbar (greatly improved in Sequoia).

Command + Option + D – Hide/Show Dock.

Command + H – Hide current app | Command + Option + H – Hide all others.
9. Mission Control Shortcuts:

Control + Down Arrow → App windows

Control + Left/Right Arrow → Switch Spaces

Control + Up Arrow → Mission Control
Finder & File Management
1. Command + N – New Finder window.
2. Command + Shift + N – New Folder.
3. Command + I – Get Info.
4. Command + Delete – Move to Trash.
5. Command + Shift + Delete – Empty Trash.
6. Command + Shift + G – Go to Folder (essential for ~/Library).
7. Command + Option + I – Show Inspector (compact Get Info).
8. Command + Shift + . (period) – Show hidden files.
Productivity & Window Management
1. Control + Command + F – Toggle Full Screen.
2. Command + Option + P – Picture-in-Picture (supported apps).
3. Command + M – Minimise window.
4. Command + Option + M – Minimise all windows.
5. Command + Shift + ? – Open Help menu.
6. Globe/Fn + Q – Quick emoji panel (new in recent macOS).
Safari & Web Browsing
1. Command + T – New Tab.
2. Command + Shift + T – Reopen closed tab.
3. Command + L – Jump to address bar.
4. Command + Shift + R – Reload without cache.
5. Command + Option + B – Show Bookmarks sidebar.
Screenshots & Media
1. Command + Shift + 3 – Full screen screenshot.
2. Command + Shift + 4 – Selection screenshot.
3. Command + Shift + 4 + Space – Window screenshot.
4. Command + Shift + 5 – Full Screenshot/Recording toolbar.
Bonus Sequoia Tips & Customisation

Sequoia introduced smarter window tiling. Hold Option while dragging a window to the edge to snap it neatly. You can also customise shortcuts in System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts.

Pro Tip: Create your own shortcuts for frequently used apps. For example, assign a shortcut to open Obsidian or your main writing app.

Mastering these shortcuts has dramatically improved my workflow. I can now navigate almost entirely from the keyboard, preserving mental energy for deep creative and therapeutic work on betshy.com.

Recommended Learning Path:
- Week 1: Master the first 10 navigation shortcuts.
- Week 2: Add Finder & Productivity.
- Week 3: Incorporate Safari and Screenshot tools.
Print this guide or save it as a reference. The time you invest in learning these will pay off tenfold in daily efficiency and reduced frustration.

Would you like a printable PDF copy of the above commands?

Mac Commands Guide Download
13 May 2026
The “TikTok Tics” Outbreaks: A Modern Case of Mass Psychogenic Illness
As someone who has lived with complex mental health challenges and has spent years studying the fragile boundary between mind and body, I am deeply fascinated by how psychological distress can spread rapidly through social networks. One of the clearest recent examples is the phenomenon known as the “TikTok tics” outbreaks — a striking modern manifestation of mass psychogenic illness (MPI).

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Beginning around 2020 and accelerating during the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of adolescents — predominantly teenage girls — began displaying sudden-onset motor and vocal tics after watching TikTok videos featuring influencers with Tourette-like symptoms.

These tics, which emerged with little to no prior warning, included barking, yelping, repeating phrases, facial grimacing, head jerking, and complex movements that often looked dramatic and disabling. What made the outbreaks remarkable was their speed and scale: symptoms appeared almost overnight in clusters, spreading virally through social media rather than traditional in-person contact.

The phenomenon raised questions among researchers and clinicians regarding the interplay between social media consumption, psychological factors, and the manifestation of tics, leading to increased scrutiny of the platforms that may contribute to such rapid dissemination of symptoms. Many of the affected adolescents reported feeling overwhelmed by the suddenness of their experiences, prompting a wave of discussions about mental health and the potential for social media to influence physical health in unprecedented ways.

Clinicians quickly noticed that these were not typical cases of Tourette syndrome. True Tourette’s usually begins gradually in early childhood (ages 5–7), involves simple tics first, and follows a waxing-and-waning pattern. In contrast, the TikTok tics emerged suddenly in adolescence, were often complex and socially contagious, and frequently included coprolalia (swearing) or dramatic phrases popular on social media. Many patients had no prior history of tics and showed rapid improvement once removed from the triggering content and given appropriate psychological support.

Psychological Mechanisms at Work

Several key factors converged to create this perfect storm of mass psychogenic illness:
1. Social Contagion via Social Media
  
  TikTok’s algorithm is exceptionally effective at delivering emotionally charged, highly imitable content. Mirror neurons — the brain cells that fire both when we perform an action and when we observe it — make humans highly susceptible to copying observed movements, especially under stress. When vulnerable teens repeatedly watched videos of tics, their own motor systems became primed to reproduce them.
2. Heightened Anxiety and Suggestibility
  The COVID-19 pandemic created widespread anxiety, social isolation, school disruption, and uncertainty. Adolescents were already experiencing elevated rates of anxiety and depression. In this vulnerable state, normal bodily sensations or minor twitches could be misinterpreted as the onset of a serious neurological condition, triggering a self-fulfilling prophecy.
3. Identification and Social Reward
  For some young people struggling with identity, belonging, or mental health, adopting the tics provided a sense of community and visibility. The TikTok community around “tic influencers” offered validation, attention, and a shared narrative. This secondary gain reinforced the symptoms.
4. Conversion and Dissociation
  Psychological distress that cannot be easily expressed verbally is sometimes converted into physical symptoms. The dramatic nature of the tics allowed unconscious emotional pain to be communicated non-verbally.
Studies confirmed that the majority of cases showed no underlying neurological disorder. Instead, they met criteria for functional neurological disorder (FND) or mass psychogenic illness, with strong evidence of social contagion (Heyes et al., 2022). Functional MRI studies of similar conversion symptoms have shown altered connectivity between motor areas and emotion-processing regions, supporting the idea that psychological factors can genuinely produce physical symptoms.

Why This Matters

The TikTok tics outbreaks are not an isolated curiosity. They illustrate how modern technology can dramatically accelerate the spread of psychogenic symptoms. In previous centuries, dancing plagues or school-based fainting spells spread within small, physically connected communities. Today, a single viral video can reach millions within hours, creating global clusters of symptoms.

Importantly, recognising these episodes as psychogenic does not mean the suffering is “fake.” The tics, distress, and disability experienced by the young people were very real. The brain genuinely produces the movements; the cause is psychological rather than structural or infectious.

Lessons and Compassionate Response

The most helpful response combines:
- Calm, non-alarmist communication from clinicians and parents
- Reduction of exposure to triggering content
- Validation of the distress without reinforcing the symptoms
- Access to appropriate psychological support (CBT, physiotherapy for functional symptoms, and family therapy)
- Addressing underlying anxiety, trauma, or social difficulties
For parents and educators, it is crucial to avoid panic or excessive medical testing that can inadvertently reinforce the belief in a serious neurological disease. Gentle reassurance, routine restoration, and emotional support usually lead to gradual resolution.

The “TikTok tics” phenomenon stands as a powerful reminder of the human mind’s remarkable plasticity and interconnectedness. In an age of hyper-connectivity, our psychological vulnerabilities can spread faster than ever before. Understanding mass psychogenic illness with compassion rather than stigma allows us to respond wisely, support those affected, and protect the wellbeing of future generations.

References

Heyes, S. et al. (2022) ‘TikTok tics: a case series and review of the literature’, Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 93(9), pp. 1005–1006. Available at: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9124567/ (Accessed: 25 March 2026).
29 Mar 2026
Digital Antisemitism Has Become Normal Globally

In recent years, the rise of digital antisemitism has become a troubling trend that is spreading globally. From hateful propaganda on social media platforms to Holocaust denial websites, there is a concerning normalisation of anti-Jewish sentiment online that is seeping into the real world with dangerous consequences.

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The information warfare is very real. I’ve had to block people who seemed to harass me simply for being into Judaism. I have witnessed how Palestinian propaganda is Goebbelian in nature, and yet, barely anyone seems to be educated enough to tell when information is weaponised. People will let the media manipulate their emotions; and often the new propaganda overrides the education they received at school about the Nazi Holocaust. Despite all efforts, the public have easily become antisemitic really fast. Politicians are making profits out of war.

One of the main reasons for the increase in digital antisemitism is the anonymity and accessibility of the internet. People can hide behind pseudonyms and fake profiles while spreading hateful messages without facing any consequences. This has emboldened individuals and groups to express their antisemitic views more openly, leading to a normalisation of hate speech that can quickly spread and influence others.

People think that October 7th was not brutal, but it certainly was, marking a pivotal moment that shook the foundations of our beliefs about safety and humanity. Then we have some Christians claiming they are the “new Israel” and invalidating Jewish people’s existence, a stance that not only marginalises an entire community but also deepens societal divides. The world is hectic, mad, and dangerous as never before; political tensions are rising, and misinformation spreads like wildfire, leaving many in a state of confusion and fear. These are dark ages, where compassion seems to be overshadowed by strife, and the basic tenets of coexistence are challenged daily, urging us to reconsider how we engage with one another in a rapidly changing landscape.

Social media platforms, in particular, have become breeding grounds for antisemitism. Posts demonising Jews or denying the Holocaust are not only allowed to stay up but often go viral, reaching a wide audience and perpetuating harmful stereotypes. Algorithms that prioritise engagement and controversial content only exacerbate the issue, pushing antisemitic messages further into the mainstream. It is happening in Telegram group chats. There are horrible stickers which demonise the Jew, and these cartoons are similar to Nazi cartoons published just before World War II. A decade ago, all this would have been unacceptable. But since jihadist propaganda spread, it has shockingly become hypernormalised to hate the Jewish people.

Rabbi Shraga Simmons (Aish, 2024) explained how digital platforms such as Wikipedia are currently being weaponised against Israel and the Jewish people, highlighting the alarming trend of misinformation and biased narratives that often distort historical facts and present a skewed portrayal of events. This manipulation of online resources not only undermines the integrity of educational platforms but also fosters a climate of misunderstanding and hostility towards Israel. By examining specific examples, Rabbi Simmons sheds light on the broader implications of such digital warfare, urging the Jewish community and supporters of Israel to remain vigilant and proactive in countering these narratives with truth and factual evidence. Furthermore, my Youtube channel was banned after I posted a short video of my Tanakh. I was accused of “Spam”. Clearly, this was an injustice, and a great loss for me.

The problem is how this digital antisemitism leads to direct discrimination and hate crime against Jews all over the world. The consequences of this digital antisemitism are far-reaching and troubling. It can fuel real-world violence and discrimination against Jewish individuals and communities. In the past few years, we have seen a rise in hate crimes targeting Jews, including deadly attacks on synagogues and verbal harassment on the streets. The normalisation of antisemitism online only serves to validate these hateful actions and make them seem more acceptable to those who hold prejudiced views.

For instance, recently an Italian restaurant refused to serve a Jewish couple as a result of antisemitic information about the war in Gaza. They were told by the hotel manager: “Good morning. We inform you that the Israeli people as those responsible for genocide are not welcome customers in our structure” (The Associated Press, Market Beat, 2024). They had used Booking.com to make the reservation, and this incident naturally led the Booking company to remove the specific hotel from their services, and even the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs investigated the situation.

It is crucial that we address this issue head-on and work towards combating digital antisemitism. Social media companies must take a stronger stance against hate speech on their platforms and enforce their community guidelines more rigorously. Education and awareness campaigns can also help to debunk myths and stereotypes about Jewish people, promoting understanding and tolerance instead.

Ultimately, it is up to all of us to stand up against digital antisemitism and all forms of hate speech. By actively challenging and calling out antisemitic rhetoric whenever we encounter it, we can help to create a more inclusive and welcoming online environment for everyone. Let us work together to dismantle the normalisation of antisemitism and build a world where discrimination and hatred have no place.

3 Dec 2024
Editor’s Journal #8: Youtube Banned my Channel

Censorship has made its way into my life. I can no longer deny that weird things are happening on the Internet, and also outside the Internet in relation to behaviours online. Just when I thought I was immune to this emerging two-tier culture; I was a victim of it.

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Here in the United Kingdom, one can observe the criminal justice system’s desperate attempt to make space in prisons for those who express their opinions against Islam and against illegal migration online. However, as many have posited; there seems to be a two-tier systemic bias which leaves a selected few impune (e.g. paedophiles and rapists), whilst other groups are harshly punished for doing minor offences.

The criminal justice system of England is so overwhelmed, that there have been initiatives to take house arrests to the next level of crime and punishment, due to overcrowded prisons (Syal, R., The Guardian, 2014). Anti-Islam activists and journalists are being imprisoned callously, whilst antisemitic behaviours are hypernormalised, and not prosecuted.

For instance, I believe that Youtube was antisemitic against my channel. They charged me with spam allegations after I uploaded a video of my new Tanakh (a sacred religious book), where I expressed excitement in regards to learning Hebrew and Judaism. The video lasted about a minute, and was certainly not spam. I find Youtube’s decision to be antisemitic, and it confirms that antisemitism is systemically and culturally ingrained in modern times.

All this means that I will have to create my own video gallery, and that I cannot be trusting other websites to look after my digital legacy in any way. What I had built for so many years was quickly destroyed by Youtube, and whilst I feel devastated by these actions; I am now more determined than ever to redirect my energy into my website, where I rule, and where I decide what’s acceptable or not.

I also know that Youtube is openly Russophobic and has actively banned prolific Russian channels such as Russia Today (RT), who had to also create their own video gallery as a result. It is certainly terrifying to see how Google has some corruption in its structure. This type of scenario might be why a Russian court fined Google with $20 decillion (RT, 2024). The scope of the damages is enormous, and the direct discrimination against demonised social groups such as the Russian people, and the Jewish people is undeniable.

Whilst my single case will never make it to newspaper headlines, it is still notable that Youtube has acted in Nazi ways to ethnically cleanse the digital space, and I am one of those people who have been unjustly censored for having Jewish and/or Russian content. This means I will have to start from zero, and all of my followers were lost. I will notify you, dear readers, when I have a video gallery ready again.

18 Nov 2024
SEO Essentials Every Blogger Should Know

SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation, is the art and science of getting your website or blog to rank higher in search engine results pages. By implementing SEO strategies, you can drive more organic traffic to your blog and reach a larger audience. If you’re a blogger looking to improve your SEO game, here are some essential tips and techniques you need to know.

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1. Keyword Research: One of the most important aspects of SEO is keyword research. Before writing a blog post, take the time to research relevant keywords that people are searching for in your niche. Use tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush to find high-volume keywords with low competition. Incorporate these keywords naturally into your blog post to improve your chances of ranking well in search engines.

2. Quality Content: Content is king when it comes to SEO. Make sure your blog posts are well-written, informative, and engaging. Search engines love fresh, relevant content, so aim to regularly update your blog with new posts. Additionally, longer-form content tends to perform better in search engines, so aim for at least 1,000 words per post.

3. On-Page Optimisation: On-page optimisation refers to the process of optimising individual web pages to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engines. This includes optimising your titles, meta descriptions, headings, and images with relevant keywords. Make sure your blog posts are well-structured, easy to read, and user-friendly.

4. Link Building: Building high-quality backlinks is another important aspect of SEO. Backlinks are links from other websites that point back to your blog. The more high-quality backlinks you have, the more credibility your blog will have in the eyes of search engines. Reach out to other bloggers in your niche and ask for guest posting opportunities or collaborate on link-building strategies.

5. Mobile-Friendly Design: With the rise of mobile usage, it’s more important than ever to have a mobile-friendly design for your blog. Make sure your blog is responsive and optimised for mobile users. Google now uses mobile-first indexing, which means it primarily uses the mobile version of your content for indexing and ranking.

6. User Experience: User experience is crucial for SEO. Make sure your blog is easy to navigate, loads quickly, and provides a seamless user experience. Pay attention to your website’s design, layout, and overall usability to keep visitors engaged and encourage them to stay on your blog longer.

By implementing these SEO essentials, you can improve your blog’s visibility in search engines and attract more organic traffic. Remember, SEO is an ongoing process, so make sure to regularly audit your blog and make adjustments as needed to stay ahead of the competition. Happy blogging!

14 Jun 2024