Editor:
Firstly, congratulations on a great parking read.
I am not normally one to offer critical constructive commentary; however, I will make an exception.
In the April 2016 issue of PT (Vol. 21, No. 4), I began reading a column on Page 19 about “The High Value of … ‘Social Media,’” and immediately began to get the feeling I was part of some kind of brainwashing exercise.
I completely agree with the content, from writer Kathleen Laney; however, my attention was taken away by the frequency of the use of the two-word phrase “social media.”
Now, I know that was [in] the title of article, so to complain that it was mentioned seems a little silly; however, there are 43 mentions of that phrase in the whole article. Yikes!
I was overloaded, and the more I read, the more my mind was taken off the great content and more onto that phrase itself.
I grabbed my highlighter pen and highlighted the phrase – very sad, I know; it was a slow morning – and it looked even more astounding. There was one 89-word paragraph where social media was used four times!??
As I say, I enjoy the read, and the information is great throughout, and I don’t mean any harm with my opinion.
Unless, of course, it was an exercise in brainwashing?
Kind regards,
Paul Byrne, I.Eng MILP
Project Lead, Transportation Services Department
City of Burlington, ON, Canada
From JVH:
Paul:
Thanks for the input and the kind words. I have been in contact with Kathleen, and we have decided you have “found us out.”’
We are beginning a long-term project to take over the minds of the parking world and continue our domination of parking through dreaded “social media.”
Or maybe it was just poor editing on my part.
Please keep reading Parking Today, and on slow days, feel free to use your highlighter.
All the best,
JVH