#it could also be the social media algorithms have put me in a bubble. but at least it's a nice bubblw

[psychopomp-namine]

tbh hndr fandom is surprisingly chill, which is refreshing. maybe those rent lowering shots are working. I think the fanbase skews older too. either way, most of the route 0+ players I've seen actually like ima and eito, and hell even post-prologue takumi, which are good signs overall. I know it's still quite "early" though so who knows... but I hope the fandom stays this way 😔

[sol1loqu1st]

(In case this could be interpreted as judgemental or self-aggrandizing I'm going to just say upfront that I'm a literary criticism guy and these are just my thoughts on the episode + people's reactions to it, not a condemnation lol)

In the discussion of Dot & Bubble I have noticed that a lot of white fans (caveat: I am also white) didn't pick up on the racism until the very end/felt like it was too subtle, but honestly I felt like it was like. WILDLY obvious.

The Doctor being the only black person in a sea of white people, Lindy only listening to Ruby and repeatedly trying to block the Doctor even though they're saying the same things, repeatedly calling the Doctor rude when he's saying the same stuff as Ruby, etc, is like. not! subtle. (I also wonder slightly about the choice to put the Doctor in bright orange--iirc the orange jumpsuit inmates wear is a purely American thing and quite possibly not even something that crossed the costuming dept's mind, but given the themes of the episode and the fact that it's in contrast to all of the colorful, stylized pastels, the choice to put the doctor in Solid Orange and set him against a more muted background strikes me as....intentionally looking like a mugshot? But I'm not sure why, because the point of the episode wasn't to bias the audience against the Doctor, so who knows)

I think the thing about this episode people are misinterpreting (because RTD did a bad job) is that the bubble is meant to represent "phones bad," but I think it's actually commentary on how social media algorithms can quickly lock you into an echo chamber "bubble" of people who think and look just like you, that stops you from seeing outside to anyone else's pov and makes it so you rely completely on social media to tell you what to think and how to behave (and, crucially, how this can lead down a pipeline of unconscious--and eventually conscious--racism that can start with something as "innocent" as "coincidentally all of my friends are white.")

I feel like there's plenty of ground for people to have not caught on because they assumed the racism was not meant to be part of the story and just an exposure of the biases of whoever was in charge of casting the episode. But I think if you missed it entirely and didn't even think about it until it was overt, the episode was talking to you directly. Lower your bubble my dudes or you'll get eaten by slugs I guess

man idk how the slugs are supposed to factor into this argument i think the slugs are there because it's doctor who

[adapembroke]

Astrology at the End of the World

The Vikings are coming. You have five minutes to grab something and possibly escape with your life. What do you take? If I was a monk at Lindisfarne, the answer would have been a book. A thousand years later, my answer would be the same.

There is a shelf of books in my library that I call the “doomscrolling books.” It is full of books of cultural criticism that tell stories about civilization collapse, environmental catastrophe, and the fall of empires. There are only a few books on the shelf that I’ve read cover to cover. I’ve read pieces of most of the rest. 

The “doomscrolling books” are there for those moments when I’m in a dark place in my mind, and I can’t resist the urge to wallow. Reading a doomy dead tree edition feels slightly more virtuous than scrolling the news, so I grab a book that calls to me, scan the table of contents, and flip to a chapter that speaks to my fears. 

Doomscrolling on my phone drains me, but I put down the “doomscrolling books” feeling less tired and more clear-eyed. I’m sure this has something to do with the fact that reading a book requires me to focus and read paragraphs instead of flipping through click-bait headlines that lack nuance. But it also helps that many of the books on the doomscrolling shelf are old.

Reading old cultural criticism is kind of silly, like reading decades old newspapers, but I find it helps me to step out of the blindspots and biases of the present moment. I’m able to compare where they thought we were going and where we have actually gotten. The arguments that are accurate become more accurate with time, and the silly predictions are easy to laugh off as misguided fortune telling-–an attitude that helps me keep humble as an astrologer and gives me perspective when I read predictions published by authors today. 

What comes after the American empire?

Recently, I was reading The Twilight of American Culture by historian and social critic Morris Berman. The book was published back at the turn of the millennium, but, aside from the references to OJ Simpson and the death of Princess Di, his arguments have held up well and are painfully familiar.

Berman points to the decline of literacy, the growth of social inequality, and widespread cynicism as evidence that things aren’t right. He bemoans the technological toys and media-hyped scandals that are lulling us to sleep. The book is 25 years-old, written before the advent of cable news, social media, and algorithmically created filter bubbles. Critiques like his have only gotten louder and more mainstream since then. 

The cynicism that Berman complains about, in particular, has gotten much worse. Most of the apocalyptic visions of the present are incapable of imagining a future post-collapse. While Berman believes that the American empire is crumbling, he argues that this isn’t the end of history. 

We are heading, Berman says, into a new Middle Ages.

We are doing so with the ability to prepare ourselves in a way that the people of the early Middle Ages could not. We have the benefit of looking back to the fall of Rome. We can see the mistakes they made that plunged the intellectual culture of Europe into darkness for centuries, and we can act purposefully to preserve the ideas of the past, so our descendants can find them when they’re ready. 

I was born with Neptune in Capricorn, and I relish the idea of combing through the dusty attics of history, uncovering things that have been lost, and giving them new life, but there is more than hope for the archivist in Berman’s argument. His connection to the Middle Ages allows us to look back, not only for mistakes, but to find motives. 

Why did the Roman Empire give way to the Dark Ages? Were the people alive at the time trying to accomplish something? Are we in a similar place today?

What can we learn from the collapse of Rome?

There is rarely a single, nuclear moment when a civilization collapses. There is a decline, a period when people stop building anew and, instead, repair and recycle the things that have already been built. It is as if the people of that civilization have gotten tired and no longer have the energy or the will to continue to improve on the work of their ancestors. Their focus shifts to conservation, keeping what we have instead of falling into decline.

In The Passion of the Western Mind, Richard Tarnas argues that the Middle Ages began because there were serious emotional needs that were being unmet by the Roman Empire. As early as the Hellenistic period, people complained about how overwhelming it was to live in a massive, rootless culture. They longed for simpler days when people were deeply connected to the land and their families, when every small population center had its own personal relationship with the local gods instead of the distant and untouchable universal deities like Isis. 

Life in an empire is brain and no heart. It needs to be. Empires are built for the management of resources, not as a home for people. It is essential for the function of the empire for people to be able to go wherever their labor is needed. For centuries, citizens of the empire were functionally homeless. After generations of alienation, they longed to feel like they belonged somewhere again. 

Life in the Middle Ages revolved around the Church. Medieval people latched onto the Church because it provided meaning and comfort in a world in which both were lacking. After centuries of rootlessness, alienation, and emotional coldness, is it any wonder that people flocked to the monasteries and convents that embraced them with open arms and said, “You will never have to leave your home ever again?”

Fundamentally, the shift from the Roman Empire to the Dark Ages happened because people became so starved for meaning and connection that they were willing to give up all of the treasures of the empire to get it.

They reacted against the extremes of the empire and shifted to the opposite extremes. Where the empire valued wealth, they valued poverty. Where the empire valued mobility, they built castles of stone. Where the empire valued enormous, impersonal bureaucracies, they organized themselves into feudal hierarchies built on relationships between individual people. Where the empire valued diversity, they valued a single creed. Where the empire valued that which could be measured and engineered and articulated in words, they valued romantic poetry and the language of the heart.

Literacy was not lost during the Middle Ages, as is popularly believed. The culture merely shifted to a different kind of literacy. People of the Middle Ages were able to read stories in the stained glass windows of a church they had never visited with as much fluency as a 21st century professor picking up a book.

Berman says of it, “this was more of a 'Jungian' world than a world of cognitive understanding. The apprehension of the world, in other words, rested on myth and magic, and the prevalent mind-set was one of symbols, analogies, and images."

In a world that had been torn apart by war and conquest for centuries, the deep hunger for connection filled the people of the Middle Ages so completely, they immersed themselves in symbolic literacy that allowed them to think in webs instead of lines. 

Where is hope at the end of the empire?

The idea that we are living at the end of the American empire is comforting to me. As a poet and astrologer, I feel alienated from the technocratic world that values nothing but measurements and data. As a Taurus, I resent being forced to move from place to place on an impersonal employer’s whim. I hate that to the people in power, I am only a number, and I have a deep craving for connection with the land and the people who live on it. 

As such, I find Berman’s assertion that we are moving toward a new medieval period fundamentally hopeful, but I am wary of reactionary movements that want to drag us too far to the opposite extreme. 

While it is true that the Middle Ages were oriented toward meeting needs that had gone unmet for far too long, there were still many problems. During the Middle Ages the rise of symbolic thinking happened within the context of a culture that was lost in mass movements. People went to church and disappeared as individuals. Knowledge of math, engineering, and philosophy was lost. Intellectuals lost the ability to reason in a clear and logical way.

I want to have the best of both worlds. I love symbolic art, and I love books. I want herbal remedies and penicillin. I want local quirkiness and universal standards of measurements. I want to feel connected with others, and I want to be treated as an individual. I want to live in a world where feelings are valid, and one that values critical thought.

If we are going to have any hope of having it both ways, we must learn from the mistakes of the past. Berman argues that the loss of individuality was part of the great downfall of the intellectual life of the Middle Ages. The life of the mind requires introspection. Without the ability to understand yourself, your biases, and your motivations, you are unable to critically engage with the ideas of others. 

How can astrology help us toward a better future?

Critical thinking is the best defense we have against powerful charismatics who emotionally manipulate the masses into burning down libraries.  We need a life of the mind that is critical, even as we are remembering the power of symbolic languages. 

Astrology could be a trailblazer in the building of a new symbolic literacy. Astrology is a language of symbols. In learning the symbolic language of astrology, we begin to return to something like the web of meaning of the Middle Ages. 

Just because astrology is symbol-based, however, doesn’t mean it can’t be critical.

Narrative Astrology has critical thinking at its core.

In my astrology courses, I don’t feed you astrological dogma. I teach you astrological techniques from many different perspectives, and I give you a framework for putting together a framework of your own. 

At the end of every lesson, invite you to see the material through the lens of your natal chart so that you can relate to what you’re learning… and challenge it. 

I believe that a good astrology education should constantly ask the student, “How does this make you feel? Where are you in all of this? Does this story about who you are match the facts of your life?”

In astrology, the natal chart is a tool we use to access our inner worlds, and the individual must be at the center. The symbolic language takes us, not out of ourselves, but deeper in. This is not self-centered. It is necessary work. 

The world is breaking. So many of us feel it. We are alienated from each other and from the ground beneath our feet, but we cannot find connection outside us until we find connection with ourselves. By making peace with ourselves and repairing the webs of connection in the inner world, we can begin repairing the outer world. If we don’t allow ourselves to get emotionally manipulated and pulled to extremes, we might restore the lost symbolic literacy that thrived in the Middle Ages and preserve the individualism that allows us to think critically. 

Perhaps, astrology can help us find a balance between the language of the head and the heart, and in that balance we can travel more hopefully into the dark.

Related Articles

[sammywolfgirl]

Actually no let’s dissect this new layout as someone who has used Twitter for a bit @staff listen up @wip @changes

I used Twitter for about a year because a lot of my mutuals at the time did, and you know what?

I hated the layout.

I didn’t like how I had to keep tabs on my friends because the algorithm would show me shitty stuff I wouldn’t want to see and was so hard to curate a feed

I’m fairly certain I ended up blocking a lot of people because they kept liking pictures of boobs and I didn’t want to see that shit and Twitter never let you turn that off

I ended up blocking people who kept getting recommended because their art made me sick and I didn’t want to see untagged nsfw on my feed

And the side bar sucked, it took me a while to figure out how to post in the first place

And don’t get me started about having a trending tab always right there and how it would set off my anxiety because every day it was just “here’s a new thing to make you want to jump off a cliff!”

Twitter and the way it works is designed to get hate clicks and engage on outrage, is that the method you want to follow?

Especially for a website who’s users are very loudly against that and also like privacy and will literally use outside resources to fix the ‘improvements’ you made because you didn’t think a toggle feature was worth it

Also putting the stuff on the left or right does not draw the eye, why? Because that’s where your hands are. Blocking the features you want to engage with. My eye is drawn up so putting your stuff there works best! It gets attention. Not to the right where my big ass hand is blocking the post button. (This is also why you should put the mobile post bubble back in the bar where it belongs but that’s a topic for another day)

I understand tumblr is in debt hell, but users have stated many times that if you just ask for donations like ao3 they’d be happy to donate

Hell, crab day was thrown around to be just like that.

Listen to your users or they will all leave for the websites you’re poorly emulating.

Tumblr is surviving because it offers an experience NO OTHER WEBSITE DOES

Taking that away just means tumblr is not unique, and users would rather try their luck with a website that’s doing this better.

Like Twitter, or tic tok, or Instagram.

Lean into your uniqueness and just ask for donations like an adult, just a little add that shows up in the add rotation that’s like “like what you see? Why not throw a dollar in the tip jar?” Like frame it like giving money to an artist so they can keep doing what you love, it’ll be charming!

Tumblr will not find success or even break even if you try and appeal to newcomers, every new social media is confusing to newbies, but you know what they do? They learn, and they adapt. And changing everything is going to make you loose legacy users who again, would LOVE TO DONATE MONEY TO KEEP THIS HELLSIGHT STANDING AS IS.

Or do you just not care about the users? The users who have the money you need.

I don’t want to watch tumblr die a slow and painful death like Twitter is.

And you know there’s something oddly poetic about tumblr, the quirky kid, tearing itself apart just to fit in with the popular kids which won’t work out and only lead to hollow friendships that can turn on a dime when you could have found meaningful relationships with the other weirdos who like your quirks and flaws and would have been ride or die for you.

But no we gotta be like Twitter so let’s chop off our arms and legs becsuse that’s what they’re doing

Tkdr listen to your users and open an donations sight so you can keep being tumblr and get money for it okay? Okay. Thanks for coming to my Ted talk

[msgrumpygills]

Social Media Anon Here!

Firstly, never change Grumpy ;) you are probably the only person on Tumblr to LISTEN to another view and let it change a prejudice.

Secondly, the Padagram/Social Media change bus continues. Don't be fooled people will be looking at positive and negative reactions to that change on social media.

So here goes!

1. They are starting to market season 2 of Walker in Hiatus. That really doesn't happen. That means they know they need to target new viewers. They are acknowledging they have a problem. The main problem is Jared either didn't learn enough about production quality on SPN (Jensen/Misha were both more interested in behind the camera's) or that he thought he could stick a Stetson on and we all had such sh1t for brains we'd watch anything. So they need a viewer boost DESPARATELY and are going all out to (a) persuade Walkers remaining viewer(s) that it's worth sticking around and (b) get back old viewers or convert 1m+ viewers to season 2. So now we see all the cast (and Keegan has more followers than Jared and Lindsay has a VERY engaged following) trying to persuade their followers how fabulous Walker is. Expect this scrabbling to continue if they want their COVID paychecks.

2. Connected to 1, Jared has started trying to break out of the fandom bubble. I don't think he's trying for power couple (the clue in a power couple is that two FAMOUS people get together and create a super brand, here we have one niche C famous guy and a hanger on wife), I think we are in Jared profile raising and trying to raise his recognition score, which is probably a little low having half assed it in the last year and a half. He's doing it by scatter-gunning so I'm not sure it's going to stick.

3. Connected to 2,

(i) if I run my algorithm clean laptop with a "Jared Padalecki" news search, I get (a) a daily mail article on Jared "clarifying the rift" (b) a "hello" magazine saying he's been "inundated with support after death of "family member"" (c) the new york times article on Walker and Supernatural. It then goes into a variety of articles about Jared raising money for Holly's family (fucking atrocious in my view to use her death for publicity) and a series of derivative articles on his mantrum and later explanation. ONLY THE NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE MENTIONS WALKER other than as a throw away, all of the others link to Supernatural only. Walker isn't on the main radar of anyone as a show. It's not mainstream enough to mention. it has ZERO buzz.

(ii) if I run the same search on my compromised tablet, I get a SEA of fluff articles "jared padalecki goes to venice", "jared padalecki's wife wishes him a happy birthday" "jared padalecki goes to watch soccer" "jared padalecki goes to the wrestling". I'm expecting "Jared Padalecki defecates regularly" tomorrow.

At the end of that I get the same articles as in (i) but the majority of his publicity is still going through the fandom and the, not very viewed, endless zine type websites that update on every episode of every geek show every day.

So we are seeing, and I expect it to continue, a break out Padalecki, (who knows he and his forehead may wish to have a final crack at films), and a fluff Padalecki, trying to stay relevant a year after SPN relevance ended, because he hasn't got the same push for season 2 of Walker as he had for season 1 and Walker has zero presence. No one, not even the fans are talking about Walker.

Will it work? I don't think so. Keegan has 7m followers on Insta and that's because he's a photographer and writer and it's interesting. I would follow his account (I don't), but certainly it isn't a Walker instagram.

Jared is a clever guy, but he's boring on social media. He has a limited appeal. He does family snaps, hunk snaps, flogs orange pee and flogs his show. He says "family" and "mantra" a lot but that's really it. The clue is, if you didn't know who he was and came across his instagram you wouldn't follow him. Why would you? For a video of a guy running up steps? A smug picture of two middle aged men trying to flog you something?... (oh and lots of "brother" comments on Keegan's social media, which is irritating. It's like he thinks that is his repeatable formula and it isn't).

His media approach won't work because advertising and exposure pushes a product. In TV's case, it's not a one off product and there is a lot of competition. Product Jared needs to be more interesting (his mantrum's are the only exciting thing about him - and that is tragic) and his TV show just needs to be BETTER, well, a LOT BETTER.

Soooo, expect the Padapush to continue, but it's not about a couple, it's about individual marketing and for Jared breaking out of SPN bubble. For Gen, it's her tag along profile that she'll never break out of. She'll have to be satisfied with her superpower of being able to persuade people to buy toothbrush's and dog food (if she can).

Expect though the couple's bit to die off a little. Jared is getting over exposed. His engagement rating is plummeting (nearly 3% is a plummet) because of the repetitive photo content. He'll have to back off or people will switch off (I have already). What makes me laugh is.... from the dawn of time when cavemen took their wives 2 miles away for a new cave weekend.... NO ONE HAS EVER BEEN INTERESTED IN SOMEONE ELSE'S HOLIDAY SNAPS.... Gen and Jared apparently need to learn that lesson...

I might stop these posts now because, well, it's gotta be a bit boring for you and I write LONG. :)

Stay safe and wear your masks ;) xxx

I don’t want you to ever ever change, lovely! Also, I’m NEVER bored by your messages! You put so much effort into the research you do and the messages you send and it’s appreciated! <3 

I started following Lindsey on IG because she seems pretty genuine, and her cat is way too cute! Plus, I like her attitude. I haven’t followed her for the whole Walker season, but even she doesn’t post a lot about it. She posts interviews and then posts about that night’s episode, but other than that, nothing.  Can’t speak for Keegan, but how are fans and non-fans supposed to be excited about a show when the people STARRING in the show can’t be bothered? Maybe they’re all aware of how shitty it is or maybe they’re lazy, but it doesn’t make sense. 

I’m always interested to see the difference in an “algorithm-free” setting and one that has an algorithm. I always figured Google was the same for everyone, but seeing the difference in articles you’ve outlined is insane. It really just goes to show that Jared isn’t the star that his stans think he is. He’s not as important as they think he is, he’s just an actor.  It’s even more jarring to see just how little Walker is talked about at all. All of my devices probably have been “contaminated” when it comes to algorithm so I can’t really speak personally about the public and fans talking about Walker or not talking about it. I can say that on the posts about Walker from the Supernatural Facebook page, a good chunk of the comments are people saying they stopped watching, never got into it, or thought it was trash. There are only a handful of comments talking about how they enjoy the show. 

I think it was disgusting for him to use a fan’s passing for publicity. And no, I don’t think it was anything other than a PR stunt. Her family had a GFM going that was promoted by plenty of the case INCLUDING GEN, so you know he knew about it. But for him to make his own special one and then have articles posted everywhere about how charitable he is? That’s gross PR bullshit and I hope it backfires. 

I still follow a few Supernatural fans, Jared fans, Jensen fans, etc. on Tumblr and even they aren’t mentioning it. I think maybe the hardcore Jared stans post gifsets or whatever, but I don’t see much praise for the show itself, just Jared’s looks. Even the fans aren’t biting and that would make me reevaluate everything if I was Jared. 

I'm expecting "Jared Padalecki defecates regularly" tomorrow. This made me laugh way too hard!

who knows he and his forehead may wish to have a final crack at films You are on a ROLL!  Maybe I’ve become biased, but I can’t see Jared doing films. I mean, I could see him doing like a side character role or something small, but I can’t see him having a big part of a movie. Like I said, maybe that’s me being biased but I see him staying in TV. I could be proven wrong, but I don’t know. 

I agree about Jared being boring on SM. I used to get some giggles from his Twitter posts and even some of his early IG posts because they were goofy, clever, and candid. It showed his humor and was more personable. Now it’s just all fake and comes off as someone whose only motivation to engage with fans is money and that’s a big turn off. 

For me personally, I think that if instead of the “couple goals” bullshit that they try to push for their lavish trips, if they just posted cool pictures they took of different locations, activities, food or whatever, that would be more palatable than all the “Look at my hubster and I! We’re in Italy! Look at how in love we are!” But maybe that’s because I’ve become a bit of a photography nerd? 

I guess time will tell whether or not Jared will make positive changes and if Walker can be saved, but I’m not really optimistic about it. 

I AM optimistic about your takes on things so keep them coming! Long posts or not, I love them! <3

[hopeshoodie]

ok so which li’s do you think went to college?

So there’s the explicitly canon ones of Marisol, Rocco, and Blake. But I think it’s also implicit in canon that Lucas and Noah did as well- physiotherapy is a extremely specific degree, and in the States you have to have a masters in library sciences to even be considered for a librarian job (there’s more flexibility for assistants and volunteers, but even then they’re usually students). I honestly love thinking about Noah as a library sciences person, like archival work and methodology is so cool and I wish I had taken more classes about it in school.

But with everyone else, there’s a lot more wiggle room. The people I headcanon as having degrees are Hope, Hannah, Kassam, Elisa, and Ibrahim.

A lot of corporate business stuff, while not really needing a degree in practice, only hire people who have business or related degrees. Especially when Hope’s already an ambassador, she needs the credentials to justify getting hired. I can see her having done an undergraduate/MBA combined program and having a degree in communications or business merchandizing.

Hannah definitely has a degree in communications and a minor in English. She just oozes pretentious college girl vibes. I’ve met four of her in literature and philosophy classes, and they’re always working on the next american novel (but don’t actually have any of it written). 

Kassam just gives me the vibe of someone who grew up in a relatively well-educated and upper class family, went to college, then decided to pursue his passion. I bet his parents had an agreement like ‘you can do whatever you want, just get a degree first’. He might’ve studied music (I love the concept of him being a fine arts major in like… violin or something but then only making EDM or vaporwave music), but I bet he has a ‘respectable’ humanities degree like sociology or geography and just never uses it or talks about it.

I don’t have a reason for Elisa, I just /feel/ like she’s super smart. Lowkey I love the idea of her studying algorithms or psychology in application to social media and then applying it to her job. I very much get a Paris Hilton vibe from her, where she puts on this very bubbly airheaded persona but is really smart and strategic. 

In the US, golf is a sport like… Exclusively for upper middle class and rich people. Also in the US, the massive class divide is often the level of education or specific university you’re accepted to and attend. So like, golfers are more likely to be rich and rich people almost always have degrees from fancy private universities. I can see Rahim attending a prestigious private university, with the way he dresses and carries himself. Because it doesn’t matter what you major in, I headcanon that he got a degree in film or literature because he’s always loved narratives and storytelling. 

The people I headcanon has having completed some university but never finished their degree are Shannon, Carl, maybe Graham, and Jakub.

I think Shannon originally went for something like statistics, syllogism, or math and then realized that she hated the environment. She’s a ‘work hard play hard’ kind of person, and I don’t see her finding a lot of people willing to match that energy but still make it to class the next morning. She also realized that she could make more money without a degree, and that was the nail in the coffin.

Carl probably tried to take a computer sciences degree then realized the university he went to had a really outdated curriculum and he could learn more in online communities and through experience than formal coding classes. 

I imagine Graham always wanted to be a marine biologist (which is why he takes fish puns so seriously) but then really struggled to support himself in school and also realizing that there’s fewer and fewer jobs in academia. He took a work study program on a crab ship to study the impact on certain species and realized he enjoyed the physical aspects of the work more than the intellectual. He’s still passionate about conservation, though. 

Jakub gives me the vibe that maybe he was originally a legitimate personal trainer- going to school for it and getting licensed, but then got caught up in the ‘balling’ lifestyle on Instagram where it becomes less about fitness and more about pulling chicks.

Then everyone else ~might~ have gone to uni, but I don’t think they did. 

Most realtors I work with don’t have bachelor degrees but they do have special training for their licenses, so I can see Priya having that but not a university degree.

Garebear probably has training specific to his job but not a formal degree

You can get a degree in interior design, but Chelsea doesn’t really strike me as the kind of designer with a fine arts degree. I bet she built her clientele base from the bottom up and was more self-made than that. 

 I’m thinking that Jo, Bobby, Felix, Lottie, Arjun, and Henrik all started work right after high school or whatever the equivalent is.  

[rinrenrina]

Protests and social movements: local news media and you.

This Patriot Act video by Hasan Minhaj is about how important local news is to covering what affects us, especially in light of BLM and antifa protests. Local news media are compiling lists of Black-owned businesses, protest groups that need support, community resources, and documenting/recording perspectives and events. It's also local news media that are breaking stories of national importance like Epstein.

First, a timely article about the Seattle autonomous zone/CHAZ that’s an exact example of what’s going on in the video: local Seattle Times journalists did original reporting [link] and fact-checked some claims (yes, it’s peaceful; no, crimes are not happening; no, local businesses are not being extorted and in fact are doing well; yes, the mayor and governor told Trump to shut up) along with USA Today, which picked up ST’s reporting and added more information [link]. And here’s more original local reporting about armed right-wing groups being dangerous and obnoxious because they boogeyman antifa: [link]. Industry callouts on Fox News for creating and publishing doctored images of CHAZ, which is as ridiculous as it sounds [link].

Ridiculous.

To the point, the video had me thinking about the widespread "Why isn't the media talking about this" or "What the media won't show" messaging that's in nearly every high-note protest/BLM Twitter thread or Tumblr post I’ve seen that are not only often false (Yes, local and national news organizations are reporting that protesters are peaceful [link], cops are abusive+lying to everyone about the content of their body cams [link], and communities are creating resource and hydration centers [link]. No, news media will not ignore you if you keep protesting - the video in this post [link] is from NBC.), but show how much of an information bubble some people live in.

Remember, these are your news orgs, not a government's news orgs. Everyday people are the voices in an article, especially in local and community news.

The same popular posts I see about not trusting Democrats/Biden/liberalism and incrementalism are voiced by several knowledgeable activists in this article, New generation of activists, deeply skeptical of Democratic Party, resists calls to channel energy into the 2020 campaign [WP link | non-paywall MSN link] by Cleve Wootson Jr. [link].

Some pull quotes (but you should check out the article):

“Some people are like I’m . . . done accepting what the Democratic Party has offered us. It’s not getting better,” said Keene, 37. “This current moment is a reflection of the United States’ inability to meet any of the demands black people have put forward. I wish they would stop holding black people responsible for the failures of the Democratic Party. Why aren’t y’all responsible for not giving us a candidate worth voting for?”

Malcolm X warned people that neither Democrats nor Republicans had adequate plans to help black Americans in his “Ballot or the Bullet” speech. And Martin Luther King Jr. called on his followers to not accept political stalling.

“It’s always come down to the question of time,” Delmont said. “Dr. King had so many great sermons or speeches about time and how that group of activists just could not wait. People feel the same way today. You can’t wait for Biden to get elected. You can’t wait four years. We can’t wait on politicians if we want to see these things change.”

These are the same ideas that have floated through the blogosphere, especially here on Tumblr.

That isn't to be an idealist though. There's a lot to complain about in US journalism. At the top editor positions, it's highly staffed by white people, men, cishets, and those with privileged backgrounds. All journalists use news judgement (PBS has information on what news judgement is here: [link]), which in front page design aims to showcase what’s important to know in terms of impact, but deciding "what's important/what will people read" when the decision-making team is homogeneous and privileged leaves valuable voices unheard, entire life experiences unaddressed, and harms marginalized groups.

This is something recognized among journalists: The Inquirer's POC staff had a sick-out and open letter about a now-fired top editor's news article that insensitively riffed on BLM [link], NYT staff and union came out against the now-demoted opinion editor’s publishing of an opinion piece by the Arkansas governor that called for violence against protesters [link], Post-Gazette was publicly criticized by staff, union, and the public when management barred a Black journalist from reporting on protests because she joked about anti-protester hypocrisy [link].

There's a lot of criticism to be had about US journalism, but the "Why isn't the media talking about this" or "What the media won't show" messaging I'm seeing on Tumblr and Twitter is inaccurate because the very things people are saying are not being reported actually are being reported. It's coming from a place of not having the methods to access this information - maybe it’s not visiting non-social media sites to receive the news that affect and reflect you, not understanding that articles of quality take time, not knowing that you can reach out to news orgs and tell them what the news is, and/or not knowing how overwhelmed/source competitive news organizations are.

A read more to not dash stretch. Under the read more is information on how to escape the “Why isn’t the media reporting”/”Why am I only just hearing” information bubble (visit a news site), why the news takes days to be good (imagine writing an original research essay), and tips on avoiding paywalls and on basic journalism.

Receiving the news that affect and reflect you

There's a significant difference between the news you will see on a social media feed (even if you do follow news orgs) and the news you will see by going to any news website. I can write more about it later, but the tl;dr is that the news you see on a social media feed is decided entirely by algorithms, money, and community bubbles, which isn't evil, but causes other important news to be buried on your feeds. Social media are great for fast news and no longer letting only a select few people, who cannot reflect the need-to-knows of everyone, decide what's important. And to better avoid the information bubble, you can combine your social media feeds with news websites so that you can better avoid the "Why am I only just hearing about this" phenomenon and see that yes, the thing you said was never reported on, probably was reported. Yes, the front page curation won’t reflect the need-to-knows or even nice-to-knows of everyone, but the information available is still valuable and impactful - I saw the article on armed right-wingers holding an anti-antifa block party by visiting Seattle Times, Wootson’s article from MSN, the article on cops lying on documents about their body cam recordings from CNN’s front page. By visiting news websites, you may find information and topics that never landed on your feed - which you can now introduce to and improve your social circles with.

Articles of quality take time, aka "People wanted the news five minutes ago"

There's a few tweet threads where someone is shooting video of a currently developing situation, with a caption akin to "Why isn't the media talking about this" ...even though this is something that is currently happening, so of course no one has sat down and made the article or video segment. Especially if they’re waiting on comment from city officials. Tweets are a fast, immediate information delivery method and this is where protesters have an advantage. If you had checked YouTube's front page from the US the past weeks, you may have noticed that the news video article/news livestream section took about two days from the start of the protests to say that the protesters are peaceful and that it's the police that are violent. It's extremely slow compared to a protester's tweet. If you combine the speediness of a protester's tweet with the context/backstory/statement from officials in a news article, your knowledge of what's happening is more thorough. The news article takes time to come out and be worth reading, though.

(Related to the topic of speed and quality is the Mueller Report. It's 450 pages, yet news orgs were writing about it on day one. It was all junk because they were reading from the Trump CliffsNotes in the rush to meet the people-want-to-know-yesterday/first scoop demands so the articles worth any time only started coming out a week after the Report's release. News orgs admitted to their initial reporting being garbage and being led on, but by then readers who don't look at news websites had moved on. The same goes for any protest or breaking news coverage: it's usually junk for the first few days. Sometimes subverted by local news orgs due to their proximity to the events.)

Reach out to news orgs

There's important ground information coming from protesters and observers - first-hand experience with police brutality, police militarization, and just how tired Black Americans are of having to protest for their lives. Among this info are communities' food and hydration resources, example here [link].

"What the media won't show." "These stories need to be told."

Two things that go well together by remembering to tell your local news organizations. And if they show up (you might get the reporting from a desk treatment: adapting a press release (which btw, nonprofits and non-organized groups can write and submit too) to an article), you have their ear: tell them your message. Something every journalist has heard? "Your article is only as good as its sources." You can be the reason that article and news org are good.

The above mostly applies for when you don't want to be a press worker. But another angle is to be your own community's source of news and watchdog. You have access to the exact same information a news organization is privy to (FOIA and PRA), the same protective laws (shield laws, the First Amendment guarantees the right for journalists to work), and being a writer is free to learn and easy to do especially in the time of free blogging and content hosting. As this NPR post [link] put it:

I think I can say that I have some professional credibility as a journalist. I have a master’s degree from a major university, a national Emmy award, work in all forms of media, and am in charge of journalism at Wayne State University in Detroit.

Yet legally, I have the same standing as a journalist as a high school dropout who writes a blog in his grandmother’s basement, and that is exactly the way it is supposed to be.

And if you do start your own community news source, forward the articles you publish to the wider-area news orgs above you. Tying it back to the video: this is how the news works - local news media are important to national discourse.

Here’s some other things that can hopefully be helpful to understanding the essential field that is journalism:

- If you're being paywalled by a local or national newspaper or by a magazine you want to read, check if your library (or a friend who will let you use their library card) already pays for online access either through a website or through an app like Flipster. Or, search the title of the article and see if an another site (such as MSN) offers it free. - Tips: You only need to read the first two-three paragraphs of a news article, but it helps to read the rest. How and when to be an anonymous or on-background source: when you have information no one else has and/or you would face retaliation for speaking. More here: [link]. What differentiates an opinion from an editorial: editorials are the opinion of the editorial board, opinions are written by columnists, officials, and readers. Figure out what type of article you like better: inverted pyramid favors quick reporting (minutes to hours) and fewer facts, feature style favors long-term reporting (weeks to months) and more research, details, and human-focused anecdotes/testimony.

To nitpick the video: local and national broadcast news has more than what’s on TV, they also have a robust web article and web video article presence. For example, NBC’s article about BLM NY members’ and other activist groups in NY’s social justice and policy goals (and an app that creates digital models of Black and brown heroes of history to educate!). [NBC link | MSN link]

[evechan90]

Democracy under siege, and the brainwashing of the algorithm on our society: how American social events influence the world

We’ve all seen the disturbing images from the Capitol building in Washington D.C. from January 6th this year. It’s a terrifying idea that an enormous group of people were willing to go this far to overturn a democratic decision. Though it is frightening, we should really ought to learn from this event. Because, what frightens me even more, is the possible effect it will gradually or even directly have on our worldwide democratic societies, ideas and policies.

It is no news to you, when I say that the influence events in the United States of America has had the past centuries are without doubt big. Some were good, some were less. In any case, we’ve seen the effect it’s had on the world.

Somehow, America is the big brother we all look up to. Which seems weird if you look closer to some of its policies or political systems. They are flawed. And probably not easily repaired or mend.

The last 4 years seemed to even magnify the influence that the USA has towards other countries. And I don’t mean a political influence, which they also have, but a deep cultural and social influence. President Trump has been a big pawn in this. But we cannot only blame him, we must also blame the political system in America, the media, the lack of interference from social media, and above all the lack of knowledge about what I can only refer to as ‘the brainwashing of the algorithm on our society”. I will talk more about that later.

It’s not hard to see where some of the events in the last 4 years have influenced behavior in other countries. Myself, a Dutch, have seen disturbing images of people behaving like pro-trump protesters. It disturbs me deeply to hear Dutch people yelling to their government “lock her up” and to hear people distrusting our media calling it “the regular media”. And above that, some even turn violent against ministers of our government or even against the news crew, covering a story. And these are just a few examples. The distrust against governments, media and science is spreading more and more. And then there is the whole conspiracy theories problem which has rooted itself in our society in The Netherlands. These things are not just by any chance popping up here and there, they are clearly coming from a country where these things are more and more becoming normalized. Of course we cannot only look at the bad stuff. I was moved to see how the black lives matter movement influenced so many people around the world to protest, in the middle of a pandemic.

But after seeing the images of the Capitol in Washington D.C. I am scared to the bone about what this event, and perhaps the following events the next few weeks, will have for consequences for our own country and our democracy. It would not surprise me if in March this year, when our elections will be held, there will be a mirror image of what happened in the USA. I beg to be wrong about this, but I’m afraid that I’m not. Only time will tell.

But I do think we need to learn from the mistakes that were made in the USA. We need to look harder for the signs, the omens. And we clearly need to find a way to overcome these illusions of conspiracy, of hate and distrust. There is no longer time to look away, as we have seen in the USA, people who were looking away, gave room for the events occurring on the 6th. The republican senators and other politicians who have been blindly following whatever Trump was doing (or rather, not doing), are really to blame also for what happened in D.C. Should they have not been so naïve, so tolerable to what happened the past 4 years, they could have probably put it to a halt. But they didn’t.

When the pandemic broke out, I was hopeful. Hopeful that our world as a whole would come together, and would share the load. That we might together find a way to overturn this event, and stand up to it. I couldn’t have been more wrong. It polarized even further what was already polarizing. It magnified distrust, in people who were already distrusting. It kindled a hatred for each other, and we all turned to ourselves first. We closed borders, thinking only of ourselves. No, this pandemic would not be the one thing to unite us all.

We need to talk about ‘the brainwashing of the algorithm on our society”. It sounds a bit extreme, doesn’t it? Maybe it is. But I think it sums up the problems we face these days, using social media.

If you want a deeper dive in the problem, I suggest you watch “the social dilemma” and “The great hack” on Netflix. They perfectly explain what’s wrong with these social media and the algorithms it uses. For those of you who are not familiar with it: it creates what we call “bubbles”. Whenever you are on the internet, on let’s say Facebook for example, you are, probably unaware, in a bubble.

Remember when Facebook was just becoming ‘a thing’ in the world? You would have friends who’d post things about what they did that day. You didn’t have a lot of friends yet, so all you saw, was mostly all there was. But after years went by, they added advertisement, you added more friends, and suddenly what you see on your timeline is in no way everything there is. The amount of posts becomes so large, that Facebook starts using a system to guess which posts are the most relevant for you. This means an algorithm is now deciding what you see, and most importantly, what you not see.

This is what we call “the bubble”. It is in no way a representation of what is really posted on facebook. This leads to people only seeing one perspective, or to use Muse’s lyrics from ‘blockades’ which I think is fitting here, “trapped in a maze of unseen walls”. For example, one of your friends posts a video about anti-vaxxing. You like the video, even though you may not in fact be an anti-vaxxer yourself. The next time you open Facebook, it will think you like video’s about anti-vaxxing. So it pushes more posts from friends who post or like things about this subject. Slowly your timeline will fill itself with the subject. Then what’s even more a problem, is that the algorithm will try to find other content for you that it thinks you will like because you clicked on the anti-vaxx video. Then suddenly your timeline will show posts about conspiracies, for example. And since you were using Facebook years ago, when all you saw, was mostly all there was, you will think the same way as then, and suddenly you are in the middle of a bubble about a subject you wouldn’t even think about at first. It’s ‘brainwashing’ you to think that what you see is all there is and it shows you confirmation because it will probably only show you friends in your timeline that think the same.

This leads to more problems than we could imagine, but I think what we saw on the 6th at the Capitol, is a clear example of it. It is easy to blame the ignorance of those people. But you have to know, that these people truly believe what they think is the truth. Of course, Trump easily puts fuel on the fire, and this is a problem in itself. I believe we have to stop blaming each other, and start looking at the problems this world is creating for itself by a fast growing artificial intelligence being used for the personal, and above all, financial interest of millions of companies.

Which leads me of course, to the problem with the advertisements on social media. Advertisements on social media are a great way to precisely target audiences, or buyers. Since facebook has all this information about you, it thinks it knows what you like, dislike, what kind of person you are or are not. This information is used to target specific advertisements to you. As someone said in “The social dilemma”. ‘Whenever something is free to use, you are the product they sell’.

I believe companies such as Facebook created all these things out of good intention. And in a way, they work, since you’ll only see things that you relate to. But they must confess that the thing has become a monster. It controls everything people see on their social media, it filters out other important things. The last couple of years there have been plenty of trials, and other initiatives to try and force some of these big corporations, like Facebook, to change the way these algorithms are in play, to make them own their mistakes and do right by it. But it seems to have little to no influence. The damage is done. As we can clearly see in Washington D.C. So what can we do?

We need to educate ourselves and others. We need to make people understand how the algorithms in social media create these harmful bubbles. Because, as soon as you see it, you can prick through the bubble and look beyond. We need to talk to each other about all the problems that have polarized us. Instead of yelling and screaming, instead of safely but rudely commenting on an online post, tearing each other down to the ground, we need to talk in open and safe spaces, whether this means online or offline.

I own Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and other social media accounts, and I have not yet closed them down. Because they also give hope and support. They can make people come together and they can educate us. They can make us as a human being stronger, better and more open minded. But only if we take off these blindfolds that the algorithms have put over our eyes.

America, as you well know, we look up to you. Use it to show how change can be made for the better. Show you can overcome the greatest of threats. Be the example we all need to see.

And to everyone else: be thoughtful, check your sources, burst your bubble!

[jacob-wentworth]

The Spread of Fake News

After reading the article “Three Reasons Junk News Spreads Quickly Across Social Media”, I have come to realize that we are only seeing what the internet wants us to see. The way that this is happening, is through algorithms, advertising, and exposure. Algorithms are what sort through massive amounts of information when we look something up so that we get to an answer that is what we are looking for or an answer that is close to what we are looking for. These algorithms help, but they prioritize certain content so that they chose what someone sees and what they do not. I believe that it is good to have algorithms for finding answers to things, but they should not be able to keep information from people. They should not be able to have filter bubbles that limit information flows and perpetuate bias. An example of this in the political field that I have seen is that when I look something up for a political party, I only get information the relates to one party. As for businesses and individuals, they just need to be aware that everything that you see and read on the internet is not true or is not the only opinion on things. These businesses and individuals could respond to these conditions by looking up different information than what they think and try to get other information from people or places that think in a different direction than the individual or the business.

The next reason why junk news spreads quickly across social media is advertising. Like we had just talked about in the last blog, and from what we watched in the Netflix documentary “The Social Dilemma”, social media sites are free because they sell our attention to companies through advertising. Social media sites take the information that is given to them through algorithms and they sell that information to large companies so that they can advertise to users that might be interested in things that they are selling. To myself, this should not be done. Being able to sell someone’s attention without them knowing about it should not happen. An example that has happened to me is that I have gone to a store online such as Nike.com and looked at a pair of shoes to buy, but I ended up not buying them. Then the next time I got on a social media site like Facebook, an advertisement popped up and it was for the shoes that I had looked at buying but did not. For businesses and other individuals, they should be aware that social media sites are selling their information to companies and that is why things that you have recently looked up on the internet are advertisements on their social media sites. Businesses and individuals could respond to these conditions by not being online so much so that it takes some of the power away from social media sites. The less that businesses and individuals are on social media the less attention you are giving to the sites and the ability to sell the advertisements.

The final reason for junk news spreading quickly across social media is exposure. Algorithms and advertisements filter and deliver information to us as users, but we also as the user select what we want to see and ignore. An example of this would be that as a user of social media, you pick who you follow and who you do not. This example puts the user in an area that they will only see things that they agree with. Another example is when you click on a link for political news. If a user is republican, they are going to click on links that relate to a Republican candidate more than a link that relates to a Democratic candidate. This tells the internet what type of political information to give the user because they know that the user clicks on more links that have to do with Republicans than Democrats. For business and individuals, they should be aware that when clicking on links on the internet, you are never getting the full story. The user or the business is only getting what the internet thinks you would want to see and read based on the user's or business history.  A way that businesses and individuals could respond to these conditions is to search for information that you might not agree with to get the whole story, or read about both sides of a problem or political party so that they are getting both sides of the story and not just one.

[mariellewritesalot]

Notes on the Romantic Narrative

As an homage to my favorite film of all-time “Silver Linings Playbook” finally being on Netflix, and a coping mechanism to everything I’ve been feeling as of late: I am writing to you about some musings I’ve been making and breaking for the past few months. About love, or lack thereof, in my life. 

First, to give you an image of how I pay attention to detail in life and movies, I will start with a few reasons why I love this gem despite the huge changes they made on screen vis-à-vis the novel: 1) It portrayed mental illnesses in a way that didn’t feel pushy or overly-romanticized: healing is not linear, 2) Pat’s character development throughout the film was the epitome of his motto (and mine), “Excelsior”, 3) I love how the story sort of revolved around the Eagles and football to anchor the heaviness of the entire plot line, 4) The casting!!! I mean, wow, and 5) It makes you believe in silver linings, even in the safest sense of the idea, not too grand and definitely not perfect. Safe. Who could forget that scene where Pat runs after Tiffany with his letter? The relief we all felt knowing that her hard work and feelings were not for naught? If you haven’t seen it, I hope you have the time to. It’s a moving film, honestly.

Anyway, I digress. I am going to go personal in this bit and I might not like it, too. I am stating the obvious when I say that I am a hopeless romantic and that I tend to look at life in rose-colored glasses. Some probable reasons are because my parents have the kind of love story that really makes you believe in fate and second chances, plus the fact that I grew up with romantic films, songs, and books. I was sold to the fairy tale idea of happily ever afters despite the proof that it doesn’t apply to everyone in real life. I wanted my own story to tell. After all, I am a writer. I live for the things worth telling.

Nowadays, I also spend a lot of my time online where my timeline is bombarded with couples or romantic gestures, as if the algorithm is working against the realist in me. I can’t say I hate it, because one thing I get from this mindset is the tendency to highlight the good things, both in people or situations. The “too kind for my own good” complex. The only downside is that I may get disappointed more times than I should. It’s a tricky predicament if you think about it in my context: I grew up with mostly men in the house, in my own bubble, going through life thinking that somebody is going to sweep me off my feet, backed up by High School Musical films and the media pushing love teams down our throats...but then it hits me in real life as I grow older: movie moments do happen in real life, but they aren’t as common as they make it out to be, they’re the exception to the rule. They are as rare as they come. 

Some of us aren’t as lucky.

In reality, when the hurt runs too deep, it feels almost impossible to rise above it. The hopeless romantic dies out and is replaced by a semi-angry realist, tired of how the world consistently proves that it moves in circles. They become someone who occasionally relapses into that romanticized haze every once in a while because it gets lonely. When you’ve fallen in love a few times in life, it’s hard not to expect yourself to fall into a trap, any moment now. The withdrawals grow stronger just when you’re starting to get the hang of things. It’s an exhausting ordeal, if you ask me, turning numb but knowing that you can’t shake off the romantic within when it resurfaces in the most inappropriate of moments.

I used to think that I’d be one of the lucky ones who meet the love of their life early on; someone who’s capable of being in a long-term relationship in college or maybe even after...and I still think I am, but maybe I haven’t met him yet. Maybe I have, but the timing is off or we just don’t know it until a little further down the road. Now I’ve been single for too long, and there is nothing wrong with it, just the fact that the trauma I went through has really soiled my chances of healing fast; more from the events than the actual person who did the hurting. Being here though, I am able to see how I am in a generation where #hugot culture is the norm, relationships are only as good as they are on social media, and 80% of young people are desperate to find love or at least a semblance of it. It’s nauseating, accidentally giving into the “sana all” culture and thinking I am incomplete if I don’t have someone who’s technically obligated to care for me, vice versa. I am not a fan of it, but it’s not exactly easy to exclude myself from a narrative I have been in for years. I wish it didn’t feel so off.

Because...hey, there are pros to being single. For starters: I am young. I don’t have to worry about it yet at least for the next ten years or so. I am not supposed to have the same timeline as other people. I can go to bed without worrying about somebody else. I don’t have to ask for anyone’s approval. I have more time for the things I love doing. I am not being emotionally abused or taken for granted or cheated on, which were common themes in my past relationships. It’s a treat, until I am once again hooked by the media I consume and made to think that there’s more to life than being alone.

Maybe it’s the fact that I spent half of this year trying to get over the one I thought was the love of my life, or how I’m spending the other half denying to myself that I may be having feelings for a person and consciously running away from them through various coping mechanisms I never thought I’d use. Love is a gray area right now because I don’t see myself being in a relationship anytime soon, but if I ever do, I’d want something serious. I love meeting new people right now, but at the same time, my comfort zone feels good. I find that it helps tone down my anxiety when I am in control. I’m proud of myself for choosing to navigate through life by my own right now, turning down people who want to become a part of it for my sake and theirs. I just have a lot on my plate. Although I do believe that I’ll never be ready. No one ever is, but I want to put my faith in timing. I just have to learn the ropes here first. I hate that everyone around me is rushing because I feel like I’m that person being squeezed into the middle of the crowd in a mosh pit. I am choosing to make sure I am a better person than I was first before I dive into it, head first.

So yeah. Lloyd Dobler is not going to blast In Your Eyes by Pete Gabriel on a boombox outside my bedroom window (though I’d love Closing Time by Semisonic more). Dylan Harper is not going to organize a flash mob to tell me he made a mistake. Patrick Verona is not going to hack into the school speakers and sing to me at the football field. Troy Bolton is not going to show up outside my window to apologize, armed with Margherita pizza and chocolate covered strawberries. Ted is not going to steal a blue french horn for me. Johnny Castle is not going to dance with me in front of everybody to prove our love. Chuck Bass is not going to buy me a ring and carry it around even when we aren’t together anymore, hoping for the chance to get me back. Augustus Waters is not going to show up with orange tulips and a trip to Amsterdam. Pat Soltano is not going to run after me with a love letter he wrote a week ago...and I’m okay with it. I don’t want to buy into the notion that I need saving, or that I can be swayed by gestures that can so easily be just a move to win me over with no follow-through. I don’t want to be put on a pedestal, anyway. Also...sometimes, it’s in the little things. We fall in love with the way people remember something we said to them months ago, the way they show up after a long day, and the way even the tiniest gestures feel so big it fills up everything else.

I feel like one day I’ll be given the love I deserve and I don’t have to yearn for movie scenes like the art geek I am. You see, what makes love stories unique is the fact that it happens when you least expect it. Grand romantic gestures are welcome, but they aren’t really the basis of how deep love could be. I could only hope to be with someone who speaks my love language or at least tries to understand it. Until then...I’ll keep relearning everything until I make sense of what I truly want out of love and its intricate mess of a web.

I’ll love; even without pretense, without hope or agenda, without expecting the universe to give me back everything like it owes me.

[unification]

..In short, social network companies can simultaneously measure everything about us, and control the information we consume. And that’s an accelerating trend. When you have access to both perception and action, you’re looking at an AI problem. You can start establishing an optimization loop for human behavior, in which you observe the current state of your targets and keep tuning what information you feed them, until you start observing the opinions and behaviors you wanted to see. A large subset of the field of AI — in particular “reinforcement learning” — is about developing algorithms to solve such optimization problems as efficiently as possible, to close the loop and achieve full control of the target at hand — in this case, us. By moving our lives to the digital realm, we become vulnerable to that which rules it — AI algorithms.

A reinforcement learning loop for human behavior: This is made all the easier by the fact that the human mind is highly vulnerable to simple patterns of social manipulation. Consider, for instance, the following vectors of attack:


 Identity reinforcement: this is an old trick that has been leveraged since the first very ads in history, and still works just as well as it did the first time, consisting of associating a given view with markers that you identify with (or wish you did), thus making you automatically siding with the target view. In the context of AI-optimized social media consumption, a control algorithm could make sure that you only see content (whether news stories or posts from your friends) where the views it wants you to hold co-occur with your own identity markers, and inversely for views the algorithm wants you to move away from.

Negative social reinforcement: if you make a post expressing a view that the control algorithm doesn’t want you to hold, the system can choose to only show your post to people who hold the opposite view (maybe acquaintances, maybe strangers, maybe bots), and who will harshly criticize it. Repeated many times, such social backlash is likely to make you move away from your initial views.

Positive social reinforcement: if you make a post expressing a view that the control algorithm wants to spread, it can choose to only show it to people who will “like” it (it could even be bots). This will reinforce your belief and put you under the impression that you are part of a supportive majority.

Sampling bias: the algorithm may also be more likely to show you posts from your friends (or the media at large) that support the views it wants you to hold. Placed in such an information bubble, you will be under the impression that these views have much broader support than they do in reality.

Argument personalization: the algorithm may observe that exposure to certain pieces of content, among people with a psychological profile close to yours, has resulted in the sort of view shift it seeks. It may then serve you with content that is expected to be maximally effective for someone with your particular views and life experience. In the long run, the algorithm may even be able to generate such maximally-effective content from scratch, specifically for you.


From an information security perspective, you would call these vulnerabilities: known exploits that can be used to take over a system. In the case of the human minds, these vulnerabilities never get patched, they are just the way we work. They’re in our DNA. The human mind is a static, vulnerable system that will come increasingly under attack from ever-smarter AI algorithms that will simultaneously have a complete view of everything we do and believe, and complete control of the information we consume. https://medium.com/@francois.chollet/what-worries-me-about-ai-ed9df072b704

[char-rowlson-blog]

Walking around in our own bubble, how do we pop this?

Social media. Is it really ‘just an app’? I think not. Social media places us very specifically into our very own bubble. Whether that be big or small is up to you.

These so called ‘bubbles’ are well known as ‘filter bubbles’. According to Google, a filter bubble is “a situation in which an Internet user encounters only information and opinions that conform to and reinforce their own beliefs, caused by algorithms that personalize an individual’s online experience.”

On Instagram, for example, we follow whoever we want too. For me, this includes celebrities, models, fitness gurus and fashion lovers. This means, my filter bubble includes only these people and they are almost all I see on Instagram. But, it also means my filter bubble does not allow me to see anything other than that, unless I decide I want to search for something completely different to what I normally would.

When looking at the whole concept of filter bubbles, it enables us to think about what we are potentially missing out on. Advertisement's are specifically designed to you and your filter bubble, consequently filtering out the topics that are outside of your bubble. Personally, do not follow things like cartoons, or video games, therefore I do not see any advertisements to do with new releases of games, for example. However, I always see ads for independent clothes and jewelry shops and quite often, fitness programs, which I do tend to click on, but can never afford to purchase (I wish I could #studentlife). 

So are filter bubbles are good or bad thing? 

I would say a GREAT thing. 

For companies targeting a product at a certain audience, using Instagram to find the selected people within this audience, they are perfect. We put ourselves within this filter bubble, making it our own space. We have not been put inside it, forcefully. We can look at whatever we want too, and if we decide to venture outside of the usual, then we can, easily. I think that could be seen as the only con of a filter bubble, although we can change that. It is up to us (making it a weak con, I know, but still a potential con). Many people believe that filter bubbles have come around since the rise of social media. I would agree to disagree with these people. Granted, the official name for them may have been formed when social media arose, but when you think about it, filter bubbles have been around, more than likely, forever. A persons social bubble, for example, my Grandma, her bubble would include; baking, Church, knitting and art (she is a very cute woman). This bubble may not be on a device, but it is her bubble and what she likes to do. She has recently expanded her bubble, by joining ‘Grannie pilates’, something she wouldn’t normally do. 

Overall, I believe everyone is within a bubble and can expand it, but only if they want too. 

[anyasmith]

overall

throughout this module i really struggled with my confidence and to stay on top of an upload schedule. this is due to an number of external factors (which you can read about in other posts), but i am proud of the portfolio i have produced. putting yourself out there on social media is very vulnerable and it can be a negative space, but i have only received positive comments from my audience which has boosted my confidence massively!

i have really enjoyed making videos! while i never worked out the randomness of tiktoks algorithm, i managed to create video with a range of engagement, i am happy with the audience i reached! i received a lot of notifications from tiktok saying i could pay for views but i thought that was cheating and can’t believe that was a feature on the app! you can tell my account is raw and authentic and i like that!

i also really liked the aesthetic i created! on tiktok, i was a half a face dimly lit up by a salt lamp, just singing in her bedroom. while that doesn’t sound fancy, i think the audience felt like they could connect with me as i was just a normal person! on youtube, i was myself! a chatty bubbly girl who is honest about her experiences and is just getting through life! i am proud that i didn’t put on a persona and change who i am- is stuck to my morals!

overall, i fell like this module has taught me a lot! whether it be time management skills, visual aesthetics or even to have more confidence in myself, i am happy with what i have created and look forward to creating similar content in my own time!

tiktok: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMNdCHNVJ/ 

youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UConZ8tJT4-tieNfTaFN5CHg

[enquiry-monique]

Presentation

Presentation

Point of departure

> Liminal spaces A  liminal space is defined in architecture as a space that is between two other spaces, like a hallway or a waiting room. On the internet, it has a bit of a different definition. It is a picture of a place that looks familiar and gives a feeling of nostalgia. But at the same time it also gives off a feeling of eeriness. These places are often abandoned or they have strange architecture, and the quality of the image is often bad. I really like how these simple pictures can give such a big group of people such heavy emotions. And I have also tried to recreate this feeling in some of my work.

> Ivan Seal. He’s an artist that makes work around Alzheimer's. His work consists of objects of which you aren’t really clear what they are. This is his way of making Alzheimer's disease visual. These are objects that may have existed once, but now the person can only think of them like this. These works also give me a deep feeling of discomfort.

The works you see here are album covers he made in collaboration with this guy named the Caretaker. He made a six hour long art project about the six different stages of Alzheimer’s disease. It’s a haunting musical piece that to me causes a very deep feeling of melancholy. If you ever want to feel really really sad I recommend you to listen to it, it’s called Everywhere at the end of time.

> Pavel Otdelnov. A Russian painter that mainly paints landscapes. He has worked on different series, but they are mostly about the decay of old soviet buildings and the outskirts of the megacities of Russia. A lot of Russian cities have grown a lot in the past and still continue to do so. That’s not bad of course, but they have grown very unorganically, with giant suburbs of nothing but high-rise buildings and no soul.

> Which brings me to this part of my own work. This book is a representation of filter bubbles, they are digital spaces where people are trapped in. Social media algorithms are so sophisticated that they know what you’re interested in, and it will give you only information that you’re interested in. Like this, you’re trapped in a certain filter bubble.

I thought of  this filter bubble as an empty space where people come and never leave. The  people will never get any new information. And I like to think of  them like animals that live in  a dark cave, they have no need for eyes because it’s dark anyways, so they have no eyes or are blind. These people don’t need their senses, so they deteriorate.

And this is where my research question comes from. I like this darkness a lot. I’m very into this idea of being trapped in an online world.

Beginning

I started this quest for my research question by writing down all the things that interest me. I just wrote down everything that’s the least bit interesting or provokes some feelings with me. That resulted in about 50 key words.

I  made those into a few subcategories, and the most important of those were extremism, how extremism happens and buildings.

Then, I set out to puzzle with the words. Ever since I finished my last project, I have been really interested in 4chan and Incels.

.1 definitions

> 4chan is a popular internet forum. It functions in a way that users can post images and text completely random, and completely anonymous. There are no consequences to your actions. You can’t make an account and everything you post will eventually be deleted forever. It was made in 2004 and still looks like it. It’s very primitive. There’s also almost no moderation.

It’s a barely moderated forum that exists of boards. Some boards are about origami, others are about porn and gore.

Almost everything is allowed here. As you can read on this screenshot on the left you can read that this website is not accountable for what horrible things you might see.

> Then, there’s the INCEL movement. This group is made up of mostly white men with no education or job. They are involuntary celibate and that is where the name comes from. It could be a nice community of people who are together while finding a partner, but instead of that, they band together on their hate for women. They mostly talk negatively about women. That sex is a basic human right and that we owe them that. Or that there are no good traditional women anymore. Also there is a lot of racism and antisemitism which I didn’t put up here because it’s really horrible. But i don’t want to blow over that fact.

> TFW no GF. It’s a documentary that follows a few incels in the United States. The interesting part of the documentary is that it gives the anonymous incels a face and an identity, and I really like that. They say that their exposure to the unmoderated internet was how it all started for  them. There, they saw porn and violent videos at a very young age. This, together with failing families and a feeling of no future; they feel let down.

Something a little less amazing about this project is that  it leaves out the violence of these men. It talks a little about their graphic tweets, but writes them off as just making jokes. And it does not even talk about all the women that have been abused by incels. I think that should be addressed.

2. Conclusion:

So, what I saw was that these guys surrounded themselves with filth. Their rooms are messy and dark, and their online presence is only about suffering. The idea of being surrounded by filth everywhere in your life is very interesting. It raises a lot of questions  about what it’s like to live like that and how you become like that. Also I want to say that this is of course not the case for everybody.

The incel community is something that comes first to mind when talking about extremism online. But there are a lot more communities like this, and at this point I don't want to get too specific yet. I want to look at these guys. How do they interact with each other online and what do they say about themselves?

Also, there’s a lot of influence in these people’s  lives of gore, porn and extremist ideologies. Seeing these things all the time and having no break from it, it’s not good. What  happens to these men? How do they live their lives? Is there an end in sight?

3. diagrams

a. tree diagram

b. Onion

> and now? I have that research question as the theoretical part. And I want to continue with the question I made now, although it is not set in stone yet.

Also, I want to continue on the visual road that I’ve been working on. So I am going to work on how to connect those two things in a logical way.

[huntermailer266]

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Top Digital Marketing Trends in 2021 From Your Digital Marketing Agency Miami Style

Quite a year the one we’ve had this 2020! It’s clear that it’s been a year of hurdles, endurances, and change. Wildfires, killer wasps, declassified UFO videos from the Pentagon, presidential elections, Covid19… The US (and our beloved Miami 305 scene) has surely been kept busy! We certainly have gone through a lot and most likely will need to adapt to a near future where digital will be more relevant than ever. The question is: Are you ready up to it?

PPC Digital Marketing scene will definitely become a fiercer battlefield. In a future with more businesses and brands going digital, one can only expect to encounter higher competition, costs and disputes for achieving that valuable lead or potential customer you’re going after. Regardless if everything comes back to normal later on, we should adapt to this new scenario in a way that we’re set up not just to survive, but to thrive.

This means that we should all, regardless of our expertise and industry, be flexible and able to swiftly adapt to changes. As many services and organizations are going digital, and having identified some trends among some of our customers’ industries, we’ve pretty much have some ideas as to where we’re going and how we should be dealing with our digital marketing services this upcoming year. Here’s what we’ve found and how we should be approaching each strategy.

An Increase in Social Media Usage

People will be spending more time than ever on their screens. And not just because of Zoom meetings, but because they’ll want to connect with others as their worlds go more digital. With everything going on along with social distancing, people are turning more to social media to either connect with their friends and family, or to have a small getaway moment from their four wall confinements. According to The New York Times, there was a usage spike of 27% for platforms on Facebook and over 40% Instagram (Instagram Live), along with an increase of about 15% for teen favorite TikTok. This trend may very well last until everything goes back to normal and people may go out and interact safely.

The Explosion of TikTok

Yes, yes, yes… We know it’s under attack by the Trump administration. But like it or not, TikTok has seen incredible growth over the past few months, fueled mainly due to the lockup and luring in Gen Z and Millennials alike. With over 300 million app installs, TikTok has quickly become a force of nature on the social media environment, and definitely a place to be if you’re looking to target the young demographics (If they manage to come out alive eventually).

But why has it become so popular? Maybe it’s the strong appeal for fluid short video format it employs to deliver content, or the fact that people see it as the “new trendy thing”. Or, it could perhaps be its complex and intuitive algorithm that “learns” user preference and keeps him/her locked to the screen as it fluidly delivers attractive content over and over again, improving itself as it gathers data points from them.

Whatever reason it may be, if it manages to survive and a deal is finally struck between Oracle and Walmart, brands will without a doubt need to establish presence (If they still haven’t already) in order to jump in the trend and become relevant on the already vibrant playing field.

AI and Programmatic Will Continue Making a Difference

AI tools and automation has upped the competitiveness on the digital marketing field (and many other industries as well), as they take away the guesswork and provide a more detailed and computational powered data analysis. This enables marketers come up with better strategies and better decision making when trying to execute a campaign.

All this is achieved thanks to machine learning, which fuels campaigns and increase ROI by creating more effective customer touch points, doing so at incredible speeds by automating processes that were once dependent on humans. Whether it’s for ad buying or real time bidding, influencer identification for targeting engagement, fake follower detection and for identifying the most profitable pathway for any required outcome, AI enables large data and adapts itself based on real time input to deliver powerful solutions for customers and marketers alike.

The marketing field is constantly evolving, where professionals are now required to use and understand such leveraging and powerful tools. No, marketers aren’t going anywhere (for now) as machines do not possess the human element that makes us unique and that makes us connect and make instant “click” with one another through empathy, storytelling, or any other feeling that we’d like to inspire or transmit. But hey, these tools are becoming more and more sophisticated with every passing day, and 2021 may very well bring more surprises up its sleeve.

Watch Out For Cancel Culture!

Cancel culture is, put simply, being targeted for boycott and socially shamed by siding with, or even staying clear, from political, social or even religious points of view, ideas, endorsements and opinions.

You might be living in a digital bubble if you did not hear about Facebook’s problems when it did not take action against so called “hate spreading messages”, or Goya’s struggle against democrats after it openly backed Trump for the upcoming election (And later got the first ever White House Oval Office Ad in history). Cancel culture usually gets you support from one side, and hate and boycott from the other. In a world that increasingly requires brands and organizations to side with X or Y point of view, you want to make sure you’re on the right end of this social media trend (or, if possible, stay clear and avoid), as consequences can be truly devastating for business if you’re not careful enough. A lack of audits on your marketing campaign automations, review gaps on marketing processes and a lack of personal touch to listen and understand your target audience will bring economic disaster from which it may be difficult to recover. Getting digital marketing as a service can really help, and our team at Suncode Miami can help with that.

2021 will certainly bring more complex challenges to the playing field, and staying proactive listening for the latest turmoils will be of the upmost importance. So the next time you search for “Digital Marketing Companies near me” or “digital marketing agency near me”, make sure they’re aware with everything going on with this rising trend. Constant audits, listening to your audience and staying clear when possible will be crucial to navigate whatever the raging seas bring your way.

Native Advertising

If you’re a fan of James Bond’s movies, you’ll notice there’s always a fancy watch and a fast ride associated with every film. The latest film features an incredible Aston Martin DBS Superleggera and a V8 Saloon, along with a fancy Omega Seamaster Diver 300m. This is what’s called native advertising, where brands bypass the intruding nature of conventional advertising.

web design agency - This practice is not anything new, as it’s been used by years by marketers. However, increasing competition for consumer attention and as more and more companies fight for a piece of market share, we are now bombarded by an endless amount of advertising, which is a huge turn off for your target audience and lead to scenarios where almost half of consumers actively seek for ways to block them entirely.

This is what makes native advertising so powerful. They’re discrete, they can’t be skipped of avoided and can transmit a powerful message by being endorsed, wore or used by a celebrity or influencer. This is definitely a trend that many brands are looking for to increase either awareness or even consideration to move products and services down the shopping cart and into their target audiences.

A higher inclination towards video consumption

While this is also something that has been gaining traction these past few years, platforms such as Youtube, TikTok and Twitch will become more and more relevant as consumer preference leans more towards video.

According to Mediakix social media and video platforms experienced surges during the lockdown, with Youtube experiencing a 20-30% surge in views, Tiktok becoming the most downloaded app ever with over 315 million downloads and an increase of over 30% in Twitch streaming. While these surges were attributed to the lockdown, the growth trend has been seen over the past few years, making it imperative for brands to establish presence and visibility.

The power of interaction and bonding with their favorite content creator or social community created among these platforms make them powerful game changers for the marketing industry. Whether it’s with native ads, video ads or influencer marketing, digital marketers need to keep a close eye at this increasingly dominant trend that will surely keep playing a decisive role on any marketing strategy.

2021 is right around the corner!

You think it’s too early to define what will work and what won’t for 2021? Think again! Preparing now (Or having a digital marketing agency in Miami) gives you a head start at what your business should be looking at and how to maintain a competitive edge among your competition, because whether we like it or not, this next year will be without a doubt as competitive as ever and will require the right tools, top skills and unparalleled marketing experience to be top-of-mind among the constant noise surrounding your target customer. Should you ever need a team of experts to help your company navigate all this, call us! We’ll help you go through and thrive with our top-notch digital marketing agency Miami style

About Us

At Suncode Miami, we leverage our business knowledge and Digital Marketing, web design miami and Branding expertise to offer wholistic solutions to meet your business objectives and needs. Our team becomes your proactive business partner, where we dig and immerse ourselves into your brand, products, services, and customers to develop tailored solutions that will deliver real value and yield high ROI over your investment. Let us help you create a digital system that will propel your organization and bring continuous business for both today and tomorrow.