gpctoquedequeda

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Digital Wolrd=New Normal

In the digital world, messages not only get lost in circulation but also in interpretation. When a message is sent, we, the readers, decide how we will read the message, with what tone of voice we will interpret what is being said. In a face to face physical conversation, body language, gestures, tone of voice, and facial expressions are crucial for fully understanding the message. However, in the digital world, all those qualities are lacking, we have substituted gestures and expressions for emojis which get the job done but not entirely. 

Professor Della Rata tends to capitalize her comments on our reflections, and before understanding that she does it for them to be visible, I would take it personally. However, she also feels the need to clarify why she is doing it since many people can take it as yelling, or as something negative.  This is an example of how most messages online can be misinterpreted. Not only I misunderstand my professor but imagine how I feel when my boyfriend writes something, and it sounds to me, mean because it lacks an exclamation mark or it has no emojis, or he is using the wrong emoji, or why did he write a period, is he mad, did I do something to piss him off?? It is soooooo exhausting!!!! Trying to understand a person via text is annoying, and it takes up a lot of time, and it decreases my mental stability. Also, you never really know for sure if that person means what they are writing because they have time to think and to write the text, so I ask myself, are they really being genuine, or are they saying something just for the sake of saying something? These are interpretations that don't happen when having a physical face to face conversation. People don't have time to think about what they will say, it happens immediately, the conversation is more fluid and, most importantly, more natural. 

However, if you can't manage to meet face to face with a person, then for sure, the good old phone call is the best. Not only is it way faster than texting, but I feel you get more done through a phone call than through text. Especially when it comes to important matters, like calling your landlord to let him/her now your house is on fire, a bit of an exaggeration, but it works as an example. Calling helps you express your self better than texting, well for some people, and I am one of them. Let no forget, though, that without the digital world during this pandemic, most things we do would not be possible. The digital world is not perfect, and it is not even close to being, but even though it has a negative impact on us, some of the time, during these times quarantine, the digital world has made everything possible. Remote learning in almost the entire world, working from home has made things easier, ordering food online, passing the time scrolling through social media, being in touch with friends and family is only possible because of the digital world. I do agree that technology, if it is not managed with precaution, and if the user doesn't understand that by design platforms do what they do, then it can negatively influence our mental stability. However, without it we would be waisting a semester of school or university, we would have no idea how our family is doing or how our sister looks with her new haircut because we couldn't share those images. It's time to be grateful and find ways to keep ourselves healthy. For I don’t know how long the digital will be the new normal so lets make the best out of it and do what we can to maintain an idea of what life was like before the spread. 

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It’s all about the speed

I was scrolling through Instagram before going to bed, right after writing my blog post on how social media is superficial and all that... (image the power it has over me, it’s absurd! I criticize it, but there I am happy to be scrolling) However, I decided to write this post because, in a matter of 3 minutes, I found three sponsored Instagram stories that contribute to the speed of technology during these times. Some say it is time to relax and to enjoy life, to meditate to get to know yourself, to find inner peace, to heal, and to become a better person after this is all over. But how in the world is that possible with technology being up our head every second of the day? The sponsor stories I encountered are advising creating your own brand, the other is promoting video chats, reminding us that social distancing is not isolation, and the other sponsor is offering jobs if you lost yours during the pandemic. It is just crazy how the flow never ends, it’s unstoppable, I feel I can’t relax and be offline because the speed in circulation is too freaking fast, and no one around me is taking a minute to chill therefore I feel I can’t do it either. So much is going on online that if I disconnect, I will miss the next meme or the next TikTok trend. How is it possible that the world has stopped moving, borders have closed world wide, shopping centers are not a thing anymore, restaurants have been forgotten, and we still have managed to speed life up by creating a new online system. Gym classes have shifted to Instagram lives, and education is now via videos, get-togethers are now through zoom, family reunions now exclude, and instead of connecting with ourselves, we connect with our cels.

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Are we really who we say we are?

By design, we feel unique within our social networks. Social media makes us feel valuable, different, and unique. But, are we really unique, valuable, and different when so many other users have similar content to ours? Social media helps us create our better self, to create the person we want everyone to see, social platforms work not only for first impressions but to permanently keep the impression we want the world to see. We manipulate our identity, we decide what the world gets to see while keeping part of our real identity hidden. Social networks work to please people and help us fit in, feeling unique and authentic. Then again, how can someone be unique in a platform where thousands of other users think just like you? Even though I know social networks are just a performance of each user, including me, of course, I still feel I sometimes fall in the trap social networks provoke for their users. For me, that trap is when anxiety hits, when women feel the need to keep up with stereotypical standards created by society and reinforced by social media.  I start to feel as if I am not good enough when I see models and get jealous of their thin bodies when my boyfriend likes all of Dua Lipa's pictures, and I become jealous of a famous singer. This is the point in which nothing makes sense; my intelligence gets shattered by likes and by face tune edits. 

How do I react to this? I post a picture where I look good, I edit all my imperfections, and then I post it to boost my self-esteem back up where it belongs. But then again, is it really who I am? Is the person who I say to be in social media really who I am? Well NOOO!!! I just post whatever will make me feel good, I fall in the trap of posting for the "happy accident" and to be like all the other people I follow, to be an active user. There is nothing unique and authentic in that. I am just like all the other users. (Just a quick note, I am pretty awesome and unique and authentic in physical life). 

(That’s one of my few selfies on Instagram and comments of people telling me how beautiful I am. Effects of social media 🤦‍♀️ ) 

Moreover, I know how social media plays with one's head, but what I can't believe is I have let it get to me more than ones. The power it has over a user is extreme, it causes or high gratification or the complete opposite, it make you feel like s***. For this very reason I have detached myself from posting on my private social networks. A few months ago, I would post a picture at least twice a week, but now I haven't posted since late February. This slight detachment has helped me focus on my physical self more than on my online presentation. I still go online often, I like posts, I enjoy the content I see (even if I forget it 10 seconds later), but I have stopped branding myself.

Ok, now let's go back to online dating and social network in general. IT IS ALL ABOUT IMPRESSIONS. It is easy to keep one's performance online; it is easy to manipulate an image or to take forever to answer a message; you have hours to think about your perfect response. Online dating apps are easy to control, the physical self can be altered by technology, you are able to perform and be whomever you want online. Our physical body joins dating apps and social media when it is time to show how we look like, we put our best photos and hope we will match with someone or we will have tons of likes and comments. But what happens when it is time to meet up? Well, we are most likely to be unsatisfied, just like when we order food, and in the picture, it looks amazing, but then we see it, and it is just not the same. Emotions will not get you the perfect guy online or your most liked picture, what will guarantee a match or tons of likes is a provocative image of yourself. Then again, is that type of objectification to sell yourself online really worth it? Does it really make you happy to objectify yourself for users who don't even know you are able to judge you and praise you for someone you are not? Is the online self really the same as the offline self? It is incredible the way social networks of any kind have the ability to psychologically trick us into becoming someone we are not, and most importantly into appreciating things that have no core value, such as likes and constant circulation of memes and sticky content that only serves to avoid millennial boredom. I see millennial boredom as scrolling through social media because their is nothing better to do. I was feeling a bit negative about social media today, so today, you get my darkish perspective on social media's superficiality.

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Dating Apps, REALLY?

How is it possible that in the 21-century algorithms and applications are responsible for finding true love for people. I find this insane, especially what happens when we put ourselves out on dating apps, as Eva Illouz's mentioned on her work 'Cold Intimacies' the "self becomes a commodity in public display" (p.5). Users have become the object that is on display and for sale; this is what the capitalist ideology has turned us into. When we use certain apps, we focus on ourselves, and what we want, and who we are, when we use Tinder, we swipe left, or we swipe right, as Professor Della Rata pointed out, the swiping is connected to a monetary value, hence once again, capitalism. For some reason, I dislike dating apps, I once used Tinder, but I used it for fun, I never had a conversation with anyone, or though I was going to find love in an app. I see dating applications like Tinder to be a new form of a brothel, even if it sounds so intense. Men and women both chose who they want to go out with based on real or false descriptions given by the user who is exhibiting his or her best photos and best qualities. It is like going to Amsterdam and choosing who you want to be with, in a more detached and mysterious way. It might also be free because the application is keeping all the income. 

Moreover, I do have an example of online dating, but I knew the person and did not meet him on a dating app. My boyfriend and I (yes, we are back together) have been together for a little more than two years, and we have had a long-distance relationship. Before we were together, well, we got to know each other through WhatsApp and occasional phone calls for about four months. I would consider this a form of online dating and would say all the same rules for dating apps apply. But, instead of having the algorithms find me a match, I had to see for my self if this person was worth it.  Nevertheless, the idea of the profile picture, the selfish talk, and all that was the same as using a dating app.

However, I feel that apps should not manipulate true love and that applications should stop trying to trick people into becoming part of these apps. However, I do understand that many people think they will find what they are looking for in dating apps, and some people see it as their last hope. So, in the end, we are all free to do what we want, and if you enjoy the detachment technology brings and the importance of the first impression and the perfect profile picture, go for it, find your true love!

[gpctoquedequeda]

FOMOI In Times Of Corona

How can we get bored when we have social media and hundreds of apps that help us cope with our boredom. Not only but the constant circulation of content in all social media platforms is exaggerated. New content is being created 24/7 at an incredible speed. Flow and the speed of content and life have even become faster in these past months. Due to the corona outbreak, our lives depend on technology and our physical life is now lived through the use of computers or  phones. Most of us are getting our news from social media platforms such as Twitter, we are getting our workouts done through Instagram, we are reminiscing about our past lives before the Coronovairus through Facebook memories, and some are creating new content/profit based on the massive world crisis we are facing.

TikTok users having fun in times of world crisis. 

https://www.tiktok.com/@shellianysaams/video/6803913410242301190

https://www.tiktok.com/@akbikelena/video/6811575709916499205

https://www.tiktok.com/@mtvuk/video/6810766824196672773

https://www.tiktok.com/@jamiefreestyle/video/6811146201950440710

These are examples of how the speed of media never ends. If there is boredom them social media make sure to deal with your boredom and find ways to entertain you, just like the TikToks above. 

How can we get bored if circulation and speed are faster than ever? What if we were to disconnect and go offline for a few days? Well, I tried it, and all I got was FOMOI, Fear Of Missing Out Information, as Maisa Imamović calls it. My first example is how I stopped checking the number of active COVID-19 cases in my country for a day and a half, and now we have reached more than 100 cases (last time I checked, we had 57). Even if we go offline, especially during this time, I feel there is more anxiety created due to not knowing what is happening in our own countries and around the world. My second example is a fitness class I follow online. It is a live stream at 9 am. However, sometimes I miss the class, and then the trainer, for some reason, can’t post it on Instagram stories for 24 hours. I try to do the class out of the videos she posts afterward, but it is not the same. So, I missed my online class and have to wait until the next day for another class. These are two examples that have happened to me recently and are when I feel the FOMOI more intensely.

Furthermore,  Instagram stories and Instagram’s lives have become the way to connect with the world, they are what keeps us entertained, and we can see a little of what everyone is doing. Nevertheless, when we see people posting their day, we feel the rush also to post something or the rush to stay active for the world to see we are not staying behind, to show everyone time has not slowed down and that there are other ways to life live in quarantine other than binge watch TV shows. However, do you think there is a difference between storytelling and Instagram stories, or are they the same? The difference between these two from my perspective is that anyone can create Instagram stories, even if that person is bored or not. Instagram stories have become for everyone, and it is a form used by capitalist ideology to achieve a bigger market. Storytelling used to be an art, and it was made by those who had a talent and felt bored. Now stories via Instagram are all-inclusive, and people with no talent at all can participate and create their own story, just like they can create content. In the end, Instagram stories are most of the time created out of boredom, but unlike storytelling, Insta stories don’t have the same strategy, and talent storytelling does.

In the screenshot below the trainer I follow is showing you how to do weights at home and she is encouraging you to keep a training routine. This are examples that I consider to be speeding up the flow of social media, never giving you time to rest and go offline. However her content is useful for some and in my opinion her content particularly does have meaning, but then again it is quickly lost by the speed of the 24 hour stories. 

Here is the link to her video. https://www.instagram.com/p/B-5plSFhMvZ/

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A tittle about my week in ‘toque de queda’ and my thoughts on this pandemic

Well, my quarantine is not that bad...  in my country, I am still allowed to go out. However, I chose not to most of the time. I have managed to create a routine I enjoy (most of the time). I wake up at 8am by 9am I am watching my lecture clips until around 12 or 1pm then I work out for about an hour, then I take my dog out for a walk, and around 4 pm I am binge-watching Grey's Anatomy and scrolling through Twitter to see what new policies is the government making each day. I am also obsessed with the COVID Visualizer I check it more than I check Instagram. News outlets have become my new Instagram. I feel good about staying productive and not overusing, in a way, social media. From 8 am to 4 pm, I am productive, and after that, I am free to watch and scroll through anything I want. I feel having a routine during these crazy times has helped me stay positive and feel good about myself. 

(AMAZED WITH  https://www.covidvisualizer.com/ )

Moreover, things outside my bubble of "Toque de Queda" are becoming kinda crazy. This weekend I tried going to the river, which is a place in Guatemala where people have houses around a river, and you chill. Well it is a 4.5-hour drive from the city to the river,  we drove all the way there so we could relax (my boyfriend, his siblings, and I) but people are very freaked out that they did not let us in the town, which is acceptable, I don't know what we were thinking going there. 

Photo credits to imperio chapin. This is Rio Dulce where I was hoping to spend Semana Santa which is the Latin spring break. 

Guatemala is a very small country, and from this week on, until further notice, we are not allowed to go outside our town. The lines people are doing to go to the supermarket are crazy!!! Last week I went to the supermarket at 7 am, and I had to do a 30-minute line just to park the car and then another 40-minute line to go inside!!! Things are getting scarier by the minute. However, I thank God my family and I are safe, and even if we can't go to the beach house for quarantine, I feel lucky I made it just in time to be with my family. 

The COVID-19 is happening for a reason and I see it as a call from nature to humanity for humans to change our lifestyles and connect not only without selves but also to nature. I see it as an opportunity to connect with spirituality. It is time to connect with the world, with our selves, and to appreciate the little things in life. Once all this is over I have decided I want to make the best out of my life and out of my youth. I will travel around my country before I go back to Europe, I will help those who need it the most, I will volunteer in public schools, and I will be the best version of myself. I will not be lazy anymore. I will not sleep until 11 am, I will appreciate life and nature because I see this pandemic as a wake-up call to unite with the world and with my true self. After this is all over, I feel I will be stronger than ever because this is time for me to grow and to see the light in all this darkness the entire world is under.

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INTRO TO MY LIFE THESE DAYS

Hiiiii to all my readers!!!! I am Gabriella from Guatemala. First of all I would like to tell you guys a little about my situation and how things are in my country. The president has implemented what is called “Toque de Queda” which means that the country is in partial shutdown. From 4pm to 4am we are not allowed to go out, jobs are partially working, depending on what you do, and what we call Semana Santa, the equivalent to Spring Break has been canceled. For now, we have less than 40 cases o coronavirus and more than 1,000 people are in obligatory quarantine. For now, I try to stay home the more I can and avoid social contact. If you want to know how I spend my days and how grateful I am for social networks in this terrible times keep stalking my feed!!!! Kisses!!!