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impeach-trump2018 · 6 years

Text

Cole Launius

English 212

Professor Kim Lacey

30 June 2018

Analytical Reflection

This class was a great surprise for me. I had no idea that the course would be based off of this great book. As I engaged in the reading and further went through the subjects inside with my review of “The Truman Show,” my ability to identify with the surveillance around me grew as I gained more insight and information. The issue at hand is not only a matter of unethical decision making above the governed heads, but also the idea that surveillance and the lack of privacy can create a negative impact on the human condition. Surveillance culture is exemplified in today’s society primarily through films, music, and art, and informative pieces all in which I intend to dive into as I examine and reflect on a world surrounded by the camera lens.

I think that ethically speaking we can all agree that it is wrong to invade someone else’s personal space. According to information from The University of Tennessee at Martin, surveillance involves paying close attention to someone else, and to me that is another reason it is made unethical because everyone deserves their own space and privacy and by watching closely, that perimeter is destroyed. It is annoying to find yourself being watched by the overhead camera in the local Walmart or VG’s, but when someone gets close to you it rekindles a different kind of emotion. One that makes you question the persons upbringing and their morals to go along with it. “Stop reading my texts,” your friend yells as you lean back into your seat in the car. Why do you feel the need to read what I am saying? Why are you so interested in my conversations? Did your parents teach you any manners? It becomes more of an issue of ethics than it does about us solely being watched and recorded for other purposes. Trust and privacy go hand and hand, and when someone’s privacy is compromised by the public environment, they tend to lose trust and have more opposition. In an example from a clip from “The Dark Knight,” Batman attempts to link all cell phones in the city together to create a virtual map to find his objective.

Surveillance changes the way people act around each other and in public especially. For a moment I had reacted with such hostility when I first had discovered that I was constantly being watched and others reassured me that I no longer had any privacy. I would stand taller, push out my chest and walk like I had just done a great workout at the gym. I am a very big fan of Hip-Hop and moreover I have noted that most of the artists that I listen to have a gig for fashion. They are always wearing something extravagant in the spotlight. Said perfectly by 2 Chainz in one of his songs, “Feds Watching,” he states that he will be dressed accordingly if they are watching him. This is most definitely interesting because he chooses to boast about changing his view under surveillance because I am sure he wears sweatpants lounging around the house. Another unfortunate way that people change and act differently when being watched is in a show called “Hansen Vs Predator.” In this show Chris Hansen creates a fake meet up with creeps on the internet and then interviews them right on the spot to find out why they choose to do what they do and try to trap young children. When watching the predator as Chris enters the room, his facial expression changes so quickly, you know he knows something went wrong, and that now he is being watched very closely.

A few pictures I happen to come across on the global web reminded me that those cameras we see in our peripheral are not about just keeping us out of danger and harm’s way, but it is about the politicians, according to Mike Harris from The Telegraph. And I also agree, that anything related to the law never is about the people first, but the ones who put it into effect. The first image scripted, “We need rules that limit our leaders’ power more than we need rules that limit our rights.” I really felt as if I related to this quote or even wrote it because it seems like a thought that would come screaming out of my head in the middle of the night. How doesn’t everyone in the world agree with what this says? It makes more than complete sense, think about it. If we live in a democracy, then we have the ultimate say, yet we don’t, and we are still under claims as a democracy. If the people truly had the power, not power restricted by congressmen, we could change the way things are imposed on us all and put the spotlight on the ones who get to make the big decisions. Another photo that I saw was more of a political cartoon if anything, but it still recreated the idea of militant opposition towards the government. The cartoon was an army ranger pointing a gun to an unarmed victim, with the victim saying not to shoot, but also the ranger looking back at a tv recorder saying, “don’t shoot!” The irony of this situation is also a great factor and a reason why I chose to include it. You are pointing a gun at someone, yet yelling at a camera not to record? Sounds like something fishy is going on.

In life today people and companies, and the government use surveillance in other ways as well. One common way surveillance is utilized in today’s economy is that there is a lot of online traffic so app developers share information gained from watching users and allow them to shape apps and clothing and shopping related goods to a specific audience and you could be targeted depending on what you post. You may post different things to avoid this then becoming someone you’re not. This is called social sorting when companies take advantage of your information that you post to social media sites. There are also other ways that surveillance can cause change within someone. For example, if your co-worker is staring at you everyday after work, you might get a new car, or park in a different spot to get away from the state of being watched in your own space.

Cell phones, iPads, MacBooks and cameras have taken over the life of the youth. Then there are memes which have taken over the internet. What is ironic is that as the amount of surveillance in the world increases, the more we joke about being watched and create memes about it on our social media sites. But the fact that we are creating jokes and messing around with being watched and surveilled by the government and others is kind of scary. Why are we joking about having zero sense of privacy around us and for others? That is unnatural and strange, and it is upsetting to think that everyone else in society has come to accept being watched all of the time. Surveillance has had its way weaving into everyones lives so easily because it was not a choice but an unfortunate and irreversible consequence.

Works Cited

Always, Clean Music, director. 2 Chainz - Feds Watching. YouTube, YouTube, 7 July

2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pkd2lUxwQE.

Borg, Anna. “EurWORK European Observatory of Working Life.” Finland: Wage

Formation | Eurofound, 31 July 2014, www.eurofound.europa.eu/observatories/

eurwork/articles/working-conditions/impact-of-electronic-surveillance-in-the-

workplace.

Daily, Crime Watch, director. Hansen Vs Predator. YouTube, YouTube, 15 Sept. 2016,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOBgE10sEQE.

DeGeurin, Mack. “Mass Surveillance Memes Show Our Collective Anxiety Over

Government Spying.” Motherboard, Motherboard, 2 Apr. 2018,

motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/zmg3ky/surveillance-memes-nsa-fbi-

facebook.

Ellis, Daniel, director. Bragging Gone Wrong. YouTube, YouTube, 21 Apr. 2015,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ9kKgZ0-pM.

Gleisner, David. “This Is My Jam: Government Surveillance Memes.” Are There Really

3,700 Abortions Each Day in the U.S.?, North by Northwestern, 29 Jan. 2018,

www.northbynorthwestern.com/story/this-is-my-jam-government-surveillance-

memes/.

Harris, Mike. “The Politics of Surveillance Are about Politics, Not Keeping Us Safe.”

The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 4 Nov. 2015, www.telegraph.co.uk/news/

uknews/crime/11975759/The-politics-of-surveillance-are-about-politics-not-

keeping-us-safe.html.

Legend, Dark, director. The Dark Knight. YouTube, YouTube, 10 Dec. 2015,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRELLH86Edo.

Macnish, Kevin. “Surveillance Ethics.” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2008,

www.iep.utm.edu/surv-eth/.

Moran, Sean. “Surveillance Ethics.” Philosophy Now: a Magazine of Ideas, Philosophy

Now, 2015, philosophynow.org/issues/110/Surveillance_Ethics.

Munn, Nathan. “How Mass Surveillance Harms Societies and Individuals - and What

You Can Do About It.” CJFE | Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, 8 Nov.

2016, www.cjfe.org how_mass_surveillance_harms_societies_and_individuals_and_what_you_can_d

o_about_it.

OB, Andres, director. Robert Downey Jr. Blooper. YouTube, YouTube, 18 July 2015,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCC5SfQHOfo.

Shaw, Jonathan. “The Watchers.” Harvard Magazine, Harvard Magazine, 18 Dec. 2016,

harvardmagazine.com/2017/01/the-watchers.

Wang, Victoria, et al. “Surveillance and Identity: Conceptual Framework and Formal

Models | Journal of Cybersecurity | Oxford Academic.” OUP Academic, Oxford

University Press, 15 Dec. 2017, academic.oup.com/cybersecurity/article/

3/3/145/4748787.

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yukipri · 7 years

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Hey, I want to start posting my own art but i don't know if i should do it on tumblr or instagram...which one should i choose? i noticed that you use both, but all your art has your blog URL... any thoughts?

Okay so here’s my best attempt to answer this, it got a bit long sorry! ^ ^;

I think different people have vastly different experiences posting art on various social media platforms depending on what you post, how you want to present it, how many followers you have, and how you regularly interact/WANT to interact with those followers.

I technically have an instagram which I tried to get myself to restart using after my last convention since so many cosplayers use it, and i tried putting a very small amount of art on there but tbh it’s already fallen back to its original use, which is to sometime post photos to tumblr through it ^ ^; I realized Instagram’s not a great platform for me personally to post art because 1) I personally do not have a lot of followers on it, 2) of those followers, many are rl people who found me through fb which i try to keep separated from my fandom blogs, 3) Instagram heavily controls image dimensions so it’s not great if you frequently post tall or long posts and the majority of my art is portrait, 4) Instagram is good for individual aesthetic images, not so great for long story-telling multi-page comics, which is a lot of what I do, 5) I’m not entirely sure how people find your blog on instagram since no reblogging and tags and stuff seem strange and most of the attention seems to come from people who already follow you, and I’m too tired to learn another social media platform now, and 6) Instagram is full of a TON of art theft and I’ve had too many personal bad experiences to have a good impression of the platform as a whole.

So uh, yep, in other words for me Instagram is mostly for cosplay, selfies, pet pics, and merch pics ^ ^;

I also post on Twitter, but that has its fair share of issues too. It, like instagram, is pretty bad for posting portrait images and works better with square/landscape aligned images. It absolutely SUCKS for long comics and multi-page things because the previews are awful. The text limitation is also pretty miserable for someone like me who loves talking a LOT on my posts. It also has a really weird HUGE hit or miss gap between art posts, and I feel like the amount of followers or comments you get per successful art post is far fewer than Tumblr, though others may have different experiences. It IS good for connecting to a less English and tbh far less America-centric community though ^ ^;

I personally prefer to use Tumblr as my main art posting platform for several reasons, some simply because I’ve been more successful here and that’s motivation to continue, and some also just because of what I post. This was the first fandom social media I was really active on, and I’ve been active for YEARS and have sloooooooooooooowly but steadily gained more success, bit by tiny bit through various fandoms (so yeah, tons of art posts with only single digit notes? been there, done that WHOO).

Because Tumblr’s been my main social media, I’ve gotten used to formatting my art specifically for it. Almost all of my art uses Tumblr’s ideal image posting proportions (2 width: 3 height, for those wondering, anything taller blurs), and I’ve learned to take advantage of Tumblr’s vertical scrolling to make posts that stand out when you speed scroll. I’m also the kind of artist who again, rarely posts a “look a pretty picture anyone can appreciate” type art, and more “here’s a really obscure hyper specific AU comic that you’ll have to follow all the links and read the text to appreciate,” type work. This latter means that being able to write long comments (and being able to put it beneath a cut), add links to other posts, and properly tag is really important.

I’ve also found that when I personally post this hyper specific content, on Tumblr and only Tumblr of my social media platforms do I get significant feedback. This is almost entirely because my own unique followers are truly amazing and I’m so incredibly grateful to them, but also partially because there’s so many methods of feedback for people at various comfort levels. There’s the askbox, which I can respond to publicly and where people can send anon if that’s easier. There’s IMs, which I can rarely respond to but it’s an option. There’s replies and comments in reblogs of posts. And there’s tags for people who want to ramble but don’t necessarily look for responses from me. The combination of all of these results in quite a decent amount of feedback that I can enjoy ^ ^; And again, this isn’t for every post; I find that art with less specific context, even if it gets exponentially more notes just don’t have the same type of feedback as my more specific content. And experiences will vary heavily between users, but this is just the community that I feel has grown around my own art here (Thank you all, dear followers, you’re all amazing ;A;).

Tumblr’s url is the one stamped on all of my work because it’s the one I’ve created my brand on, it’s the one that contains all of my content as I meant for it to be seen (comments, tags, links to other related posts and all) so it’s the one that most of my reposts on my other social media link to anyway, and also to be blunt, it has many more times the number of followers than all of my other social medias combined >.

Of course, Tumblr has plenty of cons too. As noted above, but horizontal images are CRAP to post on Tumblr bc they take the least amount of space when you’re vertically scrolling so even it’s a ridiculously huge and detailed long post, it’ll barely blip on most dashes. There’s a limit of 10 images, which can be annoying for me sometimes as a comic artist who has to work around that. Tumblr also does this ridiculously stupid thing where it resizes the image that appears on the dash so it’s really crappy quality and it’s a pain for people to open up the actual resolution image. Tumblr also has, ah, a very specific and rather hostile culture around many things, and depending on what you post you could get a lot of unsavory comments that will be a LOT more rare on other platforms. I’ve found that users on other platforms tend to understand the “You control what you consume,” concept a lot better ^ ^;;;; And given the above various forms of interacting with your followers that I’ve listed above, this also means that people have a variety of tools to make you feel like crap too! And then there’s all that stuff about safety mode going on recently, among other problems. Not a perfect platform, not by a LONG shot.

So which social media platform will be right for you? Again, it really, REALLY depends. If rl people follow you on one or the other and you want or DON’T want them to see it, that’s a factor. If you’re used to talking to your followers on one account and maybe they’d be interested in seeing something else from you, that’s an option. If you want to divide personal from fandom or combine them, that’s a factor. If you prefer more “artistic” or aesthetic art, perhaps instagram and twitter would work far better for you than me. If you have a certain art orientation you prefer, that’s a factor (again: Instagram = square, Twitter = square/landscape, Tumblr = portrait/square). If you want to write a lot of comments or post multi-page work, perhaps Tumblr is better. And of course, it certainly doesn’t hurt to try posting on multiple simultaneously and seeing what works for you, which could be everything!

But most importantly, please don’t get too discouraged if your work does not immediately get the response you were hoping it’d get. Gaining a following takes time and there are so many factors involved beyond your skill level alone, including the popularity of the fandom if it’s fanart, timeliness, frequency of your posts, and the biggest one is sheer dumb luck. Most if not all followers won’t ever comment. Most of your followers won’t even bother to hit like. It WILL feel exhausting and unrewarding and thankless if you go into it for the notes alone. So please, it’ll be hard but it can be a wonderful and rewarding thing to share things you’ve put your love and passion into, so enjoy drawing, draw what you love, and share because you want to share that feeling ^ ^

Sorry this got SUPER long, but I hope it was somewhat helpful! ^ ^;

#YukiPri replies #Anonymous #art #longpost #long post #YukiPri rambles

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ashlyreads · 7 years

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Wahoo, the first post of 2017! How are you all faring so far in the new year? I spent my first day of 2017 purchasing a new phone and some new books. What a way to start, huh?

Here’s what went down in books at the end of 2016 and the start of 2017.

Also, new year means attempted new look! Let me know what you think of the new layout and added sections :D

Best Nine Photos of 2016 on Instagram

BLOG POSTS

Wednesday: Playlist – Pride & Prejudice and Book Review – Upside Down: A Vampire Tale (Upside Down #1) by Jess Smart Smiley

Thursday: Christmas Book Haul and Book Review – Star Trek: The Next Generation / Doctor Who: Assimilation2, Volume 1 by Scott Tipton and David Tipton

Friday: Book Review – X-Man: All Saints Day One-Shot by Ben Raab

Saturday: December 2016 Wrap-Up

BOUGHT

“The Green Mile, Part 3: Coffey’s Hands” by Stephen King

“The Green Mile, Part 4: The Bad Death of Eduard Delacroix” by Stephen King

“The Green Mile, Part 5: Night Journey” by Stephen King

Pygmalion by George Bernard-Shaw

“Rapunzel” by The Borthers Grimm, illustrated by Victoria Lisi

The Scary Stories for Sleep-Overs Almanac by Michelle Ghaffari

*Unfortunately I could not find images for the latter two books here.*

Fear Itself: The Horror Fiction of Stephen King edited by Tim Underwood and Chuck Miller

The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King

Kids of Appetite by David Arnold

Doctor Who: The Secret Life of Monsters by Justin Richards

Invader Zim, Volume 2 by Jhonen Vásquez

Kenobi by John Hackson Miller

Batgirl “Mindfield” (Issue #49) by Cameron Stuart and Brenden Fletcher

Mockingbird (Issue #2) by Chelsea Cain

Marvel Secret Wars “Beyond” (Issue #9) by Jonathan Hickman

Secret Wars: Old Man Logan (Issue #1) by Brian Michael Bendis

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars “Owen Reece Died for Our Sins” (Issue #5) by Jonathan Hickman

The X Files Season Eleven “Home Again” Part 2 by Joe Harris

Munchkin “Anti-Social Media” (Issue #9) by Tom Siddell

Martian Manhunter “We are all Different People” (Issue #10) by Rob Williams

Empress “X” (Issue #3) by Mark Millar

Hawkeye “Hawkeyes” Part One of Three (Issue #4) by Jeff Lemire

Godzilla in Hell (Issue #3) by Ulises Farinas & ERick Frietas

Guardians of the Galaxy (Issue 26) by Brian Michael Bendis

Marvel Secret Wars “The Infinity Gauntlet” (Issue #4) by Dustin Weaver

X-Men Apocalypse Wars “Extraordinary X-Men” (Issue #8) by Jeff Lemire

Uncanny X-Men (Issue #4) by Cullen Bunn

Old Man Logan “Berserker: Part Three” (Issue #3) by Jeff Lemire

REVIEW COPIES RECEIVED

Fake Plastic Love by Kimberley Tait

The Idiot by Elif Batuman

Selected: A Young Adult Sci-Fi Adventure (The Zaratan Trilogy Book 1) by Evelyn Lederman

ADDED TO TBR

Kingdom Come by Mark Waid

Batman: Dark Legends by Bryan Talbot

Wolverine and the X-Men, Volume 1 by Jason Aaron

The Face: A Time Code by Ruth Ozeki

London Belongs to Me by Jacquelyn Middleton

Animals by Emma Jane Unsworth

Legion of Superheroes, Vol. 1: Hostile World by Paul Levitz

Hellboy: Odd Jobs by Christopher Golden and Mike Mignola

Preacher, V0l. 1: Gone to Texas by Garth Ennis

Batman: Hush by Jeff Loeb

My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

Batman: The Black Mirror by Scott Snyder

A Study In Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro

Pax by Sara Pennypacker

The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic by Emily Cory Barker

FINISHED

Faith (Issue #1) by Jody Houser, Pere Pérez, Marguerite Saugave, Colleen Doran, Andrew Dalhouse, and Dave Sharpe

CURRENTLY READING

Harry Potter y la Piedra Filosofal by J.K. Rowling

‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King

Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone

Doctor Who: The Secret Lives of Monsters by Justin Richards

Selected: A Young Adult Sci-Fi Adventure (The Zaratan Trilogy Book 1) by Evelyn Lederman

THE END

Welp, there you have it. Formatting this took ages, so no review published tonight. I’ll be back tomorrow!

More helpful reading:

Best Rocket Stove Plans & Design: DIY Mass & Water Heater (How to Build)

How To Start a Fire With Sticks: Make Friction Fire Steps (Bow or Hand Drill, No Lighter)

1. Ditch social media

We’ve just learned how social media uses artificial intelligence to check more about you.

However, some people use social media to their own disadvantage.

One of the common ways is sharing too much information such as posting a holiday destination or weekend plans.

Doing this provides your enemies with intel on where and when to strike.

Most apps come with Geotagging features when capturing photos and videos. This must be noted since most of us have photo album, photo book, video book and video album uploaded online.

This can accidentally get activated when your phone is online.

That’s why you need to deactivate all your social media accounts before implementing your getaway plan.

Photos

Consider deleting all your photos, photo book, and photo album online, since anyone looking for you might download and print them.

2. Delete your email account

Should I delete my email account before vanishing?

Yes, you should. Emails can leave a huge trail.

Let’s say you use Gmail and happen to use Google to find out the best routes to drive outside America. This is something you should understand in planning how to disappear completely.

An enemy with hacking skills can use your email address to view your recent search history.

This makes you quite vulnerable to an ambush.

Plan in advance on when you’ll download important files and contacts when disappearing temporarily.

3. Get a new phone if necessary

At this point, you’ll need a phone. This means abandoning your previous contacts.

It could even be advisable to work on a physical contact album or book, to avoid any tracing through electronic means.

While flashing or jailbreaking might seem like a better option, you’re still at risk of hacking.

The best thing would be disposing your phone just like on TV.

Park your car near a lake and throw your phone as far away as you can. This is necessary to disappear completely.

A basic phone will help you get by since at this point, you’ll have cut off communication with your circles.

It’s advisable to make phone calls from random locations to avoid getting tracked through cellphone towers.

4. Hiring Companies That Remove Personal Information from Internet

Have you ever typed or said your name on Google out of curiosity? You’ll often find information from sources such as…

· Social media

· Online forums

· YouTube channels

· Sites where your name is mentioned. (e.g articles or books you’ve published)

· Linkedin

· Google images (and albums uploaded)

This information could take time to delete if you have a prolific career online.

For instance, someone who is a political blogger deemed controversial might be mentioned in almost 20 websites. These are the type of stuff that are not going away.

When fleeing on exile, you can hire a company that specializes on how to completely disappear online.

Gather all your identification

You’ll need identification to help you relocate to safety or withdraw money from your bank. This is where you ask yourself “Do I want to be disappear for good?”

If your situation gets worse, a passport will help you get going and moving across borders. Without a passport, there will be no going away for you.

You’ll need a driving license or some form of ID when booking hotel rooms.

At this point, you might hire a data specialist to check whether your new identity is being used fraudulently.

It is said, some hackers can clone your new identity as a way of tricking your friends to give away information that could potentially help them pinpoint you.

It is to create an album as well for this for you to compile all identification documents.

Sell your car

You will never learn how to disappear completely unless you are able to make your belongings disappear first.

Doing this means that the newfound owner cannot get coerced into sharing information on your whereabouts.

Make sure the said buyer pays you in cash and never through other transactions to avoid leaving paper trails.

Don’t involve your loved ones

If you wish to disappear completely by yourself, it’s best to never involve other people. Better to keep them in the dark, especially when planning how to disappear completely.

Doing this could put someone you love, like a friend or relative, on the line. Get rid of any photo album or video album connecting you to them.

Criminal gangs have a reputation of hurting family members as a form of revenge.

These said goons could use painful interrogation on your friends in their effort to track you down.

This is the best time to stay sober. No need to get drunk and waste time, since this may become a cause of being almost arrested.

A night out with friends can make you reveal your plans unintentionally.

Some might end up frustrating your plans out of what might seem to be good intentions. This may not be music to your ears but it is necessary.

Create a budget

No matter where you are, you’ll need food, shelter, and clothes. All of which that are said are still essentials for executing a plan on how to disappear completely.

In this situation, you’ll need some time to settle down before applying for a newfound job.

That means paying for rent or hotel rooms and other expenses out of your own pockets.

You’ll need to save up for a while to ensure that your plan may run smoothly.

Avoid borrowing money from several friends because this will raise suspicion.

Keep it to just a couple of friends without revealing your intentions with the money. Almost all of your expenses must be kept in order. It is best to book keep regarding these matters of finances

Leave your finances in order

Almost all banks and other creditors use private investigators to track down credit defaulters. These people are equipped with piles of books and documents to track people down.

Before going away, make sure you clear all your credit card bills and outstanding loans. You might have to sell your house to cease making monthly payments to your bank.

Make sure your car payments are settled before selling it.

If you have pending orders, create some time to get them delivered to clients expeditiously.

Doing this will help you avoid lawsuits once you disappear.

Having said all of those, if this isn’t possible, make arrangements on how to refund your clients.

Detach yourself gradually

Why is detaching from them before going away necessary?

Because you’ll need some time doing research and fine tuning your getaway plan.

Life on the run means living in isolation for days or weeks.

Pets

Unfortunately, you cannot bring your pet on a risky mission.

You cannot feed him or her properly when you’re constantly looking over your shoulder.

Researches have said that a malnourished animal is susceptible to diseases and traveling to the vet is unnecessary, considering the danger at hand for someone wanting to disappear.

Also, animals can sense when their owners get stressed.

This in turn makes them nervous and can bring about unwanted accidents. A nervous dog may bite bystanders while you’re taking a walk or march in the park.

Unfortunately, having a pet companion is something that may hinder being free discreetly, especially if you want to never be found for quite some time.

Change your wardrobe

It might seem a little obvious, but most people tend to forget this step.

Changing your appearance makes it harder for someone to detect you on security cameras. Plus, it buys you some time to flee or find a place to settle where it’s peaceful.

You may be thinking or have said before, “If I want to disappear, should I stick to hoodies and dark shades?”

Certainly not because it draws more attention and will not help you in your quest to never be found again.

If you normally wear formal attire, you might need to do a couple of things.

For instance, growing out your beautiful hair will conceal conspicuous facial features. Listening to a different song could help you psyche up a change in identity.

Next, you might want to switch to casual wear because your friends or family won’t expect that look.

Plan your false leads

If you’re running away from malicious people, you’ll need to mislead them for you to never be found.

That’s why you need to learn how to create false leads to keep danger at bay. Having said that, how does one do this then?

The first step would be evaluating what information your enemy probably knows about you for you to learn what to eliminate and manufacture to never be found again.

Let’s say you’re going on tour to Nevada and your home state is Michigan. You could print road or ticket planes then leave them lying in your house.

While your enemy travels to Michigan, you’re actually safe and secure in Louisiana.

Work out a convincing background

If you’re relocating to unfamiliar territory, you’ll need to develop a convincing background – especially when you’re trying to rent a newfound home.

The best approach would be keeping things as brief as possible.

If someone asks why you relocated, you can tell them that you come from a small town with limited opportunities.

Don’t mention towns or areas in your home state if you want to never be found again.

Travel discreetly

Nowadays, malicious people hack surveillance cameras with the intent of illegally tracking victims.

If someone knows where you live, they can monitor you as you drive off to work as well as access security cameras in your place of work.

This puts you at a high risk of getting ambushed or suffering a home invasion.

If your body is in great shape, then you could have to cycle through dirt paths to avoid traffic cameras.

A drone equipped with a camera can also help you spot any roadblocks or potential dangers in advance.

Learn some self defense

Getting away might not come so easily especially if you want to never be found.

A spouse trying to flee from a physically abusive relationship might resort to fighting off their aggressive partner and run to survive.

When a stalker creeps into your newfound home, you’ll could need to use a significant amount of force.

You can sign up for martial arts classes to learn self-defense and prepare for such incidents. If you feel like singing a kung-fu song to get you into it, then do so.

Train yourself on how to use knives, because carrying a firearm might be a nuisance – especially when walking in malls and other public places since you have to fill out declaration forms.

Other weapons you can carry discreetly include pepper sprays and tasers.

You won’t have to declare them in most places and they’re quite affordable to replace.

Always use cash

Any transaction made using a credit or debit card reveals the business location and exact time. Book keeping in this case is a necessary practice.

If you’re using a joint credit card with a spouse, they can try to use this information to find you.

Carry your cash in separate compartments for safety reasons.

Also, carry the exact amount you need for making a purchase to minimize time spent at stores or shopping areas. Avoid buying something you don’t need.

Doing this will lower your chances of getting recorded on security cameras.

Create a new legal identity

How hard is it to completely change your name? All it takes is presenting the relevant form to court.

It could take a few weeks before your newly identity becomes official.

Once you arrive in your destination, you might consider using a nickname that you’ve never used in your past.

Doing this creates a layer of security because many people will stick to using it without bothering to learn your real names.

How to Create a New Identity

1. Apply for a new social security number

How do I get a new social security number legally?

First, you’ll have to completely and legally change your name.

Once the court verifies your recent identity, the next step is visiting the nearest social security office and filling out several forms.

Are there requirements?

The social security office might request to see documents supporting your need to change identity.

You’ll then receive a social security number after a couple of weeks.

2. Reintroduce yourself

When you look at your new name, it might seem strange. However, this is your newest identity and you need to fit the character.

Originally, just like in the movies, you’ll have to stand in front of a mirror every single day.

Another way to make yourself appear more credible is maintaining a consistent new inspired look.

Over time you’ll gradually come to associate the new name with specific clothes.

3. Be a law abiding citizen

During arrests, police usually conduct background checks on suspects.

Things might get complicated if an officer notices that your history is scarce because of an identity change.

Avoid giving in to the temptation to make a quick buck by engaging in crime. Stick to the book and keep a discipline in following the law.

Also, stay away from someone you completely suspect is actively involved in criminal activities.

How do I start a new life with no money?

You can cope through this uncomfortable situation by taking the following steps:

1. Relocate to somewhere affordable

Don’t be afraid to be a kid again when discovering newfound places.

Plus, it’s the safest place to change your entire look without drawing suspicion.

When your savings are a bit thin, you can rent a small, decent apartment. Research or read a book about the place you are moving into, in order to avoid culture shock.

Take time to identify some nice cities and you’ll find something that’s a good value for money.

Once you move in, you can install a security camera at the door or something to monitor security.

2. Set a monthly income target

Relocating to a newfound city or country is a sign that you want a completely peaceful life.

For someone to achieve this, you’ll need a sustainable monthly income. Book keeping on extra incomes should also be observed here. Avoid buying something you don’t need.

This will help you buy a newly car, home, or start a business.

Basically, you need a plan on how you’ll transition from a temporary job to a better paying one – like enrolling for a course to advance your professional skills.

Write down the steps you need to take, then set a completely reasonable deadline.

3. Make new friends

Living in isolation can make you depressed. One could not have thought of this when planning how to disappear completely.

Also, your neighbors could get completely suspicious when you don’t say, “Hi”, “I’m Fine” or “Thanks” to them.

The last thing you need is when police came knocking on your door.

You can integrate with your newfound community by taking small steps. Be a kid and have an open mind when it comes to meeting new people, as this will help establish your new life.

Hanging out with your new colleagues once or twice a week isn’t a bad idea. Then, you can join a local gym and meet new people. Go to a karaoke and sing a wonderful song with new colleagues.

Some of them can actually help you get a better job.

4. Minimize recurrent expenses

Think through everything.

For instance, food and transport are usually the biggest recurrent expenses you’ll incur. Make sure to record these transactions.

For instance, doing bulk shopping ensures you have enough food for the next month.

You’ll also cook most of your meals to reduce expenses related to food. You also may need to sell your new phone and find an old phone instead.

You might have to wake up earlier than usual to make it to work, but it’s worth it and the exercise would help sharpen your mind.

Plus, you don’t need to have a name ID or sign your name on any forms when purchasing a bicycle.

5. Stay resilient

As you settle into your newfound life, you’ll encounter many challenges and missing your friends and your old life will make you feel sad.

Sometimes, you might not hit your monthly income target. This is nothing new, and you must know that it is okay.

Planning on disappearing completely can take a huge toll on your mental health.

Take some time every day to address these issues.

This helps in the long run if you want to remain discreet.

You can also spend an afternoon exploring the new city or town.

As far as money is concerned, you’ll typically be successful when you follow your plan.

How do I start a new life abroad?

1. Choose an unlikely destination

That’s why you need a destination that’s unpredictable. You’ll also have the benefit of exploring new cultures.

How do you select an ideal country? Make sure it’s somewhere you’ve never mentioned to someone else – like friends or family. Also, don’t move to a place you’ve visited in the past.

This won’t help you disappear.

An ideal location should have a favorable exchange rate because you’ll be living off your savings temporarily.

2. Learn the language

3. Spot potential employers before leaving

4. Be patient

You’ll need about 2-3 months to get used to your new environment once you disappear.

During this period, become social to help you ease the floating transition. Spend time traveling to familiarize yourself with the city or town. Don’t be impatient.

5. Don’t reconnect with your old life

Now you know how to create a new identity legally and disappear completely

Applying these tips will help you leave your old life and transition smoothly into a new one.

Remember to plan thoroughly and never involve loved ones in your escape plan.

That’s how you would disappear completely.

The post How To Disappear Completely & Never Be Found (Legally, Without a Trace) appeared first on .

source https://survivalistgear.co/how-to-disappear-completely/

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ultratesterthings · 4 years

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The Things Brands Do on Social Media That People Hate

Outrage is the fastest-spreading emotion on social media, according to multiple studies. People love to hate, and they’ll happily hate your brand if you give them the right reason.

Whether you see a raging firestorm of hostile tweets as free marketing or a living nightmare, this post is for you. Turns out there are endless ways for a brand to stumble across the line into irritating, phony or outright offensive behaviour.

Here are our some of our favourite ways to annoy and alienate your followers…

Bonus: Get the step-by-step social media strategy guide with pro tips on how to grow your social media presence.

14 things brands do on social media that people hate

1. Oblivious self-promotion

Yes, brands are on social media to sell. Your audience isn’t going to hold it against you, for the most part. Unless you just won’t stop selling.

Not everything is about you, Cinnabon.

When you’re building your social media calendar try to follow the 80/20 rule: eighty percent useful (i.e., informative, entertaining, awe-inspiring, etc.) versus twenty percent promotional.

Or, another way of thinking about it: your audience is composed of human beings with thoughts and feelings.

2. Too much AI

Speaking of human beings, consider talking like one, too.

According to Pew Research, 66 percent of Americans have heard of social media bots, and 80 percent of those people think bots are bad.

If you’re considering automating your social media—whether it’s a customer service chatbot or a pay-for-Instagram-followers service—take a moment to consider how badly it could go.

Unless a booking assistant bot is actually faster and more convenient than the alternative methods, don’t risk annoying your potential customers.

Even more problematic: using a bot to automate your social media interactions (eg., retweeting certain hashtags or following/retweeting certain users).

Remember when the Patriots’ Twitter account managed to automatically post this image?

Maintain a human touch on social.

3. Non-apologies

Whether you’ve inconvenienced one person or offended millions, take the situation as seriously as they do.

This apology from the Patriots apparently looked fine to the people who approved it, but it missed the mark for two reasons:

A) it dodges blame, B) the language is inadequate given the offense.

Some key ingredients of a good apology:

Accept responsibility

Acknowledge the other person’s feelings

Don’t make excuses

Commit to being better

Try not to speak like a character from Kafka’s The Trial

4. Not listening

Social media is not a billboard campaign. When you’re crafting every post with the goal of actively encouraging engagement, at some point you’re going to receive less-than-positive feedback.

Don’t ignore complaints. Not responding to negative feedback is its own crystal-clear response. Not only can your audience see you cold-shouldering other customers, you’re missing out on an opportunity to transform the situation into a positive experience.

What’s the best way to get fewer complaints? Learn from the ones you do get.

People aren’t shy about telling you what needs to change. To that end, a social listening strategy can help you gauge customer mood across social media platforms, and act on it.

5. Thirsty customer service

Yes, brands need to listen. On the other hand, they need to avoid being creepy and invasive. In other words: if you are a chicken restaurant don’t flirt with people.

Sixty-four percent of customers only want a brand to chime in when they’re being directly addressed. It’s a double standard, but if people are out there talking you up it can be weird if you start chatting back.

6. Automatic cross-posting

Nothing says “I don’t care about this platform or the people who use it” more clearly than a post that was clearly meant for another platform.

This tweet is a perfect example of ineffective cross-posting. Twitter users are never going to click through to see an image on Instagram. (I mean, the load times!) And why would anyone say “link in bio” on Twitter, when you can easily post a link?

At best this tweet looks lazy, at worst incompetent.

Craft a new post for each platform. This isn’t a huge task, it just means small tweaks to caption length, image format, and vocabulary. It’s arguably easier than getting your apostrophes right.

7. Posting clickbait

“The best way to convert a potential customer is by misleading them right off the bat,” said no one, ever.

Yes we love clicks. But there’s a difference between compulsive, mindless traffic and a person who has been encouraged to take the first step in initiating a valuable relationship for both parties.

If you’re exploiting your audience’s lizard-brain to draw them in, they’ll figure it out sooner or later. Probably in micro-seconds. Probably even as they click the link they’re already annoyed at themselves (for falling for it) and you (for making them fall for it.)

This is just not how trust is built.

8. Posting engagement bait

One fraction of a step above clickbait (and still on Facebook’s radar as a spammy practice that the algorithm will seek out and punish) is engagement bait.

Bonus: Get the step-by-step social media strategy guide with pro tips on how to grow your social media presence.

Get the free guide right now! Source: Facebook

Begging for comments, shares, likes, reactions, or votes on any platform is honestly a little embarrassing. Your brand is above this kind of behavior.

There are better ways to encourage engagement, like running an above-board Instagram contest.

9. Acting cool

Ok, this one’s a little tougher.

Yes, some brands have managed to win hearts and minds with snark and weirdness. And some brands have managed to fail utterly:

As @BrandsSayingBAE’s bio states: “It’s cool when a corporation tweets like a teenager. It makes me want to buy the corporation’s products.”

Corporations may be people in the eyes of the law, but having a personality is not a commitment to take on lightly if you’re a brand.

It’s the internet. Someone will always find a way to mock you.

On the other hand, people will mock you if you’re boring, too.

10. Being boring

Dr Pepper Snapple act very serious online, considering they’re a group of people who call themselves “Dr Pepper Snapple.”

In 2017 they were so committed to being boring that they got a Twitter account called @OfficialRCCola shut down. The account had posted several viral tweets and attracted 10,000 followers in two months with its irreverent (and markedly anti-Trump) jokes.

Apparently, Dr Pepper Snapple would prefer to receive zero attention on social media. (Their Twitter account is almost entirely inactive except for the odd verbatim press release.)

Here’s a question for brand experts: at what point does their lack of annoyingness become, in itself, annoying?

11. Using emojis when you don’t know how to use emojis

Remember #ChevyGoesEmoji? Probably not. No one does, except for the poor auto journalists who received the company’s all-emoji press release in advance of the Chevy Cruze.

Turns out that for brands, emojis are a privilege, not a right. Learn how to use emoji in your social media strategy effectively, or spare yourself the embarrassment and don’t use them at all.

Not only was Chevy’s emoji use incomprehensible, the branded hashtag was a non-starter, too. Which brings us to our next point.

12. Using hashtags when you don’t know how to use hashtags

It is actually quite difficult to use hashtags without being just a little, um, basic. Using them in an interesting, smart, effective way? Extremely difficult.

For every successful branded hashtag campaign (brb googling “successful branded hashtag campaign”), there are a dozen self-owning fails: #McDstories #susanalbumparty #loveDP

Over the past few years, most brands have learned, often by watching other brands crash and burn, to back off on the kind of hashtags that will open up a floodgate of mockery and shame.

On most social media platforms—and Twitter especially, where humour and vitriol go hand in hand—hashtags require an expert hand.

For instance, using hashtags on Instagram in 2018 is very different than using them on LinkedIn, where they were only introduced this year.

Please. Don’t wing it.

13. Being fake

Remember 2013, when the concept of influencer marketing was understood as: a secret cabal of genius psychopath millennials who, for the right price, could make your single chart or your sparkling beverage popular?

These days audiences are more aware of (and resigned to) the fact that every shout-out is bought and paid for.

That said, if you’re going to “partner” with a celebrity for an endorsement, help your audience maintain their fantasy of independent thought.

Authenticity may be the most overused buzzword of the decade, but the concept still requires respect. Once you’ve lost it, it’s not easy to get back.

14. Being tone-deaf

The last point on our list is maybe the most difficult to get right.

According to a Edelman, in 2018 two out of three people identified as belief-driven buyers, meaning they will buy or boycott a brand based on its stance on controversial issues. (That’s 64 percent of people surveyed, which is a 13-point lift from 2017.)

Audiences are holding brands to a higher moral standard than ever before, which means brands aren’t choosing whether to engage, but how.

Risk-averse brands are naturally going to want to avoid the rampant polarization that clouds today’s political conversation. No shame there: check out these twelve ways to promote your “boring” brand.

It’s arguably a better choice than option two: going the faux-woke route and risking a Kendall “Pepsi” Jenner situation: a 21,000 percent increase in mentions over two days, most of them negative.

Meanwhile, there’s a third option: participating in conversations in a meaningful, unambiguous way. This is still going to earn criticism, but since 53 percent of people believe brands can do more to solve social ills than government can, it can also earn admiration.

Like we said at the top, outrage is the most viral emotion on social media. Nike’s genius here is repurposing the pre-existing outrage over Colin Kaepernick’s blacklisting by the NFL (which, in turn, was because of his outrage over police brutality and white supremacy).

Of course, the key is to ride the outrage, not generate it.

Use Hootsuite to avoid making your social media followers hate you. Compose, publish, and schedule posts in advance, engage your audience in real time, and keep tabs on your competition. Try it free today.

Get Started

The post The Things Brands Do on Social Media That People Hate appeared first on Hootsuite Social Media Management.

This content was originally published here.

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biofunmy · 4 years

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JR’s Street Gallery Comes Indoors

On a fall day at the Brooklyn Museum, it was hard for JR, the most recognizable anonymous artist in the world, to go more than a few steps without a wave of double takes and a trail of enthusiastic fans.

JR, who is 36 and was born in France, has been in the public sphere for at least a decade, yet still declines to give his full name and insists on appearing in public in a fedora and semi-rimless sunglasses, a bit of schtick that can make him look like he’s stepped directly out of a Godard film. This persona, combined with his work — monumental public photography projects often made in parts of the world wrenched by political strife or made inaccessible by military conflict — has lent JR the aura of an empathetic Houdini, magicking himself into unkind places and performing the dual trick of not getting killed while stirring warm feelings.

“JR: Chronicles,” his largest solo museum exhibition to date, tracks his by now well-documented actions from the Gaza Strip and the slums of Southern Sudan and Sierra Leone, to more recent work in the United States. Because his art is centered on portraiture and involves wheat-pasting oversize prints on building exteriors — the faces of women in Rio’s favelas splashed across their homes, or disembodied eyes in Havana, Istanbul and Los Angeles — JR is usually categorized as a photographer or a street artist, but neither really gets at his abiding interest, which is people, and connecting them.

“I don’t really like the term ‘street art,’” he said as we walked through the exhibition. “My studio was the street for a lot of years, just because I had to install my work anywhere I could, and I didn’t know anything else. For me it’s art whether it’s inside or outside. Sometimes it doesn’t work in a gallery. ”

JR doesn’t give away much about his past, aside from saying his parents emigrated from Tunisia and Eastern Europe and that he grew up in one of the “stable” banlieues outside Paris. When he was a teenager he would travel into the city center to write graffiti, using the tag JR, his real initials, or FACE 3, from his short-lived career as a D.J., until he realized he wasn’t good at either pursuit.

“I learned the climbing, I learned all the other stuff, except being a good writer,” he said. By his own admission, his art career began in near complete ignorance. “I came from an environment where there was no art at all. I didn’t know Keith Haring or Basquiat or Cartier-Bresson. I didn’t know there was a job of being an artist. The narrative of other people has always been more interesting to me than mine.” He shifted to documenting his friends’ talents, and pasting photocopies of his pictures of them on walls, complete with spray-painted frames and the heading “Expo 2 Rue,” for street gallery.

His first formal project, “Portrait of a Generation,” from 2004, featured close-ups of young people living in public housing in the Parisian suburbs of Montfermeil and Clichy-sous-Bois. JR asked them to make exaggerated faces, then pasted the images around the bourgeois neighborhoods of Paris. They’re playful but also confrontational, prodding at the conceptions of working-class immigrants in these communities as menacing. The portraits took on added gravity in the next year, as rioting by youths pointing to police abuse and inequality spread from Clichy, and JR’s pasted pictures became the background to burning cars. “JR: Chronicles” opens with a wall-size print of the French-Malian filmmaker Ladj Ly pointing a camera like a shotgun, a sly subversion of media portrayals of black men, but also the kinetic potential of images and the idea that social injustices could be remedied simply by making them widely visible, something that suggests JR’s working thesis.

Since then, JR has viewed his projects as correctives to durable stereotypes and incomplete characterizations of people who traditionally lack the representation to object. “What’s interesting is if you talk to a woman in Brazil and a woman in Palestine, you realize that often they have the same point of view: that they’re being misportrayed and they want to change that,” he said.

JR’s practice retains much of the graffitist’s instincts and moral center: the guerrilla application, the anti-authority ethos, the elevation of those shunted to the margins. “For me it’s really clear,” he said. “I was writing my names on walls to say ‘I exist,’ then I started pasting pictures of people with their names to say they exist. I feel safe when I see graffiti because it shows there’s life. When you go to countries and there’s not one single tag on the wall, you should be stressed.”

He doesn’t spend a lot of time discussing the technical aspects of his work. “Who cares if the photo is good or not good?” he said. He’s much more animated in retelling what happens after an image is pasted up and people start congregating and talking. The portrait is a provocation, an effective vehicle, but you get the sense he would happily switch to nautical flags or pottery if he knew those would take. The point is to get people to see each other, which for JR is the simplest route to understanding.

It can feel daunting to take in so many faces, each with its own history and struggle. But JR is all tightly coiled energy, bopping around the gallery, arms tracing connections in the air. He’s a gifted talker, but often, to punctuate a point he’s making, he’ll stab at your shoulder or jolt your arm. Aware both of his medium’s built-in ephemerality and a keen sense of self-promotion, he has been a consistent self-documenter from the beginning. Each of his interventions is accompanied by a short film, either made on the fly, or as his resources became more robust, with sophisticated production and a narrative assist from Robert De Niro.

For awhile, JR operated just at the outer edges of the art world, making a fairly straightforward but mostly unimpeachable kind of human interest photography that boosted empathy for his subjects. But in the last few years, under the representation of Perrotin — a global player that also represents blue- chip artists like Takashi Murakami and KAWS — produced gallery shows and the attendant sales, his work has invited institutional consideration, and criticism. There’s the knock that his persona feeds a mystique that gives his art a thrust it may otherwise not enjoy or deserve. JR defends his pseudonymous identity less for its performative affect than as a useful tool in a hostile reality.

“We live in a global world, but in most of the countries I go to no one knows me,” he said. “In Turkey or at the Mexican border, I would be stopped before I even started. I’ve been arrested in a lot of countries. The day that art is welcomed the same way everywhere, I guess I wouldn’t need this,” he says, gesturing to his camouflage. “You know, it’s kind of annoying to wear sunglasses all day.”

JR’s obvious analogue is Banksy, whose guerrilla art and success in remaining beguilingly anonymous have yielded eight-figure auction results. “For years I would be like that, completely covered,” JR said. “But I realized by not talking about the work, people would not understand the complexity of it, the layers. It implicates people, and so I wanted people to understand the subject’s intention.”

As his projects have evolved in complexity and reach, they’ve become a shorthand for the kind of citizen-of-the-world pluralism and inextinguishable optimism that can be hard to separate from naïveté. “Chronicles” includes JR’s most recent project, “The Chronicles of New York City,” a large-format mural featuring 1,128 people, whom JR and his team photographed and interviewed by way of a 53-foot-long trailer truck studio that trawled the five boroughs last summer. It’s the third in a series of Diego Rivera-style frescos, after a similar project in San Francisco, and a 2018 Time magazine and JR commission that took as its subject this country’s gun control debate.

He’s been dogged in declining funding from and association with commercial brands and government entities. Still, his pictures are deliberately noncommittal, allowing viewers to affix their own conceptions to the subjects, skimming the surface of deeply intractable social problems rather than engaging with them fully. It can be a frustratingly reductive vision, an Occam’s razor theory of world peace. “The first time I traveled, people told me I’m going to get killed,” he said. “I think being naïve is what has helped me the most.”

“People say, well they might need food, not art, and I’m like, all right, let me go check that, I want to hear from them. So I would go to Kenya or to Sierra Leone and say ‘this is what I do, but you tell me if it makes sense here.’” And the response was always the same: “ ‘Because we’re struggling we shouldn’t have access to art?’”

JR insists that his work doesn’t have a particular style, and so avoids a cult of personality. His “Inside Out: The People’s Art Project,” begun in 2011, invites participants to submit self-portraits, which his studio prints poster-sized and sends back for them to paste. It aims to transcend the artist’s hand entirely.

“I didn’t invent black and white or pasting,” he said. “I never sign my work in the street. So actually, more people don’t know who did it than people who do. I put my work in places where nobody knows me. Yes, it’s giant, but there’s nothing written on it. It’s there for whoever wants to know.”

JR: Chronicles

Through May 3 at the Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway; 718-638-5000, brooklynmuseum.org.

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unifiedsocialblog · 5 years

Text

The Things Brands Do on Social Media That People Hate

Outrage is the fastest-spreading emotion on social media, according to multiple studies. People love to hate, and they’ll happily hate your brand if you give them the right reason.

Here are our some of our favourite ways to annoy and alienate your followers…

Bonus: Get the step-by-step social media strategy guide with pro tips on how to grow your social media presence.

14 things brands do on social media that people hate

1. Oblivious self-promotion

Yes, brands are on social media to sell. Your audience isn’t going to hold it against you, for the most part. Unless you just won’t stop selling.

Not everything is about you, Cinnabon.

When you’re building your social media calendar try to follow the 80/20 rule: eighty percent useful (i.e., informative, entertaining, awe-inspiring, etc.) versus twenty percent promotional.

Or, another way of thinking about it: your audience is composed of human beings with thoughts and feelings.

2. Too much AI

Speaking of human beings, consider talking like one, too.

According to Pew Research, 66 percent of Americans have heard of social media bots, and 80 percent of those people think bots are bad.

If you’re considering automating your social media—whether it’s a customer service chatbot or a pay-for-Instagram-followers service—take a moment to consider how badly it could go.

Unless a booking assistant bot is actually faster and more convenient than the alternative methods, don’t risk annoying your potential customers.

Even more problematic: using a bot to automate your social media interactions (eg., retweeting certain hashtags or following/retweeting certain users).

Remember when the Patriots’ Twitter account managed to automatically post this image?

Maintain a human touch on social.

3. Non-apologies

Whether you’ve inconvenienced one person or offended millions, take the situation as seriously as they do.

This apology from the Patriots apparently looked fine to the people who approved it, but it missed the mark for two reasons:

A) it dodges blame, B) the language is inadequate given the offense.

Some key ingredients of a good apology:

Accept responsibility

Acknowledge the other person’s feelings

Don’t make excuses

Commit to being better

Try not to speak like a character from Kafka’s The Trial

4. Not listening

Social media is not a billboard campaign. When you’re crafting every post with the goal of actively encouraging engagement, at some point you’re going to receive less-than-positive feedback.

What’s the best way to get fewer complaints? Learn from the ones you do get.

People aren’t shy about telling you what needs to change. To that end, a social listening strategy can help you gauge customer mood across social media platforms, and act on it.

5. Thirsty customer service

Yes, brands need to listen. On the other hand, they need to avoid being creepy and invasive. In other words: if you are a chicken restaurant don’t flirt with people.

6. Automatic cross-posting

Nothing says “I don’t care about this platform or the people who use it” more clearly than a post that was clearly meant for another platform.

At best this tweet looks lazy, at worst incompetent.

Craft a new post for each platform. This isn’t a huge task, it just means small tweaks to caption length, image format, and vocabulary. It’s arguably easier than getting your apostrophes right.

7. Posting clickbait

“The best way to convert a potential customer is by misleading them right off the bat,” said no one, ever.

Yes we love clicks. But there’s a difference between compulsive, mindless traffic and a person who has been encouraged to take the first step in initiating a valuable relationship for both parties.

This is just not how trust is built.

8. Posting engagement bait

One fraction of a step above clickbait (and still on Facebook’s radar as a spammy practice that the algorithm will seek out and punish) is engagement bait.

Source: Facebook

Begging for comments, shares, likes, reactions, or votes on any platform is honestly a little embarrassing. Your brand is above this kind of behavior.

There are better ways to encourage engagement, like running an above-board Instagram contest.

9. Acting cool

Ok, this one’s a little tougher.

Yes, some brands have managed to win hearts and minds with snark and weirdness. And some brands have managed to fail utterly:

As @BrandsSayingBAE’s bio states: “It’s cool when a corporation tweets like a teenager. It makes me want to buy the corporation’s products.”

Corporations may be people in the eyes of the law, but having a personality is not a commitment to take on lightly if you’re a brand.

It’s the internet. Someone will always find a way to mock you.

On the other hand, people will mock you if you’re boring, too.

10. Being boring

Dr Pepper Snapple act very serious online, considering they’re a group of people who call themselves “Dr Pepper Snapple.”

Apparently, Dr Pepper Snapple would prefer to receive zero attention on social media. (Their Twitter account is almost entirely inactive except for the odd verbatim press release.)

Here’s a question for brand experts: at what point does their lack of annoyingness become, in itself, annoying?

11. Using emojis when you don’t know how to use emojis

Remember #ChevyGoesEmoji? Probably not. No one does, except for the poor auto journalists who received the company’s all-emoji press release in advance of the Chevy Cruze.

Turns out that for brands, emojis are a privilege, not a right. Learn how to use emoji in your social media strategy effectively, or spare yourself the embarrassment and don’t use them at all.

Not only was Chevy’s emoji use incomprehensible, the branded hashtag was a non-starter, too. Which brings us to our next point.

12. Using hashtags when you don’t know how to use hashtags

It is actually quite difficult to use hashtags without being just a little, um, basic. Using them in an interesting, smart, effective way? Extremely difficult.

For every successful branded hashtag campaign (brb googling “successful branded hashtag campaign”), there are a dozen self-owning fails: #McDstories #susanalbumparty #loveDP

Over the past few years, most brands have learned, often by watching other brands crash and burn, to back off on the kind of hashtags that will open up a floodgate of mockery and shame.

On most social media platforms—and Twitter especially, where humour and vitriol go hand in hand—hashtags require an expert hand.

For instance, using hashtags on Instagram in 2018 is very different than using them on LinkedIn, where they were only introduced this year.

Please. Don’t wing it.

13. Being fake

These days audiences are more aware of (and resigned to) the fact that every shout-out is bought and paid for.

That said, if you’re going to “partner” with a celebrity for an endorsement, help your audience maintain their fantasy of independent thought.

Authenticity may be the most overused buzzword of the decade, but the concept still requires respect. Once you’ve lost it, it’s not easy to get back.

14. Being tone-deaf

The last point on our list is maybe the most difficult to get right.

Audiences are holding brands to a higher moral standard than ever before, which means brands aren’t choosing whether to engage, but how.

Of course, the key is to ride the outrage, not generate it.

Get Started

The post The Things Brands Do on Social Media That People Hate appeared first on Hootsuite Social Media Management.

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soshenko33 · 6 years

Text

Hot shower for the anarchist. Ukrainian artists at documenta 14

text: Nataliya Matsenko

translated by Volodymyr Polegin

Intro

Kassel is a wealthy, peaceful, and respectable city. The documenta art exhibition, which began back in 1955 as a revitalizing event in a decaying post-war industrial centre experiencing crisis, today is a crown, or rather a punkish mohawk decorating the head of an officially dressed businessman, which adds an air of nonchalance to the successful image.

Beginning from the revolutionary fifth documenta in distant 1972, when Harald Szeemann turned it into a hundred day-long event and made a breakthrough in media (photography, happening and performance were put on display equally with painting and sculpture), every five years, along with every new edition of documenta, another institutional step is taken towards expanding geographical (and other) limits in order to demonstrate the open nature of the initiative and the sensitivity to relevant global needs and challenges. Catherine David (documenta X) became the first person of non-German origin (as well as the first woman) to be appointed as the Artistic Director for the event. Since documenta 11, on Okwui Enwezor’s initiative (this time the first Artistic Director of non-European origin) aimed at the struggle with Europocentric and colonialist tendencies, the project first went beyond not only the limits of Kassel and Germany, but also of Europe itself. Adam Szymczyk, the Artistic Director for documenta 14, went even further, for the first time in the project’s history achieving a split between two different locations enjoying truly equal rights, and making Athens not only a supplementary platform, but also a symmetric full-fledged hosting partner for Kassel.

Szymczyk and ‘The castle’

By the concept for documenta 14 titled ‘Learning from Athens’, underpinning the European and worldwide socio-political and economical crisis, among other things Szymczyk meant a withdrawal from the established domination of a certain world view paradigm, longing to ‘forget what we know’ and questioning the existing ‘chauvinist white male nationalist and colonialist ways of being and thinking’1. Furthermore, many efforts were made to refuse the previously shaped idea of documenta 14 as another iteration of ‘the world’s most famous and discussed art exhibition’ and to blur the clear and predictable program for the event: ‘I would argue that, rather than only being a tool of German cultural policy and an event expected to have a significant impact on Kassel and the region, documenta must be considered an autonomous, commonly owned, transnational and inclusive self-organized artistic undertaking-one that is carried out by a multitude and not limited to any location in particular’.

Considering the principal messages and aims declared by the Artistic Director for documenta 14, he accepted a rather difficult challenge, for not only did the ambitious reforming curator attempt restructuring the very foundation for the established and clearly predefined scheme of the institutional machine called documenta, but also he encroached on the functional mechanics and economical management of documenta gGmbH2, Kassel, and the whole Hesse region. By doing this, he effectively infringed on the global system of socio-political and economic relations, pinning his hopes on artistic means that, instead of simple reproduction of the existing social connections, could create and populate spaces, facilitating the discourses beyond the limits of common knowledge, and challenge the predictable and dull course of contemporary global political and social developments that deprive us of sleep and constantly keep us edgy.

Such a humanitarian interdisciplinary declarative concept was of a rather utopian nature. Clearly realizing the impossibility of achieving the declared goals, in his curatorial notes, Szymczyk himself foresightedly notifies the reader/spectator of this, describing the conditions he was put into and the obstacles he encountered: ‘I believe that such insight into the organizational constitution of documenta 14 is necessary in order to understand how near impossible it is to realize a project that aims at making a political statement from within the organizational structure and constrained position of a state-subsidized cultural institution’. Despite all the tremendous professional efforts made by the Artistic Director and his team to overcome routine and create new connections, the starchiness of the monopolistic institution along with the faint notes of despised colonialism steadily echoed throughout the whole melody of the project. Regardless of skillful theoretical foundation, a vast amount of worthy works displayed, ingenious solutions and subtle references, the degree of pomp accompanying every opening ceremony, the admission fees, Kassel’s domination (economical at the very least) over Athens, its ‘symmetric partner’, and an air of nearly academic traditionalism pervading many expositions left an impression that the stronghold is well fortified, and its inhabitants feel far too comfortable to change something drastically. Besides, a constantly growing level of attendance reached its peak during documenta 14, attracting an audience of more than a million people, which was ten times bigger than the audience of the first documenta directed by its founder Arnold Bode in 1955. Such popularity, being a considerable source of income, by no means facilitates leaving the pre-established schemes.

However, such a general analysis of documenta 14 is not at all the primary goal of this work, which makes the aforegoing digression only necessary for a better understanding of peculiarities and the context surrounding the main subject, i.e. the first time a group of contemporary Ukrainian artists participating in documenta. This event, despite having been nearly unnoticed within the local artistic situation, in fact seems to be an influential precedent worthy of attention. Fortunately, the fact that the famous series of 14 ‘Books of schemes’ written by Ukrainian artist Valeriy Lamakh (1925-1978) were also exhibited at documenta 14, has already been reported by media.3

Soshenko 33 at documenta 14. Prelude

The story began in 2015, when, during the ‘Kyiv School’ biennale, the Artistic Director for the future documenta Adam Szymczyk quite unexpectedly to himself visited one of the remotest locations of the exhibition at 33 Soshenko str., where he was totally impressed by the project that was exhibited there as well as by the specific atmosphere of Kyiv’s outskirts. Soshenko 33 is an informal institution (or an irregular group, according to the name the artists use for themselves) founded by Taras Kovach and Anna Sorokovaya at a postgraduate education studio building belonging to the National Academy of Visual Arts and Architecture. This post-war structure resembling a private country house has been a symbolic location for a few generations of Kyiv’s artistic community. During another development spate in the capital, the studios were facing a pull down in order to construct a residential complex instead, but due to lots of active efforts made by the artists, the building is still standing and functioning according to its purpose. Protecting the territory of art from hostile acquisitions not only developed into preserving the studios belonging to the Academy, but also into created an exhibition area and even an international residence.

During the Kyiv Biennial 2015, a project called ‘The common frontier’ created by a curatorial group consisting of Taras Kovach, Anton Lapov, Anna Sorokovaya, and Alina Yakubenko with the participation of Sasha Dolhy, Alexandr Yeltsin, Dobrinya Ivanov, Larion Lozovyi, Mitya Churikov, Anna Scherbina, and Dmytro Vulfius, was realized at the Soshenko 33 studios. The project was seen as an extension of activism practice and was dedicated to critical reconsideration of the historical heritage, local and global contexts, and a search for strategies of implementing real changes. Regarding the idea of documenta 14, which at the time was being devised by Szymczyk, an interest towards the artistic initiative becomes completely clear. As a result of a long-term dialogue started when the curator got to the studios, the Soshenko 33 team was invited to participate in the famous art event.

Soshenko х Tokonoma

Insofar Soshenko 33 is an irregular formation without a permanent team, this time it consisted of Sasha Dolhy, Dobrynia Ivanov, Taras Kovach, Anna Sorokovaya, Mitya Churikov and Alina Yakubenko. In November 2017, during the ‘Kyiv international’ biennale, which was organized for the second time by the Visual Culture Research Center, a presentation of the ‘mocumenta’ project took place at the Soshenko studios. The project, which represents the Soshenko 33 collective experience of participation in documenta 14, alludes to mockumentary, a pseudo-documentary movie genre, featuring a short film made by Alina Yakubenko with the assistance of the rest of the team, where they are shown as Gastarbeiter artists making a living in Kassel. The short was shown at the Soshenko studios along with the documents concerning the main project completed in Kassel.

During the two weeks of documenta 14, Soshenko 33 as a team of artists and as an alternative space occupied in the premises belonging to the Tokonoma group in Kassel (29.07 – 12.08). Together with Termokiss (Kosovo), Toestand (Belgium), and HappyPositive (Switzerland), the group participated in the project called ‘Title on the spot’. The aim of the project was to build a ‘settlement of ideas’ based on cooperation and clear creative collaboration. These collaborative practices were an attempt to create a common communication field among groups and initiatives originating in various contexts, yet at the same time connected by the principles of self-organization, partnership, and non-profit activity.

Tokonoma, that hosted Soshenko 33 in Kassel according to the curatorial plan, is a platform for youth art and club culture. It was founded by the students of School of Arts and Design Kassel and initially supported by their Alma Mater. Probably, this fact has predetermined the local partner of choice for residential cooperation with Soshenko 33. Having arrived to Kassel, the Ukrainian artists were granted a gallery space that was to become not only a platform for creative partnership, but also a temporary accommodation for all six members of the team. The project participants almost immediately faced some difficulties of basic everyday nature, such as a lack of a bathroom and hot water supply. In fact, these details could have been ignored, but they became a starting point for the project that in its essence would completely fit the dynamic experimental aspect of documenta 14. Proceeding from the existing conditions, the artists had to deal with practical, conceptual, and aesthetic matters, that shaped and eventually materialized the project. Finally, a functioning shower provided with hot water and built-in lighting was constructed and installed directly amidst the exposition space. ‘Our actions were not predesigned but driven by raw necessity and, as a result, we constructed a shower. Establishing domestic environment on an artistic territory, making it habitable, claiming and extending our private area, we were nevertheless remaining in a public space intended for presentational usage. Thus the shower can be called an emergency work of contemporary art predetermined firstly by purposefulness. Although, at the same time, such practice could potentially bring about new ways of non-verbal communication not only among participants, but also in and with the audience’, the authors explain.

Private. Public. Common

This project, being situated exactly along the boundary between the artistic and the quotidian, the public and the private, designed partly as a conceptual decision, partly as a solution to the existing problem, was accomplished within a tight horizontal communication space bordering social experiment, which embodied the main ideas of documenta 14 quite precisely. Attempting to overcome the resistance of the self-preservation mechanism embedded in documenta, Szymczyk sought to organize its fourteenth edition as a continuous process of aesthetic, economical, political, and social experiments. He transformed the exhibition into a huge collective lab research yielding unpredictable outcomes, turned it into a platform intended to reconsider the role of culture in the system of supply & demand, aesthetical interpretation & investments: ‘documenta 14 is conceived as a project driven by the urgent need to rethink and transform our everyday experience, to reimagine the role of artistic production (both material and immaterial) beyond its application as the currency of the art market and the culture industry…’.

The shower made by the Ukrainian artists in Tokonoma gallery became an instance of such experimental reconsideration of both the role of artistic production and socio-artistic relations, even of the ‘radical subjectification’ act meant to incorporate common interests in a common business. Being at the same time literal and symbolic, a function and a statement, the shower worked not only as an object, but also as a situation, resembling Simon Starling’s practices: ‘Performing such intimate actions like having a shower or sleeping in public is both an ironic consideration on collaborative practices and a reflection on whether the idea of collaboration can tackle disconnection and alienation. The common ground we created directly while ‘experiencing situation’ is impossible to chart or document comprehensively’, as the artists put it in their post factum note.

In their short-term live experiment featuring their colleagues from Germany, Kosovo, Belgium, and Switzerland, Soshenko 33 tested quite a few principles declared by documenta 14, partially confirming both efficacy and utopianism of the latter, at least in a certain moment within a certain context. Paradoxically enough, the Ukrainian project that appeared at a ‘great artistic celebration’ in rather questionable conditions, proved to be quite convincing exactly because of its unsettledness, situational nature, vivid collaboration along with all its side effects and outcomes that can be viewed as both an interdisciplinary message between the social and the artistic and witty trolling, absolutely genuine in its irony and self-irony.

During their residence at the Tokonoma art space, apart from constructing the shower, Soshenko 33 performed a number of other public collaborative activities including a discussion, an audioperformance, an experimental music gig by Sasha Dolhy and the Tokonoma participant Jan Grebenstein, and a party featuring the whole Soshenko team and other local artists. One of the most peculiar points is the fact that, during the project until its final ‘Shower Party’, apart from the Soshenko 33 team, no one used the shower but anarchist guests from the fellow organizations participating in the ‘Title on the Spot’ project.

At the same time, local community members retained the spectator’s position, metaphorically demonstrating an awkward yet unsurprising fact: the international invitees chosen by their similarities actually managed to establish communication and share common aims, but being put into the Kassel situation, they mainly remained detached from it due to the closed nature of the system, the preexisting local context, and its complacent ‘colonial’ wellbeing. But despite all the associated nuances being an integral part of the experiment, the artists tried and, to a certain degree, succeeded in creating the much desired post-colonial ‘teaming up from below’ (Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak) and ‘learning from others in order to live together’ (Souleymane Bachir Diagne), intended to promote creating a symmetrical situation for a rendezvous of the equal (one of the basic ideas of documenta 14), and to show ‘how to shake the foundations of our positive and passive understanding of the world, […] and how to care about the way in which we work and what we do with the fruits of our labors’ (Adam Szymczyk).

Notes:

1. Quotations taken from: Adam Szymczyk “Iterability and Otherness. Learning and Working From Athens” / The documenta 14 Reader. - Prestel, 2017. - 712 p.

2. gGmbH - gemeinnützige Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung (limited non-profit company)

3. Contemplation as a way of thinking: Valery Lamakh at documenta 14 / Prostory. - Access:

https://prostory.net.ua/ua/krytyka/234-sozertsanie-kak-forma-myshleniya-valerij-lamakh-na-documenta-14

#documenta 14

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