Tag Archives: social media

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The Social Media Trends Bandwagon – Do you “do you”?

I have a friend I met online about 15 years ago, right around the time I began podcasting. Some years later she decided she wanted to do her own podcast and wanted to leverage my little experience in that area of preparing audio media for such. The name of her show was “Let’s Talk About It”, so that being said..let’s do that..let’s talk about the trends that are born and die on social media (sometimes die) and how people participate… or not.

Without going deep (simply because I have not that time in the least bit), many of us have used social media in some shape or form since it’s been created (remember when the term was called “social networking?). All the old messenger platforms, like AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), Window Messenger, MySpace, Facebook, BlackPlanet, Asian Avenue, 2600, Usenet Groups, Compuserve, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, Periscope, Vine (which I miss…LOL) Mastodon, and the longggg list goes on.

What is inherent to all social media/networking platforms are trends, and I don’t mean “such-and-such hashtag” is trending. What I do mean are actions people take, trends that started than many participate in.grab on to that catch on like wildfire. There have been sooo many that’s I’ve seen come and go that I’ll try to remember some to discuss. Incidentally, this topic came to mind because the approach I generally end up taking is: If everyone is doing it, I’m definitely not doing it LOL

To avoid being wordy, I resolve to my usual list to give some example and touch on a few.

  • The use of stable fusion technology to create AI Art (particularly of selfies)
  • TikTok Invisible Body Challenge
  • Wordle
  • Age prediction photos (this is how I’ll look X amount of years from now)
  • Milk Crate Climbing Challenge

Why these trends emerge, last for some time, then die off, can be for many reasons. I’ll venture to say that many of them do so for the simple reason of what social media perpetuates: reach and exposure which hopefully results in follows and likes of one’s social media feed. Though I make a point not to follow any of them, I do notice what the algorithms throw onto my feeds. Let’s start with the first one…

#AIArt – I’ve been noticing a bunch of people using whatever this stable fusion technology is to create very realistic and accurate drawings of themselves. With that, I’ve seen a fair number of people criticizing this as technology that takes away from the most talented artists that can do the same by hand (nothing new here with AI taking over in instances like this). I’ve seen a few people I follow posting selfies of themselves in this manner.

TikTok Invisible Body Challenge – This one is particularly interesting to me because of the cybersecurity issues that many are clueless about. What is this challenge, you may ask? It goes like this: challenge requires you to film yourself naked while using TikTok’s “Invisible Body” filter, which removes the body from the video and replaces it with a blurry background and this challenge has led to people posting videos of them allegedly naked but obscured by the filter. First of all, why would ANYONE have no issue with “film yourself naked while using TikTok’s “Invisible Body” filter” (someone, help me on this … please). It gets even “better”…”hackers are capitalizing on this trending challenge named to install malware on thousands of devices and steal their passwords, Discord accounts, and, potentially, cryptocurrency wallets. To capitalize on this, threat actors are creating TikTok videos that claim to offer a special “unfiltering” filter to remove TikTok’s body masking effect and expose the TikTokers’ nude bodies. However, this software is fake and installs the “WASP Stealer (Discord Token Grabber)” malware, capable of stealing Discord accounts, passwords and credit cards stored on browsers, cryptocurrency wallets, and even files from a victim’s computer.” This is pretty much what I’m referring to by jumping on the social media trends bandwagon – doing things just because it’s a trend and you know clue of what the implications could be (especially in a case like this) because you’re essentially acting like sheep. You can read more about this challenge and the hacking approach here.

Wordle – I have no idea what this game is or how it’s played but I number of people I follow on Twitter pepper my feed with their daily Wordle results

Age prediction photos – This one’s seem to die off but, boy, I’ve seen a ton of followers jumping on this one BIG time. Sort of the same use of AI thing as #AIArt. Lately I’ve seen the same approach but applied to dead celebrities who’s been deceased for some time now, but showing how they would look if they were still alive today.

Milk Crate Climbing Challenge – One of the DUMBEST, ignorant, and most dangerous challenges I can remember seeing in some time. I’m glad that one is dead and gone….(isn’t it?).

As said above, if the proliferation of such is even noticeable, you won’t catch me involved (can you say TikTok? – that’s an entire different story that I don’t even understand regarding the continual security concerns with the platform).

Anyway, do you indulge? No judgement here, just asking for a friend 🙂

Have a great day!

Fresh

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Twitter and the (bitter)sweet 16!

Greetings all. I hope you’re well. Today (actually tonight at 11:43:36 pm) will mark the 16th birthday of being a Twitter user. My very first tweet is below:

I’ve seen the the evolution of Twitter since pretty much the very beginning, as the platform was just seven months old when I joined. Back then it was a veritable shell of what it is now – very quaint, innocent devoid of ads, the whole nine yards. It was not uncommon at all to see tweets about the most simplest (most would say mundane now) things such as what one had for breakfast, lunch, dinner, etc to running errands, and the like (way before cats took over the internet). It was a fun time, easy going, with no such things as bot accounts, 2FA, blue tick marks, Twitter spaces, political arguments, and the like.

I’ve always found Twitter to be very useful for what I need to get out the platform – specifically as a vast resource of information that keeps me learning about topics that interest me, primarily those in the tech world, and allow me to learn a great deal. There came a timeframe where I didn’t engage in Twitter as much but even when I came back, things changed very little.

Since the news of, and actual purchase of Twitter by Elon Musk, the platform, users, employees (those still left) and the news media have been in an uproar about the predicted fate of Twitter based on Elon’s recent actions. A good summary blog post (with linked articles) was recently written by Clay Lowe, another prolific blogger and Twitter friend of mine. You can find it here, it’s highly recommended.

Clay, myself, and many many other Twitter users have set up camp over at Mastodon, for various (and mostly obvious) reasons. The consensus across most of media is that Twitter will go up in flames, thanks to Elon’s continued activities. There are plenty of what I like to call “chicken little/doomsday” articles and tweets that predict Twitter’s demise. As for me, I’ll believe it when I see it. I don’t plan on leaving Twitter until I deem it to no longer be of use to me nor aligns with my desire for what I think the platform should be. I, like Clay mentioned, have requested a download of my entire account activity which is supposed to be ready for me within 24 ours of the request. As of this post, it’s been almost 48 hours and I’ve received zero notification of status. This is not the first time I requested it. There has been a mass exodus of Twitter employees over this past weekend, some of which belong to Twitter’s engineering team, so I suspect it’s possible it may be longer or I may never receive it – at this point, it is what it is.

As for Mastodon engagement, I learned of a crosspost feature called MOA that will auto-crosspost my tweets so that takes care of my engagement there. In any event, I’m still tweeting as nothing has occurred that will drive me away….at least for now.

Hmm, amongst all the craziness happening on the platform…..I wonder if I’ll still get a birthday card from them…LOL.

oceans of rhythm…

Fresh

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Social media’s growing influence (and distraction)

Ok, I get it…old hat, right, right. How ironic is it that I have written this post to primarily appear on social media (my Twitter account).

With regards to the subject of this post, I’ve read what feels like a countless number of articles on reducing social media distraction/improving productivity – and after all is said (read) and done, the simple bottom line is – just (don’t) do it – close the tabs, kill the notifications, put the phone in the other room, delete the apps etc.

I will attest, from experience, that for the first time since 2008, I’ve lost the desire to spend a very great deal of time on Facebook, to the point of it being down to five to ten minutes a day only to check on the few FB groups I am an admin on. This final new found freedom is more than very nice. Similarly, I’ve been off Instagram for a month now and I’m feeling the same about that platform. What is left, is Twitter, a platform I’ve been an early adopter of (since November 2006). The truth is, as toxic as Twitter has been known to become, I draw value from it – it feeds my ever-increasing knowledge of topics I’m interested in – and the type of feeds that do this are 95% of the time not personal feeds, so by tailoring my followers list, I avoid a lot of what I consider to be toxic, immature, foolish, etc (sometimes that leaks through via other user retweets, but…what can I do there? It’s not frequent).

Anyway, as I enter in to the last quarter of the year, this second annual sabbatical ended up better than last year’s. My hope is to redirect the time spent on social media as I did, to accomplish much more, in preparation for 2020.

oceans of rhythm,
Fresh

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The Phone Zone – Lessons in Reduction

Greetings and good evening….

As is often said, “Where did the month go?” Three more days until we enter in the last quarter of 2018. It’s just after 9pm and it was a long day at work – two hour meeting followed by coming up to speed on various aspects of the current mission I’m working on, via a lot of reading. Top that off with the fact I should have gotten my tail in the bed earlier last night.

In any event, those of you that have been following my many blog posts this month, Darrenkeith and I have been on an accountability journey regarding this sabbatical we’ve both taken from Facebook, Instagram, and a few other social media sites (save Twitter), waxing philosophically as we go. As said earlier, what I thought (in the beginning) was spending too much time engaged in social media turned out that the result of that was the lack of putting my phone *away and out of sight*. I’m convinced now that is the crux of the issue – an issue that I’m glad became clear during this sabbatical. I’ve read and shared a few articles with you on the subject already and came across one that I shared with Darrenkeith this morning. It was interesting because it involved a handful of subjects who sought to deal with this particular issue in their own, separate ways. I’ll share a link to that article below. I’d be interested in reading your comments on the article. in addition, there is a podcast that I recently listened to that provides fantastic insight and balance on the exact topic of this blog post, it talks to considerations of persuasive technology.

Suffice it say, I’ve come up with a number things I plan to put in to play in hopes of dealing with the same, in a way that I hope to prove beneficial. That said, if I am a lot slower in getting back to you via text, Messenger, Twitter DM, and the like, as Jermaine Jackson sang “Don’t Take It Personal….” (it truly isn’t)… just attempting to return to a time, long, long, ago (LOL) of less distraction from mobile device-ism, less “device dopamine hits” and more movements towards being in a “tech-less” moment and goals achieving state.

In a few days, I’ll reactivate my FB account and deactivate my personal Instagram account but keep two music production Instagram sites for branding purpose – the only difference this time is that neither FB or IG apps will be back on my phone. All (what I continue to be) my best photos will be seen from my Flickr account from here on out. The pleasure of blogging from my own “theater” has returned this month, so be on the lookout for this relationship:

content creation > content consumption
(where content = blogposts/music/podcasts/photography/code/film score music and video)

Come 1 Sept, the rubber (of the sabbatical) meets the road (of reality) – let’s see what sticks after a month off.

Thanks for bearing with me….

:::oceans of rhythm:::

Fresh!

References:
1. Tech Titans Dish Advice About Phone Addiction – Great Escape – Medium
2. This World My Life – Darrenkeith
3. “Persuasive Technology” from Let’s Know Things – A podcast about context and the news.

NP: Lovely Standards/Amel Larriuex

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Social Media Sabbatical (SMS): Day 23 – 23 Aug 18 – Using less social media – Pt. 3

Greetings all…

Long work week, but the good thing is one more day left, until a two-day break from it all. So, as those who have been keeping up know, I have eight more days until this FB/Instagram/Reddit/etc social media break OFFICIALLY ends. One major thing I have learned up to now is that it turns out it wasn’t just the social media scrolling that I thought was the issue. What I believe the truer issue is…constantly having the phone in my hand which leads to said scrolling every time I subconsciously needed that “dopamine hit”.

I came across an interesting article a few days ago that I purposely saved for this blog post – one that I find totally ironic. The title of the article is

Use the New Tools in iOS 12 and Android 9 Pie to Fight Your Phone Addiction.

I think you may be able to understand why I find this ironic. I do get it, in that the said features in both operating systems are supposed to make you aware of how much time your spending surfing, scrolling, clicking, and the like, in hopes that, in time, you will spend less time doing it. Thing is, the very thing it is trying to get you to do…involves the same tool you are trying to get away from.

For me, I have no interest in the tools. What I do have an interest for is continuing what I have attempted over the last week and that is just to “put the phone down”. Foundationally, it’s that simple…no?

My mom is staying with us for sometime, I sat down to eat dinner after I came home from work today and (this is a perfect example) pulled out my phone to check my Twitter feed while my plate was in front of me. In true “nother mode” she says…”Can’t you eat without your phone in your hand?” She was timely (as usual), but this time…so very, very correct.

That has been my biggest insight out of this sabbatical…admitting that I subconsciously had some form of FOMO, something I always said I didn’t have. Realizing and admitting it’s something to be dealt with, I’m up for overcoming the challenge.

Thoughts?

Thanks for the read…

peace,
Fresh!

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Social Media Sabbatical (SMS): Day 20 – 20 Aug 18 – Using less social media – Pt. 2

Another workday Monday has come and gone. It was productive, tedious but productive. This morning, the usual diatribe occurred between me and my brother in podcasting/tech/photographer/music, DarrenKeith regarding our social media use, or lack thereof. The discussion was briefly about plans of usage when returning back to FB and IG after this break is over. Strangely enough, I stumbled across this Twitter post and thread today:

The OP stated essentially the same thoughts I’ve been having regarding my return to Instagram. The only thing different between her and I is that she has a successful business that she’s been using FB and IG to promote. Me, all I have are two secondary IG counts used for branding my music production activities as a personal artist and one half of AfterSix Productions.

Reading the thread further solidfied my thoughts about deleting my personal IG account. Only two IG followers reached out to me since 1 August to ask about what happened to my IG account (there are 5 followers total whom I let know ahead of time that the sabbatical was going to take place). As of this writing, I’ve already requested IG send me a download link to retrieve all my content. That site will be deleted no later than 31 August 2018 at 11:59pm. The other two IG accounts will remain. As for FB, I’m considering what I will do once I returned regarding how much time I will actually engage there. Twitter will remain, as it provides a relatively high ROI. Flickr will become my platform for photosharing.

Well, studies say that it typically takes 21 days to form a habit. Tomorrow marks the 21st day of sabbatical from both FB and IG. We’ll see how valid, IRL, those studies are…

Peace and blessings,
Fresh!

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Social Media Sabbatical (SMS): Day 14 – 14 Aug 18

Greetings readers…

Hope all is well with you and yours. Ironically, another Twitter (and IG) friend, B.Tramuel, posted the link to an article entitled Managing Your Social Media Intake (Without Quitting it Completely). Our Twitter exchange went like this:

Yeah, I read the article and personally found it lacking only because it didn’t impart unto me anything I didn’t or not currently doing. In addition, I think it’s just plain common sense, HOWEVER, I don’t know it would be useful, especially in a day and age where immersing on social media COULD take up so much time that could be better well spent engaging with others IRL or even just taking time for self beyond the scroll/point/click….

I went fo a 2 mile run after I got home from work – it was good.

Goodnight,
Fresh!

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Social Media Sabbatical (SMS): Day 13 – 13 Aug 18 – Google Tracking/Data Harvesting

Now Playing: Fluid – Drown in the electronic sound of instrumental hiphop, future soul and liquid trap – on SomaFM.com

Greetings good people.

Happy Monday, or whatever day you are reading this. Glad this workday is behind me, not because it was particularly hard, but my sleep patterns have been messed up ever since the attempted Parker Solar Probe launch attempt I blogged about two days ago (off patterns are exacerbated by not going to bed as early as I should have over the last few nights). Can’t believe I napped not only on Saturday but on Sunday as well. Gotta break that. After some coding tonight, I’m flat out turning in, within the hour.

Well, thirteen days into this sabbatical and the insight has been becoming clearer. My tech/podcasting/blogging brotha DarrenKeith, are continuing to discuss this journey we are on, exchanging relative articles to the “cut back” and the resurrected freedbom of spending less time on “the scroll”, creating more content through blogging, etc. Nothing wrong with consuming content, but my desire is to always make sure I am getting an ROI that results in moving me forward in the goals I’m trying to achieve.

Today a particular article referenced the age old story of how social media sites use us as product, harvesting the data collected from our likes, searches, and similar to share with marketers in order to show us more ads about they THINK we like. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

On a similar note, I ironically came across a somewhat disturbing (yet not not new) article about how Google tracks your movements, even when you have Location turned off. I thought having Location turned off meant exactly but according to this article, that is not entirely true. I won’t get deeply on what the article states, as I think you’ll get a clearer understanding if you read it, but the short of amounts to something I did last year, despite what my iPhone settings are, and that is to go My Activity – Google and adjust your location and Web App activity settings there, accordingly, for all your Google profiles. As you read the article, you will read about Google’s “Google-ease” (as I call it) stating that they are quite clear about how to keep your timeline activity and similar private, however (like Facebook’s famed chameleon privacy settings) that clarity is not apparent to the average Google user. So, yeah…read the article and adjust your My Activity settings as necessary.

“How do I do that?”, you say? Check this out.
Make sure check out the Google Dashboard page of the site as well I’ve had my location and web activity tracking on lock since last year.

POST EDIT (16 Aug 18): AP News updates the above story saying the Google has updated the erroroneous language on their Help page. The article is here.

POST EDIT (20 Aug 18): Reuters News reports of the first lawsuit, here.

Ok folks, “that’s all she wrote, the pencil broke”…I’m out.

Be good…
Fresh!

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Social Media Sabbatical (SMS): Day 12 – 12 Aug 18

Greetings all…

The weekend is gone that quick…what else is new? It was a good one nonetheless, outside of my broken sleep patterns via trying to see the launch on Saturday morning. It was a success this morning at 3:30 am or so (I didnt wake up for it, but will be checking out the replay when I get to work tomorrow. In the meantime, here’s a shot of the Delta IV heavy lofting Parer Soar Probe into space, courtesy a Twitter post:

Question…how many of you are into tracking your quantified self? I’ve been using an app called Gyroscope, the free version. I primarily use it as an add-on to my Apple Watch fitness track data. Gyroscope has some great features and a privacy mode, but as with many apps, I often wonder how the collected data is being used. The quantified self movement was very big some years ago and a friend of mine on Twitter is actually featured on Gyroscopes site as an avid user of the paid app. We had an interesting discussion about what he thinks about all the many types of quantified data he shares. In short, I’m still not certain if I could go to the extent of data sharing that he (or many do), even though we have our “always-on” mobile phones. From my understanding, the whole aspect of tracking one’s quantified data is to make improvements to yourself over time. It’s the data aggregation aspects that still don’t sit 100% well with me, though I admit there is lot to be seen from such data over time. Id be interested in your thoughts.

On the productivity front, I came across another interesting article that I was discussing with DarrenKeith, my brother in podcasting, blogging, and tech. Ironically, I received the latest Fast Company in the mail yesterday. There is a sidebar to an article in there that speaks to the subject of this article – Why productivity isn’t the only thing your smartphone is stealing from you. I think there are points in it we all can relate to. FB and IG are creating ways to cause us to spend less time on our mobile devices and there are a lot of apps that are made to do the same (although that whole approach seems like an oxymoron – spending less time on your phone my checking apps that help….that are on your phone….ok.). Then there is this approach of changing your mobile phone’s colors to grayscale. Supposedly this is less appealing than the colors we adore (there have been studies) and as a result, we’ll want to look at them less.

My solution – just put the phone down.

Have a good week.

Doug