I recently came across this instagram account, which takes out pictures from old archives, specifically of Los Angeles (@ forgottenmadness_la). They pin down the exact location of where it was taken and often colorize them. These pictures come mostly from the early 1900s. They are particularly interesting to me because I grew up in Los Angeles, so to see how much the city has changed is really incredible. It looked like a completely different place (obviously), but its so crazy when I can actually recognize a building or where something was taken. In one video they posted you can even see the old apartment I used to live in. In general, the entire account is a great example of how much electronics and new technology have changed society.
Tag: Instagram
Instagrams reels
The place where people go when they finally delete TikTok to try to make an effort to bring their screen time down. However, in semi-recent times, Instagram reels have become a place of true terror and horror. Now, I personally believe that TikTok is much more addicting than Instagram reels because their algorithm is better; however, I am not too sure if Instagram is better, honestly. While TikTok might make you spend 5 hours looking at stuff that you won’t remember or care about the moment you turn it off, Instagram reels will show you things that you will remember, but you don’t wish you did. Instagram has a pretty horrible filter that stops people from seeing horrible things on there. On Instagram reels, there is an absurd amount of people dying or getting attacked, mainly shown in car crash videos along with other videos that should not be shown, such as racist ideas/jokes. The reason why these videos don’t get taken down is that you are only seeing the car get crushed or the person fly out the window but not the person actually dying, and the racist jokes don’t get taken down because the algorithm can’t really tell what is racist and what isn’t so it relies on the judgment of the people watching the reels to report the things they see. However, because these videos have become so commonplace they often time they never get reported, but they get likes and shares because people have come to find these videos normal and funny. The main issue with all this is that these ideas and videos are becoming commonplace which reflects on the people. Even if they are jokes, they instill these views into people, which is obviously a horrible thing. Now, I’m not free of these videos, but it’s because I’ve seen so many that I know how big of an issue it is. If you go onto Instagram and read the comments of videos you will find some pretty horrible things.
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Opossum Accounts to Follow on Instagram
Here I am, writing about opossums again. You’re going to read it and like it.
Anyone who knows me in real life knows that my Instagram story is literally just a million opossum posts that I’ve reposted from accounts I follow. Due to some questioning from friends, I will be recommending opossum accounts to follow. They range from meme accounts to rescue accounts, and they aren’t ranked in any order. Enjoy.
hanktheopossum
Hank is an opossum who lives in captivity. I’m not sure if he’s disabled or can’t live in the wild for some other reason, but he’s very cute.
seymourtheopossum
Seymour is a disabled opossum who’s very loved by his family. He recently got the cutest baby brother ever named Mooney.
hubertthepossum
Hubert is another opossum who lives with humans. She’s adorable.
possum.sauce
This account posts (mostly wholesome) opossum memes. I like them.
possum.mood
This account draws very cute cartoon opossums and draws opossum memes. Their merch is super cute.
avec.possum
This account belongs to a person who owns and raises many opossums! Astrid likes to wear stylish outfits, and the new babies’ Cabbage and Sauerkraut are so sweet. They have an Amazon wishlist linked in their bio, so definitely go get them something to help with raising the babies if you have money to spare!
itsmesesame
I’ve used this account’s opossum pictures in several of my other posts. They have the cutest opossums and merch. Definitely go check them out.
beelovespossums
This account makes really funny opossums memes. A lot of them are remakes of other memes, but with opossums. I really like this genre of opossum memes.
Meme credit: beelovespossums on Instagram
littlemoonsgrove
This account is one of my favorites. They just got in a litter of joeys (baby opossums), and they’re just the fluffiest, most delightful little things. They also have merch and an Amazon wishlist, and getting stuff from or for them would definitely help them out with all their joeys.
Those are some opossum accounts you definitely have to check out! I love all of them and see their posts every day on my feed, not to mention that I post almost every opossum post I see on my story. Go check out my other opossum blog posts for some information about opossums that’ll get you hooked on them for sure!
Social Media
In this day and age, almost everyone has a social media account whether it is Tiktok or Twitter.
Myspace used to be big, but then it got taken over by Facebook. Stereotypically Facebook is used by moms or people older than 30. Tumblr was also really big, and the popularity of the app is still there, but not as popular as other apps.
The big three for GenZ is Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat. Twitter could also fall into that as an honorary member. These apps are very popular to show what you are doing and talk to friends. Tiktok is an app that has dancers, comedians, fashion inspiration, and more.
Pinterest is also a social media, but there are no likes involved. It is an app to put together boards and get ideas for things.
Social Media is fun, but it could also be a toxic place. So when using social media, be careful about what you put out onto the internet.
New Body, Old Positivity
There are many online trends. Some are funny, like the Hollywood sign vandalism, while others are, frankly, destructive, like the popular “transformation” pictures.
While scrolling through my phone, I came across an Instagram page called “@transformationfeed” which has nearly 1 million followers. The profile is filled with various before and after pictures. Some showed people growing older, more muscular, gaining weight, and, most popularly, becoming thinner. Each photo is flooded with comments about how inspiring these people are, how they wish they could look like him/her, or how they wish they could lose weight.
This page, and its many variants, are just another outlet for people to become obsessed with changing their physical appearance. Little girls/boys will see these photos and want to be older, because that’s the only way they’ll look attractive. Some will see the drastic weight loss and want to lose weight themselves. Obviously this desire will happen anyway, but pages like this just scream that changing ones appearance will make them “inspirational” or “lucky,” among other things.
Of course, these stories are inspiring. And of course, I’m glad these people reached their goal weight, grew older, or fought cancer. However, I don’t like seeing pages that promote unrealistic expectations. These stories spark feelings of discontent, unease, and make those who can’t gain/lose weight feel even worse.
Now, it must sound like I’m complaining, but what if instead of posting before and afters, we just post afters. We just post pictures celebrating the current beauty of these individuals. We just have an account celebrating people of every size. “All bodies are good bodies,” says an article in FEMmagazine.
The Problem with Social Media
Recently, Australian social media icon Essena O’Neill “quit” social media.
She deleted her Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. She did this because she felt trapped and 
alone; that all her life leading up to now, she was unhappy and always seeking the acceptance of others.
She feels social media has created a “brainwashed generation,” a fake life.
Prior to deleting her Instagram, she edited her past captions stating the reality of what went into each picture.
Some were hours of waiting for the perfect lighting; taking a picture in an uncomfortable pose for the most beautiful outcome; yelling at her sister or mother to take an image from a more flattering angle; or sponsoring a company she didn’t even like or support.
Then, she released her website: http://www.letsbegamechangers.com/, where she talks about issues that really matter to her.
Now, I’m very happy she has come to the realization that her career in social media was bad for her and changed that, but she is trying to start a movement against the “fake” social media image. She thinks that everyone who posts “beautiful” pictures on Instagram are never enjoying the moment, and their happiness is based on their likes.
However, she is neglecting the fact that social media can be good and not everyone is obsessing over likes.
On Facebook, you can invite your friends to an event. Whether it be a birthday party or a meeting for a new club, it is bringing people together. It is allowing people who normally wouldn’t hang out to build up connections and band together.
Social media doesn’t only bring people together in person, but through the Internet. You can talk to a family member on vacation in another country, or a friend who you want to catch up with. You can also connect with people based on common interests. There are websites and blogs for anything you are interested in, such as book clubs and feminist forums.
O’Neill’s website is an example of this. She talks about issues that matter to her and lets others join in as well. Now this is such a cool website, but it’s SOCIAL MEDIA. She is using a website to display her ideas. She is connecting with others via the Internet. She is doing what makes her happy.
So many other social media stars are happy. She thinks that when one becomes successful on Instagram or Facebook, then all they think about is success. All their happiness is derived from that success.
However, these people aren’t just their pictures. They have vibrant lives that extend from their phone, no matter how much they display on social media. They experience happiness and sadness from places beside their feed. Just because her social media experience was bad, doesn’t mean social media itself is bad.
She is also bashing on the women and men producing these “unreal” lives. She is saying that all they’re the creators of this unattainable image, the exact images that lead her and other young girls to lust for the life shown on their screens.
In a sense this is true, but she’s neglecting to include sources for this feeling other than social media. She doesn’t talk about how burger commercials, more often than not, use skinny bikini-clad women to promote a slab of meat in between two buns or how there are huge billboards of women standing confidently in their underwear.
She refused to acknowledge that social media platforms are borrowing from other aspects of life, that a young girl or boy’s insecurities don’t have to come from social media.
She also makes it seem that there is something wrong for liking these images. She says these images of beautiful beaches or a girl wearing a dress are brainwashing me.
That is far from the truth. I like these pictures not because I want to model the people in the pictures, but because they are nice to look at. Why must I have a perfect reason to look at a picture of ice cream?
I think instead of “quitting” social media, she should’ve deleted her old pictures and posts and started anew. To use these platforms to further spread her opinions on issues that matter to her.
No one was forcing her to post pictures of her wearing a striped dress, or a picture of her in the pool.
Instead of starting this anti-social media fight, she should’ve use these resources to talk about real world issues. Think of how many people she’d influence if she called upon her following of 500,000 people. She could’ve started a revolution for something that matters to her.
Collages
I’ve decided that I really enjoy making collages.
There’s a free app for the iPhone called InstaCollageFree that lets you make super cool compositions.
Electing to exercise my assembling talents on my friends, I made a series of Catalina Sea Camp collages to pass time.
The app gives you a bunch of different frames you can just load your pictures into. I personally like the one that looks like a postcard, with a stamp reading, “True Love” in the corner.
You can adjust the background color and the color of the lines between the pictures.Read More »
I will admit, I am one of those people who loves taking photos. Every chance I get I will take a picture of me and my friends doing anything exciting, something good I’m eating, a cool thing I saw while walking down the street, cute animals – really anything that’s remotely interesting. But, to be completely honest, it is not uncommon for those photos to be taken and only looked at once in a great long while, hiding away on my computer of phone.
This is why I am really into a phone application I recently downloaded called Instagram. It’s an awesome app that lets you take photos and edit them with many different filters that make the photos so charming and cute. It is very simple but I’m so into it. And, the best part is that each person using the application has their page that others can follow, kind of like twitter or facebook, where there pictures are posted and people can view them, comment on them, and like them. I was so excited when it came out for Android phones, because in the past, it has only been for iPhones.
Although it may seem to be a little bit boring and sound just like many social networking sites, it’s strictly for pictures. I have found a lot of very fun pictures that people have taken and posted. It’s great because I don’t have to be a master photographer to take a picture that doesn’t look so point-and-shoot like.
Bottom line is, it’s simple and so fun. If anyone out there is like me who likes to take photos, and you don’t want them to waste away, I would highly recommend this app. So many people are using it!
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