Tag: internet

Nicki the Fairy Godmother

mariethearistocatLeave a comment

On Saturday night, Nicki Minaj took to Twitter to do a little gift giving for some of her followers. On May 5, Minaj released the “Regret In Your Tears” music video, which is from her upcoming album. The day after, she challenged her fans to make Musically’s to her song, and the person with the best submission would get to fly out to LA to listen to some of the unreleased album. After getting flooded by submissions, @cjbydesign asked Minaj to pay for her college tuition instead of flying her to LA. The response she got was quite a surprise.

“Show me straight A’s that I can verify w/ ur school and I’ll pay it. Who wants to join THAT  contest?!?! Shld I set it up?” Minaj tweeted back.

Almost like wildfire, fans started tweeting at her to pay for various school fees, some for tuition, summer programs, student loans, and even their bills! After a dozen or so responses, Minaj loosened up on the requirements. She started giving hundreds to people who just needed the money.  At the end of the night, she had helped nearly 30 people pay for various educational expenses.

Like anyone, Minaj had to stop the contest at some point, as she can’t pay for every request. She didn’t want to leave her fans hanging though, and promised to do another spree in a few months.

As seen by the many tweets, Minaj spent at least $30,000, not to mention the various costs she discussed privately with some fans. This just goes to show that it really does pay off to get good grades in school.

New Body, Old Positivity

mariethearistocatLeave a comment

There are many online trends. Some are funny, like the Hollywood sign vandalism, while others are, frankly, destructive, like the popular “transformation” pictures.

Photo Credit: @transformationfeed
Photo Credit: @transformationfeed

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.

Photo Credit: @transformationfeed
Photo Credit: @transformationfeed

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.

Breaking the Internet (Bias)

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Photo Credit: http://www.marccx.com

Some adults nowadays blame technology for the current generation’s immaturity, saying that we’re obsessed or addicted to technology. Now, I’m not denying that we use quite a bit of technology, but I don’t understand how it is seen as so terrible. Kids now have an outlet that adults didn’t have; but that’s all technology is: an outlet. Kids aren’t obsessed with technology because they want to waste their lives in front of screens, but because those screens can make their lives better

TV shows allow children to escape their lives and fall into different ones. Whether it be a show about rich, teenage socialites or FBI agents solving crime, they can temporarily forget the next test or project. Children can take a break from the stresses society places on them and dive into this new fairy tale.

Music isn’t a way to defy adults and headphones aren’t a weapon of that defiance. Rap songs, however vulgar to certain listeners, can give a narrative to a child going through the worst. The same goes for a child who drowns out their inner demons with rock or metal. Pop songs aren’t these three-minute snippets of lifeless beats and strums, but rather anthems that give children something harmless to identify with.

And while social media has its own problems, these websites allow kids to find people who are experiencing the same struggles. It is amazing how many grief support groups there are online. Even though teenagers don’t always see who they’re communicating with, the advice given to them can help make a trying situation that much less difficult.

Finally, if it weren’t for adults, the Internet and all these “harmful” websites wouldn’t have even been created. Children aren’t the CEO’s of Netflix and YouTube and they shouldn’t be ridiculed for simply enjoying something.

(Read more positive effects here.

Funny Girls

beetlejus

Before I began to write this, I googled “funny topics to write about”. 

I did this because I am uncreative person who relies on the ideas of others. 

What surprised me was that the number one “funny” topic on the website was “Women can’t be funny”.  Seeing this invoked my inner Hillary Clinton or Susan B. Anthony or whichever feminist you wish to compare me to. 

Obviously I was outraged.  The idea that women can’t be funny is crazy; if I learned anything from my 10 years of watching Saturday Night Live, it would be that Kristen Wiig is hilarious and Justin Timberlake needs to stop writing songs about his…you know.

 In days past, it used to be only ugly girls were funny, now it seems to be only good-looking female comediennes who can crack a laugh.

It used to be that when performing you wanted to look “comical”, much like Lucille Ball in I Love Lucy, but now, if you don’t have good looks and, of course, above a C-cup, it’s hard to even score spot at an open mic night. 

While the comedy world isn’t 100% free of sexism, it’s pretty close. 

That person who wrote that “women can’t be funny” topic isn’t really an outstanding model for the entire comedy world. 

I mean that guy probably thinks “that’s what she said” jokes are hilarious and has based his entire sense of humor off South Park. 

https://i0.wp.com/margaretperry.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/vanity-fair.jpg
credit to Vanity Fair

Friends?

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Photo Credit: http://www.mynamenecklace.com

The need for true friends is becoming less relevant everyday due to the newfound possibility of online friends. Nowadays people are meeting over shared likes on Instagram, or mutual friends on Facebook. Although they will never meet and only talk online, they consider each other friends.

However nice that may be, it’s causing friendships to become less important, which makes an everyday social life sad. The concept of a genuine friend is changing. People can be less authentic in their conversations, and be more than acquaintances with people they don’t necessarily want to be friends with.

It’s important to make friends with relatable people, and if one befriends people knowing they have others to fall back on, it’s not an honest friendship.

Friends are an important aspect of life, and are usually needed to maintain a happy life. If one spends time with people they don’t truly like, it causes them to be unhappy and not live to their full potential.

Does YouTube mark the end of the TV?

infamousdolphinLeave a comment

With new forms of entertainment such as the internet, or more specifically YouTube, the TV seems to be consistently getting lower use each year.

Maybe it is because people prefer cheaper and more versatile forms of entertainment instead of being stuck with a strict schedule or constant ads.

Another website that is stealing the show is Netflix, a website that allows people to watch TV shows for only eight dollars a month, with no ads and tons of variety. Even though Netflix doesn’t have the newest episodes, it still allows you to watch entire seasons in a row with no interruption.

It is time for the TV to step aside and allow the age of internet dominance to begin, even though some argue it has already begun.

Netflix and YouTube are also widely known for ruining people’s grades in school.

Weibo Effects

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Instead of using “Twitter,” Chinese people have “Weibo” to express their thoughts and posting pictures. Sina Weibo is a Chinese microblogging website, which people refer to hybrid of Twitter and Facebook. It is one of the most popular sites in China, in use by well over 30% of Internet users, with a market penetration similar to the United States Twitter.

It was launched by SINA Corporation on 14 August 2009 and has 503 million registered users as of December 2012. About 100 million messages are posted each day on Sina Weibo.

However, same as the other popular social media websites, it has been a trend for almost everyone to check his or her Weibo everyone minute in case of missing any news. Well, I admit that websites such as Weibo and Facebook have created a way for people to communicate with each other and letting people from different parts of the world know what they are doing.

They are magical but harmful as the same time. It is no longer rare to see especially young people holding their cell phones in the restaurants, on the streets. It has become the most “practical” way to kill time. But I realized that the more time we spend on such social medias, the less we care about the actual physical world around us and about the people who are actually staying by our sides.

So don’t let Weibo control our lives. We have better things to do instead of wandering around in an illusory world.

@Black Twitter@

enternity1030Leave a comment

The “Black Twitter” has quite big influence, especially in the political area. It serves as the voice of some people who don’t have much notice from the public.

For the African-American population, “Black Twitter” provides them a way to speak out their opinions. It came to wider public attention in July 2013 when it was credited with having stopped a book deal between a Seattle literary agent and one of the jurors in the trial of George Zimmerman.

Trayvon Martin’s mother expressed her disappointment through Twitter after the verdict of her son’s case came out. The result of the case also led the public into a huge crisis including parades and other discussions about the issue.

Also, Paula Deen’s Twitter which showed discrimination and disrespect to the African-American people drew people’s attention a lot.

Therefore, “Black Twitter” has become more like a social media which has more powerful effect than we can imagine. 

The Relentless Attack on Reddit

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Breaking News:

Panic ensues as protests begin to outrage across the Ojai Valley School campus in response to a recent SonicWall block that forbids students to access Reddit. Mobs of enraged students flip cars and siege classrooms as they plea for the unblock.

Alright, it’s not that bad, but it’s getting serious. I am even thinking of sending a letter asking for Reddit back; a serious, formal letter.

Asides from that, only about 1.5% percent of the students, that being 3 people have complained about this major inconvenience.

Yes, Reddit does possess some adult materials in certain subreddits, but its no excuse to block the website. In fact, Reddit has more positive impact than negative. For example r/worldnews, r/funny or my personal favorite, r/doge.

Sarah and William

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All over the internet, a new trend has been circulating.

Sloths.

Me Gusta

Creepy sloths. Creepy sloths everywhere. Do people really know what they’re like? My guess is that not many people have seen sloths in real life.

Over the summer I spent six weeks at Cub Creek Science Camp and got to take care of a very wide variety of animals. Among my favorite were two two-toed sloths, Sarah and William.

Sarah Lookalike

Sarah was the more active one, slowly and carefully wandering around and around her pen. “Don’t touch her face!” warned many, many counselors. “Don’t let her grab you! Don’t let her bite you! Don’t feed her! Sit down on the stool and don’t move!”

“You can feed her and pet her if you’re very careful,” said Billy, a very mellow counselor that taught the “Jungle” class, which is where the sloths are located.

William was the one always sleeping in the corner of the enclosure and only awakened when I brought him a little lettuce. Only lettuce though, since William will take one bite of an apple and then drop it to the ground.

Sarah though, eats both apples and lettuce. Neither of them seem to like the sweet potatoes very much and I often wonder why they even have sweet potatoes anyways since none of the animals seem to like sweet potatoes.

After feeding Sarah her apples she would stare at me with her deep brown eyes and slowly reached her odd clawed hands towards me. Any other person would be told to duck and cover but I reach out and stroke her claw, playing a strange little game of keep-away. It’s true that if they grab on they won’t let go until they bite it, but I’m careful enough to not get grabbed.

When camp ended and I returned to OVS I felt myself pining for my summercamp and its animals. No, not for the dwarf miniature horse (my gods he’s small), not for the towering camel, but for the strangely charming sloths that have plagued the internet.

Not that I’m complaining about them.

photo 21629120-2068-4857-94bd-ee0c68376bae.jpg