Miss Beauty

Today in Costa Rica, my country, the beauty contest Miss Costa Rica, where they would choose the winner that will go to represent our country in Miss Universe. My twitter, as every year, was really into the event, and most of my TimeLine was watching the contest while expressing opinions, reviews, and jokes on their tweets.

Miss Costa Rica and my TimeLine gave me an idea to write about. During the event I noticed how most of the people were twitting critical reviews about the participants, what they were doing well or bad. Who taught us to do that? How did we know as public what was wrong or bad? Media has taught us that. We know what to expect because we have learned it throughout media.

Especially in our social media era, the spread of concepts, culture, and behaviors is way easier. Information travels and arrives really quickly to its destinations, and our social definitions have changed throughout time and we as well along those concepts. In an effort to get social recognition we try to follow the beauty standards as much as we can (especially the women), and social media is a great tool for that.

According to the website Psychology Today, “Social media presents you with countless opportunities (if not demands) to describe in words or pictures your physical attributes. On online dating sites, potential romantic partners may scrutinize what you say about your personality, interests, and background, but it’s more likely that they’ll decide whether or not to follow up with you on the basis of your picture.”

Social networks are definitely a communication tool, we express ourselves, we share, and we chat. What is beauty? It is said that the beauty is in the eye of the beholder… well, social media makes us the beholders, and we are in this era whether to keep those concepts or change them.

Related lecture: http://proud2bme.org/content/how-does-social-media-affect-your-body-image

Google and Its Empire

So, today something, that definitely caught my attention and left me thinking for a while, happened.

As most of the people in the competitive world, I have a Gmail account. And it is not even an option, it is a need. You cannot access to lots of services/webpages/apps, like YouTube, Google Play, Google Store, Chrome, etc. if you do not have one.

I do not usually check it though. To receive e-mails I use other accounts in different e-mail webpages. But today I decided that I would go and delete all the spam that I had in my Gmail and take a look at some changes that I would make, and actually I did it.

As I was checking stuff I found out that all my cellphone contacts were there, yes, in my e-mail account. It was not even the e-mail of my contacts, only the phone numbers. Of course I didn’t put those numbers there and never asked for it, but they were there. I decided I would delete them. Oh well, I have them on my cellphone, I do not need them here- was what I thought. Surprisingly, I found out hours later that a number of my contacts in my cellphone were missing. What the crap!

I was mad. Of course I was mad. I went to Gmail again trying to find a way to bring my contacts back. Thank God that I found an option to restore any changes that I had made on my Gmail contacts in the last 30 days. I thought that probably the contacts that I had on my Gmail account (since they were not all the ones I have on my cell) were only from the people that also had Gmail accounts. But, as I was digging into the Gmail options to restore, I also realized that the contacts that remained in my cellphone were also in my Gmail account domain. But these ones (and I am still not sure why) were on a different folder in my mail that I didn’t delete. Okay.

And since everything is interconnected these days, of course that also means that YouTube, Google, and all the rest of the departments have indirectly my cellphone contacts. I tried to find an option on my cellphone to undo that connection. I found nothing. I even disabled the option to synchronize my contacts with other accounts, but it didn’t change anything. So apparently I cannot do anything about it.

I have never had any problem with my social networks controlling my information. Yes, I know they sell my information as everyone else’s to companies and make money out of that, but well, it is a competitive world and I always understood that. But… my cellphone contacts?! That seems a little bit extreme to me.

Here is a link that shows that is not really current (published 3 years ago) but discusses a little bit of the Google domain and how it works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCrduFhIqV0

"Instagram-y"

 As a part of a Class Assignment, I had the chance to learn more about one of the most important social network apps today: Instagram.

It currently has around 200 million of monthly active users, and 35% of those check Instagram multiple times a day. You can find all type of pictures in Instagram; it might sound as a simple idea but people love it… and every idea that drags people (especially in the social media world), drags companies too.

Businesses use the application as an engagement tool for customers or to create awareness of their companies. Pictures, videos, and contests are some of the things that brands develop in Instagram trying to gain attention and more followers. But in a world full of competition, and an Instagram where creativity is a MUST, there are companies that definitely rock it and others that produce just a feeling of shame for them.

Instagram gives the possibility to show off products of services if it used well, but it seems that the social media marketing strategy of some companies is just… boring. A brand cannot afford that these days, especially in social networks. So, as an example of what type of examples companies should follow and which ones should NOT, here is a link that presents different accounts of brands and what they are doing right or wrong.

http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/33047.asp#singleview

24 Hours Without Social Media…

Have you ever been 24 hours without social media?

Currently, for the youngest generations is difficult to imagine a world without technology and internet, which are the bases of the Social Media World.  How did the world use to be before that? Some of them do not even know. Computers and cellphones consume more of our time that the people we have around… Taking all those facts in consideration, for our Social Media Marketing class we had a challenge: Being 24 hours without social media. No Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, no Snapchat or Instagram. Not even text messages.

When you give up something that is already part of your life, there is always that feeling of lack of something. Anxiety? Of course.  What if someone sends me an important message on facebook? What if something important happens and everybody knows about it but me? You have those little breaks during your day and you do not know what to do with your life during that time.

Being away of my social media life made me realize how attached I am to such things. It made think more about what to do, how to spend my time. It also made me think about how much quality time I spend with the people I have around.

And there is always that question (at least for those of us who did not grow with internet all the time) that comes… what did I use to do before I got into the Social media World? Being honest… I hardly remember.