#it’s so different from having the whole internet on your phone with an algorithm constantly feeding you new and potentially harmful content

[burningsoftly]

when I say children are addicted to technology and are losing the ability to socialize and play and imagine, I am Not blaming the children or teenagers. When I say parents have been told and encouraged to use technology as a crutch, I am Not blaming the parents. I am blaming the companies that intentionally market and push products that they know to be addictive and the lawmakers that allow it to happen despite close to twenty years of research on imaginative play and outdoor activities being beneficial to a child’s development. Last Child in the Woods by Louv was written in 2005, before the internet was even close to what we see now. I really think as a society we need to examine our priorities and understand that things have escalated to an astonishing degree in just the last decade (in an appallingly negative direction)

not to be all “think of the children” but the fact that companies can openly admit to using methods to intentionally form addictions in children and we’re not killing their ceos in the streets yet is astounding

[justjams2003]

Fast Pace- 3

Summary: You're a hard-working Chef in Paris and after a freak accident run-in with Carlos Sainz, your life makes a 180. Let's just say with a certain agreement, you get your bills paid and in return stand in as Carlos' girlfriend for the press. But will you be able to handle the pressure and ensure the lines don't blur?

Pairing: Sugar Daddy!Carlos Sainz x Sugar Baby!Reader

Warnings: I've aged up Carlos, he is 33 in this fic.Smoking, smut, sexual themes, age difference, manipulation, control, slight obsession, tell me if I missed any

Dividers by: @firefly-graphics and @s-silk

Taglist: @httpjeonlicious, @f1lov3r, @messersandmesses, @hollie911, @oriconde08

Word count: 2,6k

Masterlist

Part 2~Part 4

His eyes pierce you like an ice-pick to the brain. Dark like a storm and prowling your mind, trying to pry an answer from you. He looks like a model, posing for a magazine cover. He’s leaned back, sipping from his wine, hair perfectly in place and his broad shoulders lure you in. Those coal-brown eyes don’t beg for you to say yes, but command you.  

How you wish now that you could your friends and beg them to reply for you. But you can’t. You have to pull up your big-girl pants. He’s read you back to front like some cheap pamphlet. You’ve never told anyone about your big dreams. You’ve kept it under wraps, a daydream that keeps you busy when the nights are too long. The only one that really knows is your Instagram algorithm, which constantly shows you other people living your dream.  

Is it too vapid of you? To only want the sweet life and not want to work for it? It’s not that you haven’t tried. You’ve spent three years working your ass off in that damn restaurant and nothing has come from it. You’ve not gotten a single raise, no other higher up, fancier, restaurants have wanted to take you in.  

Your lip is caught in your teeth, and you can’t help but blush at the thought. “Would it make me lackadaisical? A floozy? Lazy?” You ask, unsure if you're asking for his approval or trying to convince yourself. He smirks and shakes his head, then takes your hand. “Quite the opposite, it would make you smart. If you take this opportunity, then you’ll get an advantage that other girls could only dream of.”  

He continues, trying to convince you. “Model work isn’t easy, it will be ruthless, even with my influence. If it helps, I promise I won’t do everything for you, not that I could. But I’m certain if those agencies see you, they’ll want you immediately, as it happened with me.” He caresses each of your knuckles and his words go right to your head.  

“And there would be conditions?” You ask, truly you’d already been convinced. All you really can think of now is your safety. “Naturally, you know how those lawyers are. NDAs, and certain other requirements, from both our sides.” His words are so smooth and play exactly to your heartstrings. The struggle in your mind seems to crumble with each soft sweep of his thumb on his hand.  

You stare him down, trying to see any lies or hidden agreements but you get nothing but sincerity. “Alright, you’ve convinced me.” His face lights up in a huge grin and seems to almost jump in his seat. “You won’t regret it, princesa. I’ll make sure of it.” He places small butterfly kisses all over your hand. His stubble tickles and you can’t help but let the giggles fly from your mouth.  

“You won’t need for another thing, ever again.”  

Screaming is heard through the phone. You can’t help but laugh at your best friends’ reactions all while you soak up the feeling of being snuggled up in bed on a Thursday morning. “Tell us more. Right now.” Jas demands through the phone. “Well, after I agreed to the whole thing, he got us celebration crème brûlée, another one of my favourites.” They gasp and then scream again.  

You had set your Instagram radar to follow everything related to Carlos, and your phone is going crazy. There are already so many photos circulating around the internet. There are photos of him and you at dinner, luckily though you can’t really see your face.

Rumours circulate of who this new mysterious girl could be. If you’re new or if it’s a long-term thing. Then, of course, people mostly upset because Carlos might not be single anymore. There are other people too, excited to finally see him with someone.  

You can’t help but sigh, is this really what you’re getting yourself into? Are you really ready for people speculating about every single aspect of your life? Are you ready to allow yourself to be given to the public like that? More importantly, are you ready to share him? You can’t help but wonder if the fans will like you? Will they accept you or will you ruin his reputation? 

“We’re so proud of you for saying yes, it is what we would have said,” Jas says again and you can’t help but laugh. “And we’re also very proud that you didn’t make it easy for him.” Ilsa comments and you know she’s thinking more long term than Jasmine or yourself. You’re scared to even tell them of the things people are saying. Should you be shocked that this feels normal already?  

 “Then, after the date, he asked for my bank information and then proceeded to deposit me 5,000 euros. He called it a down payment. And a taste of what is to come.” They proceed to scream once more and roll your eyes at them. You’re happier now to have the water apartment for another month. Not that you need it, looking at the F1 calendar.  

A knock is heard at the door. “Uh, girls, I have to go. I’ll text you guys all the deeds at the end of the day.” They say their goodbyes and their goodluck’s. You throw the sheets you’ve had since university to the side and run over, expecting some sort of package or invoice, you throw open the door not looking to see who is outside.  

“Carlos, hi,” you smile, now feeling incredibly self-conscious about the pyjamas you’re wearing. The shorts have a few holes in, and the shirt is stained more than you’d like to admit. “Good morning, hermosa. I hope I did not wake you, no?” Those earth-brown eyes scan over every inch of your form and a smirk creeps across his face.

“Don’t laugh at me, you’re early. You said the flight was at nine and I haven’t gotten ready yet,” a blush coats your cheeks as his charming grin grows wider. “I am not laughing at you, hermosa. Quite the opposite, you look...” he’s holding back, you can see it in his eyes. Already you can tell he wears his heart on his sleeve.  

Carlos’ mind is somewhere else, and his eyes are glued to you. He then snaps out of it, “May I come in?” He asks and now you’re really blushing. The place is small and rundown, the paint is peeling, and you’ve given up on trying to get rid of the musk that the building carries. Not to mention, the place is a mess after your frantic packing last night.  

“Yes, uh, please excuse the mess.” His eyes don’t even glance at any of the strewn-around clothes or dirty dishes. His hand naturally falls to your waist, pulling you closer and then placing a small kiss on the crown of your head. You can’t help but notice how perfectly you fit into his side. After he sits down by your small kitchen counter you notice the things he’s carrying in his hands.  

A packet of paper, and a leather bag. “You can make yourself comfortable while I go get ready.” Again, you go to leave but you’re pulled back by the wrist. In one quick motion, you find yourself standing between his strong legs. He holds up the bag for you, “I’ve brought you something to wear. And don’t bother packing, we’ll buy anything you need there.”  

You go to protest, but he gives you a sharp look, a similar one from last night. The look that fuels and tames the fire in your body all at the same time. And yet, you keep your mouth shut and follow his instructions.  

The hoodie is huge on you, it hangs on the middle of your thigh and the sleeves hang over your hands. It’s bright red with black shoulders and the Ferrari logo is unmistakable. You pair it with plain black leggings and sneakers. You hold the cap, that came with, in your hands, and already you feel a bit showy. 

You walk out and Carlos’ eyes immediately snaps to you. Those stormy eyes of his instantly go even darker. He rakes his hand through those dark locks of his as if he needs to ground himself. “It’s a bit much, don’t you think?” You give a playful scoff, but he shakes his head. He stands up and takes the cap you’re holding from you.  

“I must disagree; I want everyone to know you’re mine now.” He picks up the hat and places it comfortably on your head. His gaze is strong, and you scrunch your nose, unsure if he approves of your appearance. You hadn’t bothered with too much makeup. Your reaction causes something you’d compare to an animalistic growl come from him.  

“He esperado tanto por esto.” His Spanish tongue is something that should be illegal, simply because of the way he makes you feel. You’re certain he could call you a hideous beast and you’d still fall to your knees. “You have no idea what you do to me, mi amor.” His finger just lightly grazes your cheek and you’re entirely mesmerized by the way he stares into my soul. As if you’re a prize he’s been yearning for all his life.  

In desperate need to hide yourself from his burning gaze, you switch the topic, in fear that he might find something wrong with you if he looks long enough. “What’s with the papers?” He looks almost annoyed to be doing something other than admiring you. “It is courtesy of my lawyers. The NDA we had talked about last night.” He takes your hand and guides you to the seat next to him.  

“It’s more to protect the public image than anything. I don’t think it’s needed, but you know how they can be, no?” He jokes while you read it through. If you had a lawyer, you would’ve had them read it through, but you don’t. So, instead in a leap of faith, you sign it without much thought. You can hear your mother yelling at you in your mind.  

“Alright, are we ready to go then?” You ask, not wanting to think more about the legal side of this all. More so just excited to jump into this new life. Excited to see all these new places you two are going to together. He raises his brow at you, “Are you sure that you’re ready?” He asks, taking his hand in yours and you have to hide your smile.  

“Or, is my pretty girl eager to join me in the public eye?” He shoots you a wink and a blush creeps across your cheek. You can’t help but blush your lip and hide yourself from him. How does he always know just what is going on in your mind? “I knew I chose right; other girls would be so scared to face those vultures. But I can see....”  

He seems to trail off, gently caressing your cheek. “Hmm, yes, what do you see?” You bite your lip and flutter your eyes, loving any sort of physical attention from him. He then shoots you a wink before shaking his head. “Come, we’re going to be late.” He stands up from his seat, taking your hand and dragging you out the door.  

“No, please, Carlos! You can’t do that to me!” You whine, though it’s all fun and games. Still, Carlos mutters under his breath, as always in Spanish. A language that you now consider learning. Just to know what he’s saying about you.  

“What are you doing, hermosa?” He asks, watching as you pull out your phone and look at the Instagram again. Ilsa likes to say you’re addicted; you just like to say you’re connected. This, however, isn’t exactly something that you wanted him to know about. A bit embarrassed more than anything scared that he’ll judge you for your extreme consumerism.  

You hide behind your hair, “Nothing,” you mutter immediately turning your phone off. He rolls his eyes at you, then wraps his hand around your waist. He then drags you across the seat, right next to him. He then takes your thigh closest to him and drapes it over his leg. His hand stays there, rubbing soothing circles. “Give it here,” he says, his eyes stern and his hand held out.  

This time you don’t give in and just cross your hands, staring him down. Your phone is your safe space and not even your closest friends are allowed to see it. “Niña terca,” he mutters under his breath, his jaw locking tight.

“If you give it to me now, I’ll buy you a new one.” Your own jaw this time hangs open. This time you give in with a huff and hand him the old 2017 Samsung, already open. Is this how it’ll always be? How much of yourself are you willing to give to him, for your future? 

A smirk crawls on his face, that smile of his could stop traffic. If he were to be charged with a crime, he could simply flash the judge that smile, and they’d free him of all charges. “You like seeing what they say?” Your ears are bright red and wish the earth would swallow you whole. You give a small shrug, “It’s all I used to have time for.”  

“But you don’t post that much, no?” He asks, and you can see him going through your account. “I don’t have anything to post.” Carlos shakes his head. “I must disagree, mi amor. Your beauty should be seen by everyone. But we will make sure that you have too much content, no?” His sweet whispers are something that you’ve been yearning for all your life. 

 “Why don’t we do, what do the people call it?” You furrow your brows, there is a language and generation barrier. You can’t help but smirk at his word choice. “The younger people you mean? Oh, lord, what have I gotten myself into?” You say, referring to the age gap between you two. How lucky aren’t you? As if you’d been written into the perfect book, no plot turns, no villains, nothing.  

This time it’s him who blushes, “No, no, no, hermosa. What do they say? Where you post the kissing instead of letting them find out slowly?” A loud laugh escapes your lips and he too blushes and can’t help but laugh. “A hard launch?” He laughs, this time, he is the one hiding his face in the rook of your neck.  

“Yes, yes, just like so.” There is a moment of silence between the two of you as consider it in your mind. “You mean it? You don’t want to see how the team reacts first? To see how the fans react?” Your voice goes quiet, insecure about your worthiness of him. “I’m sure. I’m sure of you. I’m sure of us.” You don’t deny him and allow him to take the photo.  

He takes a few photos. One with his face still hiding in the crook of your neck, the next where your head sits on his shoulder while you stare up at him. In the last he’s placing a kiss on your forehead, the 55-logo hard to miss.

While you choose the photos to post, you can’t help but see just how much adoration you look at him. In your deepest heart, you hope he doesn’t see it too. He can’t know just how excited you are for this. How much you already like him, and how you’re enjoying his company more than his money.  

You posted the pictures with the caption, “I like a fast pace too.” Of course, with Carlos tagged. He then posts it on his story. And after the rest of the car ride, he tucks both of your phones away and makes sure you get to know each other as much as possible.  

My taglist is open! If you wish to be tagged in this story alone, please comment or reblog with the words 'tag'. And if you wish to be tagged in all my posts please comment or reblog with the words 'tag all'.

[dailytelegraphnewstodaysblog]

Fundamental Technology Tips for Financial Realtors

In financial real estate agency, the utilization of technology is now well-known and essential. There are actually so many different technology equipment that can be used by asset agents and property or home managers on a daily basis. With that being said, it is remarkable the amount of salespeople overlook the strengths that technology supplies. You still see of salespeople that will cannot get used to inbox or computer employ. https://www.headlinesworldnews.com/

Here are some tips cya the latest technology gear that are available to people:

A database could very well be the most obvious tool that commercial real estate agent ought to be utilizing. Some sources today provide fantastic levels of categorization together with communication. This in that case makes it a lot easier to choose the right people for any right type of house enquiry. If you are visiting use a database with regard to regular e-mail connection, it is important that you get the essential approvals of the most people concerned for the approach to occur.

Email transmission and auto responders have simplified just how we can connect with some of our clients and prospective customers. The whole process is incredibly easy; however the clientele or prospect may be swamped with an excessive amount irrelevant information. It can be vital that we go back to the essential fact that the client comes with approved our sales and marketing communications for the ongoing span.

Checking emails constantly can occur on a telephone. That being said, these e-mails can disrupt ones thought patterns and additionally regular commercial the property market activities. It pays off to set some principles to the process of message response. In this way you will definately get more work executed on a daily basis.

The mobile makes it very simple for regular exposure to clients and potential customers. It can however end up quite disruptive to your normal business pursuits that should be done on a daily basis. It is best to systemize use of your mobile phone in order that it does not disrupt additional tasks and conditions that must be done.

The online market place and social internet marketing systems are applications of advantage when we choose to use these correctly. One of the most robust tools to use with commercial real estate is usually that of a web site. Many property advisors maintain a regular web log of information certain to their location in addition to property specialty. This way the search engines see the following person as a specialized and will rank him or her higher in search algorithm results. The blog course of action does require time period and commitment for the individual. The blog system is essentially free of cost apart from the time involved to jot down the blog posts. Producing three or four blogging discussions a week is strongly suggested.

As a commercial agent you can do more inside your business day using technological know-how tools. Online impair based storage will likewise protect your prized data. All of this will allow you to get out into the sector and create even more business opportunity.

[littlethingwithfeathers]

Around the beginning of the Book of Faces having ads, I read a news article about the new face of internet ads and it really REALLY stuck with me. “If something on the internet is free, odds are good that -you- are what’s actually being sold.”

Facebook. Tiktok. Twitter. Tumblr even, as much as we joke about it not being profitable. Anything with algorithms, or ad space, or suggested posts, or any of that. What's actually making them money is selling ads and then guaranteeing access to your eyeballs, and they guarantee it by keeping you plugged in. 

And how do they do that? Well that’s where the algorithms come in. They pay attention to everything. And they learn from the devices of the people around you constantly. The phone isn’t listening in the literal sense, but it does get a newsletter from all the phones and tablets around you about what everyone else is searching. And the most important thing to note is that the algorithm isn’t trying to show you things you like, or things that are true, or things you haven’t seen yet. It filters by only one goal. What keeps this person’s attention. And you don’t need me to tell you that what keeps attention in most people is not always the most healthy or accurate stuff. This is not me pounding my walking stick and saying “Kids these days! Rabble rabble!” or “Tiktok is evil!” It’s no more evil than Facebook, which is the author of the idea that privacy is not something you should expect or experience online. That’s... a whole ‘nother post. But what I am saying is that the internet of today is totally different than it was twenty years ago. And that is largely to do with the passivity of the experience. Just scrolling and seeing what’s next without choosing it.   Don’t be passive in your online experience. Aggressively curate what you’re seeing. And just... be aware that you’re a commodity. Your attention is what makes companies money so they want to manipulate it at every turn, and just the awareness of that fact can make a difference in your behavior.

[mariephillipswriter]

Square Eyes

Do they still say that if you watch too much television you'll get square eyes? Or is that an expression that went out of fashion when kids started spending all their time in front of the internet? Putting aside the obvious riposte (televisions aren't square, they're rectangular) I can report that I have been doing extensive research in this area and have come to the scientific conclusion: no, you won't. I have been watching so much television. SO MUCH TELEVISION. I never believed that I could watch such an immense quantity of television. On the whole I don't watch it during the day except for sometimes when I am having my breakfast and also when having my lunch, but in the evenings, when I have finished pretending to work, I might start watching television at about 6pm, or 5pm, or 4pm on a bad day, and keep going until, say, 11pm or midnight. HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE. HOW CAN A PERSON LIVE THIS WAY. Well it's easy enough, it turns out, if you're under lockdown in London in December and it's dark from 4pm and raining most of the time and you have the emotional resources of a gnat and reading is too demanding and talking on the phone is too exhausting and the light in the living room is not good enough for doing a puzzle in evening hours and you quit social media a month or so ago because it was driving you out of your mind with anxiety. I don't watch six or seven or eight hours of television every night. Don't be ridiculous. Some nights I only watch about three hours of television because I have a Zoom call or I'm cooking dinner or I've got stuck into a good cryptic crossword, maybe the Saturday Times Jumbo one because the Guardian ones are too gimmicky, or at last I've found a book gripping yet easy enough that I can't put it down (thank you Robert Galbraith, thank you Marian Keyes), but I would say that three hours is the minimum and my god that is a LOT. EVERY DAY. THREE HOURS. MINIMUM. But you don't need to me to explain that to you because you are all watching three four five six seven hours of television every day and when you are not watching television you are phoning your friends and first of all talking about the specific way that your own personal lockdown is terrible but then eventually saying 'what are you watching on television' because what else is there even to talk about? At the start of lockdown there was quite a small pool of television that everyone was watching (that thing about the Tiger King, which I didn't watch because by the time I got back from my early lockdown in Costa Rica you'd all seen it, and Normal People which I didn't watch because I was too embarassed to sit through all the sex scenes with my flatmates, and I May Destroy You, which I didn't watch because about five minutes of it was enough to send me into a massive panic spiral, but I hear was very good), but once we had all (other than me) got through that and Covid dragged on for months, our conversations began taking on the tenor of Vikings crowding around one another as a boat returns from a foray, WHAT IS OUT THERE, WHAT DID YOU FIND OUT THERE, IS THERE SOMETHING OUT THERE THAT I MIGHT DESIRE? And the Viking says yes, there is this thing called Schitts Creek but you really have to push on through the first season because I promise you it gets better and better and you will start to love that obnoxious family. And then we all watched Schitts Creek. (Including me, it's wonderful, you have to push on through the first series you will start to love that obnoxious family, Dan Levy is a divinity in human form and if you want more of him you could do worse than checking out the lesbian Christmas-themed romcom Happiest Season, which you can rent from Amazon Prime.) And now we are beyond even that and all our lives resonate with the screeching sound of a televisual barrel being scraped and now this is when things get really interesting (or put another way, VERY VERY BORING) because everyone has fractured and we are all watching different kinds of random stuff found in the dusty corners and unloved algorithms of our streaming services. There's the friend who has got into watching obscure French crime series on Netflix (The Chalet! La Mante!) and the friend who is watching every episode of Poirot on Britbox (thirteen series, 70 episodes) (though that pales in comparison with the friend who did a total rewatch of Friends from beginning to end (236 episodes) and finished it ages ago and is starving for more) and the friend who calls me up seemingly every week with a new old show nobody else has ever heard of (such as the early 1990s Nigel Havers and Warren Clarke comedy spy drama Sleepers, which he is watching old-school-style on DVD, and which apparently is like The Americans only with Nigel Havers and funny, and also, you should watch The Americans.) When I look back on the amount of television I have watched this year it defies comprehension. There were the things I would have watched anyway like the whole of Strictly Come Dancing and His Dark Materials, and the things that took me by surprise, like the stealthily hilarious Danny Dyer gameshow The Wall that was on straight after Strictly and drove me into a total obsession with the way that Danny Dyer says "Drop 'Em" (he's talking about the balls that are dropped down the wall, it's hard to explain, you can find it on iPlayer, but meanwhile if you only click on one link in this whole newsletter PLEASE click on that one), there were the things that were created especially to get me through lockdown (the wonderful David Tennant and Michael Sheen Zoom comedy Staged, which is not only extremely funny but allows you to see inside David Tennant's house which I'm not sure I am technically allowed to watch because of the restraining order? Anyway, new series coming on Monday, fellow DT fans) and the familiar things I watched to soothe me when it all got too much (Doctor Who, starting before Tennant even gets in on the action, right at the begining of the New Who seasons with Christopher Eccleston, because armchair space travel is the only kind of travel we are going to be getting for a while) and the exciting things I watched when I could no longer bear the tedious repetition of every identical day (Line of Duty, in which the famous-for-the-far-inferior Bodyguard writer Jed Mercurio delivers ludicrously compelling twisty-turny stories about police corruption that cannot be predicted for even a nanosecond) and the things that I watched just because I loved them (Fosse/Verdon, the Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon bio-series starring the breathtakingly charismatic Sam Rockwell and Michelle Williams, which is one of the best-made pieces of television I've ever seen, Love Life, the Anna Kendrick romantic comedy series which was surprisingly touching and truthful about the relationships that make up a life and which didn't make me want to open a vein as a single person the way that many looking-for-love shows do, and Better Things, a sort-of-comedy sort-of-drama written, directed by and starring Pamela Adlon, which began as a collaboration with Louis CK and initially reflected the sensibility of his show Louie, but became far more experimental and interesting once, after CK's disgrace, Adlon took over completely - the fourth series is maybe the closest thing I've seen on TV to a representation of the rhythms of real life, with long scenes of Adlon just cooking a meal on her own, or contemplating the rain, of having arguments with her children that explode from nowhere and end just as suddenly with tears or laughter or nothing at all.) And this entire paragraph is just things that I have watched on the BBC. Not even everything that I have watched on the BBC. The BBC is INCREDIBLE and my license fee has been serious value for money, before you even count all that time spent watching the news [Munch Scream emoji]. But overall, it doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of television that I have watched this year. Though while we're here, have you noticed that sometimes it's more relaxing to watch something bad than something good? Have you noticed that a vapid, cliched show like Virgin River (heartbroken city nurse with a secret moves to small town and falls in love with battle-wounded bartender with a secret), a show that makes This Is Us look like Succession, has the same effect on your brain that taking off your work shoes and putting on your slippers has for your feet? You can rest now, it says, there is nothing more for you to do. Have you noticed how easy it is to chug down, say, four episodes in a row of Designated Survivor - a show designed by a committee charged with taking elements of The West Wing, Homeland and 24, and making something similar but, crucially, much more ridiculous - without your mind even noticing that anything has happened at all? And if you're really ready for something utterly idiotic, might I suggest The Bold Type, in which three twentysomething girls in bonkers designer outfits "work" at an aspirationally "feminist" glossy magazine, and by "work" I mean constantly leave the office in the middle of the day to take care of personal business, and by "feminist" I mean "empowering women by for example having them post selfies of themselves looking perfect but without makeup on social media", a feminism so very feminist that they called the magazine's parent company Steinem in the first series and then had to change it to Safford, I can only presume because Gloria Steinem threatened to sue them. A couple of episodes of that is the televisual equivalent of having a nice relaxing full frontal lobotomy. Don't get me wrong: I love these shows. I owe them more gratitude than I can say. I would be unable to survive without them. I've managed to watch five hours of television just since starting this post24 hours ago (three episodes of Doctor Who, half a really cheap and very bad Sky Arts documentary about the musical Hamilton, and a travelogue in which Torvill and Dean go in search of a frozen lake in Alaska on which to dance Bolero but can't find one for almost the entire show because of global warming, which made me simultaneously and conflictingly want to give up air travel, fly to Alaska immediately, become obsessed with Torvill and Dean AND wonder how they managed to skate together all these decades without killing each other especially Torvill but also especially Dean). Five hours of TV, sounds like a lot, but with eight hours of sleep, that still left me eleven hours to fill in this boring boring boring boring BORING BORING BORING boring boring BORING boring BORING BORING lockdown. I think I am being incredibly restrained, all things considered. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some time to kill, having finished writing this post, and with at least five hours to fill before bed. I wonder what's on TV?

***

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[londonfxclub7]

Foreign exchange Signals - Ways to Instantly Trade That you Have Decades with Forex Trading Experience

forexsignals

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The main characteristics involving forex trading signals to learn are as follows;

Charge: Free OR per month subscription Complexity: Very simple "one email your day" OR Full-Service Control: You keep comprehensive control OR that signal provider deals your a/c for your needs Trading style: i. g. frequent scalper OR low sound swing trader

Like the forex signal may well at first seem like a wonderful idea, but once we will reveal these, you may very well ought to pay for a free membership service (yes, we realize that doesn't make sense : but read on)

Most forex trade alerts charge a very limited subscription fee, constantly in the region of USD $80 - $400 each and every month (although happily nearly every one is at the lower end from this range), while there are websites which furnish forex signals with regard to no charge.

In their least complicated form a foreign exchange signal will give you a forex notify email once on a daily basis listing trade arranged ups for the following 24 hours.

Some of these are generally purely computer produced, some are laptop computer generated and then audited by a human skilled, and some are altogether researched and provided exclusively by a people expert trader that may add some sector commentary to their foreign exchange forecast.

Some currency trading signals are excessive volume scalpers, phoning many trades daily aiming to profit a few pips on just about every. Others only telephone a few trades daily, aiming to profit 20 - 80 pips on each sole trade.

At the even more full-service end in the market is the version of forex signal product which provides you with the almost 24 hour or so a day live internet broadcast calling forex trade tips as they show up, explaining the common sense of the proposed deal and backing the idea up with an message or even a video clip.

A few forex trading signals may also trade their impulses in your own account for people, leaving you to simply sit back and watch. It's similar to what a robotic does by using currency trading signal software, although with the added confidence that it's being executed by an experienced smart human trader rather than dumb machine next an algorithm.

See full-service forex trading data like a forex TELEVISION SET station, which you have functioning in the background on your computer or internet linked laptop throughout your entire day. The broadcast stays quiet when there is practically nothing to do, freeing the effort for the other items in your day, in that case calls for your particular attention when there is a exchange to place or regulate.

You may be surprised, even as we were, to discover that prices charged just by full-service providers are frequently very similar to those loaded by the one e-mail a day providers.

Such a service usually additionally includes an interactive facility, enabling you to send out a message to your foreign currency trading mentor if you have a good question.

Many foreign currency signal services get very loyal subscriptions, and some even restrict the number of members they are going to accept.

Free foreign exchange signals (virtually)

Relating to the basis that time is usually money, in our viewpoint the amount of time we could now devote to alternative activities by not slaving over our chart for hours searching for an excellent trade set up, as well as the improvement within our trading results, comes with more than paid for abdominal muscles modest cost with the forex signal monthly subscriptions.

Indeed if you employ this logic, reoccuring based services may well effectively be 100 % free when you take into account the progress in your trading income, and the freeing of your energy for other lucrative activities.

If you think about this, a subscription based mostly forex signal company has a built-in motivator to call financially rewarding forex trading tips, since its subscriber bottom part would soon escape if it never provide profitable foreign exchange tips. "Free" no subscription signals should not have this incentive.

Regulate your risk

In a aspect of forex trading most of your goal is to take care of your risk. Picking out, and trading some sort of forex trade alert ought to be no different.

Quite possibly the best most skilled provider of currency trading signals will habitually have losing domestic trades. However taken by means of all of their winning foreign exchange trade signals the complete result should definitely profitable, but not just about all systems work at all times. Some forex informs may even have a entirely losing week and also month.

However , we now have found through our personal experience that the most convenient way of making consistent revenue with forex signs is to subscribe to distinctive currency trading signals and additionally trade all of their alerts. If one of them is actually having a particularly poor week, the others ought to compensate and still world-wide-web you a profitable 7 days, or break quite possibly at worst.

Constantly do your homework before trading some provider's forex signals. Good forex transmission services will distribute their last 6 - 12 a long time results on their internet site. Some will even demonstrate details of the actual investments they took. Be ready to see losses and winners - this is just the nature associated with trading. Indeed, in the event the results show just winners, or this provider is unable to show you any sort of results, or to give contact details of a number their clients able to give a reference end up on your guard.

Most offer some sort of free trial or even discounted special make available. Make sure that you clearly know the terms about this offer and fully understand the deadline with which you need to give see to terminate should you be not happy with the assistance provided.

If you examine the last 6 month's results of all the foreign currency trading signal service providers you mean to use, you should discover that taken as a whole they provided a profit.

Previous performance is no promise of future outcomes, but we have seen that if you have a superior combination of trading designs in your trading impulses portfolio you are with with a fighting chance for consistent profits regardless of the market conditions.

Ever again, think about the cashflow intuition of what you will get doing here -- the subscription bills of each forex data service are already really modest, and as a result of combining them you will be increasing your probability from consistent profits. They can not all get it wrong every time, and remember just about all incentivised by their own membership to get that right as often as they can.

Even with experienced people calling your trading, it's prudent associated risk management to never truly risk more than 3% of your initial funds on any one commerce, preferably only 1%. So , if for instance your initial investment capital, (or to put the application another way, maximum you can afford to help lose) is say 5, 000, the positioning size you tackle each trade has to be such that if the business hit your cease loss, your optimum loss would be just 1% x 5, 000 = 50.

Using forex signs as trade options

Even if you prefer to never follow forex ways to the letter, it is possible to still profit from ones own trade idea.

Like if you receive a foreign currency tip trading your GBP/USD long which includes a 40 pip end loss, but with analysing the stock chart (following your presence on a forex exercise course) you feel and placing the halt loss let's say 63 pips below connection, giving the give up protection below an obvious area of recent in addition to prior support, which often happens also to come to be below the every week pivot point, along with in doing so usually are happy to have a more time range target : then go correct ahead and do it.

We were thrilled to find that when people did exactly that with one of some of our forex signals' recommendations our trades really performed better than their own did. Two goes better than one probably.

The point is though, that will without the forex market prediction drawing our focus on that particular chart with that particular time we'd never have seen which trade idea.

Intimately related to makes the point this while it may in the beginning seem temping to help you let a signal company trade your are the reason for you, if you have plenty of time you may actually wish to control it one self.

If you have been through a superb forex training course together with understand the principles of support, level of resistance, pivot points, developments etc you should always that knowledge to perform ones own due diligence on foreign exchange alerts. You may properly find as we managed that you can enhance the performance of your portfolio with forex trade recommendations.

100 % free forex signals

The following section would not become complete without reference to forex signals service providers who don't demand any subscription charge.

As we mentioned above perhaps even subscription charging offerings should be effectively absolve to you by advantage of calling more than enough profitable trades so that you can more than cover a subscription cost.

Additionally we prefer to employ subscription based currency trading signals as they receive an incentive to constantly call profitable deals, in that their buyers won't stay with him or her for very long once they don't.

Free alerts by comparison have no these incentive, so end up warned and deal them at your own personal risk.

[markrichardson]

My Year in Spotify Listening

Like a lot of people I checked out the Spotify year-end summary thingy, and since Spotify is only a certain percentage of my listening, the results were surprising, and I tried to figure out what it meant. In general, I listen to new music via iTunes, if I am sent promos. That only encompasses a certain amount of new music of course, but if I’m sent a download, I tend to use that for my listening all year long. Often, I’m “done with” an album more or less by the time it comes out, but sometimes I’ll keep listening (as w/ DJ Koze this year) and I do that with my promo files. My Spotify listening tends to be a mix of things I stick on a few different playlists based on mood or genre, and they could come from anywhere (but they aren’t usually new). 

In terms of my favorite artists (Bill Evans wound up in my top spot, somehow, followed by Joni Mitchell) it was hard to figure out how it’d happened, because I didn’t spend the year obsessed with either. Then I looked at my 100 most played songs, and that did bring back a few things. I’m not sure if the whole list is in order, but the first 5 songs in the playlist are the 5 listed when Spotify gave me my most-listened-to tracks of the year, so I think so? Anyway, that’s what I am going with here. This is how my Top 10 songs show up on the playlist, in order, with one exception: in the middle of the list was Bow Wow Wow’s “See Jungle,” which I already wrote about on Tumblr 8 years ago (and about which I have very little to say now, except that yes I do still listen to this song a fair amount), so I’ve omitted that and included No. 11. 

Wussy: “Runaway” This was my favorite song of the year, it has 600 plays on Youtube and 5,400 on Spotify, which makes me a little sad. Technically it’s not from this year—Wussy put this out on a small-release tape or CD-R a few years ago—but I’m still counting it. This is the rare case where the streaming media playcounts tend to match the responses of folks I’ve talked to about this song—I mentioned to 4 or 5 people, and in each case they said “Yeah that’s kind of nice I guess...why do you like it so much?” I’ll try to answer that here.  

First I should say that I have no real interest in or knowledge of Wussy. They’re an indie rock band from Ohio, most notable at this point for the fact that Robert Christgau loves them, and has written rapturous reviews of their work over the years, which surely has helped them to achieve whatever small amount of notoriety they have. I checked them out here and there but they didn’t make much of an impression on me. I wish I could remember how I came across this particular song, but I can’t, probably either Twitter or a streaming media algorithm. But I loved it immediately, like, stop-what-you-are-doing-and-listen kind of loved. It just clicked. 

The first thing that comes to mind is the chorus: “I love you, let’s run away.” That’s the theme of so many of my favorite songs, I mean, the first album I bought in my life was “Born to Run,” and if you could sum up the first three Springsteen albums in in 6 words, “I love you, let’s run away” wouldn’t be bad. And I think I liked that this song didn’t try for poetic phrasing, just said it in the simplest way possible.

But the romance of a song like this has a shade of darkness to it, and that draws me in even more. Escape is never a long-term strategy. Eventually you have to figure out how to make life work when you’re in the thick of it. So while it’s such an appealing dream to exit the world with someone you’re crazy about, there is a shelf life to that sort of gesture. I relate to this idea of being fed up with everything in the moment and wanting to jump in the car with the only person who gets you, but eventually, the car is is going to need gas. What then? 

I didn’t know when I first heard this song that it was a cover, so the immediate impact of it was as a Wussy song. But I learned that it was written and recorded by another Ohio artist that people in the band had known, a woman named Jenny Mae. She died last year. Pitchfork did a news story on her passing. She was 49. And when I found that it was her song, I listened to her version and I loved it almost as much (but not quite), though her take also made my Spotify Top 20. I did think enough of her version to order the 7-inch, which was her first release. When I read about Jenny Mae’s life, the song took on another layer of meaning. She suffered from mental illness and self-medicated with alcohol. And she was described by people who knew her as brilliant and creative and hilarious but also impulsive and self-destructive. Which for me gives a sentiment like “No one likes us anyway / I hate my job / Sweet, sweet are the innocent / I love you, let’s run away” and “40 ounce between your legs/ Shakin up my heart / Turn around and look at me / Light another smoke” a different tint. These are the kinds of things you say when in the throes of a rush of feeling, but they’re not impulses you can safely follow for a lifetime, even though goddammit, sometimes I want to.

Bo Diddley: “Nursery Rhyme” In Richmond early this year I bought an old Bo Diddley album called The Originator. I saw it in a used bin, it was $20, and, it was pure instinct, I had a feeling it was interesting. For me, buying used records, $20 is a fair amount of money, I don’t pay that for something I’ve no idea about, typically. But something compelled me to pick it up. I was intrigued that it had none of the hits I knew. And I took it home and when I put it on a short while later it blew my mind. This surprised me because on the one hand it sounds so much like the idea of “Bo Diddley” I keep in my brain, the one rhythm we know from the song he named after himself, but this was just so controlled, so well rendered, with so much atmosphere. The whole thing is brilliant. I became particularly obsessed with this cut from the record, and then I started exploring the “Bo Diddley” beat in general, reading whatever I could about it and listening to examples. This kind of random deep-dive is the best thing about the internet era for a music fan. 

Mulatu Asatke: “Tezeta (Nostalgia” At nights when I hang out with my Mom at her condo in Michigan I play music over a Bluetooth speaker I bought a year ago. My Mom’s default has for a while been to put the television on, but at some point I asked her about playing music instead so we could talk or just hang out, and she grew to like it. Sometimes we’ll chat about stuff, and sometimes she will play Candy Crush on her iPad while I do things on my phone, which sounds distant but is actually very comforting to me. One of the things I’m doing on my phone during these evenings is finding songs to play. It’s quite fun (and interesting) for me to say to myself “What is a playlist that would make my Mom happy?” and then try and figure out what that might be on the fly. She was never really a music person so I don’t have a lot to go on, mostly her age, a story or two about a song she liked, and a vague knowledge of what she might have heard on the radio in my lifetime. 

In September, my Dad died, and I stayed with my Mom in her condo for a number of days that month. I felt a strange mix of feelings. On the one hand, he was father, I missed him, I thought about never being able to talk to him again, to not be able to share the things in my life. I thought about the fact that I wouldn’t be able to learn more about his life, my knowledge of which is pretty sketchy. There were all the usual things a person would be sad about. But then there was the fact that he had a severe and debilitating case of Parkinson’s disease for the last eight years, and at times he suffered so terribly. I remembered how on a few occasions he called me while he was delusional, he would tell me that he was sure he was going to die. One time, he told me that he saw someone in the driveway who was going to kill him. Another time, he said that it was hard to explain but that he had been split into two people, and he couldn’t take it, he was terrified. I told him that it would be better tomorrow and he yelled, “I’m going to be dead by tomorrow!” I would get calls like this while I was walking to work in Brooklyn 700 miles away, and I would feel so helpless. And so when he passed, I thought about him during situations like that, and also felt like maybe not he had some peace. 

A night or two after my Dad died I was sitting with my Mom, talking, and playing music. She dug out some old photos and we were looking at them, pictures from her in high school that I had never seen. I wanted to see everything, learn every detail. And over that Bluetooth speaker I was playing some random playlist I had found called something like “Jazz for late night.” I wanted background music. And while we were hanging out and talking, this song came on, “Tezeta” by the Ethiopian jazz bandleader Mulatu Astatke. And man, it’s hard to describe, but the mood of this song so perfectly captured the exact feeling I had. The phrase that comes to mind is “bombed out,” that’s the way it seemed, like I’d been beaten up and thrown in a ditch and my ears were ringing and now I was trying to reorient myself after all that had happened. There was a feeling of weariness and sadness but also a feeling that life continues, that we have to gather our memories and keep on. And this impossibly beautiful song captured every bit of that, the one-chord riff moving ahead, in spite of it all, while the sax line captures all the sadness dripping off everything at the same time. I listened to it constantly in the weeks afterward.  

Galaxie 500: “Fourth of July” (live) One of my favorite songs by one of my favorite band in my favorite version. This song is indicative of how (as with all songs on this list) when I’m in the mood I can listen to one track over and over. On a couple of occasions in 2018, I listened to this maybe 8 or 9 times in a row, immediately hitting “back” when it had finished. And the thing I was typically listening to was Naomi Yang’s bassline, which to me holds the lion’s share of the song’s feeling. Her bass playing in Galaxie 500 is so incredibly emotional to me, and it was never more so than here. 

Pusha T: “Infrared” The one truly “new” song on here.” I didn’t have an advance of this record so I listened on Spotify when it came out and I loved it. And this song in particular seemed so perfect, the carefully constructed rap, executed as if it’s coming off the top of his head, the sample—I listened to this many times in a row on a few occasions, and it also sent me to revisit Clipse, which brought me a lot of joy. 

Joni Mitchell: “Carey” Another song about freedom, but here it’s real. Blue is a perfect record but I probably revisit this one more than any other single song because I’m so in love with the production—that bass, that hand percussion...sonically, an album recorded almost 50 years ago simply cannot be improved upon. I remember hearing this one on AM radio when I was very young. It was a single, b/w “This Flight Tonight,” one hell of a 7-inch. I’ve always thought the picture it painted was so incredibly romantic—”Maybe I’ll go to Amsterdam, maybe I’ll go to Rome / And rent me a grand piano and put flowers 'round my room.” Hey, why not! And if Carey is indeed keeping her in this tourist town, we know it’s only for another hour, another day, another week, whenever she’s ready, she can’t be tied down. But then, that’s the future: this night, now, is a starry dome, and we’re alive, inside it. 

Arthur Russell: “That’s Us/Wild Combination” Sometimes w/ my favorite Arthur Russell songs you can hear the strain as he creates a new genre trying to get a particular unnamable feeling across. But not this one. Sitting in a room with his friend Jennifer Warnes he made a song that feels as natural as a breath. 

Carole King: “Pleasant Valley Sunday” I’m in awe of Carole King’s ability to write songs that sound perfect on the radio. Even if her prime hitmaking years only lasted a bit over a decade, the number of her songs with her name on them that left a huge mark on culture is staggering. Her demo for the Monkees hit “Pleasant Valley Sunday” shows how perfect everything was before the artist who would bring the song to the public got anywhere near it. I found this one on Youtube 8 or 9 years ago and it’s been in regular rotation since. 

Hank Williams: “The Angel of Death” In February and March I was doing research my Pitchfork Sunday Review on Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska. It’s one of my favorite records, and I’ve wanted to write something long on it for years, so spending time w/ it as the winter wound down was an intense pleasure. It’s common knowledge that Springsteen was listening to a lot of Hank Williams when he was writing the album, and when I came across this song, I became obsessed with it. One, the melody sounds right off Nebraska, and “My Father’s House” (another song I listened to a lot this year) especially seems directly modeled on it. But this song has so much going for it on its own. It’s about death and the moment of judgement, but Hank’s melody and phrasing don’t sound frightened. It’s hopeful, a prayer instead of an admonishment. 

Guided by Voices: “Motor Away” I’ve loved this song for years but I listened to it intently around the same time I was playing the Hank Williams, when I was thinking about leaving Pitchfork. I’ve never been a big fan of Robert Pollard’s lyrics (though I love many of his tunes), but he second line here is the one I couldn’t put out of my mind: “When you free yourself from the chance of a lifetime.” That’s where I felt I was. Editing this music magazine that I cared so much about was the culmination of a dream that took a long time, a ton of work, and a fair amount of luck to realize. When the chance of a lifetime comes along, you’re supposed to hold on to it as tightly as possible for as long as possible, until someone finally pries it away, which will happen eventually. I knew that. And yet, deep down, I knew that after 11 years, I wanted to try something else. Run away, motor away, drive away. Sometimes a song can give you the tiniest push.

[girlaboutcampus]

How I optimised my social media for my mental health

cw: this blog post contains references to food, fitness and dieting culture. 

A few years ago I was working for a chain bookstore over the festive period, mostly on the tills serving customers and occasionally dealing with enquiries and shelving. There was blissfully minimal phone answering too. Bookshops tend to stay pretty busy after Christmas with sales, folks coming in to buy something to read in their remaining time off and to buy dieting books. When I clocked in to take my shift on Boxing Day, there had already been a table of dieting and fitness bibles set up, all on two-for-one deals. Whilst I’m sure this table was set up on corporate instruction, it left a bad taste in my mouth. Bookshops are by no means safe spaces- they’re a place you should go to look for material that challenges and stretches your beliefs, as well as things to help you relax.  However, I don’t think they’re a place you go to be judged for your lifestyle, especially if you’re just on the way up to grab a muffin and latte with friends in the cafe. In many ways, this is the experience of being on social media in microcosm.

This summer, I had a bit of a meltdown, which I’ve talked about a little before. Without university to occupy me, I became obsessed with going to the gym. When I didn’t see results as quickly as I had in the past, I started to hyperfocus on my appearance and weight. It quickly became clear that I’d got myself into a dark place, so I started going to see one of the counsellors at my university (which is an enormous privilege you should make the most of if you also have access to it). It became clear to me, in talking to my counsellor, that a lot of my problem was down to the space I had curated for myself on social media. The fitness board I maintained on Pinterest meant that the algorithm was constantly generating unattainable bodies, diet foods and problematic motivational statements. From following some of my younger brother’s school friends on Instagram, I began to feel bad about not having the body shape of a teenager anymore. I decided to clear a whole day to go through all my social media and make it as much of a hospitable space for my mental health as possible. I should be clear at this point that this might not necessarily work for you, though I found it to be incredibly helpful. I’m sharing in the hope that it might make a little difference for someone else. I’ll start with the easier social networks and work my way up to the big guns. 

Facebook

This one might be more difficult for you depending on how much use you get out of Facebook. Personally, I use it mostly for keeping up with events, messaging friends and updating family members. One thing you can do if you only use it for the latter two is delete the Facebook app and just keep Messenger, that way you have to be on an actual computer to check facebook. If you don’t want to delete the app, then start to take advantage of the mute button. You can go through the hassle of sitting going through your whole friend list, removing people you no longer talk to, see, or are interested in keeping up with (you can let go of some people from school at this point, face it). However, I find that the experience of unfriending people can actually make me feel more anxious. 

The best thing I do- and this one isn’t something you can necessarily do in one day- is mute or unfriend as I scroll down my feed. If someone I once met in a job I had four years ago starts posting offensive and ill-informed political memes to my feed, that’s their time to go. If a friend’s mum posts a lot of things about her New Year’s diet, she’s going to get muted for the time being. If a friend posts a photo of her super cute baby, that’s getting a big heart react- give me more of that good shit. A big part of all of this stuff is trying to train your algorithm to show you the stuff you want, even if it fights back. 

Twitter

First huge bit of advice- block all the bigoted reactionaries. That’s your Piers Morgans, Katie Hopkinses, Julia Hartley-Brewerses and that girl who worships guns. This isn’t me openly advocating shutting yourself out of political discourse, or creating some kind of political echo chamber for yourself.  It’s just starving people who thrive on outrage of the attention they crave. I don’t care if you have a witty rebuttal. They don’t deserve your attention, views or clicks. Try to find professional journalists, politicians, and pundits whose expertise you can trust and who conduct themselves ethically and responsibly, rather than trying to just get clicks for their work. Also, read whole articles and think pieces rather than just the headlines. Headlines are often written to stir up outrage over something that just isn’t outrageous.

 Find tweeters who make you laugh, make good art and whose voices you’d like to amplify. 

Instagram (and Tumblr) 

Now we’re getting into the heavy lifters. It seems to me that the more image-dense the platform, the worse it can be for your mental health, especially if your mental health is tied up in your body image. Instagram and Tumblr might be the platforms to be most cutthroat with. What you decide to do with this one is really deeply personal, but I would suggest going with your gut and unfollowing and muting anything that makes you feel less than, no matter how nice the person running it seems. My first call was to unfollow more or less everyone who’s ever breathed in the general vicinity of a Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. A lot of these models seem to be lovely women, but their lifestyles and bodies are the definitions of unattainable. The one exception I make to this rule is Chrissy Teigen because her content is all about earnestly enjoying food, family and travel. Plus, she doesn’t take herself too seriously. Instagram also has a useful feature that allows you to mute stories, posts or both at your own discretion. That way if there’s someone you follow who posts great travel photos but is always talking about weight loss in their stories, you can filter out that content and keep what you like. I found that, personally, having fewer bodies in my line of sight is for the best. I like to maximise the presence of delicious food, cute animals and uplifting messages I follow. Here are some favourites:

Nigella Lawson

Shila and Eddie the Pomeranians

withlovelinh

Hannah Witton

Demi Adejuyigbe

Pinterest

This is the daddy of all the image-based platforms. Whilst probably the least popular of all the platforms listed here, it probably has the most potential to do harm. Don’t get me wrong, I love Pinterest. It is one of the most easily spaces online and the fact that it is image focused means that there is very little text involved, so it’s an ocean of calm compared to a platform like Twitter. However, it also has what might possibly be the most reactive algorithm of any platform. This is broadly a helpful tool, allowing you to locate the exact material you’re looking for, but it can really double down on any harmful material you put into it. It’s the internet’s worst enabler. In this sense, spring cleaning it is work. I got rid of my fitspo board and replaced it with one more focused on self-care. This didn’t mean getting rid of all my fitness-focused stuff- I still pin specific exercise routines- but I don’t pin #bodygoals stuff now.  A very important part of changing this is being conscientious of what I am choosing to repin. Specifically, I have to ask myself 

“Do I really like this hair/ makeup/ clothing, or do I just want to look like the model?”

If the answer is no, I will ask Pinterest to remove it from my feed. Pinterest also has a zero-tolerance policy for content that encourages eating disorders and self-harm so you can report anything like that. Whilst Pinterest will continue to show you things after you have deleted the boards you can, over time, train it to show you more of the things you want to see. I’ve finally got it to a point where I’m seeing things that make me feel bad far less frequently. 

All of this is work and requires a conscious effort from yourself to remove things that are harmful before they get to you. This system isn’t perfect and you will continue to see garbage some of the time. It is still possible to optimise what you’re seeing in order to feel less anxious and down on yourself. Do keep in mind, that it’s just a small part of your life and that if you are genuinely concerned about your mental health to talk to a professional if that is something you are able to access. Also, this isn’t an alternative to minimising your screentime, which we should probably all try to do a little more. 

Happy new year! 

More like this 

You are doing enough. 

Did I Keep my 2018 Resolutions?

[thecryptkeeper]

im really pissed so long post ahead

Its selfish and sleazy to exploit your children like that and I know for a fact they don’t see anything wrong with it. Just because of how sensitive the algorithm is ive seen a lot of parenting/mommy accts that seem pretty informative with different approaches to talking to/nurturing children and helping them develop emotional understanding … and yet, some of these moms are posting their children in these videos. Most older ppl would argue that it’s their kids but as crazy a concept it may seem, your children are not your property! your children aren’t giving you consent because they dont even understand the concept yet.

If it just came down to recording personal family interactions and keeping them private like family videos, its a completely different story. But there’s never an air of privacy in these families because they constantly have their phones or cameras shoved in their kids’ faces. We’ve lived in this digital age for a while now, and like I mentioned earlier, the parents who are starting these accounts and posting these videos are not strangers to how the internet works! They have an understanding of how this new format of posting/promoting content works, they know how algorithms work, they know what to film/post/tag to boost their video, its nothing but exploitative.

On youtube, its found in channels either following the whole family or centering on one child alone. Family vlogs are profiting off of “intimate” family moments, which doesn’t take much to imagine what that does to a young child’s mind. Parents are so obsessed with their image of parenting and showing off how cute their kids are and saying “aren’t we just the perfect family” when that’s all for show. You look at how unboxing videos became popular so quickly only a few years ago and how many channels started popping up of children unboxing toys and things. Fuck, you go to Walmart right now to the toy aisle and there’s these childrens’ faces on products! Because they’ve gained that much of a following to have their own line of merchandise! Parents becoming micromanagers of everything their child does, forcing them to take on this different persona when they turn the camera on (which most of these children aren’t even old enough to harbor enough awareness to see it as that). Another problematic layer to it is usually these are larger families, like four, five or more children and most continuing to grow, meaning that not only are there children in these families that had the briefest moment of normalcy in their lives before being placed in front of a camera but there are newborns in these families that are being filmed from day fucking one and will never know a regular childhood.

On instagram, I mean how many accounts have been made of moms dressing their daughter like a twenty-year-old, dolling her up as if she’s not like four- or five-years-old. It’s just an internet beauty pageant … great that you believe your child is beautiful every parent should harbor that love for their child but you’re absorbing all the attention your child is getting because its feeding your ego, not theirs (because they haven’t experienced a life without this).

Now tiktok has reinvented the way media is consumed. There’s one post floating around here that describes it as spoon-feeding its users and thats very much the case. The algorithm is dependent solely on what you like, how many people like/share it, what popular tags are used/trending, what sound or song is used. And now instagram, like many other platforms at this point, has seen how well that formatting has worked for that app and applied it to theirs. In instagram reels’ case, its so sensitive that you can like one video with a specific sound or even just view it more than two or three times, and you’ll be given more like that. That’s how I even saw that video of the four year old I mentioned earlier. While there are many, many preteens and just-barely-turned teenagers on both platforms that gain a significant following (which usually is because of their looks, because just as every trend has come and gone, popularity is particularly dependent on looking a certain way) and is the “young child/teen being unsupervised online” (which I will touch on soon because I have more thoughts on that), I also have seen far too many literal CHILDREN on my reels page like obviously ten or younger, most often because they’re doing a dance trend. And you may check their account to see how old they are because you may think, like me, how is this child just posting things like this? And you see the bio mentioning that it’s being run by their parents. With all these types of accounts on these platforms, the child may not see the finished product, the child may not be shown how many views they’re getting, they may not be shown the comments they’re getting, which would just barely better their situation if those elements weren’t placed atop the already problematic lifestyle they’re living in.

It used to be parents posting their kid on Facebook without asking - which in itself falls into parents refusing to acknowledge their child as anything but property they can show off - but now its an assault from all fronts. Setting family-run accounts on the back-burner for a moment but how parents are interacting with their children through and/or for social media has to be addressed. There are viral videos of parents pranking or scaring their children, laughing at their screaming and crying, there’s viral videos of parents filming their child’s tantrums - be it in a public or private setting - and sitting behind a camera and letting them stay in this emotionally vulnerable state. Or they start filming them during a tantrum or when they’re in trouble to humiliate them, to then post them and humiliate them further. Not only that, but comments on these videos include parents feeling similar ways, thinking they handled these situations perfectly, or finding them hilarious. Parents then turn around and wonder why their children aren’t close to them, why they get shy or angry or why they “suddenly” don’t want to be filmed anymore or why they don’t trust them. I’m not going to pretend I have a psychology degree or some deep understanding to how these external stimuli contribute to a child’s emotional development but it doesn’t take a whole lot of thought to how any of the things I have or haven’t mentioned will affect them. 

I am twenty years old and I had an extremely mild experience to internet exposure compared to other people my age (but hey I’ve been thirteen and talked an internet stranger out of committing suicide) but it does not take a long hard look to see the cons outweigh the pros on these situations. I’d say I’m not trying to claim I’m better at parenting than actual parents (and yet I really am) because anyone who has just a shred of empathy for children would realize these things that are so normal online are anything but. All of this is really only pulling back one layer of this discussion and there’s sooooo many other factors and diverging situations surrounding the relationship between children + social media + internet exposure and it’s something I think needs to be continually discussed. As deeply frustrating and heartbreaking this is to me, pushing it to the back of my mind isn’t going to make it go away, neither is just posting about it, but considering how many people online also just fucking hate children I feel as if there needs to be one more post caring about them. 

no i know im constantly talking abt how i hate social media/children’s exposure to it but i just saw a reel on instagram of a four year old girl. thank god she wasn’t doing anything necessarily bad it was just this trend where you try to get to get a drop of water to fall on beat to the song but four years old. and it had over a million views!!!!! which brings up the other end of children’s exposure or existence on social media bc i saw her account, like so many other kids now, is being “managed” by her parents. which seems to be an increasingly popular way to exploit your children i don’t care what your intentions are, i do not understand how millenials having kids of their own are just so willingly to expose their children like that to millions of ppl clearly you have enough awareness of how social media has changed since you were younger if you posting tiktoks/reels/etc but are still too dense to even consider how that’s going to fuck up your child in some regard? you’re letting your child be seen, followed, commented on, and more before they even have a grasp of the alphabet what the fuck is wrong with you!!! god it makes me inconsolably angry

[tonxstark]

The initial overseas Cocos user: How to release the overall game to Viber, a platform with 1 billion users?

With the increase of the wave of ultra-casual games at home and abroad in recent years, a growing number of domestic and overseas game manufacturers are discovering the value of the track, in order to effectively avoid the heavy large-scale games gathered by large companies and focus on more It is ideal for innovation in the field of various casual games and social apps that reflect the creativity of gameplay. One of the earliest overseas users of Cocos Creator, Groovy Antoid from Lebanon, is really a small group of 6 individuals. Since 2015, it is rolling out many fascinating and fun informal games in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, and contains also earned a good income. Bitcoin Currently, they're spending so much time to bring HTML5 games to the popular instant chat software Viber. We are fortunate to invite Mohamad Kotob, the lead programmer of Groovy Antoid, to talk about their sport development history and work at home opportunities on Viber. Interview Record Hi, can you introduce yourself to our readers? My name is Mohamad Kotob and I am the lead programmer of Groovy Antoid. Groovy Antoid is a start-up game advancement studio of Techstars, headquartered in Beirut, Lebanon, authorized in the United States, the target is to create a unique, sophisticated, fascinating and quirky combined casual game. One of our works, "Body fat Bunny: Endless Hopper", has already established a lot more than 1 million downloads so far, and is widely loved by players. It has won 2 awards at IMGA MENA 2017 and was chosen for the Indie Prize display award at the 2017 Informal Connect USA. That is an endless horizontal jumping game, the protagonist is a cute rabbit, you can test the player's skills of timing. We have received a huge selection of email messages from enthusiasts expressing their like for this adorable rabbit. These achievements have got more enhanced the eyesight of our whole team and the inspiration to create more appealing game characters. When did you first enter video games? I have already been a brilliant gamer since I was a kid. Fortunately, there exists a father who is as fanatical about technology when i am. He bought a computer when I has been very youthful, but I quickly monopolized it (the strength is cheating, excellent). In the long days and nights, I performed arcade games, simulation games and Flash games, from RPG to RTS, and then to MMO. Finally, I couldn't assist but start understanding how to make games by myself and search for programming resources on the Internet. How did you obtain into this market? Actually, before joining Groovy Antoid, I have been engaged in sport development for many years with some other independent programmers. Creating interesting games is an exciting task, and I have already been exploring "trend" systems and motors to find the most suitable technology for the project. After completing many different types of projects with various tools and engines, by chance I joined Groovy Antoid, a separate team. Groovy Antoid started as a project initiated by amateur game developers with enthusiasm. They utilized to make games together just for enjoyable or game advancement competitions, and they have developed right into a professional game firm. You are one of the first users to use Cocos overseas, why did you choose us? After evaluating several other options, we found that Creator provides the nearly all mature engine/editor experience overall and made a decision to use Cocos Creator. For us, it is essential that designers and creative designers have an user interface to integrate video game art and UI design. The design of the engine is also very intuitive. If the developer has encounter with other motors, its internal architecture is simple to grasp. What type of video games are mainly utilized to build up Cocos Creator? We've been using Cocos Creator to create casual games with innovative gameplay. With the effective cross-platform abilities of the engine, these games could be simply deployed to several instant game systems (Viber, Facebook, etc.).

After using Cocos Creator, we can focus more on game development and quickly construct games for all your targets we need after the tools are in place. We have used Cocos Creator to complete all the work from arcade form drawing games to physical item stacking games; we've also used keel components for character animation, and the tweening system for complex visible effects. Generally, we have been able to utilize the mature element library that is included with Cocos Creator to complete a lot of work. Cocos Creator "general" components could be reused anywhere, that is quite convenient. I like this very much. This helps it be very simple to include localized parts, any person in the group can attach it to the label and hyperlink it to our localized string. In addition, you can also use more advanced features to increase the UI components, such as the box will expand once the label width changes. Benefiting from the JavaScript ecosystem, integrating external plugins in addition has turn into a breeze. We are able to adapt the prevailing shapes-gestures library without having to create the algorithm ourselves from scratch. This also implies that we are able to make our own scripts as standalone plug-ins and reuse them in the project. Running the game directly within the browser can also speed up the iteration speed, and help the usage of the net console to simply debug concerns to find errors and places that need optimization. Is it possible to introduce Viber to Chinese developers? Viber is an instant chat software program with an increase of than one billion registered users and is popular overseas. Viber is a pioneer in the IM industry for many years, and they adopted features such as for example stickers and voice notes much sooner than almost every other popular platforms. What is the opportunity to develop the overall game with the Viber team? We think that the real-time game industry has great potential, and the Rakuten Games and ViberPlay groups will always be very open up and supportive to designers. Viber includes a big and healthy consumer foundation, and through their SDK to help ViberPlay achieve seamless development. They also provided us with beneficial suggestions on how to best develop and deploy multiple instant game systems once the ecosystem is not yet mature and steady. We have been developing instant video games for ViberPlay video games for pretty much two years and have launched many games on the platform. This collaboration brings us the chance to reach hundreds of millions of players, supportive suggestions from the ViberPlay team, and a comfortable advancement and deployment process, especially when we use Cocos Creator for development. Furthermore, with the advantage of the system, we can immediately attract a large number of users without the marketing, and when we promote marketing, we are able to get thousands of users. Many game systems have too many games, leading to many video games never getting the required exposure. The ViberPlay and Rakuten Video games teams have ensured that the platform is well managed, and customers can simply obtain high-quality new video games and make them well-known through ranking improvements. What challenges should developers find out about when working with Viber? The ViberPlay platform is still an HTML5 game platform. Developers have to optimize their video games to get a smaller package size and shorter loading time, and to make sure that it works easily on a variety of different devices. A large number of users want constant updates and real-time services, and quick iteration is vital for instant public games. At this time, Cocos Creator has taken us a huge help. It greatly decreases the bottleneck between art and code, making it possible to iterate quickly in the advancement procedure. Everyone on the group can integrate their work without waiting for programmers. Making use of Cocos Creator to build intended for Viber is very simple. We have a one-click button to instantly export from Cocos Creator utilizing the command line, and add the mandatory SDK, and upload the final zip package to Viber for deployment. Actually, the Cocos Creator tool can be recommended by the programmers of Rakuten Games and ViberPlay. They often shared the very best internal resources and suggestions with us. Do you have anything to say concerning the future? We will continue to use Cocos Creator to build up HTML5 and cell phone games, and make great games that we are proud of! Personally, I'm very happy to see that WebAssembly and WebGPU have shown great potential in the field of browser games. As a studio, we have been constantly developing and creating our next exciting sport, so keep tuned in! The above may be the overseas information that Kotob brings us. It is great to see a lot more designers realize their desires through Cocos Creator. The Cocos engine provides the best tools and the most comprehensive platform for game programmers to release games, allowing developers to target more on the quality and growth of games, and easily achieve one-click release and full platform deployment. We will also bring you more posting from overseas programmers from time to time, and partners who wish to talk about are welcome to get hold of us on any time~

[clarencenicholsonata]

10 New Instagram Updates Business Owners Need to Use

Having an Instagram account isn’t just for fun anymore and if you’re looking to get on the radar, it’s a necessity.

These days, millions of companies make their online presence known by being on Instagram. In fact, more than 25 million companies worldwide are currently using Instagram for business.

So, why Instagram? It’s the perfect place to reach an audience. Instagram has a large user base with 1 billion active users every month. What makes it a perfect place for businesses is because it has less competition and a much more engaged audience than Twitter or Facebook.

Also, Facebook is more focused on connecting its users with their family and friends, Whereas Instagram has made itself known as a new home for brands.

So, whether you are just getting started with your business or just trying to polish your current strategies, here are 15 of Instagram’s updates every business owner needs to use.

1. Support Small Businesses

The COVID-19 breakout forced the world to go on lockdown and many brick and mortar businesses to close down temporarily. Jobs were also lost and pay cuts were made. As a result, many individuals had to figure out how to make ends meet.

Some people took their businesses with them and worked from home. Some started their own small businesses in their humble abodes. With big brands on Instagram, it can be intimidating for us to start a new business.

So, Instagram looked into it and made a new update— the “Support Small Businesses” sticker. This sticker is great for those who want to get some exposure from their followers or friends of followers.

How does it work?

According to Instagram, “users can mention businesses directly in the sticker to give their followers a preview of the account. When people use the sticker, their story will be added to a shared Instagram story, so their followers can see it along with other businesses that people they follow are supporting.”

2. Instagram Shops

If you sell products, you should definitely be using the Instagram shopping feature. It makes the whole buying process for your customers way easier.

Since 2017, Instagram has made brands using the platform to transform their profiles and into storefronts. They’ve also perfected the shopping experience into seamless transactions.

Instead of directing your customers from your Instagram to your site, Instagram shopping allows customers to choose and buy products from the app.

However, there are a few requirements you need to meet before being able to enable Instagram Shopping. First of all, you need to make sure that you’re based in a country where the feature is available, make sure you have a business profile, and connect your Instagram profile to a Facebook page.

Second, create your product catalog on Facebook. When you have added your products to your catalog, you can tag them in your posts and Stories. Third, once you have all of those set up, you can submit your account for review.

Once your account has been approved, you’ll see a new option called “Shopping”. You can start using this by uploading a picture and then tapping the items you want to tag. The maximum number of products for each post is 5.

3. Live Videos on IGTV

Did you know that you can share your live videos to IGTV once you’re finished with recording? Before, Live broadcasts could be uploaded to your Stories but would disappear after 24 hours.

Now, you can download your live video into your phone and republish it anywhere else. Although this might seem like a small update, it’s super useful for any profiles who are looking to make fast and fun content.

People don’t have to miss out on your live videos and you can drive more traffic to your profile! It’s also a great opportunity to collaborate with other brands or influencers.

Ready to start your social media marketing campaigns?

Book a free call to learn how our team of marketing experts can help you to create high converting social marketing campaigns today.

4. Instagram Story Filters

Story filters on Instagram have been expanded and anyone can create their own filter. This is a great way for profiles to gain exposure as well. Depending on how much people like your filter, you can gain virality by creating a filter anyone can use.

Some profiles have gained traction from their filters alone. A good example is @johwska who is an artist. She made different filters and many people started using it. She has gained a lot of followers from the exposure alone.

Some brands create filters to showcase their products. For example, Kylie Jenner Cosmetics created a filter that allows users to try on different shades of her lip kits However, users can only use the Kylie Cosmetics filter if they follow the profile.

So, if you’re looking to boost your follower count and increase engagement, maybe it’s time to create your own viral filter.

5. The Algorithm

Ever since Instagram changed its algorithm from the chronological order to show what they think you want to see the most to appear in your feed, every business started to change its strategy.

No matter how many times you post, it won’t help you increase your engagement. So what do you do? The only solution is to churn out content that people like! Easier said than done but the second thing is definitely something anyone can do.

Engage with your followers.

Reply to their comments, respond to questions, answer your direct messages! If you keep it up, you’ll definitely see a boost in your engagement rate and traffic.

6. Following Categories

This update is quite recent but it’s super useful to see who you’re interacting with the most and who you’re interacting with the least. When you go to your “Following” section, you’ll see two categories.

You can utilize this by interacting with the accounts you're following more and figuring out how you can improve your engagement rate based on the least interacted category. Or if you’re trying to narrow down your “Following” list, you can reduce it based on the least interacted category.

7. Creative Freedom on Stories

Instagram updated its Story features with lots of cool tools and stickers, allowing its users to get more creative with their stories. Now, you can use different fonts on your pictures and draw arrows with ease thanks to a new tool in the app.

Another cool feature is the “Create” option. If you’re making an announcement or creating a lengthy text post, this allows you to type on a blank background. You can also use this to do polls, ask your followers questions, answer their questions, and even use pre-made templates to show what shows or music you’re currently interested in.

Stories are a great way to engage your audience and showcase your values and interests so your audience can know more about you and you can know more about them.

8. Hashtag Insights

When you enter your hashtag, you can now see the volume or number of posts using them. These insights are useful for your business if you know how to use them. Similar to keyword research, choose the right volume and hashtags.

For example, you want to post a photo of your latest launch, if you enter hashtags related to your product, you should choose a volume that suits you. The more people are posting with the hashtag, the more likely your post is going to be unseen.

What you can do is use hashtags that are in your niche but with a noticeable volume to ensure that it won’t get lost in the rest of the posts. So, it’s crucial that your content is eye-catching enough and that you use your insights wisely.

9. Shorter Bio

Bios on Instagram are now shortened. So for profiles with long bios, it will be cut off with a “Read More” button. This is important for businesses since a bio is the first thing a user sees when they visit a profile.

To adapt to this change, Limit your word count and include important details. Think of making a good first impression for users who visit your profile. Brands usually use this space to announce information or even use it as a place to showcase their motto.

10. Direct Message Filter

As your Instagram account begins to grow, you’ll notice an influx of direct messages in your inbox. To get organized, you can use a filter to sort out which messages are unread, flagged, or read.

Once you have your filter set, your inbox will only show unread messages. You can also flag messages that you need to get back to. This will highlight the message and remind you to get back to it when you can.

Instagram also has the “Quick Replies” option so you don’t have to type out the same reply to every message that asks the same question. You simply need to type out the shortcut so a reply will be generated. Although it’s similar to auto text and you still need to open the messages individually, it’s better than typing the same reply hundreds of times.

Final Thoughts

Instagram is always updating their app with new features and tools. We hope these new updates caught your attention and that you can put them to use as soon as you finish reading this post. Instagram is constantly updating its platform with new features and tools. So, it’s crucial for every business owner to know what changes were made and the latest updates.

About the Author

Andre Oentoro is one of the co-founders of Milkwhale, an internationally acknowledged infographic production agency. He helps businesses increase visibility on the internet with visual data and well-placed outreach campaigns.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8230801 https://ift.tt/2WKj4q2 via IFTTT

[charlieharry1]

Dispelling the myths of search engine optimization (what you actually need to agree with)

In relation to search engine advertising and marketing, there’s a load of records available (even for us). Growing an seo method has in no way been more essential, however you need to navigate the good from the horrific. Search engine advertising offerings have changed plenty through the years. In reality, that’s a real understatement. There are, regularly, more than one updates a year from google and, as a end result, you need to retain adapting your search engine optimization method. Search  Digital Marketing Company in Newcastle engine optimization myths come hand in hand with these updates, such a lot of marketers are unsure as to what is previous, crucial and what is going to paintings. So, we’ve pulled together the maximum not unusual myths to debunk them and set you at the proper direction. Search engine optimization is a scam

Read Also:-  Pros and Cons of “Kajabi” Content Management Tool

excuse me? Seek engine advertising is, most simply, now not a rip-off. With the right digital advertising and marketing method, you can see vast boom in visitors, purchaser retention and sales. The under graph is a screenshot of the development possible in just one year whilst investing in an seo method. It isn't inconceivable to double your visitors in only 365 days – in particular in case you target the proper seek phrases and bring applicable and in-intensity weblog posts, maintaining your internet site often updated. Unfortunately, many agencies were approached by means of agencies promising search engine advertising offerings, however supply not anything. If you’ve paid £a hundred for one month’s paintings, and the organization promises to place you on the pinnacle of google, then that may be a rip-off. Top seo content material marketing and virtual strategies take time and studies. It’s not a one length fits all industry, however one that takes extreme patience and commitment. If you have that, a very good search engine optimization approach can prove extra rewards than greater traffic. We did it once

you may have executed it as soon as – two years in the past – however your digital advertising and marketing approach requires constant attempt. Google likes to throw an update into the pot each couple of months, and the evolving search engine algorithms could spell horrific information for a brand now not up to date with search engine optimization. Once accomplished and left seo strategies fall way underneath the mark, and could negatively have an effect on your enterprise. If you don’t always improve your search engine advertising approach, you are liable to:

 link rot (terrible backlinks and pages that now not move everywhere)

your competition entering into better positions in the search engines like google

outdated and not valuable content

 the above graph is one such example of a retailer’s site visitors present process a steady decline due to the shortage of a regular advertising method. The general customers have dropped from 10,444 to a outstanding 5,959. Key-word stuffing gets me to the top of google

it gained’t. Google is rapid turning into greater adept at analyzing natural language, and also you need to roll with the times. Stuffing key phrases into your text and turning it into a barely readable format is a large no-no. You wouldn’t visit dinner together with your friend and shout ‘restaurants newcastle’ every  minutes, so don’t do it to your blog. Likewise, google will see thru the ones people still hiding their phrases at the back of a white font…

 write as though you will speak to a human. Of route, use keywords however permit the item waft – you’ll then start to pick up long-tail keywords clearly, hence improving your site visitors. Plus, it’s possibly your bounce price will go through the roof in case your readers don’t understand what you are saying due to the sheer volume of keyword stuffing. The results are instantaneous

as an seo content material advertising and marketing and virtual enterprise, trust us while we are saying this would be a dream. Unfortunately, it’s no longer, and a very good search engine optimization strategy takes time and staying power. At glide, we love to spend the first month updating and making sure your technical seo is on point, before transferring onto the juicier obligations in month two and three. Month three is when you’ll begin to see the variations, and upgrades, in visitors and the adjustments applied. Likewise, if you have been looking at inbound links and virtual pr, it’s probably you’ll see the updates to your domain authority inside the ones  to 3 months. It’s now not immediately and there can also also be times you don’t see as plenty trade as you was hoping, but you'll reach that quit goal. As you could see from the above graph, the website started out with very few site visitors in april – from 320 to 3586 in 12 months. It takes time for the search engine optimization changes to take have an effect on, however it's going to pay off ultimately; that we are able to promise. Hyperlink building is lifeless

who began this hearsay? Hyperlink constructing isn't useless, but a treasured device to get your business in the front of the proper humans, at the proper time. We will understand why people may be wondering link building offerings – particularly as google’s john mueller stated he wouldn’t location to a whole lot recognition at the seo technique. But, this comment changed into misinterpreted and plenty of took this to mean google will penalise you for obtaining inbound links. They received’t. Not anything has modified inside the way google makes use of hyperlink authority of their search rating algorithms. White-hat hyperlink constructing has in no way been greater famous. John became, probable, regarding the extra black-hat techniques – purchasing 1,000 links for simplest £10 kind of component. This kind of non-applicable link constructing need to be avoided at all charges, and will see your website drop down in the search engines. But, constructing herbal hyperlinks is one of the greater a success sem offerings and will see your site visitors and area authority grow. Hyperlinks we have built 2018

P. C phrases will assist you rank organically

at the same time as there may be no denying that bidding on unique terms you want to rank for, optimising the page and enhancing your great rating will have an elevated impact on search engine optimization typical. But, bidding on those terms and doing genuinely not anything of value on your internet site, and customers, is awful. Very terrible, in fact. You’ll no longer see any signs and symptoms of improvement organically, and it’s probable your competitors will start to rank above – mainly in the event that they look at website optimisation and the like. You could manipulate google

no you may’t. A few days, it'd feel like google hates your internet site and seo in standard, but there’s no getting across the seek engine. Google states that seek engine advertising and marketing can ‘probably improve your site and save time’, and it’s quality to get in early with an search engine optimization corporation. However, attempt to control google and you’ll be sorry. You realize the form of digital advertising; tricking your clients into believing false reputation and relevance. You may nearly clearly be penalised in case you appoint black-hat techniques. Linking out loses site visitors

in case your content is useful, realistic, in-intensity and applicable on your audience, they will constantly come back – even in case you do link out to different web sites. Glaringly, linking out will send your traffic away, however that doesn’t mean your web site will no longer be successful. Far from it. Many excellent and popular web sites are so famous because of their linking to treasured assets. Don’t be afraid to percentage a link, as you may even get a reciprocal link in the close to destiny. Quantity is better than best

arrggggghhhh. It is not. There are websites, nowadays, that only have some pages on their products and services. However, they rank a lot higher in the search engines than those with hundreds of pages, and it’s due to the fine. Create pages and weblog posts in the event that they upload cost in your website and purchasers, however don’t just do it for the sake of ranking. At the same time as google does favour clean content material – and you have to ensure your blog is often up to date – posting normal on the same challenge will start to dilute preceding content, and also you’ll probable observe a drop in site visitors. Don’t worry about cell

there’s no getting round this factor – cell is vital. Google has been active at rolling out cell-first indexing, however what is it? Basically, cell-first indexing method the cellular model of your web site is google’s beginning vicinity to index. In case you do not have a mobile-pleasant site, the computer version will nonetheless be covered in the index. You’ll need to make certain that page velocity and cargo time are prioritised and, if feasible, improved. Take into account that your target audience are likely on their phone extra than ever before, and possibly even their number one approach for getting access to your web site. The number of mobile customers is persevering with to develop, heading for an predicted 5 billion in 2019 – those are numbers you can not ignore. Cellular optimised vs cellular responsive

i most effective want https on checkout pages

over 4 years in the past, google said it might shine a light on those websites with unencrypted connections. Google chrome is following thru with this promise, and calling out those web sites that aren't comfortable. You must have https implemented throughout all pages, not simplest to reassure those touchdown on your homepage, however it is the future of the web. Likewise, it protects the privacy and safety of your customers, subconsciously building accept as true with among your emblem and customers. In the long run, there are lots of seo myths on the internet nowadays. If you’re now not updated along with your virtual advertising and marketing approach, we propose studying up on the to be had resources – there’s plenty of data out there. However, if you would like to speak about our seek engine advertising and marketing services – you could get in contact with our crew via the contact shape below. Dan

dan

dan is a self-taught developer who has created hundreds of websites over the past 9 years. Right here at flow, he builds  Digital Marketing Agencies Newcastle websites to client specifications and facilitates hold present patron structures using his know-how of hypertext preprocessor, html, javascript and css. Whether or not the problem is huge or small, dan will find a approach to get a assignment returned on track.

Follow US:-  Facebook,  Twitter,  LinkedIn , YouTube

[iwgenerator]

6 Power Tips To Make Your Blog Posts Stand Out In 2020

How can you make your article or blog post stand out in 2020? How can you drive a large number of visitors to your blog without spending a lot of money?

These are questions I’ve asked myself – a lot - when I started blogging. I also keep hearing similar questions from my readers and friends. I thought that this would be a good topic to look at in 2020.

So how can you do it? We will come to that in a minute.

But let me first start with a little story.

A friend of mine writes amazing blog posts. In fact, she has been doing this week after week, year after year with great results. You know, the kind of blog post that makes you go "Wow, how does she do it?” followed by "Why can't I create content like that?" Her readers obviously love whatever content she puts out.

Although I had got into blogging roughly around the same time as she, I was in a completely different boat, and it seemed like I was rowing in a different direction – upstream, most the time.

The reason I started blogging was because I loved to share my knowledge with others. I (naively) assumed that if I just focused on delivering great value through my posts, I could become the next Neil Patel. But boy! Was I in for a learning experience!

I started putting out post after post expecting a flood of visitors to my blog. When I ran out of topics (there is only so much you can write about micro - niche topics), I turned to other ‘popular’ content creation methods. From curating content from various sources, to using spun content to outsourcing, I tried them all.

But I was struggling a lot with creating content that could grab (and hold) my readers’ attention. My articles and posts were academic and boring, to say the least. The only statistic that seemed to go up in my Google analytics account was the bounce rate.

My pageview stats and the (few) reader comments that occasionally trickled in, told me that something was terribly wrong. It was one of the most frustrating periods in my blogging life.

As I sat there wondering how I got into such a mess and more importantly, how to get out of the mess, something struck me like a ton of bricks. How did some of the other bloggers, become so popular - and make money, seemingly at will - using their blogs, while I struggled day after day with zero results? Clearly, hard work was not the answer.

If you are looking for a way to cut the struggle and start building an affiliate income quickly, you’ve got to read this blog post.

Remember the friend I told you about earlier? I decided to study her blog. I started following (and analyzing) every single one of her posts. I became obsessed with decoding the secrets of what made her blog posts so amazing.

What I discovered amazed me. You could say it turned my whole idea about blogging on its head. And, it changed my whole life.

What I discovered was that anyone can write great blog posts. All you need to do is to keep a few points in mind while writing your posts.

What I am going to share with you now, may not save your life. But it definitely can save your blog. But I’ve got to warn you first. Some of what you read here may seem too simple for you. Don’t let that simplicity fool you.

I guarantee you that if you master these key points AND take action, your blog will be transformed.

So, if you are ready to start crafting awesome blog posts that captivate your readers, read on. You can thank me later 😊

1. Talk directly to your reader

Even if you are a Jedi AND the last blogger standing rolled into one, when it comes to your blog topic, change your tone Professor.

Remember you are writing a post that can be read and understood by human beings not machines. And human beings are social creatures. So, until artificial intelligence takes over the world completely (scary thought, that!), talk to your readers as you would talk to a friend. It will not only keep them engaged, but it will also help you develop great relationships with your readers as well. And long-term business is all about building strong relationships.

So, how do you start? Simple! Write your posts using a conversational style. Start using words like "you" and "I". Tell a story about yourself – your struggles, your hopes, your successes – anything that is relevant to the article. Try to write like you're having a conversation with the reader. Urge them to take action so that they are able to change their current situation. In short, treat your readers like your friends and they will feel a connection with you.

Once this happens, your readers are more likely to engage with you and the popularity of your blog will skyrocket.

Here is the complete structure of an amazing blog post.

2. Write a killer headline

According to a study by Microsoft, the average human being now has an attention span of around eight seconds. In the year 2000, it was around 12 seconds.

Think about it for a second. If you don’t engage your reader in the first few seconds of their visiting your blog, you could probably lose them – maybe forever. The snazziest exit pop-ups in the world won’t be able to help your blog, if your content doesn’t have a catchy headline.

Write killer headlines

So how can you learn to create a killer headline without having a degree in copywriting.

Start practicing. If you need help, check out this free online headline analyzer tool.  

As per a study, 8 out of 10 people will read your headline. However, only 2 out of 10 will click through and read the rest. That means, if your headline sucks, people will ignore your content. So, even if your content is amazing, no one's going to know about it.

The best way to master this is by looking at what’s working. Check out popular pins pertaining to your niche on Pinterest. You can find some great ideas there. Another great trick is to go to Buzzsumo, type in your keyword and check out the popular results.

3. Provide 10x value – Give tips that are actionable

When you create a post, your primary goal should be to provide as much value as you can. Stop worrying too much about things like SEO, word count etc. Focus on how to help your reader and you won’t go wrong.

Provide an action plan

Try to provide an action plan – preferably like a step-by-step guide. So, if your post is about driving a huge amount of traffic using Pinterest, teach them how to do it easily – in a language that anybody can understand- and take action. Give all steps that will help your readers get the results you promised in the headline.

In short, don’t leave them wondering what to do after reading your post. Something that I often do is to provide a downloadable checklist that will help them take specific actions to achieve their results.

If your readers know that you provide more value than any other blogger, people will start flocking to your blog.

4. Always provide current up-to-date information

Many new bloggers make the mistake of taking some old content from the web and then using a spinner software to rewrite it and post it as their content. If your content is not relevant, people will stop reading your blog.

Always make it a point to post only current, relevant content on your blogs. While there are some topics that are evergreen, the content within the topics may have undergone a lot of change. Take SEO for example. Google has been constantly changing its search algorithms. That means a lot of SEO practices that were relevant 5 years ago are worthless today. Don’t give people wrong, outdated advice or they will start abandoning your blog.

Remember, there are lots of places people can get information from, on the internet. If you don’t provide the correct information, readers will get it from some other website. So, stay relevant and up to date.

5. Use Images and Videos in your blog posts

Today, with the widespread usage of smart phones and other visual media devices, communication happens a lot more visually - through images and videos. Learning techniques used nowadays too are becoming increasingly visual. Blog posts that are filled with lines and lines of pure text are likely to get limited attention from readers.

As a smart blogger, you need to recognize this trend and leverage the power of different media formats and use them appropriately.

You can communicate your ideas more effectively by using images and videos in your blog posts. To make your blog posts more interesting, you can also add audio clips or links to your podcasts. Using multimedia formats can also make your posts look more authentic and authoritative. I use Canva to create images for my blog posts.

6. Acknowledge Your Sources

While, this may not be directly linked the quality of your blog post, it is better not to try to come across as a know-it-all and cite the sources from where you received the information. It’s okay not to know everything. All of us are here to learn more.

Give credit to the people who have already done research on the topic you are writing about. It does 4 things:

It makes you look human and adds trust. You don’t come across as some ‘fake guru’.

It can add more value to your content. In the process of reading up on your source, you might end up learning a lot more about your topic.

Builds your reputation. It shows people that you have done your research and have tried to provide them with as much information as possible.

It also helps build relationships. It can give you an opening for you to get in touch with the source at a later stage. Who know, you might even end up collaborating with each other.

There you have it - 6 solid tips to make your blog post stand out in 2020. Implement these and you will start seeing your blog traffic skyrocket in a very short time. Once your blog traffic picks up, you can start monetizing your blog. The best way to make money from your blog is by joining these top affiliate programs. Each one of these have been hand-picked to help you earn a huge passive income from your blog.

To get more information on how to become a successful affiliate marketer, read this blog post.

https://sajithtm.com/2019/12/07/6-power-tips-to-make-your-blog-posts-stand-out-in-2020/

[experimentsinsimultaneoustime]

[the essay] A rose is not a rose is not a rose is not a rose is a rose

Online, everything (every thought, action, object) is abstracted into language in order for it to exist.

The gap between a rose online and a rose IRL is big. At a basic level, the online rose is no longer in a garden, cared for, watered, subjected to the wind and the sun, rooted, dying. It no longer represents the blight of colonised land under the guise of exquisite beauty. This online rose, which we still call a rose, exists differently. This rose is floating in an absurdist multidimension. There is no residual association of smell or touch. Its context endlessly warps, its meaning endlessly shifts as people scroll past it. It multiplies to become stitched between photos of dogs, drunken nights out, holiday snaps, promotional selfies, sports highlights, amateur food photography, photos of art, individualised political outcries, inspirational encouragements, life achievements, a beer can in a gutter. Its value becomes contingent upon a heat map of relational engagement: views, likes, comments, shares. But even though the online rose loses heat – is quickly forgotten – it doesn’t die. It doesn’t decompose and get turned into some other energy-matter. It simply becomes lost, or archived, in an algorithmic soup of infinity, floating in the liminal space between existence and non-existence.

 In this way, the IRL rose and the online rose have become completely different things. The meaning of the word ‘rose’ has been stretched to encompass a whole new set of relations, contingent on the inherent political structure of a global network (the internet) where information (language) defines currency (value). Eventually, the online rose has nothing to do with the original meaning of the word rose. In fact, the constant shapeshifting of the online rose’s relational environment means its own meaning is constantly deferred, until it doesn’t even have anything to do with itself anymore. It just refers to other things, which in turn just refer to other things, until we are nowhere.

 And because the internet is an ideological triumph of planetary capitalism, the meaning of everything online is at the mercy of (mostly) straight, white, male coders. They are the invisible power brokers of the abstraction of language into flows of information, where value is perpetually postponed in order to keep you wanting, and beauty is a mirage you hope you can click yourself towards. The rose is now unattainable.

 On 3 July, 2016 @britneyspears regrammed a photo of a white-pink rose from @drewbarrymore’s Instagram. Britney’s post, uncaptioned, received 74,921 likes and 539 comments. Perfect. Perfection. Britney… That was amazing. Thank you so much. Wooww. Lovee. Love it. I hate flowers. Wonderful! I love you. Omg. Any news on the new single? Pretty rose. That’s gorgeous. Wow. Lmao but wow. Pretty just like you Britney. Remember when u shaved your head? A beautiful rose for a beautiful woman.

 @drewbarrymore’s original photo of the rose, posted over a year earlier on 2 May 2015, was captioned #tgif and garnered 49,462 likes and 265 comments. Pretty flower!! Beautiful! :) That’s pretty. Ty for the very nice photos. Have a blessed weekend. O M G. I love flowers, thxs for sharing @drewbarrymore. Stay happy, healthy and blessed. Looks like it smells soooo good. Beautiful! Lovely. Love. Amazing!! So purty. I love you. I love u. Wow how beautiful that rose is!

 The rose has become a stand-in, a proxy, a conduit for understanding a series of personal histories, relational maps, unexpressed emotional states and ultimately, obsessive longing. This photograph has left its garden original to die in the dirt. It has travelled globally, transmuting to represent Drew Barrymore’s position in the market as a real person who “gets it”, as well as a symbol to express thanks to God that the working week has ended, as well as setting a relational connection between Drew Barrymore and Britney Spears, where siloed fanworlds have momentarily crossed wires as Britney’s identity transcends crazed LA celebrity to arrive at wholesome mother via the image of the rose.

 This essay itself is not about roses. It’s about the deferral of meaning, it’s about the alienating experience of objects being out of place. How can we bypass the capitalist architecture of the endless scroll, the trauma of language distancing meaning from lived experience?

 The reason deferral happens is not so much because language is inherently abstract, as because we’re experiencing this process through a dominant paradigm that prescribes lived experience as a linear timescale. How can we sit in a simultaneous multiplicity of meanings that produce value in the present moment? How can we arrange ourselves for eternal gratification?

 It’s not ordinarily possible to know about, or have the capacity to feel things, that have happened or are going to happen, outside of the present moment in which they are actually happening.

 But there are fissures in this world, that allow us to bypass the laws of our own brains, to hack logic and enter into feeling, or rather, to turn feeling into logic so that they are the same.

 Memory, belief, imagination, acid, ghosts, dreams, dancing, de ja vou and sex are just some states that invoke simultaneous time.

 I could feel us fucking for days before it happened, and for days after. The actual lived moment of physical impact was so intense, as if it were all of the echoes of before and after combined, I cried and hid my tears. Even though now, I’m walking down the street, I’m eating ramen, I’m sitting at my computer, I’m talking to a friend, it still feels like part of me is fucking you / being fucked by you. In a queer mind all love is happening simultaneously.

 Simultaneous time makes the rose attainable again, without denying its mutability. It validates the way we love each other beyond the impossibility of our present set of circumstances, and how that experience is not deferred but embodied. Simultaneous time doesn’t erase the past and the future, or the potential and unlived versions of it, but rather suggests that everything is in a constant state of happening. You can tap in and feel / know any part of it at any time. It can be intensely happy and it can be intensely sad and it can be both / all at once.

 I’m in a state of exhaustion but I can’t sleep. In my pre-dream mind, I’m kissing you outside that Italian restaurant where we both ordered lasagnes and watermelon granitas at the bar before I gave you a deck of tarot cards that I ordered online, even though I don’t believe in tarot cards, which I wrapped so neatly in paper from my notebook, and watched you unwrap so carefully, and felt kind of self-conscious as you unwrapped it, because I didn’t know how you felt about anything, because you hadn’t told me, though I would find out later via text message that your ex-boyfriend wants you back. In my pre-dream mind, I’m imagining the kiss that I pre-meditated and then didn’t act on when you actually arrived. I feel both the absence and presence of that kiss as I run my phone battery flat listening to rain sounds on YouTube, eyes closed, simulating the conditions for sleep.

 It’s impossible to describe this relationship because it exists almost entirely in a state of deferral, of ambiguous instant messages and deep longing and overlapping timescales we can’t extricate ourselves from to just be together, even though we share an intense reality of the possibility. And because it’s impossible to describe, it’s impossible to locate, and so it tends to exist wherever it can, in moments where it shouldn’t. Simultaneous time recognises that love is non-linear.

 I can feel your hips trembling around me that night my flight was cancelled, and it makes my heart cramp with hurt.

 If Britney Spears is the ultimate embodiment of the split between object and meaning in a linear capitalist framework of pleasure deferral, simultaneous time returns her to herself, and to her fans. It validates her incoherence, and it validates the fanatics’ fantasy as an embodied reality that manifests as feeling and identity.

 We’re back out on the street after the sweat catharsis of a 25-and-a-half-hour rave that we experienced for four hours, not touching. You’re wearing a pink bucket hat and the air is cold and you’re tired and we talk seriously about Big Life Decisions and whether he should be the one to love you. It’s really bad timing, you apologise.

 At the tram stop, back in singular time, where I have to wait for 9 linear, non-cosmic minutes, a seagull eats the crumbs of my chilli flavoured chips and I wonder if that’s bad.

[skanda-shastry]

Unlocking the Trillion Dollar Opportunity!!

In 1998, Kodak sold 85% of photo film worldwide.Next few years Digital Camara slowly overlap the photo film.

In 2003, Iconic 1100 phone sold more than 500 million units by Nokia in an year. Which is highest selling phone till now.

In 2010, Blockbuster  one of the most recognizable brand in the video rental space having around 9,000 stores & more than 60,000 employees. The company filed for bankruptcy protection.

In 2015, All the telecom operator in world together send 20B messages, which is less than 30B message send by the WhatsApp in a day.

All the above well-known & monopoly companies are bankrupt & certainly there business model disappears!!

“People think the CEO/directors of those companies must have been dumb not to see what was happening, but they were not dumb, they were very, very talented people, but they still missed the transition and made assumptions that were shown to be pretty poor in hindsight, but seemed fine at the time”. This highlights the importance of having someone in the organisation asking, constantly, what are our competitors doing to disrupt our business and our business model.

We stand on the brink of a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work, and relate to one another. In its scale, scope, and complexity, this transformation will be unlike anything humankind has experienced before.This exponential growth transformed our life tremendously, in just a few years.

So what does disruption mean in this context?

Change that occurs when new digital technology & business model affect the value proposition of an existing goods & service, doing business, social interaction & more generally  “WAY OF THINKING”.

Welcome to the ‘Exponential age of the Digital ERA’

These are the some area where Disruption is/was/will happened rapidly. & we saw the visible change in our daily life due to the disruption.

Print/Media/Entertainment

The role of traditional media has changed dramatically in the age of the internet-driven, 24-hour news cycle and the proliferation of social media. Technology will change the way of consuming the news. Newspaper no longer been an Ads or promotional channel. New generation consume news via Inshort,Dailyhunt,Buzzfeed,scoopwhoop,Reddit,Flipboard,Twitter,Facebook. & It’s generate more traffic than traditional newspaper,magazine,tv combine together. Its revenue & subscriber drastically reduced.Business model is slowly disappear.

Even world’s largest book publishers like Penguin,Pearson,McGraw-Hill face the heat of ebooks,iReader,kindle,online reader,audiobook,podcast,digital library.

Likewise, Largest music companies like Sony,HMV,T-series, & other bricks and mortar business are fight for the survival. With a plethora of services such as Pandora, Spotify, soundcloud, Hulu,and Scribd, subscription-based entertainment is becoming more and more ubiquitous across different types of media.

another example of digital disruption is the way Netflix is eating into the profits of CBS. Until few years ago, people could watch shows,movie etc only on television sets, home rental services. These shows etc were broadcasted to their TV sets by CBS, NBC, or Blockbuster.With the entry of Netflix and Youtubes the mode of delivery of videos has changed.

Technology giants like Facebook,Google,Netflix,Amazon make a major damage to their business model Bottom 👊🏼👊🏼 ✔️ $16.4Billion vs $17.9 Billion in past year its an revenue of all the news paper together in US vs FACEBOOK.

✔️ In 2011, Netflix suppressed the 20 million subscribers in the USA & Canada, making it the world’s leading subscription service for movies & TV show.

Transportation

The simplest & most famous example I can think of right now is the disruption created by cab companies like Uber/ Ola to private fleets of yellow taxis. The regular taxis relied on hand signals while plying empty on roads — or simply waiting at a taxi stand for a passenger to turn up. With Uber/Ola coming up with an easy to use mobile app to book cabs, there has been a huge digital disruption to regular taxis.

Automatic Car (Driverless car/ SelfDriving Car ) By the year end google & Uber come up with the self driving car. which is Code red for many drivers & other automakers. Most car companies might become bankrupt. Traditional car companies try the evolutionary approach and just build a better car, while tech companies will do the revolutionary approach & looking to reinvent the wheel.

Tesla go further in this research on most energy efficient electric cars & also huge invest in the mass transportation using Magnetic-Levitation system like Hyperloop.

Along with this new Ideas empowered with technology, it will disrupt the whole mode of transportation.

E-commerce & retail

As technology continues to advance, we see a shift in consumer expectations, which, in turn, leads to retailers rethinking their in-store strategies.Amazon already opened a supermarket without cash registers. You walk in, you take what you need and you walk out. Sensors and cameras automatically measure what you take and put everything on your credit card. In addition, Mobile, cloud, analytics,VR,Digital money and social media will be fully integrated into a unified merchandising system designed to vastly improve customer engagement.

Retail Industries are moving from small Kirana shops -> brick & mortar model -> departmental store -> hypermarkets(Metro,Walmart) -> Ecommerce shop (Virtual Shop,Drone delivery)

Bottom 👊🏼👊🏼

✔️ In america, Amazon takes market value $355.9B vs $297.8 market cap of all the retailers together which include Walmart, Target, Best Buy & others. 

✔️ India’s E-commerce Revenue is expected to jump from $30 billion in 2016 to $100 billion in 2020.

Financial Services

The financial sector in India is currently experiencing a golden age, and its biggest driver is the effort to move toward a less-cash economy.In India, JAM (Jan Dhan, Aadhaar, Mobile)Enroute to the digital payments gaining the proportions of a mass movement. Majaorly due to the technology Innovation, New Business Model,Demographics,customer experience,mobile, it will disrupt the many vertical of Banking,Insurance,stock broking,payment,wealth management & many more financial services. Established technology firms are developing new products that enable the creation of new business models with enormous existing customer bases.

Trends in the financial sector

✔️Electronic trading now makes up almost 70% of all volume on the New York Stock Exchange and half of that is algorithmic trading. ✔️Electronic clearing of cheque (ECS) like IMPS,NEFT,RTGS,International Remittance make an ease of customer experience and also disrupt the traditional money transfers like checks and money orders. ✔️Starting of new payment bank (Airtel,Birla),small banks & mobile wallet(Paytm,Mobikwik),UPI (BHIM,PhonePe) help to reach the financial services to large audience. ✔️Intraducation of plastic money (Debit,Credit cards) Digital currency (Bitcoin, blockchain) promote the cashless economy. ✔️️Unbinding banking service from financial technology provide seamless experience in online/mobile banking, P2P Payments (Paypal,RuPay),Bill Payments.(Instamojo,billDesk,CCAvenue). ✔️Along with this lot of Fintech companies resolve problem in the different financial vertical like taxes (cleartax),Lending (Lendingkart),Personal Finance(FundsIndia) & many more. reach the common man in the societ

Telecom/Technology

Digitization is profoundly changing the competitive boundaries of the telecom industry. Core voice and messaging businesses have continued to shrink, in part because of regulatory pressures, but also because social media has opened new communications channels beyond traditional voice service.

After Graham bell discover Phone, next 100 years its never change its design.& AT & T realise its importance when mobile phone hit the market. same is in Set Top Box also.

Timeline Postcard →Telegram →Telephone →Radio →OpticalFiber →Internet→Email →Pager →Smartphone →MMS →VoIP

Day where we were charged us for messages to the Free internet, We are come up with the long way of voice to data migration.& also we move from telecom operators (AT &T/Verizon) to technology giants like (Google/Facebook) for communication. In Upcoming days technologies like 5G,MuLTEfire,IoT will completely vanishes the existing communication ways.

We’re at a critical time where Technology has eaten the world. Traditional industries such as automotive, fossil fuels, medical, insurance and real estate will be massively disrupted. IBMs Watson,Google deepmind computer is a perfect illustration of this computing power and it is set to disrupt traditional industries. ✔️Because of Watson, you can get legal advice within seconds and with 90% accuracy compared with 70% accuracy when done by humans. ✔️Adidas setup an 2 robotic shoe manufacturing plant in Germany.which is completely automated. ✔️Tesla is built an Gigafactory in Nevada which has complete automatic production line. ✔️️AI slowly eaten our workforce BPO services replace with bots ✔️Moving from31/2 Floppy to the Virtual Storage system Cloud Computing & big data will alter the definition of the Storage.

In less than 10 years, 📱 replaced:

📟 ☎️ 📠 💽 💾 💻 ⏰ 📷 📹 🎥 📺 📻 📰 💿 💳 💼 📎 📄 ⏳ 🔦 📼 📚 ⌚️ 🎮 📓 ✏️ 📁 🎤 📇 📆 🎰 💵 📬 📝 🆘 🏧 🎫 ✉️ 📤 ✒️ 📊 📋 🔎 🔑 📣 🎼 🎬 📀

Finally:

“In the new world, Its not the BigFish which eats the small fish, Its the fast fish which eat the slow fish”

All the above example, there is one thing is common that Business model move from traditional pipeline model to the Platform model. irrespective of the domain.

Platform business models!! Enable plug-and-play infrastructure into which producers and consumers can directly plug in, and they then govern the market interactions that ensue on top of the infrastructure.

We see pipes everywhere. Every consumer good that we use essentially comes to us via a pipe. All of manufacturing runs on a pipe model. Television and Radio are pipes spewing out content at us. Our education system is a pipe where teachers push out their ‘knowledge’ to children. Had the internet not come up, we would never have seen the emergence of platform business models. Unlike pipes, platforms do not just create and push stuff out. They allow users to create and consume value. At the technology layer, external developers can extend platform functionality using APIs. At the business layer, users (producers) can create value on the platform for other users (consumers) to consume. This is a massive shift from any form of business we have ever known in our industrial hangover.

Even before Internet there Platforms have existed for years. Malls link consumers and merchants; newspapers connect subscribers and advertisers. What’s changed in this century is that information technology has profoundly reduced the need to own physical infrastructure and assets. & increase the Network/marketplace/Communities,technology infrastructure,User/ProducerData. this will create great value to the product.

Platform business models gives lot of flexible in User acquisition,Product Design,Monetization.

Very few areas like Education & Healthcare still we difficult to break the pipe model.

How to survive??

1) Keep innovating, inventing

2) Survival for the fittest

3) keep update with technology

4) Winner take all, there is no second place

5) Mobile phone is entry point for the most of the things

What do Google’s crawlers, Uber’s drivers, and Instagram’s selfie-clickers have in common? In a world of platforms, they create the fuel needed to facilitate economic and social exchanges that power business and society.

                                   “Let the game begin”

Reference

https://thecoverage.my/lifestyle/will-amazed-guy-speaks-changing-times-technology-society/

http://platformthinkinglabs.com/

http://www.ibmforentrepreneurs.com

https://richtopia.com/emerging-technologies/11-disruptive-technology-examples

https://www.slideshare.net/ProductNation/indian-banking-in-a-time-for-change-nandan-nilekani-64679460

http://www.economist.com/node/21542796

https://thinkgrowth.org/silicon-valley-is-right-our-jobs-are-already-disappearing-c1634350b3d8

https://www2.deloitte.com/in/en/pages/technology-media-and-telecommunications/articles/digital-india-unlock-trillion-dollar-opportunity.html

[essentialise]

Top 9 Tips for Your Success in 2020: A New Decade

Top 9 Tips for Your Success in 2020: A New Decade

These are my top 10 tips to ensure your success in 2020 and beyond!

  We have hit the year 2020, the start of a new decade. So far, it has been eventful and challenging in equal measures. Think about how far you have come since the beginning of 2010. And think about where you could be by 2030 if you implement just one of these value tips into your life from today.

1) Prioritise Your Sleep

Sleep is the fundamental driver of your performance, but this is only just starting to come to prominence. After a miserable night’s sleep, the likelihood of finding solace in a packet of biscuits is much more real. A whole series on Netflix becomes more appealing than the gym. And your attention and emotions tend to swing, making tasks that require focus considerably more challenging.

Sleep is also vital for your health. The repair and recovery that happens while you sleep is critical to your overall wellbeing. You are less likely to have accidents if you are fully alert and being under slept over time builds up a sleep debt equivalent to being drunk. Additionally, a lack of sleep dampens our immune system (oh no!), leaving us more likely to suffer illness and infection. If you cherish good health, you will prioritise your sleep.

Finally, your sleep makes the world a better place. You will be more empathetic and patient with your family, your friends, your colleagues and everybody you come across. You will have the capacity to be grateful, to find solutions, and to contribute more to the world around you. This compounds, over time, to give you more joy and fulfilment as you walk along the path to your version of success.

  2) Work on Understanding Yourself

Have you ever wondered why you were feeling a certain way? Or why you behaved the way you did in a situation? These are not uncommon thoughts to have, but how often do we think about delving into this as a student of our mind to try and understand ourselves better?

To be a student of your mind is incredibly liberating. And in the age of the internet, access to psychology resources is only a few clicks away. A deeper understanding helps you to navigate the world and gives you direction and purpose. This, in turn, gives you a sense of happiness as you have more control over your destiny.

Possibly most important, to be a success in 2020 and beyond, we need to have personal and creative skills that cannot be replicated by robots. The ability to understand yourself helps you understand others, how their perception may differ, and be more attuned to other people’s feelings. You become a more attentive listener and easier to collaborate with. These are the transferable skills of the future, and your toolkit will be weaker without them.

  3) Start a Nutritional Experiment

Nutrition is an interesting subject, full of contrasting opinions and conflicting viewpoints. In my work as a performance nutritionist, I advise clients to become a nutritional experimenter. Unfortunately, nutrition is dominated by belief systems, which, while helping with consistency, cause people to eliminate certain food groups based on other people’s advice.

Instead of listening to and conforming to the variety of opinions out there, we need first to understand that nutrition is a very young science, akin to surgery in the 1600s.

Therefore, the best advice I can give is to experiment with your diet. Add and eliminate foods and track how you feel. Find the foods that energise you for long periods and the foods that leave you feeling fatigued. Other foods will leave you feeling bloated, and some will trigger your immune system. Experiment and find what works for you, because we each have our own epigenetic expression, our own microbiome and our own enzyme makeup.

Once you have unlocked the balance of food that works for you, focus on eating those, in moderation, and never stop experimenting. Our bodies are continually evolving. To perform at a high level and be a success in 2020, you want to be powered by your own personal jet fuel, not somebody else’s diesel.

  4) Reflect on where you put your attention

How many times have you intended to do something productive, only to fall down the social media black hole? Have you ever stepped back and thought about how sensationalist news is always so negative? In a world where the attention economy is worth billions of pounds, and where most adults have smartphones, it’s not your fault that your focus is often diverted. The technology we use is designed with many psychological hooks built-in. They need to keep our attention on those platforms, as that’s how they make their money.

While there is a gradual increase in people looking at digital minimalism, the simple act of reflecting on what inputs we have is a great start. Consuming more positive content helps us learn about the world through a lens of abundance. And being intentional with what we consume helps us develop and perform at a higher level.

If we channel our attention into the great things that people are doing, especially around the challenges of Coronavirus, we feel inspired. And as a result, we are more likely to take action to make a difference in our own lives. If we want to be a success in 2020, my tip is to leverage the suggestions of successful people, such as reading, journaling, reflection and continual self-improvement. There is great power when you choose the destination of your focus.

  5) Be proactive with your work-life integration

In a world that’s always connected, it is very easy to let your work seep into every part of your life. This is especially true now that many people have to work from home. If you don’t action an intention to integrate work into ‘your’ life, then your work objectives will wrestle their way in. Whether it’s responding to email at all hours, regularly working beyond your time or task finish, or being constantly on Zoom on holiday, it’s essential to reflect on whether this fits with the life we would design ourselves.

Integration by design is also vital to allow us to detach from work, so we can reattach fully when we return. If we stay attached to work and are unable to disengage, our performance drops, we gradually become overwhelmed, and this can lead to burnout. The inability to disconnect also tends to lead us to attempt to force a state of relaxation, usually using poor quality food, alcohol, or low-value entertainment. We are unable to make the breakthroughs that typically come in the brain states of relaxing and reflecting naturally. And sadly, it takes its toll on our development, our relationships and the ability to do the things we love.

Work-life balance is a term much-touted by organisations as they look towards improving employee engagement and wellbeing. Balance means different things to different people, and it suggests that all areas of life can be balanced evenly. This commonly leads to the perception that we can do it all and should be able to balance it all. In truth, the areas of our lives are always in flux. As we prioritise one area, another will become less of a priority. While increasing performance can give you more capacity to manage this, we need to have the awareness that we can integrate our work to fit the design of our lives. Once you have this mindset shift, you begin to see how powerful being proactive can be for your quality of life and your happiness.

  6) Learn how to stack good habits on top of each other

The power of human habits is impressive. We can programme ourselves to do certain things at certain times, we can link ideas together, and we can run many tasks on autopilot with ease once established. Naturally, this system works for both habits that serve us and patterns that hinder us. But the fact that we are the master programmer means that we can rewire habits to enable us to perform at a higher level.

One of my favourite habit stacks to create is a morning routine. Firstly, I get my clients to stop looking at their phone as soon as they wake up and replace this with washing their face and rehydrating. Once this habit is established, we stack a 10-minute meditation/prayer/silence on top of drinking your glass of water and let the association between the two actions build. Once that is a regular practice, we add other self-improvement tasks such as reading or listening to positive audio, so the first thing we consume into our minds is positive. And from this base, we can build a bespoke morning routine that over time becomes integrated into your life. It can include yoga, visualisations, journaling, or walking. The compounding effect of these small changes multiplied together, can make the difference between being successful and staying stuck where you are.

To make these habits stickier, we make them easier to do, and more visible as a trigger. The phone is charged outside of the bedroom, the water is prepared the previous night, and the books are right next to your morning seat. We advise to keep these habits small to start with, so small they become appealing rather than daunting. We then build them up, linking them to improving a little bit every day. And this is a great way to move along the pathway towards reaching your potential.

  7) Learn or refine one transferable skill

In a world that is evolving and moving at such speed, we must keep adding skills to our portfolio. Being dynamic by continually learning, we get closer to our potential and become more agile as the world changes. Skills such as understanding psychology, public speaking, or learning a new language (let’s learn algorithms) give us another string to our bow. Often, we don’t even identify with the added value of keeping our minds learning, keep our brains plasticity ready for even more skill acquisition.

As we move away from the traditional career for life model, the continual learning and refinement of our skills become more important. Primarily the people-focused abilities, as these will shield us from the changes that automation will bring, and we can leverage these skills in everyday life. It also assists us in meeting new people, trying new things, and growing new neural pathways. And if we are to be successful, and follow our path, the skills we learn are excellent when we get lost or have obstacles to negotiate.

When it comes to our mental health, keeping our minds in the learning zone helps us feel like we are progressing. It also provides motivation and the clarity that we are part of something bigger than ourselves, and that we are working towards our fulfilment and happiness.

  8) Dig deep to find your underlying purpose

We all have an underlying purpose, but few people ever do the deep work required to identify it. It requires this deep self-work, but by identifying our values, and looking at why we have set the goals we’ve chosen, we can start to get an outline of what it might be.

Secondly, we then need to reflect on our lives. In both the negatives and the positives, there will be a theme that seems to keep appearing. Think about the things that you enjoy doing, the friends you have, and the memories that have stayed with you. When you do analyse these carefully, you will notice a pattern starting to emerge.

When you get clarity on your purpose, you wake up with a guiding star as your compass, and you know why you are setting out that day. Working towards your purpose requires undertaking many missions, each resonating with why your here and the change you want to make. For most people, it tends to focus on reaching their potential and helping others. If you need some guidance on finding your purpose, my book can help you, and best of all, today it’s FREE for you! Click here for your FREE download.

  9) Get a little bit better every day.

All this culminates in the biggest takeaway from this article. Once you have clarity on your pathway in life, and your facing in the right direction, it’s time to take those small steps towards the peak that stands in front of you.

Be prepared; there will be obstacles and challenges awaiting you on your path. But if you consistently, day by day, move a little further forward and make a little progress, you will build the momentum needed to start the ascent when things get tough. You will wake up in the morning with a spring in your step. It’s amazing how good life can feel when you’re progressing towards something more significant.

Just remember that the journey is one to enjoy, to learn from and to cherish the small wins you make along the way. Getting a little bit better is a lifelong pursuit, and there are no simple ways or shortcuts. I know, I’ve tried! But if you need help finding your path, or someone to help you stay on it, I know a coach who will help you, support you, and be an ally on your journey.

  If you are ready to find your success in 2020, your vision of success that takes you closer to your potential, contact me to find out how I can help and guide you to find your path, and become exceptional.

The post Top 9 Tips for Your Success in 2020: A New Decade appeared first on Life Coach Preston | Business Coach Preston | Essentialise.

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