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luxudus · 1 year ago

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Neurodivergency becomes the Norm

old drawing that was meant to be my final spectember entry for this year.

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To the people who built the guidestones in orbit of our world. This message is towards you and the rest of your kind

We are the Savunato of the planet Apsis in the Oese system. it may not seem like it, but we believe to be your descendants. You may not remember our ancestors of your kind, who first landed on Apsis. It has been 10 million years since that happened. But we are happy to refresh your memory.

From the knowledge we gathered, catastrophe had struck your home planet. We don't know what happened, but it was bad enough for your kind to lose all hope of mending what was broken.

So you looked to the stars for a second chance. In a last ditch effort to save your kind, you launched the Eos Ark program. Sending 35 colony ships across a sea of stars, looking for any habitable planet to call home.

However those colony ships were flawed, they were made in a rush. And had no way of holding its own plants and animals to start agriculture. And too little gear for the colonists to survive in their current form.

Our colony ship just so happened to land here on Apsis. And we couldn’t have been more thankful for it. Apsis is very much like earth, having her own oceans and life. The flora here are fleshy and adorned with red broad leaves. While the fauna walked on three legs, saw with three eyes, and were protected by a woody exoskeleton.

By our sheer luck, the 6 planets of our system had aligned and gifted us a world we could actually survive on. The native life was digestible and the air was breathable. We had our second chance.

Our ancestors’ ship however, was ill-prepared. Again there were barely any tools to help them survive in their current form. We couldn’t shape the world to our needs.The world shaped us to her needs. We adapted, and we evolved.

Relative to your anatomy and lifestyle. Our arms became hyper-extended and stronger. Meaning we can switch between bipedal and quadrupedal locomotion on the fly. Our ancestral thumbs have become vestigial. In place of this, our Index and pinky fingers have become opposable so we can manipulate our environment once more. Our faces too have elongated, our teeth grew harder to get through the exoskeletons of our prey. And we grew fangs to slice through the trees.

One of the most significant things in our history was a slow but all encompassing change to the way we think of the world. Several mental states spurred on by genetics had spread across our population. Mental conditions you would classify as Autism, ADHD, OCD, Dyslexia, Anxiety, Depression, and so on. For you, you’d call us neurodivergent, For us it’s simply the norm, It makes us who we are.

Our modern society has been slowly reworked from the ground up. All in order to empower our new mentality. Now revolving around organization and efficiency. Our work ethic is streamlined to the point where we can get all the day’s work done before noon. With our goal being placed on long term results rather than pure production. Extreme emphasis has been put on the care and wellbeing for the developmentally disabled.

We put as much care into texture as they do with colors and patterns. Plenty of our cultures have a wide array of both visual and tactile patterns and a variety of textures to best fit the wearer. And affection through physical contact is revered as a sign of deep trust within many of our cultures.

We have sailed far beyond the reaches of our new cradle. Reaching new heights by reaching the other worlds that orbit our sun. We’ve explored, colonized, and have begun terraforming the most habitable worlds to make them as comfortable as apsis. We have even begun plunging into the interstellar depths to survey our closest neighbors.

One day we found your wayward stones. The plaques made of the spirit of our original homeworld, like the embers of a great fire holding out in the cold quiet night. We found them on the space station that brought you here, that brought our ancestors down to apsis.

I myself, the Savunato writing this, was one of the lucky few to board your station. We found it still orbiting apsis, Everything was still intact and untouched like a day hadn’t passed. Like we were connected from the depths of time.

We looked to the cosmos to find the others. Sending probes out into deep space with our history. And beaming messages to distant stars, All in hopes of finding you or another one of your descendants. No one’s responded so far, We may very well be the last living descendants of your kind.

If any of you are still out there. Let us show you we did it. we did it humanity, we made it. We survived. We made it through the toughest Apsis had to offer. We shared the worst mistakes the both of us have made. We learned for the better. We kept the flame going. May we survive for another 10 million years. May we be your successors.

If any of you are still out there.

I hope we made you proud…

#my art #speculative biology #artist on tumblr #worldbuilding #sophont #posthuman #neurodivergent oc

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paypant · 7 months ago

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8 Ways to Get Money from Scrap Metal

Scrap metal is an under-utilized asset that can help you make extra cash. With the right tools and knowledge, you can start your journey toward building a profitable scrap business today. Here are eight ways to earn money from scrap metal:

Scrap metal

What is scrap metal? It's a broad term encompassing anything made from metal that can be reused or recycled. This includes old cars, appliances like refrigerators and washing machines, tools, and machinery—even decorative items like ancient statues or fences can be considered scrap metal. The possibilities are endless! How do I collect scrap metal? If you have any business or work in the construction industry where you might encounter large amounts of discarded metal objects around town (like old cars), it's worth watching for them if they come your way. Otherwise, if you don't have one already built up through specific connections or professional contacts in the recycling field, it's time to start making some! Before proceeding, we must tell our readers that there are many laws specifically about this area of commerce. Please check with relevant governing bodies before acting on anything related hereon outwards.

Scrap bronze and copper

If you have any bronze or copper in your home, it can be sold for a pretty penny. Bronze is often used to make statues and other decorative items because of its beautiful color. Copper is commonly used in electrical wiring, cooking utensils, and roofing materials. Bronze and copper are precious metals that can be sold to scrap yards for cash! You may not realize how much bronze or copper is lying around your house until you start looking for it—many people don't realize how much they have until they start thinking about what to do with it. Selling scrap metal involves more than just picking up a phone and making an appointment with a local scrap yard (although this option is available). If you want to get the most money out of your unwanted items, consider these tips:

Scrap electrical wires

A wire is a widespread item. It can be sold by weight, length, gauge, type, or brand. Wire also comes in many different colors and insulation types. The price of scrap wire will depend on its composition and condition. For example: - Copper - $3 per pound - Brass - $1 per pound - Aluminum - $0.50 per pound

Old Appliances

- Copper, brass, and aluminum - Lead and other hazardous materials - Steel and iron - Plastic and other non-ferrous metals (these can be recycled for scrap metal) - Cast iron (this is usually sent through a shredder) * Stainless steel, which is not typically found in old appliances but can be found in jewelry (such as a watch strap), electronics equipment such as mobile phones, MP3 players, or laptops, cutlery and even building supplies like window frames.

Old car parts and rims

Old car parts and rims can earn you a nice chunk of change, especially if your city has a lot of auto shops or scrap metal yards. - Car parts: - Car batteries - Car engines (careful with these—they're heavy and sometimes dangerous) - Fenders (the metal part by the wheel) - Tires (you might need to sell them in pairs) - Car rims: - Tail lights: These are usually sold as a pair. A good seller will have both in working order and can tell you if they're cracked or not. You should also check that they aren't bent up; this makes them harder to sell later on down the line! - Headlights: Headlights are another common type of scrap metal that sells well, but they can be tricky because they're often expensive when bought new. If yours still functions correctly, it could pay very well for itself when it comes to the sale.

Old plumbing fixtures (faucets, showers, etc.)

Old plumbing fixtures (faucets, showers, etc.) can add up to decent profits. They're made of metal and easy to recycle and sell at scrap yards. If you have a metal detector, search around in old houses or buildings being torn down—you might find some hidden treasures. Now that you know what plumbing fixtures are and how much money they can be worth, it's time to start your treasure hunt. Here's everything else you need to know about collecting old plumbing fixtures: - What is a plumbing fixture? A plumbing fixture is any part of your water system that connects directly with the pipe itself; for example, faucets and showerheads are all part of this category. All these types need regular replacement throughout their lifetime due to wear-and-tear caused by heavy use over time (or if something breaks). That said... - What are some excellent sources for finding these items? Try searching through old houses before demolishing—they may contain hidden gems like these! You'll also want to look around town if there weren't any homes nearby that might've had most of their materials recycled already."

Old tools

Old tools, like wrenches and other hand tools, are usually steel. Steel is a valuable metal that can be recycled into new steel products. Most scrap yards will pay you in cash or give you store credit for old tools.

Aluminum cans

Aluminum cans are the most valuable scrap metal, costing about $0.50-$1.00 per pound (valued at the same rate as copper and brass). According to the US EPA, aluminum is also the most recycled item in America. That's because recycling aluminum saves 95 percent of its energy and 50 percent of its raw material value compared to producing it from scratch—and that's good news for your pocketbook.

Highest paying scrap metal near me

Now that you know where to find scrap yards, we can discuss how to find the best one for your needs. If you're selling scrap metal, you must look for a firm that pays a fair price and has been in business for a while. You can often tell this by looking at their website—if they have one! Most recyclers will have an active social media presence and post pictures of what they've picked up recently or are currently buying.

Another valuable resource is Yelp; many people leave reviews on their favorite shops and provide valuable insight into what makes each place special (or not). An experienced recycler can tell if a customer is taking advantage of them, so don't try anything funny—they'll spot it instantly.

How do scrap yards make money?

Scrap yards make money by buying scrap metal. This might seem obvious, but it's worth noting that scrap yards pay for scrap metal by weight, not by the pound or the ton or even the kilogram. If you want to get paid more for your metal, you need to ensure it weighs more than whatever weight they're currently paying for. An excellent way to increase the weight of your metal is through sorting. If you are removing screws from an old piece of furniture before bringing it into a yard, remove all of them and put them into one pile so that when you weigh your items in the yard, they don't get counted as additional ounces due to their small size. That way, only larger pieces are being considered and added to your total sale cost.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I make money from scrap? You can make money from scrap metal by recycling it. If you have a pile of old, rusted car parts and other metal scraps that require recycling, there are several ways to turn them into cash. Sell Your Scrap Copper for Cash It's easy to find buyers for copper wire, pipes, tubing, and other items made of this precious material. Whether you're looking to sell your scrap copper as-is or melt down the materials at home before selling them on eBay or Craigslist is up to you—but either way, it will benefit your wallet! Recycle Aluminum Beverage Cans Into Money The metals inside aluminum beverage cans (aluminum itself) are also valuable and worth money when sold separately from their plastic coatings on either end (the "tin-plated steel shell"). Will scrap prices go up in 2021? The price of scrap metal has been downward since the late 2000s, and it's expected to continue falling for the next few years. According to MetalMiner, global prices could drop by up to 10% in 2021 relative to their current levels (which are already low). Scrap prices rose in 2018 due to increased demand from China, which had started buying lots of recycled materials as part of its "Green Fence Initiative." However, this spike was short-lived. We saw prices drop by about 20% throughout 2019 and are now below where they were before the Green Fence went into effect. While some may look at these numbers and assume there's no point in selling scrap metal anymore—why to bother if your earnings will be so low?—that view isn't entirely accurate. While making money off your junk isn't always easy or guaranteed (and it certainly won't happen overnight), there are ways you can make sure that whatever profit you do make is as high as possible by taking advantage of what's out there right now: How do you collect scraps? Once you've found potential leads on companies locally in your area that buy or process scrap metal from homeowners like yourself - take note! These businesses will often have different requirements for how much material needs to be delivered per load, so make sure whatever amount fits within those guidelines before filling up any vehicles with junked electronics. What pays the most at a scrapyard? Aluminum- The most common of the metals listed here, aluminum does not have as high a value per pound as copper, but it is much lighter. For this reason, it is ideal for larger projects. Copper- With a higher value per pound than aluminum or steel, copper is another popular choice among scrap metal buyers because of its malleability and durability. It's also environmentally friendly because it can be recycled repeatedly without losing integrity. Steel- While steel has less value per pound than copper or aluminum, it's still worth noting as one of the most common types of scrap metal found at your local scrap yard or recycling center. Steel also boasts excellent durability when compared to other materials such as plastic and wood (both useful in construction projects), so if you're looking for something strong enough to build with but doesn't require much time or money upfront, then consider collecting some old pipes from plumbing jobs around town before heading over to your local recycling center tomorrow morning. Brass/Bronze - These two metals are similar enough that we've grouped them here on our list; both have similar properties, like being malleable when heated up (which makes them great candidates for manufacturing new products out there). However, unlike brass which contains zinc along with other metals like lead, which make they are unsuitable for use in many industries today (due to regulations). Bronze consists only of carbon dioxide mixed with tin dioxide making these two materials quite different from each other despite having similar uses today thanks to past centuries when they were both commonly used. How do I start my own scrap business? Getting a truck and trailer is the first step to starting your scrap metal business. You can use this equipment to go out and collect scrap yourself or sell it directly to a scrap yard, processor, dealer, or another buyer. The next step is to find a location. You can set up a shop in your backyard or rent space from another business. If you have capital, purchasing land and building a facility yourself is possible. What is the most profitable material to recycle? The most profitable scrap metal is aluminum, followed by copper. Copper is used in many electrical and electronic products, so it's easy to see how that could be a hot commodity. Metal recycling isn't just for making new metals; it can also be used to make other products like jewelry, eyeglass frames, and clothing. If you're looking to get involved with the recycling industry, here are some things to consider: - The cost of shipping your items back home from where they were picked up (if applicable) will be deducted from your total earnings at the end of each month/year, depending on your chosen payment plan. - If there are any costs associated with retrieving your items after they've been sold off, such as storage fees or transportation expenses, then those costs will also be deducted from your earnings at the end of each month/year, depending on which payment plan you choose

Summary

These are all great items to collect to get some extra money. There are many ways to collect scrap metal. Here are a few: - The first place to look is in your home and yard, where you may have old appliances, tools, or other items made of steel. These can be sold for money at a recycling center or junkyard. - If you don't want to go out looking for scrap metal yourself, ask friends and neighbors if they have any pieces lying around that they don't need anymore—they may be willing to part with some if you offer them cash in return! - If all else fails, consider checking out your local recycling center or junkyard; people often donate items because they no longer need them but don't see any value in selling them online for very little money (or nothing at all). At Scrap King, we're committed to offering you the best scrap metal prices in town. We also want to ensure that your experience with us is positive. Read the full article

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a-s-fischer · 6 months ago

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So I have come up with a concept and term for this kind of thing, because I have seen it a lot in reactionary circles both on the left and the the right. And the key thing to remember is that there are large groups of people who are absolutely uninterested in nuance or complex ideas, or even actually solving problems, and what they really want is to sort the world into good people and bad people and have the good people fight the bad people. So they need a tool to sort the good people from the bad people and really what they are most concerned with is rooting out the bad people. And in service of this, they use what I have taken to calling a pump label.

A pump label is one that is very broad when deciding who it encompasses, to suck people into the label, and very very narrow when explaining why this group is extra good or extra bad, usually extra bad. Why in short, this broad group belongs on either the unequivocally good or unequivocally bad side. And again, it's usually the bad side.

Pump labels are a subset of this common phenominon where groups who know their ideology is not widely held, make use of a split definition model for terms, one definiton that is the in-group definition, and one that is the generally held definition. On some level, the people using split definitions, including pump labels have to know what they're doing because they use them so consistently. Indeed, dogwhistles fit into this category, and we know those are employed deliberately.

And with pump labels, this is extra obvious, because frequently the thing that will put you into the broad definition of the label is directly at odds with the definition of the narrow definition of the label. For example, I am a middle of the road two/multi-state solutionist, who thinks that the ideal and most practical result of a peace process between Israel/Palestine is one or more fully independent democratic Palestinian states, and the continued existance of an Israel with less terretory than it currently has. Like most middle of the road two state solutionists, I want Palestinian children to grow up happy, safe, and free, and I want the same thing for Israeli children. Also like most middle of the road two state solutionists, I want to dropkick Bibi off a cliff. So I belong to the broad definition of the label Zionist. The narrow category of Zionist is someone who wants a genocide against Palestinians, and also loves sucking Bibi's cock. You might notice this is directly contradictory to the views that put me into the Zionist category in first place.

But that doesn't matter, because I have been successfully sucked up with the broad definition of the label and pumped out into the narrow definition of the label where I am safely on the bad side and can be safely hated. The key thing with a pump label is that when the definition narrows, The people sucked up by the broad definition are not released. They are insistantly kept, and their views decided for them. Any attempt to insist that no, this is not what they believe or what they do, is reframed as lying. If for example I talk about how I want Palestinians to be safe, happy and free, I am lying and covering up a genocide. And because I have been judged an evil Zionist who lusts for the blood of Palestinian children, anything bad that happens to me is richly deserved and a noble act of fighting evil.

And as I said, I'm actually pretty middle of the road. I actually identify as Zionist. You can get sucked into the definition of Zionist just by acknowleging that Hamas is a brutal organization that both oppresses Palestinians and also commits acts of violent terror on Israeli civilians. You can get sucked into the definition by not being okay with all Jewish Israelis being expelled or killed. In many cases, you can get pulled into the definition simply for being Jewish.

And once you've been sucked up from the normal population and pumped out into the bad category, you are now made useful to the people doing the pumping. A pump label is designed to find people that it's okay and safe to hate. It's no coincidence that this turns into bigotry real fast, especially since frequently, the purpose is not to find people to hate, but to justify hating the people you already do. When you divide the world into good people and bad people, and think all problems should or can be solved by the good people fighting the bad people, and you feel utterly helpless, then the best feeling in the world is locating bad people and making them pay. The fact that this in reality helps no one and in fact usually hinders the cause they claim to be fighting for does not matter. It feels good.

Anti-Zionist types seem to do a frustrating little two -step where sometimes when they say “Zionist” they mean “having any sort of connection to the state of Israel, or the concepts of Eretz Yisrael or Am Yisrael, or with Jews as a self-determining collective” and sometimes they mean “Kahanism” (even though most of them probably don’t know the terms “Eretz Yisrael”, “Am Yisrael”, or “Kahanism”) and because they have already previously defined both as “Zionism”, they then define any sort of connection to Israel as a state, or Israel as a concept, or Jews as a people who self-determine who we are, as Kahanism to be shunned/protested/etc. it is literally maddening.

#a s fischer added #jewish

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seoagencyhouston · 2 years ago

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All You Need to Know About Internet Marketing

When you hear the term "internet marketing," what comes to mind? Do you think of spam emails and pop-up ads, or do you think of a well-crafted marketing strategy that uses the latest digital tools to reach your target audience?

If you're like most people, you probably think of the latter. And that's because, when done right, internet marketing can be an extremely effective way to grow your business. But what exactly is internet marketing, and how can it be used to achieve your business goals? Let's take a look.

What is Internet Marketing?

Internet marketing is the process of promoting a product or service online. It encompasses a wide range of activities, from creating and managing a website to designing digital marketing campaigns and using social media. And while there are many different ways to market a product or service online, most internet marketing efforts share one common goal: to drive more traffic to a website.

The biggest difference between internet marketing and traditional marketing is that it allows you to reach a global audience with just a few clicks. In today's connected world, more and more people are shopping online for everything from groceries to clothing to electronics. As a result, businesses need to find ways to reach their target market where they are spending the majority of their time—online.

This is usually accomplished by optimizing the website for search engines known as search engine optimization, or SEO, designing engaging content (such as blog posts, infographics, and video), and using pay-per-click advertising (PPC) and other digital marketing tools (such as social media marketing and email marketing) to reach potential customers.

In today's digital world, it's more important than ever to have an effective internet marketing strategy. That's because almost everyone uses the internet—and we use it for a lot more than just checking our email. We use it to find information, make purchase decisions, stay up-to-date on current events, connect with friends and family, and so much more.

As a result, businesses that want to reach their target audience need to have a strong digital presence. And internet marketing is one of the most effective ways to create that presence. By using the latest digital tools—such as SEO, content creation, and PPC—businesses can reach more people than ever before. And when businesses can reach more people, they have a better chance of driving sales and achieving their other business goals.

SEO is the process of optimizing your website for Google search with the goal of earning higher search engine rankings and increasing organic traffic. When done correctly, SEO can be a powerful tool for driving targeted traffic to your website. However, SEO is complex and ever-changing, so it's important to work with an experienced digital marketing agency.

Internet marketing is a broad term that encompasses a range of activities designed to promote a product or service online. From creating and managing a website to designing digital marketing campaigns and using social media, businesses can use internet marketing to reach their target audience—and achieve their business goals.

The Benefits of Internet Marketing for Your Business

In a world that is increasingly driven by the internet, it is essential for businesses to have an internet presence. Having a website is no longer enough— businesses need to be active on social media, create blog content, and invest in digital marketing. By doing so, businesses can reach a larger audience and create brand awareness.

But what are the specific benefits of internet marketing? In this blog post, we will explore five key benefits of investing in an internet marketing strategy for your business.

1. Reach a Wider Audience

With traditional marketing methods, such as print or television ads, businesses are limited to reaching only those within their geographical area. With internet marketing, businesses can reach customers all over the world with just the click of a button. This gives businesses the opportunity to expand their customer base and reach new markets.

2. Cost-Effective

Internet marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to market your business. It is much cheaper than traditional methods, such as print or television advertising, yet it allows you to reach just as wide—if not wider—of an audience. Additionally, you have more control over your budget when you invest in digital marketing methods like search engine optimization (SEO) or pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. You can start small and increase your budget as your business grows.

3. Increased Sales

Because internet marketing allows you to reach a wider audience with less effort, it ultimately leads to increased sales for your business. When you have a strong online presence, customers are more likely to trust your brand and make a purchase from your website or through your social media channels. However, it is important to note that you cannot simply set up a website or social media account and expect sales to start rolling in—you need to actively market your business and drive traffic to your website through SEO services or PPC campaigns.

4. Greater Engagement with Customers

Another benefit of internet marketing is that it allows you to engage with customers on a more personal level than traditional marketing methods do. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter give businesses the opportunity to interact directly with customers and answer their questions in real-time. Additionally, blog content allows you to address common customer pain points and explain exactly how your product or service can help them solve their problem. By engaging with customers on a regular basis, you build trust and credibility with them—ultimately leading to increased sales down the line.

5. Increased Brand Awareness

When done correctly, internet marketing can help increase brand awareness for your business—and that’s something that every business owner wants! A strong online presence will position your business as an authority in its industry while also increasing name recognition for your brand. And when customers are familiar with your brand name, they are more likely to make a purchase from your company down the road when they need products or services that you offer.

While there are many benefits of internet marketing for businesses, these are five of the most important ones that every business should keep in mind when crafting their digital marketing strategy. By investing in an internet marketing campaign, you can reach a wider audience, engage with customers on a deeper level, save money on advertising costs, increase brand awareness, and boost sales! Contact us today to learn more about our services.

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schraubd · 4 years ago

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A New Challenger Approaches!: Evaluating the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism

Yet another antisemitism framework has emerged, with the release of the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism (JDA) signed by around two hundred Jewish Studies scholars. This, of course, comes rapidly on the heels of the Nexus document on antisemitism (of which I was one of the drafters), meaning we now have two new antisemitism frameworks standing as potential complements (or alternatives) to the venerable IHRA definition.

The other day I made a handy table summarizing the similarities and differences between the three definitions. That was designed to be a pretty straightforward, "just the facts" presentation. But I also want to give my evaluative judgment on the Jerusalem Declaration in comparison to IHRA and Nexus (I wrote more on the Nexus document, specifically, in this post). Obviously, the fact that I was a Nexus author means I have a dog in this hunt, though I don't view these definitions as in competition with one another. And likewise, I don't have direct knowledge of the background and genesis of the Jerusalem Declaration in the same way I do for the Nexus document -- some of my comments will be based on inference and speculation. So take them with however much salt you think is appropriate.

This is a somewhat long post, divided roughly into three parts. First, I address differences in the orientation of the JDA compared to the other frameworks -- who wrote and who their audience is. Second, I examine the JDA's relationship to IHRA -- particularly IHRA as a symbol of (depending on who you ask) rallying against antisemitism or creating toxic policing of discourse on Israel -- and how that is mediating the reception (both positive and negative) of the JDA. Finally, I address where the JDA is substantively different from the other frameworks and where it isn't. Likewise, I identify a few important areas that neither the JDA nor IHRA address that are included in the Nexus document: the inclusion of conditions (alongside attitudes and behaviors) as a potential form of antisemitism, recognizing and objecting to the practice of routine and reflexive dismissal of antisemitism claims, and addressing how Jews who take the "wrong" (however defined) position on Israel see their Jewish identity denigrated or denied -- a form of harassment that especially targets Jews of Color.

I. The JDA's Orientation

At the outset, there are a few core differences in the orientation of the JDA in comparison to the Nexus document -- who wrote it and what it is targeting. The JDA has more of a European center of gravity, whereas the Nexus is more American; the JDA is primarily endorsed by academics, whereas the Nexus document was geared more towards "community leader" sorts. Obviously, these are generalizations -- the JDA has American signatories, the Nexus document had academics involved (such as myself). But I think these broad-stroke differences exert a noticeable impact in terms of what is and isn't prioritized, and who was and wasn't sought to be "included" in the definition.

In particular, the JDA seems to have been very invested in coming up with a definition that could get non- or anti-Zionists onboard alongside at least liberal Zionists (getting a document signed by Susannah Heschel and Richard Falk is no mean feat!). In doing so, the JDA gives the non-Zionist contingent a few very big wins: it expressly declares BDS not antisemitic, and it more or less declares calls for the dissolution of Israel to be not antisemitic (the constraint is that any alternative polity that is envisioned must be one that protects "the right of Jews in the State of Israel [or, I imagine, its hypothetical successor] to exist and flourish, collectively and individually, as Jews"). The Nexus document, by contrast, had as its target audience (more or less) the median American Jew -- envisioned as a Biden-style Democrat who identifies as broadly Zionist and pro-Israel but has his or her fair share of criticism. Accordingly, the Nexus doesn't speak directly on BDS, implicitly judging it by the other standards in the document, and contains a more robust defense of the right of Jewish self-determination than is present in the JDA (it is notable that challenging Israel's "right to exist" is viewed as antisemitic by an extremely wide consensus of American Jews -- more so than almost any other issue).

The JDA's audience is thus simultaneously broader and narrower than the Nexus': it reaches non-Zionist activists for whom it is exceedingly important that challenging Israel's existence as a Jewish state not be labeled antisemitic, but in doing so it may have language that's a veritable poison pill for rank-and-file Jews (at least in the US). The Nexus document was meant to be a viable set of guidelines for a Democratic administration that would let them handle antisemitism controversies while avoiding obvious shoals and pitfalls. The JDA (and I think this is true even if one agrees with it on its merits) would be more likely to provoke controversy simply because of its explicit language on BDS and its position that denying Jewish self-determination in Israel is not necessarily antisemitic. The JDA is I think more valuable as a tool of public discourse than something that could be "adopted" by a particular organization, especially (say) the Democratic Party (and the JDA is quite explicit that it is not meant to be adopted or codified as any explicit legal tool).

II. The Symbolism of IHRA

Speaking of provoking controversy, another defining feature of the JDA is its explicitly antagonistic posture towards IHRA. The Nexus document sought to position itself as primarily an interpretive resource -- a complement where IHRA was vague or incomplete (as Jonathan Jacoby put it, IHRA is the Mishnah and Nexus is the Gemara). The JDA, by contrast, is very much taking aim at the king. As I mentioned in my post on the Nexus document, IHRA has taken on such symbolic weight that one can generate almost reflexive support and opposition for a given initiative simply by presenting as a challenge to IHRA, and that's definitely occurring here. People who hate IHRA are cheering the JDA simply because it's the "anti-IHRA", even when their own conduct would seemingly be obviously indicted under the JDA's definition. As noted above, Richard Falk is a signatory even though he's endorsed materials which seem to cleanly fall under categories the JDA deems antisemitic. Jackie Walker praised the JDA too even though her antisemitism likewise would be covered by the JDA. It's doubtful that such persons are backing the JDA as a mea culpa for their past misconduct; rather, they see the JDA as a counter to IHRA's putative "weaponization" of antisemitism and endorse it on that basis. If or when the JDA does get cited to label them as antisemitic, I suspect they will be just as dismissive as they've been in the past.

Arguably, then, just like IHRA there is a risk that the JDA will be "applied" in a purely symbolic manner divorced from its actual textual mandates. Just as IHRA's language insisting that context matters has been roundly ignored, one can easily imagine persons accused of antisemitism "citing" the JDA for the blithe retort that "criticism of Israel is not antisemitic" while disregarding language in the JDA which arguably encompasses their particular "critique". As always, one suspects the most important interpretive canon in accept or applying any definition of antisemitism will be the overriding principle "me and my friends are not antisemitic."

The hegemony of IHRA's symbolism doesn't just afflict the JDA's defenders. IHRA's advocates also have gotten so invested in the importance of IHRA as a marker for "taking antisemitism seriously" that they are often unwilling to recognize IHRA has quite a few serious gaps and ambiguities. The core definition itself is nearly useless ("A certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews" -- what does that mean?), and the illustrative examples, while helpful as far as they go (and IHRA itself says they only go so far as to be cases which "could, taking into account the overall context," be antisemitic), are significantly underinclusive even leaving aside IHRA's relative lack of guidance on what "context" can be used to assess whether any given speech or behavior that abuts one of the examples actually is antisemitic. As a symbolic gesture where a given organization says "we care about antisemitism", IHRA can stand alone (in large part because for that function it doesn't matter what IHRA says). As an actual substantive tool for identifying antisemitism, IHRA needs to be expounded upon, and that is a task that (in different ways) both the Nexus document and the JDA attempt to tackle.

Unsurprisingly, I prefer the Nexus' approach of not directly trying to overthrow IHRA but rather fine-tune, calibrate, and direct it. I have no desire to undermine the symbolic importance of IHRA, but I very much have an interest in alleviating the very real gaps and shortfalls present under any honest reckoning with IHRA's text. Even still, if I'm being honest I suspect that the JDA will prove more influential than Nexus simply as a function of polarization. The people who blame IHRA for creating a toxic atmosphere around antisemitism want something that directly challenges it. The people who are basically content with the way antisemitism discourse has proceeded around IHRA will stick with it, without seeing the need for modification. Even if substantively the Nexus does the best job of filling the pitfalls and potholes in IHRA while representing a vision of fighting antisemitism that aligns with the median American Jew, the seemingly inexorable pull of polarization will drive people into the arms of either IHRA or anti-IHRA (which is to say, JDA).

III. Substantive Similarities and Differences Across the Frameworks

You might have noticed that the above analysis actually doesn't concentrate that much on the actual substantive differences between the three antisemitism frameworks. One reason for that is that, as my table illustrates, there are fewer differences between them than one might guess from the heated nature of the JDA and IHRA's reception. Certainly, it is fair to focus on the areas where the definitions depart -- that's what should determine whether one prefers one over another -- but that focus can overshadow the significant agreement in a large set of cases regarding what is antisemitic amongst all three frameworks. All agree that criticism of Israel can be antisemitic insofar as Israel is a Jewish institution (and thus none indulge in the tritely true but banal point that "Judaism and Israel are not the same thing"), all agree that criticism of Israel is not always antisemitic, all agree that "tropes" (variously worded) are an important feature of antisemitism, and all agree that notions of Jewish collective responsibility for alleged Israeli misdeeds are antisemitic.

What are the key differences? I've mentioned two already: IHRA and Nexus both consider denial of Jewish self-determination rights to be antisemitic, while the JDA seemingly does not; and IHRA and Nexus don't speak specifically on BDS, while the JDA expressly says it is not antisemitic. These are both significant. BDS is a well-known third rail in Jewish politics, and Nexus' "strategic ambiguity" (to put it uncharitably) on the question is an attempt to traverse a cliff the JDA eagerly dives off. Likewise, as noted above the "Israel has no right to exist" position is one on which there is almost unrivaled Jewish consensus regarding its antisemitic character, so the JDA's dissident position here is risky indeed.

Beyond those two issues (and putting aside any nitpicking one can do about phrasing or word choices), the other big departure I see in the JDA is that it explicitly says that "double standards" are not antisemitic, whereas IHRA says they are. The Nexus tries to take a middle position here, agreeing that double standards are antisemitic but refusing the simplistic argument that any time Israel is concentrated on or even "singled out" in a discrete case that is evidence of a double-standard (as I've argued, AIPAC "singles out" Israel -- is that antisemitic? Of course not). The JDA's rejection of including "double standards" likely stems from the view that this language has been particularly abused by right-wing zealots who argue that essentially any Israel-critical activity that does not simultaneously tackle the entire world is per se antisemitic. That notwithstanding, the JDA's dismissal of double standards as even a potential form of antisemitism seems clearly incorrect. Disparate treatment -- treating likes unalike -- is perhaps the closest thing there is to the paradigm case of discrimination and it'd be simply weird for antisemitism to stand alone in not including this very intuitive case. If one can subject Jews or Jewish institutions to different standards than other comparable actors in global affairs without it being labeled "antisemitic", you've created a loophole you can drive a truck through.

It is also important flag a group of important components of antisemitism that are found only in the Nexus definition and are not present or discussed in either IHRA or the JDA. The first is that the Nexus definition is the only one which considers certain social conditions (on top of behaviors or attitudes) to be cases of antisemitism: specifically, those conditions "that discriminate against Jews and significantly impede their ability to participate as equals in political, religious, cultural, economic, or social life." I lobbied very hard to include this language, and in some ways I think it is the single most important point in Nexus' favor compared to other frameworks. Ironically enough (given that the Nexus document is nominally limited to the Israel case), the inclusion of this language is why the Nexus document is probably the only framework of the three which could explain why a proposed ban on Kosher slaughter would be antisemitic -- it does not fall within any of either IHRA or JDA's examples, but it would represent a social condition which "significantly impede[s] [Jews'] ability to participate as equals" in European society. Understanding antisemitism as not just a set of attitudes or behaviors but as a state of social affairs better aligns antisemitism with emerging understandings of racism and other forms of oppression, all of which have dedicated considerable attention to understanding inequality at least partially in those terms.

The second inclusion in Nexus not seen in the other frameworks is an acknowledgment of the epistemic antisemitism that occurs when Jewish claims regarding antisemitism are reflexively or cavalierly dismissed. The so-called Livingstone Formulation, where claims of antisemitism can be immediately brushed off by claiming they're actually attempts to "silence criticism of Israel," is one of the primary mechanisms through which Jews are impeded in their ability to be treated as valid and viable claim-makers in public discourse. Here, too, recognition of this practice as a form of antisemitism aligns antisemitism with other forms of oppression where it has been well-acknowledged that these sorts of reflexive dismissals are themselves manifestations of racism, sexism, or what have you (as in the infamous and ubiquitous "race card" retort). The opening entry of the Nexus definition is decisive on this point: "All claims of antisemitism made by Jews, like all claims of discrimination and oppression in general, should be given serious attention" -- which is not to say automatic acceptance, but not immediate eye-rolling dismissal either. Neither IHRA nor the JDA address this issue -- IHRA probably wasn't thinking about it at all, and the JDA it's fair to assume includes a good number of stakeholders who are at least sympathetic to the notion that antisemitism claims are regularly abused and so need tighter policing.

The final major feature of Nexus not found in its compatriots is an acknowledgment of a particular type of antisemitism that targets Jews for having the "wrong" view on Israel, at which point their status as Jews is called into question. Rudy Giuliani claiming that he's "more of a Jew" than George Soros is a high-profile case here. But the importance of including this as a form of antisemitism stemmed from the way in which this sort of marginalizing rhetoric is especially likely to be deployed against Jews of Color, who regularly are assailed as being "fake" or "lesser" Jews (even by non-Jews!) if they deviate from an imagined proper or correct Jewish standpoint on Israel. The Nexus document accordingly recognizes that "denigrating or denying the Jewish identity of certain Jews because they are perceived as holding the 'wrong' position (whether too critical or too favorable) on Israel" is a form of antisemitism, and I can say that language was included in specific recognition of dynamics one increasingly sees on social media where JOCs have been subject to brutal and persistent harassment along this exact dimension. It is a recurrent failing of Jewish efforts on antisemitism that we often are not thinking intersectionally -- and so the discrete experiences or problems faced by, e.g., Jewish women, or Mizrahi Jews, or Jews of Color, as Jews are overlooked or not incorporated. I'm sure the Nexus document can still improve on this front, but I am proud that it made at least a step in the right direction.

via The Debate Link https://ift.tt/3fka31c

#anti-semitism #discourse #Jews

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gatheringbones · 1 year ago

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[“When early humans staved off deadly threats on the savanna with short, intense bouts of fleeing or fighting, their biological functions readily returned to their routine levels once the threat passed, usually in a matter of minutes. In modern life, we do not often face these life-threatening moments, but we do face a broad range of other stressors, which activate the same physiological stress response. For our ancestors, the stress response was a lifesaver. For us, depending on how prolonged and intense the response is, it can be a killer at worst, and a contributor to all kinds of disease and disability at best.

Modern stressors are often chronic or repeated, rather than acute and finite. They are most often psychosocial—encompassing recurring fears and anxieties, an ongoing experience of social injustice and/or material hardship, and a constant vigilance to threat. They can be relived or ruminated upon, without a clear endpoint. Traumatic experiences, for example, can continue to be stressful far beyond their actual occurrence, the extreme case being PTSD. In all these circumstances, the elevated production of stress hormones does not recede, because the anticipation of threat never recedes. Sometimes, the toothpaste cannot be put back in the tube. Elevated heart rates activated by the continued production of stress hormones can persist for hours and even days, including while you sleep. All the while, your body systems endure erosion. In these circumstances, no one specific moment presents you with the opportunity to simply take a deep breath and be done with it, especially if you are asleep.

Prolonged uncertainty about the future and anxiety about the present—how will you pay next month’s rent, hold on to your job without childcare for your three-year-old, or get your recalcitrant landlord to remove the lead paint in your apartment?—can also have this effect. In these cases, physiological stress processes become a daily part of life.

Beyond the damage these chronic stress processes cause to the neuroendocrine, cardiovascular, metabolic, and immune systems, they can also influence brain structure. In the short term, stress-adapted brain structure can sharpen perception in ways that enhance problem solving in a high-stress environment. I think of Damon Young’s 2019 op-ed in the New York Times, in which he describes how growing up Black in a high-crime Pittsburgh neighborhood gave him an acute sensitivity to anticipating, avoiding, and responding to threats:

I can sense when the stillness of the street is a precursor to danger, like the moment before a storm hits and the air adopts a menacing tranquility. I know the shuffle of someone carrying them tools in baggy jeans. I can feel it when the clamor at a nightclub shifts from festive to menacing. I know how to run. I know how to sit in public spaces (with my back facing a wall, so that I can see everything). I know how to park in lots (with the back in first, to make a quick getaway if necessary).

Such “street smarts” can’t always protect a person from a stray bullet or other danger, but this fine-tuned cognitive vigilance increases a person’s chances of survival in some high-stress conditions.

There are costs, however. When exposed to long-term and traumatic stress, the hippocampus shrinks, adversely affecting one’s short-term memory and ability to learn. People with stress-adapted brains have been found to be more susceptible to anxiety and mood disorders, including depression.

As a society, we often code outlooks like Mr. Young’s as “overreactions” and encourage people who are inclined to them to turn to remedies like psychotherapy and journaling to exorcise the stress or try to reframe the threat as an invigorating challenge. But members of marginalized groups who have been conditioned by real-life, high-stakes hardships to be chronically vigilant are not overreacting. Nor are they “snowflakes.” Nor are their challenges invigorating—often quite the opposite. They are adaptive. And while we sometimes devalue these reactions as “perceived,” as if they are a figment of a person’s imagination, it would be more accurate to consider them as evidence- or experience-based calculations that may have been triggered by a false alarm. Stressors that weather go well beyond the stresses you can consciously perceive and, possibly, reframe.”]

arline t. geronimus, from weathering: the extraordinary stress of ordinary life in an unjust society, 2023

#transcribed #cw racism #antipsychiatry #terra preta

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blubberquark · 5 years ago

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Different Aesthetics of Procedural Death Labyrinths

Mike Rose asked on Twitter:

Here's a question: How do you feel about the word "roguelike"?

There was a point a few years ago where it was a huge selling point! I feel like these days, people sigh at the term a fair amount

Would a game being sold as a roguelike make you excited now?

There’s an obvious explanation, but I think it’s wrong: There are just too many rogue-like games now. The novelty has worn off. People are fatigued by all the roguelikes, and those who aren’t fatigued have all their rogue-like needs met by twenty roguelikes in their Steam libraries that they haven’t played yet. Let’s call this the “saturation” theory.

I much prefer this idea: The people who wanted the word “roguelike” to only refer to roguelike games according to the Berlin Interpretation were actually on to something. Nowadays, there are roguelike shooters (Heavy Bullets, Tower of Guns, Receiver), roguelike platformers (Spelunky, Flinthook), roguelike twin-stick shooters (Isaac, Our Darker Purpose, A Wizard’s Lizard, Nuclear Throne, Enter The Gungeon), and roguelike space battle strategy games (FTL: Faster Than Light). So the term “roguelike“ doesn’t just refer to Cogmind, Dredmor, and Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup any more. The Steam tag “roguelike“ is near useless. Let’s call this the “ambiguity” theory.

I’m not sure if roguelikes would be doing better on Steam if we stuck to the Berlin Interpretation though. For one thing, then we would be looking at a completely different set of games, led by Cogmind, ToME, Caves of Qud, Dredmor, and ADOM. I’m not sure if these games are doing better or worse than in 2013, and that question is a different one from the one Mike Rose asked.

If we just assume for the sake of argument, that roguelikes in the spirit of the Berlin Interpretation are selling as well now as they did then, it could also be the case that literally nothing has changed, but over time, the term “roguelike“ started to encompass games that were less and less successful, commercially. Maybe there is no effect to explain causally, and the perception is only created by definitions changing over time. It’s basically the Will Rogers phenomenon.

But maybe the ambiguity and broadness of the word “roguelike“ is about aesthetics, not mechanics. Old-school roguelikes have a hunger clock, a trade-off between exploration and moving on, dozens of items and interactions, procedural generation, secrets and traps, unidentified potions, and similar things. But a hunger clock is not by itself important. It is not even part of the Berlin Interpretation. The ambiguity actually applies to the aesthetics of play, not to the mechanics.

To demonstrate the idea of aesthetic ambiguity by example, I am grouping games that are dynamically and aesthetically similar, but mechanically different:

Spelunky, Noita, Streets of Rogue, and FTL are not turn-based, but they are all very much in the roguelike spirit, the *hack-like spirit even. There is a trade-off between exploration and safety, items can be picked up and dropped, and a single overpowered item early on can start a positive feedback loop that will win your run. There is always a trade-off between risk and reward, and things can get out of hand quickly if you run into the wrong interaction between mobs, level geometry, traps and items. You can to some extent decide whether you play aggressively or peacefully. A hunger clock or similar mechanic is sometimes needed to curb stalling and excessive exploration or exploitation of game mechanics.

Cardinal Quest and Hack Slash Loot were coffebreak roguelikes. They were about roguelike turn-based combat, not about interactions between items or exploration and finding clever solutions. All runs in the first Cardinal Quest are pretty much the same after a while.

Red Rogue, Dungeons of Dredmor, and Cogmind borrow heavily from old-school roguelikes like NetHack. The game mechanics are intricate, there are lots of numbers, and monsters can pick and use items in Red Rogue. There is no alternative to combat in Dredmor. It’s bore of a *band than a *hack. You have to kill monsters to level up - but there are many ways to do that. Dredmor is designed for people who played Diablo and want something more demanding, not for people who played Nethack and want something more casual.

Rogue Legacy, Flinthook, Monolith, Enter The Gungeon, Nuclear Throne, and Heavy Bullets are completely different beasts. They are real-time, and use execution skill/twitch skill. Two runs of Enter The Gungeon are more similar to each other than two runs of Streets of Rogue. There is no diplomacy or stealth in these games.

In none of these games - in none of these categories - is the procedural level design responsible for most of the variety in gameplay. The procedural generation is essential so every run feels different, with different monsters, different loot, different rooms, but these don’t need to be unique to the run, or particularly creatively generated. You can re-use the same rooms, the same loot, the same monsters every run, as long as the player doesn’t know which room is behind a door, which monsters are lurking behind the corner, which piece of loot is hidden where.

Skills and loot are making runs different from each other, and the interaction between your character build/loadout and the procedural generation makes an individual run exciting and unpredictable.

Picking up Mom‘s knife in Isaac is a run-transforming moment. Two Noita runs with the same wands will feel pretty much the same. The high-level biome structure in Noita is fixed. The secrets are always in the same place. The procedural generation in Noita forces the player to always explore each biome to find every wand and health-up item. It forces the player to ration limited-use spells like bombs, rather than saving them first and then dumping them on the big monsters in known places.

Spelunky is perhaps the game where the level generation is most important: There are so few items, and in a single run one could probably acquire most of them. Then again, a single missed jump can mean certain death. Bad level generation can be bypassed by bombs, which are a limited resource. Health is even more limited, and you almost never use it as a resource, never intentionally trade it for anything else.

In FTL and Streets of Rogue, there are different play styles enabled by different items/weapons or mutations/systems. With the right loadout, you can try stealth, and with the right alignment (in FTL, with the right crew), you can use diplomacy instead of violence. And you can always decide to flee or skip an optional quest. FTL, Spelunky and Noita do not require you to clear challenges or fight bosses in order to advance to the next level.

In Isaac, you eventually spiral out of control, you barely scrape by, or you die. If your initial conditions are favourable, you can afford to explore everything, you don’t need to spend money on heart containers, and you can spend heart containers on devil deal items. In Gungeon, your run is all set when you pick up a good gun. These games have three dynamics: Losing trajectory, winning trajectory, and winning hard. If you’re on a losing trajectory, you need to economise and preserve your health. If you’re on a winning trajectory, you need to clear every normal room, play reasonably well, and think twice about optional challenges. Most of the time, your success depends on your moment-to-moment play, twitch skill, dodging and shooting, unless you become so powerful you can kill every enemy in the room before one of them gets to shoot.

Nuclear Throne is on the other extreme: You must kill every enemy in the level to advance. Each level is open, connected, and samey. There is some strategy to picking up weapons and choosing mutations, but the game is a twin-stick shooter with randomised levels, and you will never avoid a fight or get powerful enough not to care about dodging attacks.

There is a spectrum of emergent-ness (I know “emergent” and “emergence” are words, but this is meant to be a quantity you can compare between systems), with Nuclear Throne on one end and Spelunky or Streets of Rogue on the other. Isaac has a lot of variety based on the different items, but that variety is not emergent from interactions between items and the procedurally generated levels.

Games with more emergentness have more complex interactions between items and mobs/ememies, more general mob/enemy AI, and more complex environmental interactions. In Isaac and Nuclear Throne, everything tries to kill you and that’s it.

Minecraft, Proteus, No Man’s Sky, and MirrorMoon EP are procedurally generated, but not roguelikes, roguelike-likes, or rogue-lite games. Unlike roguelikes, they can actually do interesting things with their procedural generation. Minecraft can have unique mountain ranges like you have never seen before, and complex interactions between blocks. MirrorMoon EP has complex procedurally generated puzzle planets. Over several days. but within one playthrough, you will be able to craft every tool, see every biome, and mine every block in Minecraft. You can make totally novel contraptions out of honey, pistons, and redstone, or you can find interesting landscape, but never both in one. You will never find naturally occurring redstone machines. Minecraft doesn’t go for unique interactions between your build and the level generation.

Although Minecraft is full of deep and complex systems, they will only come into play when the user engages with them. Any chain reactions are set up and then set off by the player. Minecraft and No Man’s Sky are sandboxes. The mechanics are broad and complex, the procedural generation is intricate, and there are many ways to play and things to do.

Rogue Legacy is a fun game, but it doesn’t do a particularly good job at evoking the aesthetics of rogue, or the aesthetics of metroidvanias, for that matter.

Most new procedurally generated death labyrinths described as “roguelike“ are neither mechanically or aesthetically like Rogue or Nethack. They don’t need to be. Nethack already exists.

More and more games on Steam are aesthetically coffeebreak roguelikes, or designed tightly around moment-to-moment execution skill. If there are pre-defined, pre-designed rooms balanced for enemies with certain attack patterns, there is no room for emergent interactions between mobs and the environment.

Mechanically, Hack Slash Loot, Powder, Cogmind, Cardinal Quest I, Dredmor, and Nethack are “real” roguelikes. Aesthetically, Nethack, Spelunky, Streets of Rogue, Dredmor, and FTL are “real” roguelikes.

Now imagine somebody bought a “roguelike” on Steam, and that “roguelike” was Rogue Legacy. It even has “rogue“ in the name! Will Cogmind make this player happy?

#video games #roguelike #semantics #what is a roguelike

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arcane-sync · 6 years ago

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Sander Sides and Dissociative Identity Disorder

This is a topic that wanders in and out of the sphere of focus amongst the Thomas Sanders and Sanders Sides fandoms (the Fanders). I feel inclined to give our input as well as a thorough explanation, because I’m long winded like that.

For the purposes of credibility and clarity, we are officially and unofficially diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder (which used to be called multiple personality disorder). By this, I mean more than one therapist and a psychiatric nurse have told us it’s highly likely we have this disorder. However, our various institutions of mental treatment do not provide the primary diagnostic tools used to diagnose DID. We are having a hard time finding someone who can administer either the Structured Clinical Interview for Dissociative Disorders (the SCID-D) for either the DSM IV or the DSM V, or the Multidimensional Inventory for Dissociation (the MID) who also accepts our insurance. So according to medical professionals, we’re diagnosed. However, there are people in the community who will say you can’t be diagnosed without one of those two tools. My sibling is also diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder.

Since I plan on tagging multiple tags outside of the Fanders, I will very briefly summarize Sanders Sides. This is a youtube series starring a singlet by the name of Thomas (Thomas Sanders being the owner of the channel and actor, but he has made it clear that the Thomas in the series is a character and not himself). In it, he talks to different “sides” of his personality, exploring all sorts of issues while doing so. These sides are logic, creativity and morality with a fourth side of anxiety being added later (for those in the fandom, I know I’m leaving information out. Shhhhh. I am specifically doing so in case anyone outside the Fanders decides to go watch it). Later on, these four sides reveal their names of Logan, Roman, Patton and Virgil respectively. For those amongst multiplicity cultures, you should already be able to see why this might cause controversy.

Dissociative Identity Disorder is an extreme on a spectrum of multiplicity. For the purposes of this discussion, let’s give a quick run down of the typical names and types of multiplicity across this spectrum. (Using gender neutral pronouns because I cannot be bothered to type himself/herself/themself repeatedly)

1. Singleton

This is the average individual you will run into. This type of person is whole in and of themselves. They might have different ways of behaving with friends versus family versus work versus alone, but that is typically accepted behavior for a singleton.

2. Median System

This is someone who’s behavior implies more than one person. They may or may not consciously recognize this vague division with themselves, or they might have consciously or unconsciously created more extreme modalities of behaving for the purposes of getting things done. They are neither singlet nor multiple.

3. Tulpamancy

Originally a monk practice, this is when someone consciously personifies different aspects themselves. This can be either to sharpen skills or to learn about themself. An example would be someone who pushes their sadness into a box and talks to it in an attempt to understand their sadness. Eventually, this box is supposed to evolve into an independent being inside their head. Once fully developed, they are officially called a Tulpa, thus tulpamancy being the practice of creating them. They may or may not have a name or gender. They are neither singlet nor multiple.

4. Borderline Personality Disorder

I hesitantly place this on this list, but I feel it’s worth discussing for the purposes of this discussion. On the spectrum, BPD could arguably be placed anywhere on the spectrum below OSDD. There are 9 symptoms to diagnose this illness, and there are entire books written on it. I am not going to dig into that here, but suffice it to say that BPD could be argued to be on this spectrum. This is someone who is characterized by a distinct instability of self. They may or may not go by multiple names, but what defines them as a person swings wildly around. They feel or act unstable. They might change behavior, clothing style, or friend groups rapidly. This is a MENTAL ILLNESS and not something to be pursued. If you think you might have BPD, please seek professional help. They are typically considered an extremely unstable singlet or perhaps median at most. However, it is not uncommon for someone with BPD to pursue tulpamancy to help understand themselves or become an endogenic system to help define their unstable state of being. (However, if this person developed BPD as a result of trauma, they could arguably be placed within the traumagenic area of this spectrum)

5. Endogenic System

This is a broad term. Technically speaking, an endogenic system is strictly a system that came to exist naturally (essentially, trauma did not cause their identity split). As a result, this could include Median, Tulpamancy, BPD splitting their different ways of behaving to understand themself, or anything and everything in between. Some claim they just grew up this way. Due to the broad nature of the definition of endogenic, there is a lot of controversy surrounding it. I’ll touch a bit on that controversy later. Within endogenic culture, they are considered multiple.

6. Quiogenic System

This is a system who has no idea why they’re multiple. They don’t know if they’re traumagenic or endogenic, if its caused by childhood trauma, if they grew up this way, if they accidentally created their multiplicity, or any combination of the above. They might be singleton, they might be endogenic, or they might be traumagenic (Worth noting is a lot of traumagenic systems are amnesiac of their trauma. Something could have traumatically happened, but they have no recollection of what happened. Some are even amnesiac of their own amnesia. Meaning, they don’t know what memories they don’t know, and/or they don’t even realize they’re missing significant portions of their life where trauma occurred. This naturally causes a lot of concern and confusion). If you don’t know why you’re multiple, you deserve professional psychiatric help if it is something you struggle with.

7. Imitative Dissociative Identity Disorder

This is where we lean into the multiplicity debate heavily. Imitative DID is not an officially DSM recognized illness (DSM stands for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and is the accepted standard for diagnosing mental illnesses). However, it is gaining recognition within professional psychiatric fields and multiple articles have been written on it. This is someone who either deliberately or unconsciously created their multiplicity. Believers in Imitative DID would argue everything discussed thus far would be Imitative. You can easily see how this causes strife, as this essentially states anyone who isn’t traumagenic is making up their multiplicity for whatever reason. Since multiplicity is so closely tied to how someone understands themself or themselves, this is like a slap to the face. It is not uncommon for traumagenic systems to call anyone else fake and incapable of understanding true multiplicity. Which traumagenic multiplicity comes with a LOT of problems that makes life terribly difficult or hellish. They get angry because they feel like endogenic systems are encroaching on their clinical terminology and stealing/redefining it. This in turn is considered to be devaluing their mental illness and struggles, ruining the official credibility of a set of illnesses that is already extremely stigmatized culturally and professionally. They also feel like endogenics are stealing/overwhelming/corrupting their admittedly few areas of clinical support. Knowing all this, it should be pretty obvious why there’s so much controversy here and why it can get so vicious.

8. Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

This is not yet a DSM recognized mental illness. This is a form of PTSD created for the purposes of better encompassing chronic abuse symptoms such as childhood abuse. However, this could also include trauma caused later in life such as war. There are other examples, but these are the most common cases. In that case, C-PTSD would be diagnosed instead of PTSD if it presents with what appears to be multiplicity, such as severe emotional dysregulation (inability to control emotions) and emotional black outs. This person can present with one or two other supposedly different identities. The difference in personality is usually very obvious, and the individual does not typically remember what happened in this alternate state. It is unclear if they are truly multiple or not, although most will argue not. If you think you have PTSD or C-PTSD, you deserve help and should seek it out as best you can.

9. Traumagenic System

These are systems that are created due to trauma. Clinically speaking, the large majority of professionals state this can only be caused by chronic childhood physical, sexual or emotional abuse. PTSD is almost always diagnosed comorbidly (comorbid illnesses simply meaning illnesses that are frequently diagnosed together on the same person). All traumagenic symptoms are defined by two or more distinct personalities/personality states/alternate personalities/or simply put: alters. These alters can be completely different ages, genders, or even ethnicities. Alter don’t even have to be human, presenting as animals, fairies or even rocks. This becomes terribly difficult to live with when say… a 5 year old, a wolf, or a rock alter ends up taking control (the clinical term being “fronting”) around family, friends, or even at work. Functioning independently can easily become impossible, although plenty of people manage it with treatment. If you think you might have DID or OSDD, you deserve professional help and should seek it out as best you can.

9a. Other Specified Dissociative Disorder

There are several different types of OSDD, but for the purposes of multiplicity only type 1 applies. Subtype 1a includes alters without clear boundaries between each personality. Subtype 1b is essentially DID without “lost time” (time during which the body was doing something but one or more alters do not remember what).

- I will add the caveat that OSDD 2 might apply depending on your POV. This is someone who has become convinced they are multiple via severe coercion/abuse.

9b. Dissociative Identity Disorder

This is a single body with two or more alters. In some cases, none of the alters will remember what anyone else has done. They might only be able to communicate via leaving each other letters. Other times, some alters might share memories and others might not. In order for DID to be diagnosed, there has to be lost time somewhere between the alters (as in, alter 1 might remember what alter 2 did but alter 3 might not). Whether or not this lost time has to be something that occurs in recent times or only something that occurred in childhood is a decision left to individual professionals.

Now back to Sander Sides. Knowing all of the information above, it should become obvious why there might be controversy surrounding the Sanders Sides. If you watch the series, it quickly becomes obvious that Thomas is a tulpamancer. Outside of the show, people have argued that Thomas Sanders himself might be median. Thomas Sanders himself has strictly denied any similarities between Sander Sides and Dissociative Identity Disorder.

This obviously puts Sander Sides dead center of the Imitative DID debate (endogenic versus traumagenic). Aside from that, there is the fact that tumblr in general has a gatekeeping culture inside it especially concerning any and all mental illnesses.

As for our personal opinion?

By all means, promote Sander Sides. We don’t even care if you present or consider Sander Sides to be representative of multiplicity, although I would generally discourage saying it is DID specifically, only similar in some ways. In the face of movies like Split and Sybil, multiplicity and DID especially needs better cultural representation. The fact that DID only ever makes the news when a criminal has revealed themselves (Like Billy Milligan, Billy Joe Harris, and Dwayne Wilson) makes this representation particularly important. As someone with DID, I would die for more media presenting DID as something other than dangerous. In fact, someone with DID or OSDD is far more likely to be victims than to create victims.

-On a side note: If you’re curious about multiplicity and how this may or may not apply to singletons in general, I highly recommend reading The Myth of Sanity: Divided Consciousness and the Promise of Awareness by Martha Stout. The DSM V is also a great resource for obvious reasons. For DID specifically, I recommend did-research.org . If more resources are desired, I can add them. I’d also encourage someone to reblog this with resources for these various mental illnesses, but I’m a bit too spent to attach that right now after typing all this.

Aside from all the debates, Sander Sides has helped multiple people come to accept their DID or OSDD. For some, it’s brought awareness to those mental illnesses. I know for multiple people with DID or OSDD, Sander Sides has been a huge relief. Finally, we get to see something that shows debates similar to the arguments that happen in our heads every single day. It’s a breath of fresh air.

Is Sander Sides DID? No.

Do I promote it anyway? Yes.

Do I think comparing it can do more good than harm? Yes.

Do I think it’s possible for it to cause harm? Certainly, but there is far more good that can come out of it. It’s worth the risk.

Editing real quick to say that I'm more than willing to answer any questions, related or no. Comment, reblog, Ask, PM or whatever else you can think of.

(tagging @aromantic-asshole cause he asked)

(Also tagging a few big name Fander blogs, because we would really like this to make the rounds)

@tinysidestrashcaptain��@treblesanders @randomslasher @sanders-sides-thuri @princelogical @milomeepit @theonlyjelly-iwillput-inmybelly @2queer2deer @ironwoman359 I know for a fact I’m forgetting people, I’m so sorry. I also don’t personally know over half of you and if this is unwanted, I apologize for that too. This just means a great deal to us, and we finally worked up the courage to say something. Also screw it, let’s tag @thatsthat24 and @thejoanglebook

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wolfliving · 5 years ago

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Garnet Hertz ponders Making

From: Garnet Hertz

This discussion is great - I just subscribed with Chris's message to me - it's nice to connect with like-minded people around this topic. I've obviously been hanging around the wrong places online (like Facebook).

"maker as a disconnection to class struggle" - I could talk about this for YEARS - or at least thousands of words (see below if you don't believe me):

In my view (and I know I'm preaching to the choir here) is that the maker movement was primarily an attempt to standardize, spread and commercialize what artists and hackers were already doing into a “Martha Stewart for Geeks” by Make magazine. The founders literally used "Martha Stewart for Geeks" as their vision - this isn't a metaphor.

My book project, for example, looks to articulate one of the many strands of this scene that predated making — DIY electronics in art — and it reaches back nearly a hundred years. As many of you know, it has a totally fascinating history.

Other strands include hacker culture since the 1970s, the free software movement since 1983, ubiquitous computing since 1991, open source hardware since 1997, the explosion of craft practices since Y2K, the Arduino platform since 2003, the FabLab movement since 2005, and the material turn of philosophy over the past several decades — all of these are maker movements, and most of them are more of a social movement than what Make has envisioned.

The maker movement as articulated by Make lacks fuel of its own and offers little of unique cultural value beyond giving us the nondisciplinary label of the ‘maker’ in 2005. Make magazine organized, promoted and ‘platformed’ the maker movement as its brand, but the leadership of makers came from other sources (as noted above).

What is most interesting about the idea of making is not the term itself — it is the pieces of hacking, craft, DIY culture and electronic art that were left out of constructing the idea of the "maker" (at least in North America), which was largely carved out by Maker Media to serve its private business needs related to selling magazines and event tickets. Maker Media very clearly sanitized things from the hacker scene (maker = hacker - controversy) and from the art/DIY scene (Dorkbot, especially - which I ran in Los Angeles at the time).

The newer understanding of ‘making’ is not really an all-encompassing term for all, but is focused on a specific subset of ideas, primarily exists in a limited geography of influence, has a limited ecosystem of tools, and follows a specific form for projects that are considerably different and more constrained than the ‘making’ that existed before. The scene envisioned by Maker Media was almost exclusively focused on producing work as a leisure pursuit, which is a total misunderstanding with how many hackers or artists work.

In retrospect, the maker scene rode two major waves: the Arduino and 3D printing. I see its death as partially a result of never being able to find a third wave. Maker Media was also constructed as a relatively financially heavy structure that needed a lot of fuel to survive -- it wasn't an artist collective. In terms of financial waves, the Arduino provided vital technological, social and ethical glue that massively helped Make magazine launch. The Ardunio technical platform provided an accessible and uniform venue for sharing project prototypes, and its open source hardware provided a novel and exciting blueprint for how physical electronic objects could be prototyped and distributed. The Arduino and Make had a symbiotic and intertwined relationship with each other, with Arduino providing the hardware, mindset and seed community for Make, and Make providing media coverage and scores of fresh users for the Arduino hardware platform.

A similarly intertwined relationship formed a few years later between consumer-level 3D printing and Make magazine and its affiliated Maker Faire. In hindsight, the 3D printing movement was synonymous with the maker movement between 2009 to 2013, and this impact is still felt today. Of the many projects and companies involved in the rapid expansion of inexpensive 3D printing after 2009, MakerBot was central — and Make magazine largely served as its promotional sidekick.

The maker movement is somewhat significant in that it highlights how alienated contemporary western culture has become from the manual craft of building your own objects, and how wholly absorbed it has been enveloped in consumer culture. The maker movement works counter this alienation, but does so with considerably broad strokes — almost to the extent that making anything qualifies as being part of the movement.

Instead of looking at the maker movement as a large interdisciplinary endeavour, it can also be interpreted as a re-categorization of all manual fabrication under a single banner. Language typically expands into a rich lexicon of terms when a field grows, and the generality of ‘making’ is the polar opposite. Ceramicists, welders, sculptors, luthiers, amateur radio builders, furniture makers and inventors have been conflated into the singular category of makers, and the acceptance of this shift seems to indicate that any form of making is novel enough in popular culture that it is not worth discerning what is being built.

If looking at what typically constitutes a social movement, Make magazine’s maker movement never fit the bill. For example, Glasberg and Deric define social movements as “organizational structures and strategies that may empower oppressed populations to mount effective challenges and resist the more powerful and advantaged elites.” If we ask what oppressed population Make magazine serves, it clearly doesn't have one.

If looked at from an economic perspective, Make’s readership contains considerably more powerful and advantaged elites than the oppressed: the publication’s own statistics claim that its audience has a median household income of $125,000 USD, over double the national US median of $59,039. Make’s maker movement is primarily a pitch to sell empowerment to the already empowered — in a 2012 Intel-funded research study on makers, “empowerment” is identified as a key motivator for the affluent group, and Make primarily sustained itself by catering to this audience until it realized that 3D printing and the Arduino weren't everything they promised to be. Or maybe people finally realized that they had enough 3D printed Yoda heads and blinking LED Arduino projects -- and that building stuff of cultural or design value was actually quite difficult.

If anybody else is interested in reading a draft of my book, just fill this out:

https://forms.gle/1F8787aJqSSapjPW9

- I'll mail out about a dozen physical hardcopies in exchange for harsh feedback.

I'm also still collecting thoughts about a "Post-Making" type of organization here:

https://forms.gle/JBM6DDFT7436p43G9

Some of the responses are as follows:

* Model it after dorkbot but instead of having meetings it can be geared around smaller regional Faires

* I would run it as a non profit and make sure that there are people from all over the world representing. Not only so US focused.

* Focus on low tech and tech criticism...as much as possible far from western culture...let say the gambiara creative movement in LATAM (brazil) or Cuban style repair culture, guerilla, community envisioned and run publications/workshops/happenings without the 'red tape' so often discussed as part of the Maker Media legacy.

So, no forced branding, no forced commonalities (other than perhaps a shared manifesto), no minimum number of participants or fundraising requirement for it to be a 'real' event of the community, and much less of a focus on attracting, and then satisfying, corporate sponsors.

* Should be about critical making, open source, skill sharing, critical thinking and more...

* I think the most important thing is to help local people meet up with each other in person. This should go far beyond people who already go to a hackerspace - this is something that Make did well by bringing together all sorts of people from children, university students, hackers, artists, etc. I don't think this has to be large scale.

* Member-run co-operative; leadership positions only for women; women-only days; focus on understanding biases built into technologies and imagining ways around this (critical technical practice)

And if anybody has made it this far down the page, I'm interested in talking to people working at universities that are working in this field.

Dr. Garnet Hertz Canada Research Chair in Design and Media Arts Emily Carr University of Art and Design 520 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver, BC, Canada V5T 0H2

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# <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,

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blogmarydsouza · 5 years ago

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Facts about Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing is becoming the backbone of revenue generation in every company. As a blogger your objective is to write, edit and publish, content on a website or a blog and also it has a huge scope in India.

BENEFITS OF HAVING DIGITAL MARKETING JOBS AND CAREER OPPORTUNITIES IN INDIA.

· Freedom

· It is on the boom

· There is always something new to learn

· Good salary package

· Don’t have to go door to door to market the product.

How Digital Marketing Works

Digital marketing and its associated channels are important – but not to the exclusion of all else. It’s not enough to just know your customers; you must know them better than anybody else so you can communicate with them where, when and how they are most receptive to your message.

To do that, you need a consolidated view of customer preferences and expectations across all channels – web, social media, mobile, direct mail, point of sale, etc. Retailers do this using omnichannel retail analytics. Marketers can use this information to create and anticipate consistent, coordinated customer experiences that will move customers along in the buying cycle. The deeper your customer insight into behavior and preferences, the more likely you are to engage them in lucrative interactions.

There are 10 types of Digital Marketing

1. Content Marketing : Content marketing is a type of digital marketing that focuses on creating and distributing content for a target audience. The content aims at being valuable, relevant, and (ideally) consistent. Its ultimate goal is to drive a profitable customer action.

2. Search Engine Optimization

SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” It is the process of getting traffic from the “free,” “organic,” “editorial” or “natural” search results on search engines.

All major search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo have primary search results, where web pages and other content such as videos or local listings are shown and ranked based on what the search engine considers most relevant to users. Payment isn’t involved, as it is with paid search ads.

3. Search Engine Marketing

Search engine marketing (SEM) is a digital marketing strategy used to increase the visibility of a website in search engine results pages (SERPs).

While the industry term once referred to both organic search activities such as search engine optimization (SEO) and paid, it now refers almost exclusively to paid search advertising.

Search engine marketing is also alternately referred to as paid search or pay per click (PPC).

4. Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing refers to the process of using social media platforms to attract traffic and attention. By using social media, you can increase exposure and build meaningful relationships with your customers.

While everybody can benefit from SMM as a type of digital marketing. B2C and SaaS companies tend to get the most out of it. Social media marketing is all about listening to what your customers have to say, engaging in the conversation, and sharing valuable content.

5. Pay - per - click Advertising PPC

Pay-per-click is a model of advertising where marketers pay a fee every time people click on their ad. Basically, it’s the process of buying visits to your site, as opposed to getting them organically via SEO or other types of digital marketing.

PPC is one of the types of paid search. It’s similar to SEM (search engine marketing) but can also include display advertising (cost-per-click based), and affiliate advertising.

6. Affiliate Marketing :

Affiliate marketing is one of the popular ways people make money online these days. If your affiliate program is successful, you might earn quite a decent passive income.

Basically, affiliate marketing is a type of digital marketing where a person partners up with other businesses in order to receive a commission for the traffic she/he generates for this business. Imagine this: you put a link to an external website on your own blog or website. Every time a user proceeds to this external website and makes a purchase, you receive a commission.

7. Email Marketing :

Email marketing is one of the most popular types of digital marketing. To put it shortly, it’s the use of email for promoting one’s products or services.

If you go a little deeper, email marketing might also refer to building relationships with your customers. Ideally, emails you send out to your clients should not only speak at them but also encourage meaningful interaction with your brand.

8. Instant Messaging Marketing

Instant messengers are the latest communication trend. There are 1.5 billion people globally using WhatsApp on a monthly basis, followed by Facebook Messenger and We Chat. If you want to be where your audience is, enter instant messaging marketing.

9. Radio Advertising :

While considered “old-fashioned” by some, radio advertising might still be a powerful medium, especially for B2C companies and local businesses.

Radio advertising is also relatively cheap, as you don’t need to produce fancy visuals: you solely rely on your customers’ imagination.

10. Television Advertising :

A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, commercial, ad, TV advert or simply an advert) is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization. It conveys a message, aimed to market a product or service. Advertisers and marketers may refer to television commercials as TVCs.

CAREER PROSPECTS IN DIGITAL MARKETING

1. Digital marketing manager

Responsibilities of Digital Marketing Manager : A digital marketing manager is responsible for developing, implementing and managing marketing campaigns that promote a company and its products and/or services. He or she plays a major role in enhancing brand awareness within the digital space as well as driving website traffic and acquiring leads/customers.

2. Content Marketing Manager

Responsibilities of Content Marketing Manager : Content Marketing Managers are usually responsible for planning, developing and implementing the overall company's content strategy. They are responsible for the management of the creation and production of online and offline marketing content.

3. content writer

Responsibilities of a Content Writer : Content writer usually research industry - related topics. Their responsibility is to write clear marketing copy to promote product/services and also to prepare well structured drafts using Content Management Systems. Content writers typically create content for the Web. This content can include sales copy, e-books, podcasts, and text for graphics. Content writers use various Web formatting tools, such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and content management systems to help create their work.

4. Social marketing expert or specialist

Responsibilities of Social Marketing Expert / Specialist : Social Media Specialists are responsible for planning, implementing and monitoring the company's Social Media strategy in order to increase brand awareness, improve Marketing efforts and increase sales. They help drive traffic to websites, promote content using various advertising strategies, and develop relationships with key influencers and target audiences. ... Facebook is an excellent place for marketing resources.

Skills you need for digital marketing

Today's digital marketing experts must have a diverse skill set, including a sophisticated grasp of available media channels, the ability to identify up-and-coming opportunities, on top of having the basic skills of a brilliant marketer

1.Paid social media advertising expertise

2. Sales skills

3. Specific marketing channel expertise

4. The ability to think objectively

5 .The ability to execute and analyse drip marketing campaigns

6. A mix of creativity and analytical abilities

7. A likable personality

8. An understanding of Word

9. Listening skills

10. Basic design skills

Digital Marketing is for everyone:

There are many professions in this world that is dictated by the stream you choose in 11th grade. For instance, someone who chooses arts is likely to end up diving into the world of academia. Same goes for commerce students who are more likely to do their BBA or B-Com and get into the business and marketing line. Similarly, you have to have taken science in 11th and 12th if you are interested in pursuing a career as a medical specialist or an architect. What this does is, it limits the career choice of a student who may end up following their chosen stream.

Everyone can pick a career in digital marketing. You don’t have to fulfill certain set of criteria or obligations to be a digital marketer. Any graduate, be it an engineering graduate, or a B.Com graduate, can pick this as a career by doing Certifications in Digital Marketing.

Career Options in Digital Marketing is unlimited:

A Digital Marketing Career does not confine you to a single job profile. Within Digital Marketing itself, there are many specialized and varied roles. You can be a digital marketer who specializes in e-mail marketing, or one who specializes in Facebook marketing, or simply someone whose specialty lies in Google ad-words, and so on, and so forth.

The scope in Digital Marketing is endless and you can cherry pick the ideal role for you. For instance, if you are someone whose life revolves around social media, then you can pick Facebook Marketing or Instagram Marketing.

The Scope of Digital Marketing in India

The future scope of digital marketing in India is going to be one that is all-encompassing. Because of its ability to offer a broad range of economic, powerful and modern mediums of marketing

Over the last few years Digital Marketing in India has witnessed an exponential growth and by the end of the year, 2020 it is expected to generate over 20 Lac jobs per year.

Future of Digital Marketing in India

Indian Goverment Efforts Digital India

Indian government in last 2 years has been putting lot of efforts in making Digital India. The government has been promoting digital mode of getting services, paying through digital payment channels and using digital platforms for all the upcoming new initiatives. Bheem App, UPI and GST are good examples of how the Indian government is trying to bring most people on the internet.

India will have 511.89 internet users by 2022. This would create excellent opportunities to do digital marketing. Digital India has given new scope of digital marketing in India.

Moreover, startups create during job opportunities in the field of digital marketing. Thus opening new avenues in the digital marketing career path. Digital marketing is the most economical way to do conversion-oriented marketing. All of digital marketing tactics can easily quantify with effective digital marketing tools like Google Analytics, Google Website Optimizer.

#careeropportunities #digital marketing #scope #career #growth #futureprospects

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disabilitythinking · 6 years ago

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The Disability Alphabet: A Is For ...

This is the first installment of a blog series that should run from now until the end of 2019. It’s called “The Disability Alphabet.” Twice a month, I will examine important words used in the disability community, in alphabetical order starting with A, and continuing through Z. But first, a few procedural notes:

I will be using a four-part structure to explore each term: Definitions, Common Uses, Problems & Misunderstandings, and Suggestions. The last will be my own thoughts on how we can best use the term, including any suggestions for changing how and when we use it.

This is an exploration of words, which is not quite the same thing as the things themselves. So for instance, I will explore the word “ableism,” but I won’t discuss at length what ableism means to me, what it does to people in society, or why it’s important.

I will try for the most part to take on terms that have special meaning and uses within the disability community. While words like “justice,” “health,” and “freedom” certainly have particular meanings for disabled people, they are a little too generic for this project. On the other hand, I may examine some general social justice terms, like “intersectionality” and “oppression,” becaus they are frequently misunderstood, and because they are used in specific ways in disability discourse.

These are going to be my personal explorations, based on my own limited research, but mainly my own experiences, ideas, and feelings. I will probably not cover every possible aspect of every word.

Feel free to add your own ideas, or disagreements, in the comments below.

And so we begin with …

Ableism

Definitions

Dictionary.com: “noun 1. discrimination against disabled people.”

Wikipedia: “ … discrimination and social prejudice against people with disabilities. Ableism characterizes persons as defined by their disabilities and as inferior to the non-disabled. On this basis, people are assigned or denied certain perceived abilities, skills, or character orientations.”

Common Uses

The most obvious use of the word “ableism” is to give a name to a broad range of discriminatory experiences people with all kinds of disabilities share to some degree. But the word has other, more specific functions too:

It distinguishes the disability experience from the more generic experience of “discrimination” or “prejudice” that can be applied to anyone, including non-disabled people.

It suggests some connection or similarity with other forms of discrimination that people may be more familiar with, such as racism.

By giving disability discrimination a distinct name, the word “ableism” takes the experience out of the category of mere misunderstanding and social rudeness, and places it more firmly in the category of damaging and urgent social ills.

Problems and Misunderstandings

At times, “ableism” is too general a word. There are too many different kinds of ableism. Each kind is serious, but often calls for different responses. Referring to such a wide range of experiences simply as “ableism” tends to over-simplify the way we think about it and deal with it.

I have tried a few times on this blog to map out the different kinds of ableism I have noticed. There’s a good summary of my thoughts here: Disputing “Ableism”. Roughly speaking, I tend to think in terms of three main kinds of ableism:

Well-meaning ableism

Systemic ableism

Asshole ableism

Your mileage, of course, may vary.

I think it’s also useful to separate “systemic” ableism … the ableism embedded and laws, policies, and practices … from interpersonal ableism … which is about the way people treat each other personally in regard to disability.

Another slight problem with “ableism” is that there are still people who hear the word and immediately think it’s “made up” for “political purposes.” I think what they mean is that they believe the term was coined with a specific rhetorical goal in mind. That’s probably true! But the same is true of a lot of words that are far more common and universally accepted than “ableism.”

In this run through the disability alphabet, I think we will find that people have fundamentally different beliefs about language that are distinct and separate from their political views. People seem to be hard wired one way or another. They either view language as an flexible and adaptable tool of communication and persuasion, or they cling to words as guardians of unchanging reality. And how people think about language affects how open they are to new words and new uses of language … something that has been essential in the evolution of disability culture and thought.

Finally, the way “ableism” borrows so directly on the meanings and rhetorical power of “racism” is, (to use another word we’ll need to explore at some point), problematic. Comparisons between ableism and racism do violence to the real-life experience of racism, and in any case the similarities are pretty limited. Both are systems of prejudice, but the similarities end there. On the other hand, “ableism” now has almost enough life and meaning of its own to stand alone, without needing to draw on that connection with racism or any other “ism.”

[Additional note: Squarespace underlines every time I type “ableism,” indicating that it doesn’t recognize it as a word. It may not be a new word to disabled people or the disability community, but it’s apparently new enough to be marked as a misspelling].

Suggestions

Despite all of the difficulties of “ableism,” there’s no better word available to describe and categorize the experience of disability discrimination and structural oppression. I use it. Still, whenever possible, I modify it, clarifying which kind of ableism I am talking talking about in any given situation.

Also, I try to use the word “ableism” describe, not to de-legitimize or shame. Calling someone or something “ableist” does not, to me, write them off. It’s not even a condemnation to me. At most it’s a criticism, more often an observation. I’m not suggesting shying away from the potential power of the word as a way to call out reprehensible behavior. I am suggesting that using the word with a bit of thought and nuance can make it more powerful and useful in the long run.

Advocacy

Definitions

Dictionary.com: “noun 1. the act of pleading for, supporting, or recommending; active espousal.”

Wikipedia: “Advocacy is an activity by an individual or group which aims to influence decisions within political, economic, and social systems and institutions. Advocacy can include many activities that a person or organization undertakes including media campaigns, public speaking, commissioning and publishing research or conducting exit poll or the filing of an amicus brief. Lobbying (often by lobby groups) is a form of advocacy where a direct approach is made to legislators on an issue which plays a significant role in modern politics.[1] Research has started to address how advocacy groups in the United States[2] and Canada[3] are using social media to facilitate civic engagement and collective action.”

Common Uses

In the world of disability, advocacy generally refers to any effort by an individual or a group to get something they want from some kind of institution … from a service agency, government office, employer, company, cultural institution, etc. When people with disabilities speak for themselves in order to get something they need or bring about some kind of change, we call it advocacy.

Problems and Misunderstandings

Like “ableism,” “advocacy” probably covers too many different activities. In current use the term encompasses both individual efforts aimed at personal gains, and group efforts to achieve broader systemic change. It covers asking your employer for extra time off or a raised desk. It also covers campaigning for health care reform and fighting attacks on the Americans with Disabilities Act. While all of these are related, they are also, obviously, quite different.

The term “advocacy” has also gradually become institutionalized. It is now sometimes used cynically to give the appearance of empowering disabled people, when in fact some activities labeled “advocacy” are really just dressed-up counseling or socializing. It’s a little too easy for an organization to say it does “advocacy” without really doing any.

Suggestions

I think we should start talking and writing about two related but separate things: advocacy and activism.

Activism

Definitions

Dictionary.com: “noun 1. the doctrine or practice of vigorous action or involvement as a means of achieving political or other goals, sometimes by demonstrations, protests, etc.”

Wikipedia: “Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct, or intervene in social, political, economic, or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society. Forms of activism range from writing letters to newspapers, petitioning elected officials, running or contributing to a political campaign, preferential patronage (or boycott) of businesses, and demonstrative forms of activism like rallies, street marches, strikes, sit-ins, or hunger strikes.”

Common Uses

“Activism” generally refers to organized, group activities aimed at making some kind of legal or social change. It includes everything from lobbying, letter-writing, and other “within the system” efforts to demonstrations, protests, and civil disobedience.

It seems like “activism” hasn’t been used as much in the past to describe these activities done by people with disabilities focusing on disability issues. “Advocacy” and sometimes “systems advocacy” has been the more common term. I don’t know why. Maybe because until fairly recently, most disability activism has been either run or heavily influenced by people and organizations that spoke the language of social work rather than politics. Maybe “advocacy” is a more comfortable linguistic fit for people who are unfamiliar or uncomfortable with politics.

But lately it seems like “activism” is being used more often by people in the disability community. After years struggling to find a word for the thing we do when we cooperate as a group to bring about social change for disabled people, it seems like we’ve finally started to realize that “activism” describes it quite well and quite simply. We don’t need to make up a special word for it. The right word has been there all along.

Problems and Misunderstandings

I don’t really see any problem with using the word “activism” in the disability context. I haven’t heard anyone complain that it mislabels what they are doing. Nor have I heard anyone assert that “advocacy” is a better term.

The only possible drawback to “activism” is that it might turn people off if they have a strong aversion to any kind of social or political activity. There certainly are lots of people in the disability community who don’t enjoy or appreciate “activism.” Yet, I’ve never noticed any aversion to the word itself.

Suggestions

So how about it? Let’s use “advocacy” when we talk about individual efforts, and “activism” when we talk about working together on broader goals. Who’s with me?

Next in The Disability Alphabet: B is for … Barrers and Benefits.

#Alphabet #Words

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transgenderteensurvivalguide · 7 years ago

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(1/6) In advance, sorry if this sounds clipped but I'm rewriting an 11 part ask because that's just too much and it feels like it would be rude to send such a long question. Somehow it's still long. So my background is: mostly used to aro and ace communities, don't have much experience with the lgbt+ community at large (trying to work on that), the way the aro/ace communities break concepts like attraction down really helped me figure out what my orientation was. Questioning my gender now and

(2/6) having a hard time finding resources that help me clarify my feelings instead of making me even more confused. I started researching thinking that they would be similar to aro and ace resources, going to the root of things and saying “What even is attraction, let’s define it” and breaking it down into chunks instead of trying to tackle the whole thing at once (see the split attraction model). Instead I found many lists of labels and pronouns, trans 101 that was at the same time too basic (3/6) and not basic enough, and “Gender is a feeling, masculinity/femininity/androgyny/etc are feelings too, no one can tell you what your gender is but you”. My request isn’t for anyone to tell me what my gender is, I’ll figure that out myself. But I feel I’m lacking the tools to do it. So does anyone have any resources, be they articles/blogs/life experiences and stories written by trans people/etc that breaks things like the feelings of gender as a whole, masculinity, femininity, androgyny,(4/6) agender, and dysphoria down (not coded behaviors or presentation, but what they actually FEEL like. These are the things that I’m most confused about and most want some sort of answer or definition for) in the style aro/ace resources do for attraction/orientation? To figure this out I need some sort of starting point or foothold or anchor for this instead of “it’s a feeling” when I don’t know what that feeling could be. But “Nobody can tell you what you are” sounds much more like defeat(5/6) than freedom to me rn. I’ve heard it said that gender is experienced differently by everyone, and if it’s really just some nebulous unidentifiable feeling that literally cannot be put into words then I can learn to live with the fact I’ll just never understand it, but… it just seems like there HAS to be some sort of commonality in the feeling of gender, the feeling of femininity/masculinity/all the rest that could be prevalent enough to say what that feeling IS and used to help people (6/6) figure out better who they are and who they want to be. For the ones like me who don’t even know what they’re feeling or what they want to be, just that they don’t want to feel like they do now.

Kii says:You’ve got a lot here, and you’re right. Gender is really confusing, and it really is something that 100 different people will give you 100 different answers about. Some people do feel their gender is best described by more visible aspects, such as behaviors, clothing, desired body, hobbies, etc, but some people don’t, and for them, it is just a feeling that isn’t describable, they just know internally what gender they are and can’t always explain why.

However, just because there are feelings doesn’t mean that everyone’s feelings are the same, like the commonality you’re mentioning. You know the old “how do we know that your green is the same as my green?” Two people could be seeing the exact same item, both agree that it’s green, but how does anyone know that if I saw the same item through your eyes, I would still call it green? Your eyes might be structured completely differently than mine. Your green might be my purple, etc. I think the same goes for the words “masculine” and “feminine”- I can give you words that I associate with each, but a lot of people might disagree.

Think of a person that you consider to be very masculine (whether they ID as a man or not)- why do you see them as masculine? Is it because of how they dress? What their body looks like? Because they like cars, sports, etc? How they act or other elements of their personality? Do the same for someone who you feel is very feminine (whether they ID as a woman or not). How is your “masculine” person different than your “feminine” person?

Androgyny is usually described as the intersection or mix of masculinity and femininity, so to figure out what you associate with androgyny, you kind of have to figure that out first.

We have a whole page about dysphoria, since that’s a more concrete concept. There are lots of descriptions there on how different people describe dysphoria and how it feels.

We also have this post, which a lot of people have tried to make helpful to questioning people, as well as this ask where various mods described what gender feels like to them.

Harper Says:I would also suggest a broader understanding of gender (and sexuality). You’re looking for a commonality that is not found uniformly in lived/expressed experiences - perhaps you might find it fleetingly, strangely, but I doubt it will come with much uniform clarity. The assumption that there has to be a commonality, a universality, is one that potentially assumes a (purely) medical/psychological account of gender and sexuality. Experiences of gender will necessarily intersect with other forms of systematic oppression: race, disability, and so on; and so each account of gendered experience has to be uncommon.Try instead understanding gender as part of a wider system of oppression rigged to benefit white cis men. In this, bodies, activities, sexualities, (and many other things) are codified and performed within a system of oppression. This is the way as far as I, and many other thinkers, understand gender. When you ask for gender as “not coded behaviors or presentation, but what they actually FEEL like” I think you misunderstand that gender is easily and always both. The performances, the risks, the transgressions, that commonly make up transgender experiences are inescapably coded behaviours - we don’t live in a society that isn’t oppressive. That is why there is such fear and thrill in a trans woman shaving her legs for the first time, or a trans man using the men’s bathroom for the first time. The emotion and feeling wouldn’t be there if such transgressions weren’t coded in a system of oppression that frowns upon such behaviours. Gender is always on some level something that is done and the doing is bound up with being. To strive for a definition that reduces one to the other or excludes one or the other is as far as I understand it, a misunderstanding, and this is perhaps where your confusion comes from.With this understanding I would then say that it is not very surprising that you’re finding dead-ends and confusion by trying to parse an understanding of gender through split-attraction model type thinking. This is a relatively recent way of thinking about sexuality within the LGBT community, (one that I personally find no stock in), butting up against around thirty years of queer feminist thought, and a whole history of LGBT lives and experiences. You will probably find that trying to think through gender in ace/aro modes of thought is an impossible task without this appreciation of transgender history or an understanding of heterosexuality as the oppressive action of gender.I’m not surprised then, that you find defeat instead of freedom; for many, gender is something that is survived. Freedom can only come with the abolition of gender, that is the end of the “material, social, and economic dominance of men and exploitation of women” (Escalante). So to speak of a commonality, perhaps start reading about how these oppressive systems work. Understanding all of this is not an easy task. Below I’ll feed a few pointers on a theoretical level, and as such can throw up inaccessible language. My hope is that if you do struggle with any of it, from here you can google keywords and hopefully find more sources that suit you better.For the theoretical exploration of such see: Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble, and Monique Wittig’s The Straight Mind and Other Essays (see One is Not Born a Woman - I haven’t yet managed to find a pdf for the whole book). Or key words: material feminism, Butler, gender performance, heterosexuality, the straight mind. CW: (this will be quite broad but I know Wittig talks about:) pornography, sexual harassment, slavery.For an account of gender which explores these concepts see Susan Stryker’s My Words to Victor Frankenstein…. In this Stryker mixes a lived personal experience with gender as a trans woman alongside theoretical musings. Key words: transfeminism, transgender studies, transgender rage. CW: surgery, suicide, TERF stuff, pregnancy, birth.I would also recommend investing yourself in transgender voices and histories, so you can see how a varied approach to gender throughout history has been undertaken and lived. How complexities and contradictions have been embodied and embraced complexly by trans individuals. See Paris is Burning for what has become an important moment in LGBT cinema and history. CW death, accounts of violence, mentions of surgery, talk about sex.Also check out One From the Vaults a trans history podcast by Morgan M. Page. (Also available on iTunes, etc. I think.) In this engrossing podcast, Page tells the stories of various trans - or at least gender transgressive - people throughout history, including clips of them, letters, interviews, etc.. It comes with “all the dirt, gossip, and glamour from trans history” and so shows the variety of our trans ancestors throughout history, good and bad, happy and sad; encompassing all different ways of doing gender and different ways of being.In terms of your own personal questioning of gender, I would do as I advised here. Do gender: evoke man, evoke woman, evoke neither. Try things out, see what you feel. Explore yourself and your own embodiment and explore the feelings that arise out of this. At the end of the day, gender isn’t something that originates from books and articles, it is lived and done out in the world.I wish you the very best on your journey!

#harper says #Anonymous #kii says #caps #what is gender #wittig #butler #split attraction model #transfeminism #long post #questioning #trans history #trans media

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brand-it · 3 years ago

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Digital Marketing for Beginners: The Ultimate Guide (2021)

Digital marketing is what drives e-commerce sales. So what’s the point of that? Can you do it and succeed? In this beginner’s guide to digital marketing, I will break it down into smaller sections to make it easier to understand.

Digital marketing is not new; it’s been around for a while. Radio’s first public transmission happened in 1896 when the radio began broadcasting. That’s the whole point of internet marketing. However, this advertising approach is distinct from typical marketing in that it uses wireless signals.

Digital marketing has a lot of misunderstandings associated with it. A simple way to illustrate this concept is to note that, for example, some people believe that online and digital marketing are identical, which is incorrect. In the context of online marketing, internet access is just required, whereas conveying digital signals is also required in the context of digital marketing.

In other words, digital marketing encompasses various media, including billboards, radio, and televisions. Have you discovered this by chance? Don’t worry; you’re not alone. Believe it or not, there are still some more misconceptions out there. It sounds reasonable. Let’s get started!

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing has been around since the invention of the radio. Using digital signals to communicate with clients, visitors, or readers is a method of marketing known as communication by digital signals. Digital marketing has grown a lot over the years, particularly in the past few years.

The word “digital” describes several methods of delivering marketing communications such as electronic devices, including television, radio, search engines, websites, social media, and more.

It demonstrates the range of channels available in modern-day digital marketing. Suddenly, every day a new app, website, or digital solution appears. According to Think with Google, 48% of customers use search engines to begin their inquiries.

All marketing channels are not equal. When it comes to digital marketing, you have many marketing options, including email, social media, and PPC. Let’s learn about your company’s investment rationale for digital marketing.

Why Digital Marketing?

In business, more sales, leads, and profits are always required. To succeed, it will have to experiment with new marketing techniques. Digital marketing is at least ten years old. Until now, there were just a limited number of channels. However, people’s attitudes have shifted. Companies have also adjusted in response.

Google and social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram create more income than any traditional media agency; they provide more monetary revenue than traditional media agencies. Why? They’re exposed to more people. That is why internet marketing is critical. There are a few things you must know.

Your Clients or Readers are Online.

Today, around 4.66 billion individuals are using the internet. That represents over 60% of the whole global population. It is rapidly expanding in number. With the current year ending, you’ll see approximately 319 million new users. So think about the ability to promote your idea to the people in your life.

Affordability and ROI of Digital Marketing

More than ever, digital marketing is all about online marketing. However, while online ads are much more economical than those aired on television, they still carry a much higher cost. For example, it might cost $120,000 to air a 30-second commercial on a national television channel.

When it comes to making new material and then spreading it around on social media, the cost may be reasonably low. And, of course, you’re well aware of it. Starting your digital marketing efforts is quick and easy with digital marketing. As well as increasing profitability, digital marketing investments have the advantage of growing profitability over investments in traditional marketing.

Your competition has already Implemented it.

Businesses from McDonald’s to Gucci are all promoting using digital channels. So regardless of your sector or niche, your competitors are already doing it. So that’s a strong argument in favor of your success in digital marketing.

How do you deconstruct the problem? First, discover the most prominent digital marketing categories. Then, let’s give it a go!

Breakdown of Digital Marketing: 9 Major Types

The only way to become a successful digital marketer is to learn how to break it down into steps. I’ll take care of it. Digital marketing may be broken down into 9 distinct types:

Content marketing

Search engine optimization

Search engine marketing

Pay-per-click advertising

Social media marketing

Email marketing

Mobile marketing

TV & radio marketing

Electronic billboards

As you can see, digital marketing is a broad topic; this one can’t concentrate on one part of it. Instead, you can find your items and services via a variety of ways and channels.

The Ultimate Guide to Digital Marketing for Beginners in 2021

Since you’re in the marketing industry, you should focus on a particular sector in digital marketing rather than using digital marketing as a whole. Do you understand this? Let’s begin.

1. Content Marketing

Content marketing is the only kind of marketing that will exist forever and the only type of marketing ever existed. Today, the variety of content marketing efforts includes email marketing, social media marketing, and electronic billboards, but all begin with the concept of content marketing.

Without unique content, every marketing campaign is doomed to fail.

While it’s true that many content marketing initiatives include a blog, video, or tweet, these elements are only a tiny part of a larger content marketing strategy. All about the content: a printed flyer is still a good source of information even if it doesn’t benefit from the power of content. Powerful because it is an excellent storyteller. We all enjoy narratives. Isn’t that correct?

I love Quora because of the amazing content created by its users. When your audience is present, your message is conveyed.

Affiliate marketing is a type of content marketing in which you market the material to earn affiliate commissions. Books, podcasts, movies, white papers, emails, and many more are part of content marketing strategies.

Each approach has its way of going about things, but they all follow the same core creative process.

These are the actions you should take:

Make sure your goals are in line with your mission.

A unique selling point is anything that differentiates your company from competitors.

You need to know your audience and be aware of its regular patterns.

Consider who your target audience is and the type of information they are most likely to find helpful.

Plan by creating a content calendar that you can update often.

And for those of you who care, here’s a helpful hint, To measure the effectiveness of your digital marketing, use URL shortening tools.

2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Now that you’ve recognized the value of content, it’s time to optimize it for search engines such as Google. This digital marketing strategy attracts organic traffic because of it. While traditional forms of marketing tend to be inconsistent, digital marketing is more consistent than anything else.

SEO is all about applying the best search engine optimization (SEO) strategies to rank most in search engines like Google or Bing. The material must meet business objectives by ranking for a particular keyword or query. SEO is not quick. It will take some time before you can appreciate the payoff, but it is well worth the wait.

These are the actions you should take:

It would be best if you understand what your target audience is searching for.

Use keyword research to find the most effective keywords, and then choose the ones that best describe your content.

Identify keywords for your audience, and produce valuable content for them based on those keywords.

It is crucial to always keep in touch with your visitors or consumers with great, thought-provoking content.

Push to increase the number of authority links or mentions of your business asset to its place in the overall strategy.

Long-term SEO is continuous. It does not follow rigid guidelines and is not a one-time technique. Diversify your portfolio and anticipate your profits to increase little by little.

3. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

As with SEO, search engine marketing (SEM) is most similar to search engine optimization (SEO) because both seek to target search engines. There are many distinctions between SEO and SEM, but some can be surprising. For example, the practice of making money through paid advertising is referred to as search engine marketing.

SEM aims to get as much visibility as possible in the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). When you purchase a search ad, you’re paying the search engine to place an advertisement for a particular keyword. So, for instance, if someone types into the search engine, your page will rise above organic results in the results list.

These are the actions you should take:

Start by conducting keyword research.

Calculate the total cost of all relevant keywords.

Limit your selection to terms that have the highest return on investment.

Create content that your audience loves and use adverts to bring in revenue

You may improve the click-through rate by using A/B ad copy.

Choose places relevant to your business.

Analyze the performance as a whole and plan accordingly to increase the ROI.

Before finding a specific phrase or term to target, test many keywords in the search engines to find the one that yields the most profitable results. Pay-per-click (PPC) and search engine marketing (SEM) are both forms of paid advertising using search engines.

4. Social Media Marketing

You did indeed guess correctly. You use social media marketing to market your business, such as on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. Everybody in the world must use social media in their business these days. Why? Because everyone uses social media. Customers, Visitors. Everyone.

Go for the social network that will best help you meet your business goals. This is an example of an organization focusing on B2B, and LinkedIn is one of its outlets. And if you enjoy fashion, then you should check out Pinterest or Instagram.

For each individual, it depends. Planning will help you avoid social media miscalculations.

These are the actions you should take:

Know your audience and their needs.

People only care about the type of stuff they adore.

To recognize and identify your competition.

Do something different to engage your audience.

Initiate a social media audit and make changes as a result.

5. Email Marketing

In 1978, the first email was sent to prospective customers, resulting in $13 million in revenue. Momentum continues to build. With email marketing, you can expect to receive a return on investment (ROI) of $42 for every dollar you spend. Email marketing is one of my favorites since you have the opportunity to make personal connections with people. Before it’s too late, build an established relationship with your subscribers.

Take the customer-centric approach to sharpen the power of email marketing. It is about your clients and readers, not about you and your business. If you are new to email marketing, use them as your starting points.

The first step to finding customers for your brand is finding new prospects. And email is just one of several marketing channels, not the only one.

These are the actions you should take:

Determine who your target audience is and why they should care.

Give your customers a reason to sign up (offer an ebook or some other lead magnet).

The goal is to develop an attention-grabbing opt-in form.

Select an email campaign type that is more likely to generate the results you want.

Decide on an email marketing service to help you accomplish your goals.

Another vital point to keep in mind is that your text should remain consistent with your overall voice or brand image. A solid call to action (CTA) is required to increase site visitors who convert into subscribers. Make sure that an opt-in box appears at the proper time so that you can send a message. Personalize your message regularly.

6. Mobile Marketing

Digital marketing encompasses all of the different forms of mobile marketing that I’ve addressed here. Our entire lives are on our phones, thanks to social media and email. To serve customers on their mobile phones, you must optimize your content.

There are a few things you can do:

Always monitor your content’s sizing to stay on top of your competition.

Also, think about the phone when you’re streaming on the go.

Redesign your websites to provide mobile-friendly advertisements.

For a high open-rate, make sure to optimize your newsletter, too, not simply the video content or blog.

Measure the effectiveness of your mobile marketing campaign.

7. TV & Radio Marketing

It is possible that you may not be here for this, I understand. But I suppose I should also add television and radio advertising since it’s a kind of digital marketing. For another thing, the radio may also be used to describe podcasts, and TV may describe internet videos. Nevertheless, in this section, I will focus on radio and TV.

Today, everyone is online, but you may use TV and radio solely to target specific demographics precisely. To catch your audience’s attention, you can also use TV commercials while your audience is watching their streaming TV. What would you like to do?

There are things you can do:

Know your audience and their needs.

To ensure your ads will capture the audience’s attention, be sure your audience will be looking at your ads.

Change the adverts on your TV and radio based on where your audience lives.

Hire the finest and on a budget.

Customize your TV and radio advertisements with streaming service providers for more personalized adverts.

8. Electronic Billboards & Other Digitized Marketing

In addition to digital marketing, electronic billboards are kinds of digital marketing. It is impossible to dispute that your eyeballs become an electrical billboard of eye appeal when you are on the road. The exciting things you may do to enhance earnings depend on your audience.

These are the actions you should take:

Know your audience and their needs.

The method for luring in the creative set is to craft the creatives.

Use the power of colors to your advantage.

Invent powerful catchphrases.

When choosing a location, be sure only to select the most acceptable potential option.

That’s all there is. I’ve put in my best effort to give you value and understanding to help you as a newbie in digital marketing. Even if the guide was lengthy, read on to see what happens next.

TL; DR — Digital Marketing for Beginners in 2021

In this beginner’s guide to digital marketing, you can see that it is not just for internet marketing. But let’s be honest: Not even the wealthiest can win them all. So when planning this type of content, I don’t encourage it unless your audience dictates it.

This means that despite this, let’s have a look at the many things digital marketing can help you do:

Make material that will go viral and then come up with a content marketing strategy.

It is essential to focus on search engine optimization and marketing, too.

Third, you must be adept at finding and implementing new social media methods (as discussed above).

Mobile phones are great to include in any marketing campaign, so have them.

It is recommended that you use TV and radio commercials and electronic billboards based on your target population.

Every form of digital marketing has one thing in common: the audience. As said in the ‘Things You Need to Do’ section, I maintain an understanding of your target. Why? To advertise yourself or your business ideas, make sure that you sell what you have to offer.

#digital marketing #digital marketing guide #digital marketing for dummies #digital marketing 2021 #digital marketing for beginners

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concerningwolves · 7 years ago

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Writing Romance | The Ins, Outs and All-Arounds

Here’s a fun fact before we get started: you don’t have to like the typical romance novel to enjoy writing romance yourself. You don’t even have to be a romantic person. I see so many writers saying things like “I don’t like romance, I’m not romantic, I’ve never had a romantic relationship!! I can’t write romance!!” These things are not mutually exclusive to one another.

Can’t do it? Then stop. Walk away and find a TV show or a book series and run over to Archive of Our Own to hunt down some fanfiction, then write some of your own. This works best for the non-canon but super hinted-at ships, like Destiel or Johnlock, the kind of ships where the characters are friends, but their chemistry is so strong that everyone winds up agreeing that these canon-stated heterosexual characters are actually closeted non-straights in love with one another. In the long run this doesn’t matter too much, since you need to ship the ship yourself, but that’s the gist of it.

The only thing to do from there on in is practise, practise, practise. The groundwork has been done for you, which means all you have to do is write something that keeps true to the characters’ relationship, carries over the qualities that make people ship them in the first place, show some intimacy, and. Oh. Look! Romance! (please bear in mind this is simplified and I’m about to get into the gritty details now)

That’s all good, but how do you go about then making your own groundwork?

Consider the things that go before attraction is the answer. Whether your characters go from friends to lovers or enemies to lovers, or anything else along that spectrum, there is a list of things that must, must must be present before any kind of romance can begin. Most media misses these out and thus warps our perception of how we as writers should be showing love, adding to this idea that we just can’t write it. If you look past the bullcrap of consumer-orientated romance, you’ll notice these fundementals missing:

Respect

This is more than Him holding the door for Her and thinking about how great her hair smells. Respect is knowing who the person is, understanding them, and not trying to shape them into your opinion of how they should be. It is asking for consent, not kissing to cut off an argument, accepting set boundaries, being willing to communicate, to try, to give space and know when space would be damaging. Respect is such a broad term, encompassing everything from basic human decency to the begginning of admiration, understanding and adoration. Romance is nothing without respect.

Understanding

Your two young women in love are never going to be able to take that love further until they understand one another and what makes them tick. And when I say “what makes them tick” I am not talking about turn-ons or sex, not in this context anyway. Loving someone without ever understanding them is tantamount to being in love with the idea of someone you hero-worship, or adoring a Victorian house for its antiquity based on the facade when the inside has been completely modernized.

Understanding isn’t always knowing your significant other’s turbulent past and understanding that it has warped their moral compass and trying to fix them (Don’t use the moral saviour trope in romance building, ever). More often than not, understanding is knowing that your Significant Other(s) doesn’t like loud places and respecting them enough to just take them out of that place; it is understanding that your SO will tell you why they have this problem in their own time, if at all, and that they don’t like having questions asked.

See now that these two things are both exclusive to their own, and intrinsically linked? You can’t have one without the other, and you can’t even begin to think about inching your plot or sublot into romance territory unless they’re present. Respect and understanding are how you have two characters forming a connection of some description. Ergo, groundwork.

So what is the groundwork anyway?

Groundwork is all of the aspects listed below. It’s the things that happen after, or in tandem with, some very basic respect and understanding being established between your characters. They’re not a recipe for loving or crushing- that happens on its own, and I’ll come back to how to write that later on- but they are a recipe for writing your blooming romance into an actual relationship that people will love.

Pre-established relationship

This can be a friendship or a fued- (if you’ve ever looked at the Romeo and Juliet fandom, you’ll see a huge amount of people shipping the sworn enemies, Mercutio and Tybalt with gleeful abandon)- a previous meeting years ago, High School friends, whatever. There just has to be something there, and that something needs to be some sort of chemistry. Love is chemicals, after all, and nothing comes from nothing.

Chemistry

Thinking of Romeo and Juliet, let’s study this classic example of “love at first sight”. Whether or not it was actually love is something I can debate for hours, but it could definitely have become love of the strongest kind. And what was the clincher for this? Chemistry. They had that in bucket-loads, and given a healthy environment, they could’ve built a solid relationship. Romeo was head-over-heels with Juliet’s beauty, she stopped him short with her wit; he suggested, she responded; she was level-headed while he was headstrong. They balanced one another so perfectly. Shakespeare knew what he was writing about. People are still shipping and writing fanfiction of this play 400 years later.

Chemistry can go in another direction, too. Let’s look at Destiel, the most popular ship on Ao3. God, Dean is so frustrated with Castiel, and Cass, in turn, is so aloof until he learns some humanity. The two of them go back and forth, back and forth. Granted. I’ve just finished season seven, but the chemistry in there so far is enough to set something on fire through an exothermal reaction. It’s hatred, love and loyalty in turns. Anger, despair, betrayal. Maybe not the healthiest, but it’s still chemistry, and fans lap it up.

Feeling Things

Indifference is the death of love; things are where it starts. Slow burn and enemies to lovers are some of the top rising tropes in fiction today. That’s not to say you can have someone loving the abusive jock who used to bully them or a serial killer who took their family- there are lines, and you as a writer have got to lay them out- but when the protag brings out the best qualities in the antag without changing who they are, that’s good romance material. Any strong emotion provides a great framework for romantic attraction to someone.

Basics down, let’s look at how to write love itself

The best part of any romance plot or romantic subplot is the buildup, but only if done well. If done wrong, it turns out like an infatuation, and that’s just unhealthy- or as indifference, indifference, oh wait they’re together? Love, done correctly, is a really fun emotion to write. You can take so much liberty with narrative, and even the way you use the English language! The possibilities are huge and with all the tools available, there is no such thing as “I can’t write romance”

It’s the little things...

If you’ve ever felt anything even slightly more than friendship for anyone, you’ll know that it’s the little things that catch your focus: the smile, the small quirks, hand actions, things nobody else notices but you do. There is something so delightfully intimate about these details, and it’s fairly simple to convey these feelings through writing by including- yes- details! I reiterate: your character is going to start noticing little things about their love interest(s) that other people generally would not. There is a misconception that writing these details is the buildup to a sexual relationship, but it isn’t; it’s a simple fact of any kind of romantic involvement. If your relationship is going to be sexual as well as romantic, then maybe your character will notice sunlight on skin, glimpses of exposed neck, etc etc, but generally speaking these details are actions that would be simple to anyone else, but become endearing.

An example:

Jack smiled. It was the kind of smile that Aryn had to respond to: gaptooth, lopsided. A youthful shift in a weary face that always made Aryn’s chest tighten, just a touch. Only a touch. It couldn’t be any more than that, but, he was unable to deny the safety in the way Jack’s eyes wrinkled at the corners.

That was pretty cliche, so here’s another one that’s less so and does the same thing:

He had a way of running his thumb under his bottom lip when nervous, a tic that reminded Cooper of a bird, in some ways. Or maybe not. It was familiar anyhow, and quaint, after the fashion of the colourful characters of childhood film.

I’m assuming here that Cooper really likes birds. Not that I know who Cooper is, but the point of the exercise is that the descriptions link back to positive things, some of which are specific to the viewpoint character. With the second one, I didn’t even need to describe how Cooper was feeling- no butterflies, breathlessness or any other cliches of the romance genre that I find hard to write- just left the description open to positive interpretation.

If a character’s love interest makes them feel safe or dizzy, include words linked to these ideas in the descriptions and narrative, such as Cooper’s birds or the boyishness to Jack’s smile.

I mentioned sex. I guess I owe it to you now to explain how to put this in, too

It isn’t a part of a relationship for everyone, but for some people, the attraction within a romance is physical as well as romantic. When that happens, you’re free to unleash sensual and sensory language to get your readers excited and your characters’ chemistry really boiling. Make a list of words/phrases that relate to sensuality and sexuality and scatter them in the paragraphs leading up to a sex scene (whether you decide to write this as explicit, implied, or somewhere in between). such as:

Nessa watched Athenais’ fingers caress the curves of the chair absently, the skin of her hand a soft charcoal blue in the dim light. The night was sticky and wrapped itself around them.

This is the same technique used for demonstrating feelings of endearment and love, but taken to a new level. The words should be closer together, the description not too heavy but not backing up either. This helps with the tension and anticipation of the moment.

Some other ways to write attraction, physical or emotional, are:

viewpoint character paying unsual interest to how their love interest(s) walks/moves/talks

Intense conversation

Noticing freckles, beauty marks etc and wondering if they continue below the line of clothes

Glancing away, unable to meet eyes, trips of the tongue, blushing (but these in moderation.)

“She’s so good at singing, it’s amazing!” I don’t think she’s that good. “I do! Really-” (Heightened opinion, especially in comparison to that of other characters)

And last of all, swings and roundabouts

Your budding romance shouldn’t happen in a linear fashion. Characters need to recognise their feelings, push them away, deny them, attempt to reduce them to platonic ones; maybe one of the characters is afraid of having a relationship, while the other isn’t, but they both really want it. The rule of thumb in writing is create conflict, and that in no way ends when you write romance. Only this time, it’s a conflict of interest, of emotion, internal conflict.

The tug and pull is what makes romance fun. You can drag out the angst and build up to a lovely, healthy relationship that your readers ship and you feel fulfilled writing.

I’ve done my best to condense all I’ve learned in how to write romance, but if you’re still struggling with one aspect or another, send me an ask. I hope that this has helped: best wishes and happy writing!

#artie gives advice #romance #writing romance #writing advice #writer advice #writing help #writeblr #writer #writer blogging #writers on writing #writers of tumblr #writers on tumblr #writing love

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viteducation · 4 years ago

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Learn the Skills that Are Needed in Hospitality Management with Advanced Hospitality Management Course

Choosing a career is an important decision as you will invest a lot of time in your studies and then spend many hours of life in the field of your choice. One of the most important considerations is how easily you can find a job after you graduate. However, if you are considering any of the careers in Advanced Hospitality Management, you already know that you are going to seek employment in one of the fastest growing industries in the world.

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Ideas that motivate

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