Conformity... with Smartphones?!?

It seems like in the school that I went to last school year everyone had at least an iPhone 4 or higher.

I don't know if teachers your high school do this or not, but in my English class everyone had to put their cell phone into the cell phone bucket before the class took a test.  (Personally, I thought this was stupid but I always got away with it by saying I put my cell phone in my backpack.)

When I looked at the class' cell phones, I obviously saw a bunch of iPhones.  A good number of the teens from that school seem to be too thrifty to buy a good case for their iPhones.  (There are numerous sources online that show how fragile iPhones are...  There's this post/meme that shows this guy's shattered iPhone that had fell on the floor just after taking the phone out of the box.)

Then I realized something (given that "anywhere" refers to the US; this fact is not necessarily true in the rest of the world):  All the phones looked the same.  If the iPhones had no cases or the phones were not (shabby but unique) feature phones, it would be impossible to distinguish one's iPhone from another.  This is especially true when they are the same model, whether it's the 4(S) or the 5 model, and you don't wake up the phone to identify your phone based on the wallpaper.

It's a common thing to hear in the fashion and product industry: "Be different."  Also, many teens that are my age are too preoccupied with the contradictional and eternal task of standing out while fitting in to no avail.  (Those same teens tend to be obnoxious hipsters as well.)

Apparently it's not the same for smartphones.

I remember reading in a Metro Boston newspaper that the iPhones were for liberals and Blackberries were for conservatives while the newest iPhone was in the 3G/3GS phase.  Now it seems like the iPhone has flipped on its political spectrum and has been the flagship phone for conservatives.  The iPhone's user interface has remained relatively unchanged since the very first iPhone (until iOS 7 comes out... but that's not now).  The iPhone is the only true benchmark that other (mostly Android) smartphones are pitted against in YouTube video comparisons.  It also seems like that the iPhone design is very resistant to change, since not much was added to the iPhone 5 for both software and hardware... but enough about how conservative the iPhone is.

I was talking to a classmate of mine at the end of the school year.  We were discussing how we didn't have smartphones.  We actually found it to be okay because... of the reason she stated it perfectly: "I wouldn't want a phone that half the [US] population has."

I totally agreed with her, since I'd want to be able to find my own unique phone if it was thrown into a pile of other phones.

Then I asked her what phone she wanted.  "A Samsung Galaxy S4."

I did like her choice but...  "That's a phone that probably over half the population has in Asia, especially in Korea."  (There's only one Korea I could be talking about at this point in history.)

"But that's over there, not here."

I did give her points for that.  But for me, the Galaxy S4 was even too common for me.

I stated that I would prefer the Samsung Galaxy Note II.  "It'd be perfect for me because I have big hands and the screen size would be perfectly proportional to my hand size."

"But I'd want a phone I can actually fit into my pocket."

"Well, it would fit in my pocket.  Besides, I like the S Pen."


(Okay... maybe the conversation didn't go exactly like that but...)
I find it really hard to stand out while owning a smartphone in a society that believes one is nonconformant while owning an iPhone 5 while one is comformant if s/he doesn't own an iPhone.

...If I could own a Samsung Galaxy Note II as an unlocked smartphone, I would have the only company manufactured smartphone I'd ever want.

And as Monkey Joe said: "A little product placement doesn't hurt!"



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[I do not own the picture of the black and white "iPhone 5"s or the picture of the Samsung Galaxy S4 and Note II.  It is used for identification and educational purposes in this blog post.]

Too much info or being a recluse?

Telling people about your problems can be kind of weird.

First people might think that you are revealing too much about yourself when you talk about your problems.  They might be having a bad day and you telling them about your bad day won't be helping others and you feel any better.  Usually, the run-of-the-mill people want to hear about topics that make them happy and feel better about themselves.  Also, people might ask you back sarcastically, "Why don't you fix it instead of prating about it?" or something among those lines.  Even worse, they could gossip about it.

Some people might be kind and open enough to listen to your problems.  Perhaps those people might even offer a solution to your problem, even if they're not affected by this problem.

I think I would like to help other people... But it seems that other corrupt people in society have conditioned me to shy away from helping others.  For example, one of my classmates didn't exactly know how to carry out a lab experiment that our physics class was doing.  I went to help the other guy, despite my lab partner insistence on letting the other guy "fail."  Clearly other people are a little more than selfish and indifferent when it comes to helping others.

This apathetic treatment of others makes a person to pent up their afflictive feelings about their problems.  This will cause those people to suffer even more emotional damage for keeping their frustration and unexpressed feelings about their problems.

I used to talk about my problems and other things in my life to others.  I was never lurid like a soap opera but I never wanted to present myself as if my life was perfect to others.  It wasn't until some inconsiderate jerks told me to stop talking about everything that I really stopped talking to others.

Maybe I shouldn't have listened to those idiots, now that I look back...

An epiphany about Yahoo's acquisition of Tumblr

The Business of

with

 

and



I think I've been unconsciously thinking about the weird spelling of Tumblr ever since I've made one...  (By the way, my Tumblr is here and my Tumblr with only reblogs can be found here.)

Just recently, I've also activated my Flickr on my Yahoo...  (My Flickr can be found here.)

At that moment, I realized why Yahoo recently acquired Tumblr... (It is the sole reason why users see ads on their Dashboards now.)

Yahoo acquired Tumblr because it's an social media that has the same ending as its popular photo hosting platform Flickr.

Flickr and Tumblr...

So the next time a company acquires another one, pay attention if it's driven by vanity - especially nominal vanity.

P.S.: I'm sorry about the shameful self-promotion...

[I do not own the logos of Yahoo, Tumblr, and Flickr.  They are used for educational purposes.]

Just a Note about Ads on my Social Media

picture from here.

I am proud to announce that I will never run ads in any of my social media ventures, as long as I have the choice to.  It is hard to do so because all these free websites wouldn't be available without advertising.  The only sites that I can think of right now that let users control ads is YouTube and Blogger.  (YouTube ads can be turned off in user's own videos, but ads will be on by default.  It is optional in Blogger as AdSense.)

I have actually been trying to go ad-free as much as possible but I thought it'd be nice if I actually made it official in writing.  

Instagram is a ripoff of Twitter... and now Vine

vs.

and

Because I'm a person who likes to think things in a technical way, I was pondering a while back about the concrete uses and purposes of several social media websites.  This happened after Instagram announced that its users can now upload 15 second videos with its famous filters in addition to its photo filter service.

Vine, at that time, was relatively new as an social app made by the parent company as Twitter.  It allows its users to upload 6 second videos.  (Supposedly, the reason why Vine's video length is so sort because it forces users to become creative with its time constraint.  Personally, I see more crap than anything on Vine.  You have better luck finding rare nuggets of creative tweets on Twitter than anything good on Vine.)

I also remember the time when Instagram cut off Twitter integration.  People can upload pictures onto Twitter but it's kind of difficult to do so because big pictures cut down on Twitter's already sparse 140 character limit.

With all the given information above in my head, I suddenly had an epiphany about social media:

(Essentially...)  Instagram is just a ripoff of Vine and (but more indirectly) Twitter.

Well, here's my thinking:

1. Instagram is basically Twitter.  If you remove the 140 character limit (or rather, miserliness of words), put more emphasis on the pictures, and more filters, you end up with Instagram.  (Really, it's that easy to figure out.)
2. Instagram essentially does what Vine does, which is making short videos.  Instagram added the short video feature that doesn't face the many kinks that Vine currently faces.  Some of Vine's issues include a lack of incentive to check the app itself on a very frequent and regular basis and the time constraint.  However because Instagram has such a popular and high user volume with only a photo based platform, it only makes sense for Instagram to implement "moving pictures" (AKA video).  In addition, Instagram has made their videos with a limit of 15 seconds.  This solves the solution that Vine currently faces with its 6 second videos.  Many people complain about the time limit on Vine, unlike the positive reception of Twitter's 140 character tweet limit.

While Instagram faces its own problems for being a social network exclusive to mobile devices (you can't upload anything onto Instagram from a computer), Instagram still remains extremely strong.  Despite Instagram clearly ripping off other popular social media platforms, Instagram still remains a strong social app.  Instagram is definitely one of the top 20 US social networks.  I guess this shows that sometimes you don't have to think too hard when innovating and making popular products or commodities.  "Innovation" may be as little as changing a few features of an existing and famous social network to make another one that could be just as popular.
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Update (7/13/2013):  I haven't seen many Instagram videos but I found a good one by Gabifresh.

Belonging: Does it really matter?

Do I even need to belong?  Not to live like a hermit but is there really a need to belong in a group?

No. In some form or to some extent, it is all a fallacy.  (Naturally, it may be hardwired into people's brain in order to somehow survive better.  Ultimately, the answer is no.)
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I've been wondering about a certain situation that almost all teens who are maturing come to consider:
Does it matter if you belong or not?

I used to think that if I didn't belong to a group, I'd end up as a scapegoat to someone else's problem.  It's been going on for a while, but I've been flip-flopping between being social hermit-like and socially desperate.  My social hermit-like mindset imposed a propensity on me to isolate myself from others and not even bother to interact with others.  My socially desperate mindset made me think that everyone that I met and interacted with (and to be honest, "interacted" would be describing barely tangible exchanges between other people) thought that I was just another one of their problems and just a total waste of their time.

So, I've come to the conclusion that it really doesn't matter if you belong to a group or not.  I don't know if the need to belong in a group is hardwired into every teen's head.  However, if this propensity is really hardwired into teens' heads, then that part of my brain has been defective ever since I was in second grade.  My "defect" has left me very dissatisfied with all aspects of my social life ever since Day 1 of high school.  Despite all my attempts at trying to "fit in," I only continue to "fall out" with almost every guy and girl at my age.  I will admit that I've met a few people I've "clicked" with, but those fleeting moments of happiness were washed away by the apathy and horrifying emptiness that envelops me when I'm with average teens.  So overall, trying to belong in groups for me has granted me no happiness and will probably never will.

For those who have "clicked" with, I can only say that I find happiness while being with others that are "my type" and (not necessarily having the same interests as me but) - in plain words - that I enjoy being with.  Ultimately, I've only found pain and regret when I hung out with people that I knew weren't my type but heedlessly tried to fit into a group I had never liked in the first place.

So, about finding people I enjoy being with... I realize I really haven't been doing that.  Maybe I should do that?  I better get started at finding those people...