Monthly Archives: April 2023

Can Chat GPT diagnose psychological disorders correctly?

Spoiler alert: Yes.

Today I tried asking ChatGPT if it could diagnose me for mental disorders and it said, “Hello! While I am an AI language model and can provide information on mental health disorders, I am not qualified to diagnose them. It is important to seek out a qualified mental health professional, such as a psychologist or psychiatrist, for a proper diagnosis and treatment plan. They can evaluate your symptoms and help you determine the best course of action for your specific situation.” Which was not a bad response, I was happy to see it promote talking to a medical professional but from what I know about ChatGPT, it is that right prompt will always yield a right answer.

So the next thing, I did was tell it symptoms, and ask what does it think I have, to which it answered correctly and advised me to get medical support from a professional. Not bad for an AI honestly. It was able to correctly diagnose ADHD, Bipolar and Panic attacks, even when I didn’t make it too obvious with the symptoms. (or did I? check out the screen shot below) I think it is revolutionary for the psychological industry to have this. It is important to note that sometimes symptoms are not obvious and overlapping with other disorders so please do not take AI’s word for your mental illness.

-Kashish Shodwani

EDM: Reaction Formation

Do you like hate-love rom-com trope?

One of the most interesting Ego Defense mechanisms of all is Reaction Formation. It is a defense mechanism that occurs when a person automatically replaces an unpleasant or anxiety-inducing impulse with its opposite. It is frequently displayed in an exaggerated or spectacular manner. Interesting right?

One of the most definitive example for the same is when someone exaggeratedly shows their hate for someone, even though unconsciously they like them. Here although they like them, their super ego thinks it is not the right thing, i.e. maybe they do not want to feel strong emotions or there is some societal restraints in liking them. Whatever the case may be, strong hate emotions for no reason can be a sign of attraction. This can be true the other way around too, when someone is extremely sweet, they might be jealous or envious of you.

Another common example of Reaction formation can be, when someone is driven by unaccepted desires of society, they might become super spiritual which is opposite of their desire to avoid it. Maybe this is the reason we see a lot of child abuse cases with priests. (This is my take on this)

(The purpose of this series is to make everyone aware of the pattern in which they react in a stressful situation to avoid anxiety, and be more woke. Please do not try to self diagnose or give unsolicited guidance to people going through stuff. )

-Kashish Shodwani

EDM: Denial

Well, the Nile is a river in Egypt?

Denial is one of the most common Ego Defense mechanism and is talked about a lot. It works on a basic principle, to not accept the unpleasant thought as it causes pain or displeasure. It is a failure to acknowledge reality, which prevents external events from being perceived.

This Ego Defense mechanism is usually observed after a traumatic event, like death of a loved one or a shocking news of illness. Usually, it is the conscious mind denying the fact that it happened by assuming things like “They are lying” or “It is just a prank”. However, it can also sometimes manifest when on some level they also believe the information, but do not let conscious mind acknowledge it. This can be seen as, “This is not happening” or “This cannot happen”, such a defense mechanism is short lived followed by acceptance of reality.

If the situation is not as shocking or bad, but a more acceptable situation, such as “Sick Relative”. It may go on for longer, if a situation becomes too hard for a person to handle. He or she may respond by refusing to notice it or denying that it exists.

(The purpose of this series is to make everyone aware of the pattern in which they react in a stressful situation to avoid anxiety, and be more woke. Please do not try to self diagnose or give unsolicited guidance to people going through stuff.)

-Kashish Shodwani

Ego Defense Mechanisms: Introduction to Psychoanalytic theory.

Ego Defense mechanisms are mechanisms used by us, to avoid any unpleasant thought, memory or feeling. (or sometimes even good feelings too) these mechanisms are usually unconscious, and are used by our psyche to protect us from feeling emotions we don’t want to feel. The term was coined by Sigmund Freud and works on premise of psychoanalytic theory.

To understand more about these defense mechanisms, we should learn about various aspects of psychoanalytic theory.

Conscious, Subconscious and Unconscious

Our psyche consists of three types of consciousness,

  1. Conscious: This consciousness are the active thoughts that we are aware of, and act on. also can be recognised as voice in your head.
  2. Subconscious: This consciousness is somewhat passive, but can be brought into little when concentrated on. this consciousness can be seen in places like forgetting you’re driving but bein able to drive perfectly.
  3. Unconscious: These are repressed thoughts, memories and feelings that can only be brought in conscious mind by thorough work. People are almost always unaware of these unconscious thoughts.

These consciousness works hand in hand with freudian aspects of personality.

Id, Ego &Super-Ego

  1. Id: This is an aspect of personality that acts as a kid of the personality, which work on instant gratification system or pleasure principle. This aspect of personality usually do not care about practicality and have desires to get what it wants. This aspect is usually not active in the conscious mind.
  2. Ego: Not the traditional ego we talk about, but it is a decision making aspect which works on reality principle. Ego cares about reasoning and a correct way to get what is desired. This is the most conscious aspect of the personality.
  3. Super-ego: This is the moral driven aspect of our psyche, it is the voice of conscience and source of self criticism. Super-ego always wants to do the right thing.

After understanding various driving factors of psychoanalytic theory, we can now look at ego defense mechanisms, these mechanisms are used by the Ego to fight the anxiety causing unconscious thoughts which are often derived by conflicts between Id and Super-Ego. It is necessary for us to be aware of these reactions to better deal with our emotions and understand why we behave the way we do.

There are a lot of these mechanisms, namely.

  1. Denial
  2. Repression
  3. Regression
  4. Projection
  5. Displacement
  6. Sublimation
  7. Rationalisation
  8. Reaction Formation

We will talk about each of them in the coming blog posts, in the series ego defense mechanisms (EDM).

-Kashish Shodwani

Content post #8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaV2GMIZ3l4

In season two following the failed attempt to invade Chicken Island by Stan, members of the Killer League, including Thirteen’s master, begin targeting Seven and other skilled martial artists on the island. Their ultimate goal is to conquer the island. Additionally, Thirteen’s master has a personal vendetta against Seven and seeks to eliminate him. We start to learn about Seven’s part and realise that he is not just and ordinary guy. As a strory progress we learn that he used to be on e of the most skilled assasins in League and that something horrible happend to him that caused a memory loss.

Process Post #12: The Fashion Daily’s Community Guidelines

Spreading hate has unfortunately become a very large part of the media, so much so that sometimes it almost becomes unavoidable. I have never really had a bad experience with receiving hate or negative comments from something I have posted over the years on social media, but then again, I keep all of my social media accounts private and only really follow people I know or are mutual with. That being said, I have definitely been on the receiving end of rude or hurtful comments either in real life or over text from people I wouldn’t have expected it from, and it definitely is not a good feeling. I typically don’t let these types of comments and scenarios get to me, but I can’t deny that it doesn’t hurt for at least a few minutes after either hearing or reading something negative about yourself. 

As this is the first public platform I have ever really had, I decided to keep my comments off for now as I wanted to be able to get comfortable sharing my work and myself with the public without any immediate judgment. I’m sure there are people who have come across my site that didn’t like it or had something negative to say, but had to keep that thought to themselves; as they should have regardless of whether or not I have a comment section or not. It is so easy to keep your thoughts to yourself. We do this every minute of every day, yet it seems like when it comes to the opportunity to express something hateful, many break their silence and jump at the opportunity. Everywhere you look on any media platform you will find hate comments, maybe even more than positive ones in some cases. A main reason as to why people are more inclined to share hate comments is because they can do so anonymously. An in class reading we did this week stated that, “a quarter of Internet users have posted comments anonymously” (Konnikova, 2013). 40% of which were users of ages 18-19 years old. As this article was published in 2013, anyone on social media could confirm that the number of anonymous users has skyrocketed since then.  When people can hide behind their screens and a fake username, they are less likely to have to deal with any consequences for their actions, and therefore feel that it is okay to share something hurtful. This is also known as the “online disinhibition effect” (Konnikova, 2013). This is a part of the reason why I have my comments turned off. Although it is unlikely that my website would reach a wide enough audience to receive many comments at all, I didn’t want to risk having to potentially deal with hateful comments because it can be draining, and I didn’t want to end up feeling self-conscious on a platform that I have created to be my own domain. 

Overall, if I were to have my comments on and if I do so in the future, here are what some of my community guidelines would look like…

  1. Personal attacks, along with offensive and distasteful comments will not be tolerated. These comments do not necessarily have to be directed only to me specifically. I would like The Fashion Daily to be a platform for anyone to be able to enjoy visiting, so comments that will hinder this in any way will be unacceptable.
  2. Treat others online as you would treat them in person. Hate comments will not be appreciated or tolerated in general, but at the end of the day, don’t use anonymity as a means to justify and allow such behaviour.
  3. Share your opinions, and provide constructive feedback should you have any! If and when I do open my comments up, I would love to hear different opinions and perspectives on some of the topics I post on. With this being said, this does not promote the opportunity to degrade my position or anyone else’s for that matter, and create more of an argument rather than a proper discussion.
  4. Communicate with respect when engaging in discussion with me or your peers.
  5. Comments that are not related to the topic of the post or theme of the overall website should not be posted on The Fashion Daily. This can look like spam comments, links to exterior inappropriate sources, etc.

Overall, I have designed The Fashion Daily in a way that has allowed me to not only feel comfortable sharing my content and being myself online, but protect myself as well. For now as I am still navigating what it means to be running a public domain, I would like to keep it this way. That being said, I am always curious as to what viewers of my site are thinking of the content, and would like to hear their feedback and comments one day in the future. Once this is the case, please follow these community guidelines to help keep the site a fun and comfortable space for not only myself, but for everyone visiting as well!

References

Konnikova, M. (2013). “The Psychology of Online Comments”. The New Yorker.

Be Right Back 2 (A SilverCited excusive film)

In this sequel, that nobody asked for it takes place right after the events of Be Right Back the original. And yes this is another film made in the GTA 5 Rockstar Editor. This time it is going to be excusive film for awhile on this website, maybe in a little bit it will go onto YouTube; but as of now it stays on this website. And Here I present to you Be Right Back 2!
Also I realize this has to be uploaded to YouTube since the file size is too big, so my bad!

Some extra blender projects!

Well since I heard that CONTENT POST ARE NOT GETTING GRADED. My motivation to make these post have been cut down in half, this whole website is only up because of this class I am taking. And I do say I may be a little disappointed about just hearing this recently about these post not getting graded. But I shall stop complaining and just finish what I started, so here you go.

First lets start off with the donut series progress, I am sure you want to see the how my progress went over the week I was making this donut.

Bet you werent expecting to see a realistic looking donut huh? Well what you just saw was a sequence of picures a and progress I did over a week. And it probably took you 1 minute to look at those at least if you took you time, instead of scrolling to the bottom for the finished product. Well its not over just yet, I made a animation of this donut sliding in the frame of this scene and this was the most fun part of this project. Here it is!

Now that I look at it. This should be a post of its own, sorry for the plot twist. But I feel it is appropriate for this kind of post, adding any more would seem a bit much right? well thank you for looking at this. Any questions? please comment, I haven’t got any in these lat few months!

Weekly Inspiration: Rachel Green

This week’s inspiration is honestly my everyday fashion inspiration! That’s right, this week we’re going to be taking a look at the star of the hit tv series Friends, Rachel Green, played by the iconic Jennifer Aniston. As I mentioned in one of my mini assignments, Rachel’s character is what helped me discover my love and interest in fashion. Until I watched Friends, I didn’t really have an idea of what I wanted to pursue career wise, and I felt that my only real passion and interest was related to sports. I had always liked shopping and clothes, but never really saw the full potential of this interest until I was a bit older and was inspired by Rachel. I started watching Friends during the pandemic when the world was essentially on lockdown and all we could really do was try and keep ourselves busy at home. I fell in love with the show and as I mentioned, it really sparked my interest in fashion. With so much time on my hands, I began to sort of reinvent myself and overtime I have both intentionally and unintentionally developed the style that I have now which is very much inspired by Rachel  Green. 

One of the ways I relate to Rachel the most is through her development of style. I have always had a somewhat good sense of style, but I have definitely gone through many changes and preferences to develop the more creative and fashionable eye that I have today. In Friends, we see similar developments and changes in Rachel’s style as she goes through different jobs and experiences before landing a job in the fashion industry, where her sense of style became more prevalent and a center point of her character. This occurs in the later seasons of Friends, and is where I am mainly going to focus in as I found that these were the times that Rachel was in her fashion icon prime! 

Overall, Rachel wore so many well put together outfits through the entirety of the show, and she embodies the 90’s style and aesthetic very well alongside demonstrating timeless fashion as well. To start, we’ll explore Rachel’s more professional sense of style that we see develop as she begins working for the big name fashion companies like Ralph Lauren. What I have incorporated most from this era of style is the use of blazers, skirts, and turtle neck tank tops sweaters. Each of these pieces have become a focal point of my closet, and I try to incorporate them into as many looks as I can. Before seeing Rachel’s sense of style, I barely wore skirts and didn’t really like to do so, and I had never thought about wearing a blazer. It’s funny how a bit of influence and inspiration can suddenly spark your new interest and desire to try something new. I’m glad that I did step out of my comfort zone and begin experimenting with these different clothing pieces, because it really sparked my passion for developing my personal style and taught me the power in dressing up. Here are some outfits I have worn that were inspired by Rachel Green’s more professional and sophisticated attire….

When Rachel is not at work, even her off-duty sense of style is ultra-fashionable. We typically will see Rachel still looking very stylish, but in a more comfortable and casual manner. Whether this is through a plain graphic tee and jean combo with some sort of uniqueness to it through the use of accessories or color, to pairing sweaters with skirts to dress down a usually more professional and put together clothing piece. Rachel’s style is bridges the gap between comfort and chic fashion, which I think helps make her sense of style so noticeable and influential. Here are some more dressed down Rachel Green inspired looks I have put together…

The last thing I will note about Rachel’s overall appearance, is that her hair is a major contributor to her overall look! And I’m not just talking about “The Rachel” haircut that dominated most of the 90’s trends. The layered haircut that Rachel has during the later years of Friends with face framers was very ahead of it’s time, and is now the go-to haircut style for many people today, including myself. I know that I was definitely inspired by this layered C-shape haircut Rachel wore, because it really added to her overall style and appearance, and made her look more put together at all times!

Overall, Rachel Green’s sense of style has definitely influenced me, and I have integrated many elements of her style into my own. This week, I challenge you to embrace your inner Rachel Green and look to, and look to incorporate more timeless fashion pieces into your everyday look, while still adding a chic and unique touch to it. This could be anything that you normally wouldn’t wear, or that in your head you believe you wouldn’t wear normally or at all. For me this was skirts. I didn’t realize how much skirts could add to an outfit and in general how much I actually liked wearing them! I had always thought that that they were maybe uncomfortable or just out of my style range, but once I incorporated one in an outfit after years of not doing so, I learned that it was actually the complete opposite! See where having an open mind can take you!? I hope you enjoyed this weeks Weekly Inspiration, and have fun channeling this iconic Friends character this week!

Be right back (A gamers attempt at a film)

No need for much of a explanation, well maybe actually. This is a film I choose to do in Grand Theft Auto Five. There is this program within the game where one can record gameplay, and it has some cool features where you can change the camera angle. And I choose to do this about a year ago with one of my childhood friends. Grand Theft Auto V is an open-world action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. The game was released in 2013 and has since become one of the best-selling video games of all time. It is set in the fictional city of Los Santos, which is based on Los Angeles, and the surrounding countryside. One of the features of the game is the ability to record gameplay footage, which can be edited and shared with others. The program that enables this is called the Rockstar Editor. And I used this to create a short film called “Be Right Back”. Below is the film as an embed YouTube Video. Hope you enjoy this and please give feedback in the comments!

Process Post 12: How I plan on saving myself from Trolls.

Once things go off the ground, it is almost impossible t avoid trolls, In today’s community people hide behind mask of anonymity to spread hate, Why is that? as a psychology enthusiast, I understand why people would want to let off some steam, and use method of emotion displacement to feel better about themselves. So I will try to slow down and not let anything get to my heart or not start a fight. I really liked the video shown in tutorial, where when the trolls were confronted they just apologized and turns out they were going through something of their own.

The ted talk by Jon Ronson was also very insightful about how something so small can turn into so huge and ruin someone’s life. On internet, People tend misread people’s emotions sometimes, as there is lack of voice, intonation and expression. which makes matter of fights on internet worse. It is never black and white, and it is almost impossible to stop yourself to get in this spiral of people hating you.

As for my website I am going to set the guidelines of comment to need approval before posting so that it stays a safe place here.

Process Post 11: Transmedia

Transmedia is a fascinating concept now more then ever when there are NFCs growing in popularity, after reading about how Pokemon uses Transmedia, I was fascinated, from the show to playing cards, and now as technology has advanced, pokemon go and NFCs. the pokemon universe seems never ending. I couldn’t find many ways to include transmedia for my page, I may go forward and make a youtube or a tiktok page for psychology hacks, or maybe even start selling little pins saying “brainiac”, which might indicate being part of this intimate community and well, using psychology the right way… or wrong 😉

as my page is not an entertainment community I think the potential for transmedia is less, but if I ever get an opportunity to, I will not shy away form it.

My google analytic did not provide much data on my audience, as mostly right now only users Direct, which may be from the course itself, so I think I should better start using right words to attract audience in.

What Is Campfire In Pokémon GO, And Do I Need It?

Campfire very quietly started rolling out last week, and I noticed it when I saw a rather peculiar grey icon in-app near my Daily Adventure Incense.

I tapped on it. I was met with a black loading bar that didn’t seem to do anything, so I left my phone where it was for a couple of minutes. Then, when I looked at it again, I had a map displayed on my screen with PokéStops and Gyms laid out. So?

What Is Campfire?

Campfire is essentially a way for Pokémon GO players to socialize with their local community. It’s not just a social app, though. Right now, it’s most beneficial use is to help you find nearby players to fight Raids with you. Especially when primal raids like Kyogre and Groudon occur, it’s important that you have enough Trainers in your battle group to ensure Raid Boss defeat.

Should I Download Campfire?

If you’re looking to link up with other Trainers locally, Campfire is a great way to find nearby Trainer-hosted events that you can join. Additionally, the social aspect is great to keep all of your Pokémon GO communications in one place.

Personally, I haven’t downloaded Campfire yet—I have friends I see regularly who already play, so we’re typically able to play as we’d like without yearning for new friends. But, it might be useful for at least one of your friends to take one for the team, so that when your core group needs the extra help for a raid, they can light a Flare.

Campfire links up with other Niantic apps as well, so if you have more than just Pokémon GO, it might be worthwhile.

But for now, I’m okay just being able to see the nearby Flares within Pokémon GO, without needing all of the other features the full app has to offer.

Process post 10: SEO

I have a very bittersweet relationship with SEO, as it never seem to work for me. I first came across the word when I opened up my etsy store, where I struggled a lot to drive traffic and eventually failed, although still working, my etsy page has made very less profit. The article “15 Reasons Why Your Business Absolutely Needs SEO” was very helpful and insightful, and brought up many reasons why I should pay more attention to SEO for both my etsy store and my website.

The article brought up many reasons why SEO is important which were new to me, one of which were how Seo impacts buying cycle, SEO Brings New Opportunities to Light both of these reasons points towards how seo is a tool not just for consumer but for me a creator to understand the needs of consumer. how t perfectly use seo is not an easy thing to learn and skills for the same can only be gained with time. For me I am going to use as many terms as I can to attract consumers.

Process Post 12: Community Guidelines

I don’t have comments enabled for most of my blog posts.

At first, it was because the first few posts I created weren’t aimed at receiving commentary—they were just to set up the premise of my blog. I have two thoughts about this now:

  1. If I open up comments on my blog posts, this blog space can become an active community space where I interact with my audience.
  2. If I don’t open comments on my blog posts, this blog will serve as an informational hub, but to connect with my audience, I definitely should have other platforms where there is open communication.

With the latter thought in mind, my post last week on how I might incorporate transmedia storytelling seems like the most ideal situation for my audience. However, in “The Psychology of Online Comments,” Maria Konnikova states that moving from a single blog post to larger environments on social media “often produce less than desirable effects, including a diffusion of responsibility: you feel less accountable for your own actions, and become more likely to engage in amoral behavior” (Konnikova, 2013).

It’s an assumption, but I don’t think Pokémon GO players spend all of their time commenting on blogs—they probably come here for what they need and take off to where they normally spend their time online, so it’s possible that turning off blog comments isn’t the sole cause of such “amoral behaviour” on a broader social platform.

The thought of opening up to commentary in a community I’m technically responsible for is quite daunting, and feels different than if I’m a business responding to potential customers. WordPress has the ability to let you approve comments before they are shown under a blog post, and most social media platforms have comment filtering functions to ensure that certain words and phrases you won’t allow will not show in your comment section. However, limiting comments too intensively can also negatively affect the comment section. As mentioned in the article, removing comments can lower your audience’s willingness to engage with your content, which will affect whether they share it with others (Konnikova, 2013).

With all of this in mind, I’ve come up with short list of community guidelines for my blog:

  • Is it respectful? Even if you disagree with somebody, they should be treated with respect. Avoid using derogatory language and dishing out personal attacks.
  • Absolutely no hate speech allowed. This is a community where everybody is welcome, so discrimination, hatred, and violence against individuals or groups of people for any reason is not tolerated.
  • Are you trolling? Please do not post comments with the sole purpose of provoking others in the community.
  • Do not promote your own products or services, or post irrelevant links.
  • Please have fun! This is an open environment where fellow Pokémon GO Trainers should feel safe to interact with each other, no matter how little or often they play.

Konnikova, M. (2013, October 23). The Psychology of Online Comments. The New Yorker. Retrieved April 11, 2023, from https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-psychology-of-online-comments

Process post #12 La final

Having a guideline is crucial for content traffic, I believe that evryone should have a chance to express their opinion on a topic and not be judged. But the reality is cruel, in recant years we saw so many examples of people get canceled. Sometimes it could get out of controll just because one person would get offended or words would be talken from a contest. That’s why one of the person who I personaly like for making fun of this is Ricky Gervais and him hosting the Golden Globe in 2020. I could say that some of his points were a bit extreme, but the reason he did it is to show how ridiculisesometimes public opinion can get. So what if user want to share thoutghs without endangering oneself and their lifes, carear, etc. In this case anonymity would be a usefull tool, of course it could be used by trolls and people who just likes to hurt others, but if used appropriately it migth actually be usefull for content creator, it could help see any flaws and make sure that he/she will not do it again. As Maria Konikova says in her article “forty per cent of people in the eighteen-to-twenty-nine-year-old demographic have posted anonymously”  which only proves that this option should be avaliable at comment section of websote, so that people would be encouraged to share their opinion and help community to become better. In Guardian article “The dark side of Guardian comments” , author suggests that it would be just easier if you would ignore comments, I see where is point is comming from, and I wish the answer to solve all problems was that simple, but it would be just wrong to cut all connections with yout audience, sometimes we can make mistakes not intentionally and it would be nice to have a community which supports you and provides constructive feedback to insure that you will not do same error.

References:

Gardiner, B., Mansfield, M., Anderson, I., Holder, J., Louter, D., & Ulmanu, M. (2016, April 12). The Dark Side of Guardian comments. The Guardian. Retrieved April 6, 2023, from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/12/the-dark-side-of-guardian-comments

Konnikova, M. (2013, October 23). The psychology of online comments. The New Yorker. Retrieved April 6, 2023, from https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-psychology-of-online-comments 

next steps

This process post marks the final one in my journey with Publishing 101 and it’s safe to say it has been a story of ups and downs. Blogging and content creation is not an easy task especially when other events in life cloud the mind and stifle creativity. So in an effort to not make this piece completely tear-inspiring, I have decided to leave with a few notes on monetizing your website through various opportunities like SEO and some ways that you can plan to make money on the side by honing in on your passion, in other words, the next steps for your blog.

Making money from a website can be a rewarding and redeeming practice for those that blog as a “passion project” but know that “passion alone does not pay the rent” and with a growing movement in online monetization, there is a multitude of digital supports for such website incorporations (Shwake 2022). One of the primary examples of such support is cost-effective Search Engine Optimization aka SEO. TakeLesson’s by Microsoft defines SEO as, “a digital marketing strategy that targets a website’s presence in search results on search engines” contributing to more clicks and visits to the site and therefore more traffic toward affiliate links or other on-site revenue materials (2021). SEO also offers a competitive edge to your blog as majority of site landings are from organic search engines like Google. This is espescially critical as “Google owns a significantly larger portion of the search market than competitors like Yahoo, Bing, … DuckDuckGo, and many, many others (Hollingsworth 2021). SEO also serves as a primary standpoint on keeping up to date with “major changes” and the “environment” of the cyberverse, understanding what exactly consumers are looking for, and if you wish, how you can tailor your content to those search patterns (Hollingsworth 2021). In application, there are many sites and services that exist to assist with developing SEO in a cost-effective way, from Google’s own Starter Guide to gig-based professionals on Fiverr, there are plenty of options for a range of blog sizes.

Reflecting on my own blog and my personal next steps I can resonate with the quote, “monetization is math, not magic” because as much as I am not a mathematically inclined individual it takes some easy addition to understand that sometimes a growth mindset is all you need to get on top of creating ideas that can lead to making money from your content (Jackson 2022). My blog focuses on my own writing and exploration of poetry that could translate into a physical sale of my own poetry book. I can see a demand for such items with the growth in the wellness sector and the rising popularity of poetry books like ‘milk and honey’ by Rupi Kaur and ‘helium’ by Rudy Francisco, both extensively influential and profitable authors. This ability to “sell the skills you already have directly to people by working on specific projects or by teaching them how to do something” can translate into a range of personal talents that aren’t limited to things like poetry or prose but the whole range of services that people would be interested in purchasing (Georgiou 2023). These sorts of integrations of services can be done in a variety of ways including using sites like Wix and Weebly‘s e-commerce integration subscriptions to easily manage purchases or setting up WordPress e-commerce platforms. One of the most popular avenue’s is Shopify which allows for specialized ‘Shopify Apps’ and social media integration to streamline connectivity for consumers on all platforms.

From SEO to specialized content sales, creating a blog and discovering how you can achieve a monetary edge in the online world can be beneficial in fueling one’s journey with self-publishing. It is important to understand that money is not everything though and if your content, like some sites that I have reviewed in this class, is specifically for non-profit benefits it is important to stay true to your unwritten blog charter and take chart your steps from there.

Stay updated on site with my continuing ‘ink’ content and for any announcements related to a potential print publishing in the future, thank you for all your support so far.

 

 

Works Cited

Ajao, Adedayo. “What Is SEO? and How to Use It in Your Writing.” TakeLessons Blog, TakeLessons, 5 Mar. 2021, https://takelessons.com/blog/2021/03/what-is-seo-and-how-to-use-it-in-your-writing?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=richqna_answer&utm_campaign=richqna&utm_trigger=richqna&utm_query=define+seo&utm_content=blogsqna%2Btitle&muid=3DC663CFCA596F442B4C7151CB266E98&utm_region=CA&utm_position=Default.

Georgiou, Katrina. “How to Sell Your Skills: 10+ Great Ways to Put Yourself out There.” WikiHow, WikiHow, 6 Mar. 2023, https://www.wikihow.com/Sell-Your-Skills.

Hollingsworth, Sam. “15 Reasons Why Your Business Absolutely Needs Seo.” Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Journal, 9 Aug. 2021, https://www.searchenginejournal.com/why-seo-is-important-for-business/248101/#close.

Jackson, Brian. “How to Monetize a Blog in 2023 (13 Profitable Ways).” Kinsta®, Kinsta®, 21 Oct. 2022, https://kinsta.com/blog/how-to-monetize-a-blog/.

Shwake, Emily. “How to Monetize a Blog and Maximize Profits.” Wix Blog, Wix Blog, 12 Mar. 2023, https://www.wix.com/blog/2019/01/how-to-monetize-blog/?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=ms_us_dsa_Feb20%5Eblog_bl_monetize_dsa&experiment_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wix.com%2Fblog%2F2019%2F01%2Fhow-to-monetize-blog%5Ebb%5E79233688671437%5Ehow+to+monetize+your+blog&msclkid=fdf906c5c68f1f2a5af562ee5beb7225.

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What’s New?: Shining Responsibly with BioGlitz

As I was browsing the latest innovations and headlines in the fashion industry, this one really caught my eye, and I found the topic to be fascinating the more I read and searched their website. BioGlitz is the first company in the world to manufacture and produce biodegradable glitter. As a lover of sparkle and glamor, I was super intrigued by this innovation. I love to wear some glitter and sparkly makeup when I am dressing up, and I have never really considered just how much glitter can actually be harmful to the environment. This caused me to do some of my own research, and below I’ll share a few things that I found. 

“…The real issue with glitter isn’t that it’s annoying – it’s that it truly does get everywhere: not just in your home, but also into the farthest-flung corners of the Earth” (The Guardian, 2020). Glitter is a micro-plastic made from a combination of aluminum and plastic. Microplastics are a known hazard, and countries are beginning to see the environmental impact of glitter so much so that various places within the UK have banned glitter from being incorporated into certain things such as holiday products (2020). Since glitter is a microplastic, there are several ways that it can be problematic. A study talked about in this article states that, “microplastics can become airborne and come down in rain – literally rain down – on protected natural areas we expect would be pristine” (2020). Because these micro-plastics can be airborne, they are able to cover a great distance, and truly travel everywhere, as well as further than the eye can see. These microplastics do not just travel upwards, but also end up in the ocean and on the seafloor which has greatly impacted the health and well being of all marine life. This is a primary reason as to why these plastics are of such concern. One last disturbing study mentioned in this article that I will mention, is that on average, humans ingest about five grams of micro-plastic each week because of how many of these particles become airborne. This is not all necessarily related back to glitter, but these sparkles definitely are an unnecessary contributor to these harmful causes. 

Thanks to BioGlitz, customers are now able to enjoy using glitter without the harmful impacts the product currently has on the environment, and the hope is that this product will eventually replace the current glitter production means . A great hashtag that they have adopted as a motto on their site is, “#SHINERESPONSIBLY”, which I find to be a very effective use of words that reflects what BioGlitz is all about. After reading through their site, I discovered that the idea and development of BioGlitz has been around since 2014, which was cool to read as I assumed that this was a more recent development and innovation. Bio Glitz was founded by Saba Gray, who is a strong believer that glitter is a universal tool that can be used for self expression. Along with this strong belief, Gray is also dedicated to sustainable fashion, and once she discovered that her love for glitter didn’t necessarily align with her beliefs and values, she wanted to change that; and hence, the invention of BioGlitz.  

“Our Mission Is To Raise Environmental Awareness And Encourage Fearless Self Expression Through Spreading Sustainable Shine” (BioGlitz, 2023). This mission statement encapsulates all of BioGlitz values, and I think that this innovation is going to be a great turning point and asset to designers as the fashion industry turns to more sustainable and environmentally friendly practices. For a sustainable product, the BioGlitz products are very affordable, and there is a wide variety of options that can satisfy anyone’s sparkle needs. I will definitely be a BioGlitz customer in the future whenever I need some new glitter, and I can’t wait to see this innovation make its way into the fashion industry!

If you want to read more about BioGlitz and take a look at their products, I’ll provide a link to their website here: https://www.bioglitz.co

References 

BioGlitz. (2023). https://www.bioglitz.co

Matei, A. (2020). Glitter is an environmental abomination. It’s time to stop using it. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/oct/22/glitter-environment-microplastics-hazard

Process post #7

This week reading about misinformation on internet started my brainstorm process towards the essay topic for PUB101. After reading article by Wu Peiyue about how a Chinese fantasy novelist Yifan wrote a fake article about Russian history for 10 years, I was impressed. This authore created over 200 articles and convinced many people that it was real. Such news makes an idea of cryticle thinking more important. The introduction of internet gave people power to make their thoughts public and what was impossible before, now is a reality. People are able to share their ideas and dreams with millions of people around the globe. Article by Drew Harwell and Joseph Menn Harvard is shutting down project that studied social media misinformation” are talking how Twitter and public opinion could shape reaserches and what they are saying. Considering the fact that in the article by Jeffrey Gottfried and Jacob Liedke, they say that half of younf users in the US are trusting online sources, it makes me wonder what power those people who speaks publicly hold and how they could shape the course of our society development.

Considering all of this, this week I spent going back through all post I wrote so far and making sure that I would leave a link to my source where it would be applicable so that people who see my websote could be sure that what I am saying and my opinion is more or less based on words of respectable people.

References

Peiyue, Wu. 2022. “She Spent a Decade Writing Fake Russian History. Wikipedia Just Noticed.

Harwell, D., & Menn, J. (2023, February 3). Harvard is shutting down project that studied social media misinformation. The Washington Post. Retrieved March 3, 2023, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/02/02/misinformation-harvard-donovan-close/

Gottfried, J., & Liedke, J. (2022). Trust in social media is changing. here’s how it breaks down by age. World Economic Forum. Retrieved March 3, 2023, from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/11/social-media-adults-information-news-platforms/

Ending the difficulty of choosing dog food

Zak is over a year old. His gut can be described as a glass stomach, very fragile. So I’ve gone through countless changes of dog food to give you a brief evaluation.

K9
Crude protein: 46% Crude fat: 35%
This one belongs to the freeze-dried food, which contains up to 90% meat. And also added a lot of trace elements. It has a beautiful coat effect. It is suitable for all dog breeds.

ZIWI
This is a low-temperature baked food, highlighting the heavy beef flavor, the meat source of high quality can strengthen the bones.

Instinct Original
This one contains probiotics and freeze-dried. Promotes digestion and absorption in dogs. It has a hypoallergenic formula.

ACANA
The fish content is relatively high and has a good hairdressing effect. (But chicken flavor, Zak will be soft stool)

Taste of the Wild
Strengthen bones, added bison meat, wild venison. (Really will grow fat)

Orijen
Personally highly recommended! High nutrient content, low carbohydrate content.

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Process Post: Seven

Design Principles Within a Websites: Critiquing Kendrick Lamars Webpage

Within lecture we were joined by Mauve Page, a member in the department of publishing at Simon Fraser. In which she taught us how to be a critical examiners when it comes to web design, especially on the design principles that allow for an effective sight. Allowing us to view and critique other sites in order to better understand what principles work in offering a better look within our own webpages. Thus, with this new knowledge I decided to do a critical examination of my own, choosing to pick a part one of my favourite artists websites. 

Thus, without further ado I will be looking into Kendrick Lamar ’s oklama site. In which I don’t go through often, but was more just curious as to if/how famous music artists offer their information on webpages. Leading to itch my curiosity by jumping right in and critically evaluating it.

Balance:

When discussing balance of the design I’m referring to the distribution of visual elements on the page that create a sense of equilibrium and unity. This can be achieved through symmetrical or asymmetrical arrangements. However, the oklama website lacks balance, with disproportionate elements all over the page, it feels almost loop sided in a sense. While this may have been intended as differentiating his website from others, it ends up taking away from the sleek visual concepts he has going for it otherwise. Thus, making the page difficult for visitors to navigate efficiently by allowing confusion on what items we are to possibly start with or even what each uncentered file represents.

Proportion:

Moving on when diving into the proportions oklama offered it was hard to give it a gold star. For reference, proportion relates to the relationship between different visual elements, such as the size of text and images, or the spacing between elements. The oklama website has a few problems with proportion, such as the font size used for the navigation menu. The text is small and quite hard to read myself, let alone people who have visual impairments. As well, the elements from which to find content and interact with are miniscule too, leaving ample amounts of blank white space, almost too much. With this it is also clearly seen that the space between the elements is not equivalent to each other, showing disproportional placement of the files.

Contrast:

Lastly I looked into the contrast from which the design of the website offers. Now for contrast I refer to the use of color, texture, or other visual elements to create emphasis and differentiation between different elements on the page. This is one of the principles from which the website follows more, yet still it doesn’t use contrast overall effectively. The background and font colors are too similar, making the text difficult to read for some. Additionally, the good part is that due to the white background the visual elements/buttons they are wanting to be seen are easily viewed. This allows for their users to find and click on the content faster then if it where hidden by paler colour schemes. 

My Final thoughts

Though I may be biased as I love Kendrick as an artist, I truly do enjoy the full look of the website he offers to his fans. The ability to step outside of the ordinary design scheme that most sites follow has allowed the captivation and curiosity of those who enter to want to click on every button offered (though few). But as stated above no matter how much the younger audience and myself may personally value the website, it ultimately falls short within all the principles that Mauve discussed in our lecture. Leaving me sadly sour about the overall truth, but glad to have been able to critique and evaluate the design principles within his webpage. 

References:

Page, M. (2023). Web Design and Type on Screens [PowerPoint Slides]. Department of Publishing, Simon Fraser University.

oklama. (2021). Oklama.com. https://oklama.com/