Is our generation addicted to social media?

 

I’m laying in my bed eating Girl Scout’s thin mints cookies while watching the Sex and the City movie when it suddenly dawned on me I never write. I used to write pages upon pages of a book I was writing every single night when I was in middle school. While I was going through tough times in high school I would journal every night in hopes of one day returning and seeing how my life changed. Writing has been a skill that I’ve held close to my heart since I was a little girl. I dreamed of writing novels so instead of reading them I tried to write my own. Now that I’m in college, my pipe dream still floats in the back of my head but I’ve felt distracted. I first thought college was just the distraction but I do have free time. I have come to terms social media has taken a lot of my daily life.

Being a millennial is a special generation because technology has been growing just as we are. In a world where people are inspired or creating lives through technology, we fall at the spectrum of the question, “Where is the limit?”

As a Communication major, this topic comes up quite often in some of my classes. We draw attention to the great aspects that technology has given, but have we lost our humanity in spite of our advances?

Social media is one of the biggest influences our generation has grown into. I have seen many positive outcomes because of it, but I also witnessed how social media can be abused. I’m not here to compare and contrast social media but I think we all can take a step back and think, “how much is too much?”

I am completely guilty of being addicted to social media. I am a strong believer in using social media to influence a large audience in a positive manner but I think we can all agree there should be limitations. We know many people have developed careers solely through Youtube, Instagram, Vine, etc. I love that fact that creative people can express themselves online. But lately, I have felt addicted to my phone and I notice it in my daily life around others.

1. Children glued to smartphones and tablets at restaurant

Ah yes, the small child who is easily distracted by playing games on the tablet while the rest of the family engages in a conversation (or also on their phones) at a restaurant table. I know, I could be observing at the wrong time and who am I to judge? I occasionally pull out my phone at the table! Maybe the child has a disability and this tablet calms them? Maybe this is the new age of tablets and no longer coloring books are a thing? Whatever it may be, I think we can all agree technology has dramatically changed children’s engagement in family and play time.

2. Tinder changing the dating game (or not)

(Disclaimer: If you’ve found your partner on Tinder ignore this. You’re one of the lucky ones) If you don’t know what Tinder is, either you live under a rock or you’re a baby boomer. It’s the inevitable app that allows you to swipe through a few pictures of a person, a bio and decide if you like them or not. Sounds romantic, right? The great thing about this app is that it allows you to see hundreds of eligible “bachelors” or “bachelorettes”(cough cough) in your area. The bad part is, well, where do we start? You can match with hundreds or even thousands, and you probably will not find the love of your life. (I mean if that’s what you’re looking for) Personally, I’ve never downloaded it because I have a boyfriend. Even if I didn’t have a boyfriend, I wouldn’t dare to even search it in the app store. I know too many humorous/horror stories of people who went on “tinder dates”. If you’re really thirsty and matched everyone in your city, you can purchase “Tinder Plus” to swipe in any city of the world! The worst part is, this app has become the new way of “dating” in our generation.

3. Going on social media mindlessly. 

This is something I am completely guilty of. When I say “mindlessly, I mean by clicking on an app or searching on the browser to go on social media. If this isn’t you, don’t let it become you. I have gotten so bad I will walk the streets of Manhattan and pop up Instagram when I’m at a crosswalk waiting for the red hand to go away. The second I am about to do my homework on my laptop I somehow get Facebook pulled up on my browser. In my lecture hall, I can see people scrolling on twitter or online shop the entire time sitting through the lecture. When I am hanging out with friends, our entire time is on our laptops or smartphones looking at everyone else’s lives while we compare our lives to them. There is nothing wrong with using your time wisely on social media, but when we go on mindlessly shouldn’t we acknowledge it?

There was a big debate recently from what used to be one of my favorite bloggers Essena Oneill. She was famous on social media and I thought she was using her platform positively. It turns out, she said everything was a lie and social media “is not real life”. Was she being too cynical about it because it negatively hurt her, or are we living a lie?

I’m a strong believer in doing what makes you happy that has a positive force on your life. Life is an amazing thing but try not to have your life glued to a piece of metal for once. Go outside, read a book, write, sing, play, workout, create, socialize…the world is your oyster!

 

 

new year, same me

My thoughts have been floating around in my head for what seems ages to write this post. A lot happened this year. I travelled Australia with my boyfriend, I transferred to a new university, and I embarked on a new journey and moved to New York City. Of course, lots of things in between those things added to the list of things that made my year. To be quite honest, I feel quite blessed with the life I have. It’s been a while since I’ve been content with my life. I never imagined I’d do any of the things in 2015 two years ago. This is the beauty of life. We never know what is going to be in our future.

I made a pact to myself to stop trying to be happy. It’s a struggle at times but this is life. A long time ago when I was a little girl,  my mom had gotten me a porcelain plaque that read “Life isn’t about finding yourself, it’s about creating yourself”. I then realised that happiness is not achieved by trying to do things we think will make us “happy”. More importantly, happiness is a state of mind.

Some find joy in playing with animals, seeing an exciting movie, playing a sport, or creating art. Do all these things make us happy? Or is it only temporarily?

For a long time, I struggled with comparing myself to others. I struggle with it to this day. Social media can be deceiving. I absolutely love how social media can empower our generation in sending our positive and educational messages. At the same time, social media can create a false message on how we perceive others lives.

2016 will not be the “new year, new me”. I am perfectly fine the way I am and so are you. As a matter of fact, instead of trying to be a new you become a better you.

If you are unhappy with yourself, change it. I don’t mean change yourself for others approval but because you want to.

I don’t mean to throw in something cheesy, but this is one of my favorite tweets from one of my favorite people.

And remember nobody’s feelings are more important than your own so take time to love yourself- @zaynmalik

Make 2016 the year you love yourself.

Life is too short to not love the life you live.

My Australia Trip (Queensland- Brisbane/Whitsunday Islands) Part 1

Hello!

I’m currently sitting on the ground of the LAX airport waiting to board my next connecting flight to Atlanta. It’s been an exciting month of July. I’m sad to leave the land down under, but most importantly my best friend (boyfriend, bae, boo, boy, whatever the kids are calling it these days). The most frustrating part of this is coming home. I was supposed to leave Wednesday (July 29th) in Australia at 10:50 am. Which is actually Tuesday night for people in the U.S. I get my first text message from Delta saying my flight was delayed until 12:30. At the time, I was on my way to the airport with my boyfriend. I was actually happy because that gave me a little more time to be with him before we say our goodbyes. Then we arrived to the airport and another text said my flight was delayed. That meant I was going to miss both my connecting flights back to Florida…I was a little frustrated, but I thought this was God’s way of giving us more time to spend together. Flash forward 9 hours..My plane originally said it was going to depart at 7:00 pm but didn’t take off until 8:00. Sooooo.. here I am waiting to depart my overnight flight to Atlanta until 5:00 am….then arrive in Fort Myers, Florida around 9:30-10:00 am.

I’m excited to get home because I know my kitties, doggies, family, and friends (the few that I have) miss me (((hopefully))) It will be a long two days of travelling to get home, but everything was worth it.

Overview of my trip

The plane ride

The first day I arrived in Brisbane I was surprisingly not jetlagged. The 3 plane trips were not as bad as I expected. I was freaking out thinking, “what am I going to do for 14 hours stuck on a plane????” My first tip of survival of long haul flights is to sleep! Within the first 2 hours of the plane ride, you get served dinner. That’s when I watch my first movie. (They provide many movies, shows, games, etc on the plane) After watching two movies I get tired and make myself comfy. I was lucky on both my flights going to and coming back that the plane was not full. I purposely booked a aisle seat with no one in the middle of the 3 person row. This was crucial for me and my long 6 foot 2 inch body because I would have been crammed in economy. I got to spread my legs out and sleep. I think it’s impossible to sleep the entire flight for me personally, but if you can do that that props to you. I usually readjust my body every hour or so. After sleeping there are about 4 hours left of the flight. I’ll watch another movie until breakfast is served within the last 2 hours. During that time, I prepare for landing and make sure my customs form is filled out. I’ll refresh myself in the bathroom and stretch a bit. Also, stretching, walking around, and drinking water are crucial for staying healthy on the flight!

Brisbane, Australia

Brisbane is where I spent most of my time living since that is where my boyfriend lives. We lived in about a 10-15 minute bus ride from the city just in a suberb called Alderley. The city of Brisbane had a bit of San Fransico’s hills and LA’s mountains. The city is clean and modern with a coffee shop on every corner! All the coffee shops serve latte, macchiatos, cappuccinos, flat white, etc; basically any fancy coffee drink besides regular ol’ coffee, cream, and sugar. I found this city to be not quite different from any city in the United States. Like America, Australia is mixed with multiple cultures, races, and backgrounds. There were stores just like we had in the states like 7/11, Topshop, Cotton On, Starbucks, Subway, Kripsy Kreme, Forever 21 to just name a few. Australia’s transportation has multiple ways of getting around. We used Queensland’s system of “GoCard” which can be used for rail, bus, and ferry. Each state has their own card for transportation or you can simply just by tickets. I found these types of transportation systems were much cleaner than the ones like in the U.S. Every type of person could be seen on the bus or train. It’s a cheaper way of getting around, or you can simply use Uber!

The one thing that frustrated me the most about Australia is how expensive everything was! Even though I was getting things a little bit cheaper in USD, I still had to pay international transaction fees on my Visa or a 2-3% surcharge for American Express automatically at most places! It was only a few cents or 1-2 dollars but it adds up! If something was 10 AUD, I was getting it for around 8 USD.

Here’s some pics from the lovely city of Brisbane

South Bank

Artifical Lagoon in Southbank

Botanical Gardens

QUT (Queensland University of Technology) next to the Botanical Gardens and Southbank

The Whitsunday Islands

This next bit is when we went to Northern Queensland. We flew into this cute, little farm town called Prosperine. The airport was called Whitsunday Coast Airport and it was only about an hour flight from Brisbane. We were staying in Airlie Beach. That is where the main tourist part and it’s a 40 minute drive from the airport on the coast. There you can do all your booking for the multiple activities the Whitsunday Islands have to offer. To get to the islands and Great Barrier Reef, you have to take ferries there from Port of Airlie or boat tours. We did a few activities on the islands. We took a boat tour to the Whitsunday Island (the main island and is also a national forest you can camp on) which is where the famous Whitehaven Beach was. It was so magical! It was unlike any place I’ve seen. The Whitsunday Islands and Great Barrier Reef are a must if you ever happen to be in Queensland or Australia in general. It’s both family friendly, romantic, exotic, but not a complete tourist trap like the islands  cruises take you from Miami. There is something for everyone. You will see so many hostels and backpackers wherever you go. Who wouldn’t wanna backpack Australia? If you’re looking to stay on one of the islands, there’s one to accommodate you in what you’re looking for. Looking for a private yet family friendly resort? Try looking at Daydream Island. We spent the day there and there’s various activities adults and kids can do. It’s also the closest island to Airlie Beach. If you’re looking to stay on a big island with lots of activities and places to stay, Hamilton Island is the place to be! We never got to visit there but we wish we had! There’s both luxury and affordable accommodations to stay and a bunch of activities on the island I’m pretty sure they have cars on there too. If you have the money and want the luxury, Hayman Island’s One and Only resort is a dream! Obviously, I did not get to visit there, but one day if I have the money I most definitely will be looking there! I can’t believe I never heard about this place until recently. I find it hard to believe most Americans I’ve talked to have never heard of this place. Seriously, if you’re dreaming of staying in the heart of the Great Barrier Reef, the Whitsunday Islands is an absolute must!

Here’s a bit of photos I took while staying there. Please don’t steal!

Our flight into the Whitsunday Coast Airport

Where we stayed!

Our view while walking to the main town, Airlie Beach

the Airlie Beach lagoon

This is while driving the Airlie Beach. (Prosperine)

We ended up chickening out but this is one of the nature walks!

Port of Airlie

Boardwalk outside our room. So pretty!

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This next bit is from our trip to Whitehaven Beach. We took a boat tour which included the beach and snorkeling off fringing reefs near Hook Island.

I don’t have pics of the snorkeling only video off a GoPro I rented so I’m too lazy to insert now. But we’ve all seen fish! They were really cool and didn’t mind humans much. Next is our day trip to Daydream Island!

They had a living coral reef on the island. To be honest, I felt so bad for the trapped nurse sharks and sting rays in that small pool!

One of their beaches called “Mermaid Beach”

They had wild kangaroos all over the island. They were so cute!

Mini golf

Rainforest walk in the middle of the island!

view from on top of mountain thing

so pretty

Lover’s Key (another area of the island

Next is our day trip out to the Great Barrier Reef. It was about a 3 hour boat ride to get to the reefs. We were at Hardy Reef. There you could snorkel, take an above water submarine to see the fish below, helicopter tour the reefs, and scuba dive! This was the only boat that takes people directly out to see the actual Great Barrier Reef. I decided to scuba dive! I had never before but they shortly train you and guide you the entire time for roughly 20 minutes under water. It was definitely worth the extra money! I did snorkel but I saw way more things and close up while diving.

View from submarine. Surprisingly, coral is not as bright as you think!

I took these off the computer, I can’t seem to find my HD ones!

I have a million more pics that I took from the trip, but I can’t include them all! Maybe I’ll post them later on a website.

This concludes part 1 of my blog series of my trip! I still have more, but I rather post it in multiple segments so the post is not too long. My next blog post will include our trip to Gold Coast and the Australia Zoo. Both are located in Queensland. The last bit I have is our trip to Sydney! Until next time… thanks for reading. If you have any questions about my trip just comment, tweet, or tumblr ask me.

twitter.com/xchelchel

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Humans

Growing up in a society where your appearance is judged is tough. People take one look at you and decide who you are. You are lying if you have never judged someone because of the way they look. A lot of the times people judge others because it is the way they were brought up/what they are taught. It is your decision to decide what is “right” and what is “wrong”. I recently heard of a phrase that goes, “The first thought that goes through your mind is what you’ve been conditioned to think. What you think next is what defines you” I full-heartedly think this is accurate.

My experience: 

I previously had a whole section of this blog post about my past experience with bullying but I felt it was not so important. In short, I grew up hating my body because people made fun of my height. I felt like a freak and was afraid to talk to people because I never felt accepted. I barely had friends throughout elementary and middle school. Flash forward to my life now. I am 6’2 and 19 years old. Whenever I go out in public 80% of people stare at me or ask me if I play basketball. It happens every. single. time. But you know what? Who cares! I am finally comfortable in my own skin and body. It does not matter what I look like to other people. People come in all shapes and sizes. Life is too short to be worrying about a random person in the grocery store thinking about what you look like.

My thoughts:

When I think about children, teens, and adults who are ridiculed and discriminated by racism, misogyny, ableism, lgbtqia discrimination, body shaming, etc my heart saddens. I am just a privileged, straight, white, and middle class woman who has experienced nothing near the discrimination we see today. I believe kindness can go a long way. Young adults are the future of this world. It is up to us to change this. The way we perceive things will be brought down to our kids and future generations. I hope to see a future where we can look back at our progress and be ashamed of what happened. The younger generations are continuing to have more and more access to technology. This can be be utilized for good or bad. Children and young adults can now read on what is happening in the world today, but they can also spread negativity. To not be affected or care about things like this disheartens me. I often see people say “It’s not my place to have an opinion” or “It does not affect me so I don’t care”. HOW CAN YOU NOT CARE ABOUT PEOPLE’S LIVES AROUND YOU? Put yourself in someones shoes and imagine being shamed or even killed for who you are. Where is the humanism? When will the world see peace? I am thankful for the life I live and appreciate what I have. My small fragment of minor “bullying” or whatever you’d like to think of it as is just a fraction of what goes on in the world today. I am in no way comparing myself to the humans who undergo discrimination daily, but I have experienced being judged like many young people. Remember, people who project racial slurs or discrimination against a person’s religion or sexual identity are not portraying their opinion, they are dehumanizing a person. We are all humans who deserve equality. Don’t let others tell you that you are not important. I think John Lennon’s song “Imagine” shares an important message the world often forgets.

“You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will live as one”

Thank you for reading my short post. Of course, my thoughts go deeper than what is being written. I appreciate anyone who took their time to read this. I’ll be posting more this week.