Me and Social Media

This is the story of my struggles of not interacting with social media within 24 hours. I expected  the challenge to be easy since I felt like I don't use social media that much. The hardest part would be to not watch youtube, podcasts and other videos like tutorials. I would say that I watch youtube the most but just a couple of hours (probably much more) a day and I do browse other forms of social media. There is not any specific meaning for browsing so much and the biggest minus is that  my wrists hurt for holding my phone. I don't use Instagram, Snapchat or other social media forms so actively as I used to. I didn’t expect that Whatsapp wouldn't be a problem either.

I don't usually get so many messages anymore. Rarely even from group chats but I am sure that covid has an effect on them. Discord has been more in use when my friends recently made a group there even though I don't speak there much or any other group chats. I just don't want to or I don't have anything to say. I find texting quite boring and can’t get any meaning for it. I texted a lot more before but now I prefer calls or meeting up, the problem here is also that meeting up with this situation: our friend group is used to meeting up with a big group, so that's also off the list.

To the actual CHALLENGE!

I slept a lot. I didn’t have motivation to wake up. Usually I wake myself up by scrolling through some social media feed, now I couldn't so I slept four extra hours, not a good sign. Even while making breakfast I blast some videos from youtube but I couldn't do that either so I decided to listen to Spotify and find some podcasts from there. I chose a podcast from Aalto university but It wasn't the mood I was after. We drew memes with Lenny remembering some golden moments on social media. 

Here are some memes we drew >>

PIKACHU

https://youtu.be/jec0Miye3gg

GIORNO AND MARIO 

https://youtu.be/NP24UQwybjQ

BINGUS
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CGnHombpV8g/?igshid=gb6ij5oi1gim

I started to watch the social dilemma documentary, I freaked out. The scene where they send messages trying to get a reaction from the voodoo like user, I STARTED TO GET MESSAGES I had to check where the messages came from. It was from whatsapp, and it was quite important and I ordered Lenny to answer them. I lost the challenge but I still tried till the end. At 22.00 I lost it completely and started to use social media normally.

While watching the documentary and trying to be off of social media was the hardest. The beginning of the day I didn’t even have the internet on so I could resist the urge. I needed the internet for spotify and DUOLINGO. To me the funny thing was that I was worried about my streak in duolingo. The one way how the platforms try to keep the users on their platform, but I reasoned that it was more for my motivation to study german. I couldn’t even watch tutorials on youtube and I was really annoyed since I wanted to do my tasks and tutorials are so handy. I tried to search for other forms than tutorials found on Youtube but it didn't really work for me because reading is hard haha, my concentration is way off when reading. I wonder if my concentration is that bad because I am a gen z (baby) or from general concentration problems.

I didn’t enjoy staying off social media platforms since they are tools for me to study and find inspiration. It would have been a completely different situation if I didn’t have school to do then I wouldn't really mind. I could really also dump any other social media form but Youtube is number one. At least number one  tool to learn more, although being without whatsapp would be hard since people do use it the most to contact. It is goofy that I haven’t been able to delete Facebook, Snapchat or Instagram because I have a genuine fear of missing out what's happening but at the same time looking at posts gives me the fomo, but then people do message me through them. It’s a tricky loophole and I have been tricked, I am a sheep.

Cats oh cats

The most important thing to me on the internet is cat memes, not dog memes but kitties. It's not a unpopular opinion and it seems that cats on the internet has been always a trend and  I get it. I haven't always enjoyed cat memes but now that cat memes have perfectly evolved to my taste of humor, (gen Z humor?? ) might be but I am glad that the meme culture has evolved the cat memes from grumpy cat to these golden photos I found in my phone gallery. I think the best thing about these cat memes is the obscurity and absurdity of them all.

I'm Going: Simple, elegant, self-explanatory. This cat is going. The viewer doesnt know where and doesnt need to.

This is a more traditional cat meme, the good old "cat in a weird place" theme. Although the teary eyed cat gives the image a depth that the other pictures of cats dont.

What is he doing? Business, quantum physics, a manifesto? The user must come up with their own conclusion.

Bond villain-esque cat enjoying a Martini. Conveying very thoughtful maybe little depressed looking kitty. Is the kitty thinking the meaning of life, does life have meaning at all?

Everyone loves a good tuxedo, especially  with these paws attached to it, strong paws.

This cat stares at its prey, mood for hunt, milk hunt. Blood of the enemy, dairy industry is the enemy.

Hope, but the sad looking cat knows that hope is't always good. Hope can set us up for defeat.

Post gluttony despair. Friskies is risque.

Self reflection.

A modern flirting method. Who wouldnt be charmed by this kitten?

Absorbed in thought and contemplation. What do these chubby cheeks hold from us...

I love burgers. I love cats. This is me and I am not ashamed to admit it.

Chaos in a low quality image. The tastiness of the water in the morning.

The struggle of mankind.

Here we see an evolution of cutness. Soft pillow and soft kitty.

Family dinner.

Deep Slumber.

This one is on an adventure, Cool headband. 

The look of fear. I hope the kitty is okay.

Greasy pizza meets fuzzy kitten. What could go wrong? Don't feed your cats pizza.

Distinguished gentleperson.

A modern tragedy. Greeks would be proud. 

Purity in troubled times. Small chonk.

Little did they know, it was they whom was a sandwich. 

Romance at its core.

Cowboy hat + sausage = Better than Good,Bad and The Ugly.

I wish to be this relaxed. Oh to be a lazy kittten.

Such fragility yet the darkness has absorbed them.

Poop cat: A representation about lack of privacy in the modern age and the looming threat of the police state.

Cat poop on phone: A desperate message from a young cat to keep their handler away from the dangers of the internet. Much wisdom.

Digital painting retrospective

I started doing digital painting 2 years ago and I can say that I have been getting better at it. Although I still lack some understanding at many things at arts and I have failed to keep doodling as my daily hobby. I would want to encourage myself to draw daily or even weekly but it hasn't formed as a routine yet. I still want to show some of my first digital paintings that aren't finished and not in the condition of publishing  but I enjoy looking back at my drawings.  I haven't been ever confident of my art and I would like to start showing my art even though they were discarded by me once, I liked the ideas of my old ones but I guess I just didn't know how to continue them or just got frustrated. My reasoning for this post is that I get used to people seeing my things and therefore critique wouldn't feel so harsh, and I do want to get better and I think the only way is to practice and ask feedback, through trial and error.  I have gotten better but I know I could develop the skill further.

In many you can maybe  see that I did not have a clue what clipping mask was and I had so many layers, some of my early paintings had over 100.. I bet more than half of those were useless or had just a tiny dot somewhere.

It took a while to dig up some of my files since my naming convention is the worst, browsing through endless peepee pooopoo asdasda files this is what I found almost in chronological order... Old ones first plus one of my fave old one presented at the very bottom cause it's golden and a treat to savor.