Social Media at a Glance

Though social media can be a powerful tool, I tend to have a negative affinity towards it. I am a social media marketer and work with platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and a few other smaller social media sites. My job actually entails brand promotion through generating influencer leads and having simple conversations on the various platforms. Since I currently spend more than 20 hours a week doing this and plan on doing this the rest of my life, one can see where I’d get the negative feelings about social media. To me, it’s a variety of online platform where millions of people are all “yelling” at each other what they think others want to hear. But in turn, almost nobody is listening but simply yelling back what they thing the other person wants to hear about them. It’s a place where you can be anybody or anything. Just simply limit what others see by filtering your content and showcasing only the best things about oneself.

On the other hand, I do see social media helping people. People with anxiety, people with social problems or those who struggle with reaching out to others for help. I believe strongly in supporting real relationships with social media and not trying to generate meaningful strong relationships online (though I’m sure that can be done sometimes as well). I think there is healthy middle ground where social media is used as a supplement to real life. For connecting with friends and family that may live far away. For seeing news and updates in people’s lives who mean something to oneself. For connecting hobbies, passions, interests and strengths to those who can relate to one another. And lastly, for expanding one’s horizons and seeing how others live and thrive and struggle.

I see the good in social media. And when taken with a grain of salt, I believe it to be very good. But not always perfect and definitely shouldn’t be used for everything.  

Apple Broke My Heart

The year was 2010, I was in my late teens and on the market for my first smartphone (yes I did get a smartphone later in life but I don't think kids need smartphones.. but that's another issue).

Ever since the release of the iPhone 4 I knew exactly which phone I was going to get. The sexiest looking phone on the market with some of best performance reviews versus Android. I was all set.

I went into Verizon and laid down my card. "iPhone 4, black", I said. It was beautiful. The packaging, the phone, everything. Jump to 2 months later...

"Unfortunately we cannot downgrade you back down to iOS 6", said the Apple representative over the phone.

"Are you sure??", I said, "my phone is basically a brick. I can't connect to iTunes, I can't make phone calls, my texts get lost often, and the connection is super slow and NONE of these problems were there when I was on iOS 6..."

 "Unfortunately we cannot not downgrade the phone", he replied, "Apple gives a very unique customer experience that cannot be altered with".

My heart was broken. Here I just spent hundreds of dollars on a phone that was now a brick with the feature of lighting up...

But hope was not lost. Where there is a hope, there is used devices with older software on eBay!!

The used iPhone 4 come in the mail... SO EXCITED. It was iOS 6.1.3 and will work for sure!
Powered it on, and it asked for iCloud password. Didn't know the previous owner so I contacted Apple again... This time... I was pissed.

"Unfortunately we cannot unlock the phone for you".

"But I purchased it legitimately and am the owner of the phone. I just need it unlocked", I said.

"Unfortunately we cannot not unlock the phone", she replied, "Apple gives a very unique customer experience that cannot be altered with".

Now my heart was broken... over $1200 down the drain and I had TWO bricks..

Because of the "Apple Experience" I will never buy an Apple product again. If they sacrifice customer service for this crappy controlled environment then I want nothing to do with them. 

Blast From the Past

Have you ever looked on your past and missed it? I know I have. It almost seems surreal and fake when you looked at who you used to be (either in high-school or college). It's like you want to go back to the "good 'ol days". 

It started when I bought a new computer, while transferring files over to my new computer, I found some old pictures and started looking through them. As I found more and more pictures of past relationships, experiences, and things that are no more; I began to grow sad and sorrowful. I wanted to go back to those "good 'ol days" and remake my past to get as much of it as I could. 

Back then, I didn't notice what was going on. I simply lived my life and didn't think anything different. I didn't think that those days were really the best times of my life. I had free time with good friends. We never knew what we were doing or what we were going to do. We just did what we figured was fun and enjoyed life. We made mistakes, we lived with regrets, we dealt with drama, we created laughs, and we had a blast. It was so simple. 

As time passed, we hung out less, friends got jobs, moved away, or moved on. Girlfriends became ex-girlfriends, and fun became planned time with the few that stuck around. We got our hair-cut, we got jobs, we enrolled in higher education, we started getting bills and time, started to become more and more precious. 

What I have to learn now, is that this is the way of life. Maturity sets in, you realize that there is a time to grow up and move on. And this is all okay, because you're ready to grow up. Growing up isn't bad, it's good. And those "good 'ol days" can become a beautiful memory of regrets and joy. And I can look at old pictures or videos with bitter-sweets thoughts. And know I had the time of my life, and hope to pass on that knowledge to my future kids someday and tell them, "kids, make the most of your youth, 'cuz once your up and grown, you'll be in a different stage of your life. That is the way of life". 

If people stayed kids forever, there would be a lot of problems in this world. Maturity sets in for a valuable reason. And good times don't have to stop, they just look different. 

So to finalize, I'm happy that I had the youth I had. And I can't wait for the next stage of my life, my career, my house, my wife, my new relationships to come. In fact, I think some have already started...