BE GOOD TO PEOPLE FOR NO REASON

I believe that you are what you surround yourself with and that I think that also applies to social media. What I look into posts are unique content, genius thoughts and creativeness with a spark of fun, energy and braveness. All of my timelines (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Youtube) mainly consist of posts from musicians or artists. I feel that I can get most inspired from them. As time goes by I’ve noticed that self care and appreciation has become like a trend between a lot of musicians. I believe that it is really healthy for people to remind them that the core thing of being a human is to be in peace with self. At the same time I can say that seeing everybody doing that it becomes slightly annoying. As we all know the content of social media is deliberately constructed, sometimes even by a team of people, so not taking content from the timeline too personally is a part of media consumption. But still I think that no matter how sceptical you are the messages will get you on a subconscious level and that is why it is SO important to choose what to consume.

Anyways, in 2012, while I was still on Tumblr, I discovered a mixtape from a 19 years old girl from Colombia that was really different from everything that I was listening to at that time, it was low quality, but there was something about the rawness, uniqueness that attracted me. She didn't had a lot of followers. I automatically followed her on Twitter and later on Instagram too. I remember that on Twitter she had only about 200 followers. Now, in 2017, in Twitter she has 274K followers, but in Instagram 558K followers, so I have seen her rise from nothing to everything. So, how did Kali Uchis made it happen?

Firstly, she did everything by herself. She made the beats, recorded herself, made the cover of the mix tape, directed and edited videos, styled everything and by that I really mean everything – starting from clothes and ending with writing style in Twitter. As I have noticed, a lot of musicians now tends to point out that they do all by themselves, no matter if it's giving credit to self under the video in Youtube or writing “I do my own stunts” in Instagram and people really appreciate hard working, talented people. There has also been a lot of jokes about popular singers who don't do anything besides singing, has a team who writes songs, do all the other stuff and still get a lot of appreciation, sometimes more than other people who do much better job only by themselves. I think that all this willingness to support people who do everything by themselves comes from wanting to make a world a better place, a place where people who work hard get the recognition  they deserve.

Secondly, she started when she was only 19, so everything what she did, they way she did it was appealing to young generation who is always looking forward to something fresh, relatable and inspiring. A plus is that Kali Uchis is influenced by the greatest female singers, she gives a nostalgic vibe and all that in modern time.

Thirdly, the country and the culture. Colombia has always been super exotic and interesting for the rest of the world. I believe that it works out really good for a young artist if you can manage to be visually pleasing. Here's one music video that she made to a song called "Ridin Round", made in Colombia.

Fourthly, being seen by the right people. First Snoop Dogg reached out and did a collab, then Tyler, The Creator, they worked together for a long time, some other key people. Most recent thing is doing a collab with Gorillaz and warming up Lana Del Rey in the tour.

Lastly, I want to add that she does not get involved in some beefs in the internet, she posts regularly, but not too much, she prays for those who have had big tragedies, she's super nice, which is a number one rule if you want to make it at all, she keeps in touch with fans, answer to them, retweets, tells how much she loves them and thanks them for everything regularly, says how everyone is special, give advice and adds them on a list in the concert if they can't afford the ticket or really want to come, but everything is sold out.

All in all, I can only say good things about how Kali Uchis uses social media. Everything goes hand in hand, the image she has created with how she is in the interviews and I bet in real life too. Either she is doing really, really good with lying or she just is doing herself. I tend to believe that the last option is true.

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Some things that I've noticed and that seemed worth sharing.

One day singer FKA Twigs in Twitter asked a question about braids, lots of people answered, she created a hype about it and later announced that she will post something special about braids in Instagram, as she later did. Interesting technique how to gain attention and make people interested in a topic for own good.

And Diplo's tweet.

In a way agree, but at the same time you can gain a lot of fans if you say something worth spreading. I guess the key is to figure out a good way to say things in the media so you don't end up like Justine Sacco did.

SOCIAL MEDIA MAKES ME SICK, BUT I STILL DO IT

Nardwuar interviews Lil B 

Recently I have come to conclusion that I feel like a junkie when I am using social media. I want more, I need to use it regularly. I get satisfaction from it, but it does not last long. I notice that a lot of people are "on" it and don't question it enough. It feels like a river, once you're in the water it is hard to go against the flow. Further on I will be raising some questions, bringing up some comparisons and sharing some conclusions.

You always need to scroll it through to the place you left before. You just can’t risk it, what will happen if you will miss something that you might have liked? Internet is so big, there probably will not be a second lucky time for you to spot that one perfect photo. You can’t get lucky twice. The photo you just liked is special. Doesn’t matter that you will not look at it again. Now it is there. It’s a part of your special collection and you feel satisfied.

What is this void that I am trying to fill? Why do I feel like it is important to be updated all the time? Do others feel that they want to “delete themselves” from everywhere as well? And why do I feel this satisfaction from being online?

From the moment when almost everyone had access to the internet the life that we knew before was gone. Nowadays, we all have all the necessary tools to create, whether it is uploading a video in Youtube or writing a comment under a post in Facebook. Each of us have become our own publicity machine. We upload images, we add descriptions, we create stories, we create our own dream self for people to see. It is just a click away.

Social media gives you the feeling of power, you can pretty easily create, reorder, collect, organise, find, explore, travel, so on.
Also it allows, or more accurately, it insists that you create a personality. It is all about expressing oneself, being unique, having a voice, even better - having an opinion. Social media goes hand in hand with that. Customize this, choose this, import that and so on. We have a frame in which we have a freedom. We tend to do everything how we want, how we think we should. Today we can really get to know what humans are like in just a second. More content, more freedom, less time, less long-term.

When it comes to Instagram it gets interesting. I find it easy to analyze, because of the limited options. Section of your posts, timeline to see posts of people you follow, explore section to see posts of people you don't follow, section of notifications about likes that you received & activity section of people you follow.
The idea about Instagram is not completely new in itself. It is a summary, improvement and addition of all the old things. Publicity, photography, self expression.
A lot of people don't look anymore what others have likes. They don't even look at posts that were liked by themselves. If we some accounts, the count of the likes on their post can tell us if it is a trend or not, how much people was moved by the photo, how much people want to be the person in the photo or have the same life.

This movement, this idea behind the photo seemed binding, relatable to 584,371 accounts (people, companies).

This movement, this idea behind the photo seemed binding, relatable to 30,186 accounts.

This movement, this idea behind the photo seemed binding, relatable to 137,458 accounts.

This movement, this idea behind the photo seemed binding, relatable to 4,251 accounts.

This movement, this idea behind the photo seemed binding, relatable to 240,193 accounts.

When we like the photos of close persons such as friends or relatives, we are supporting them, agreeing to them, we are delightful about them.

If we don't look or use our special collection of liked posts, why do we keep upgrading it? Is it just a momentary reminder that we are, that we relate? Is it a manifestation of our position?

If we keep being active for ourselves, keeping in mind that nobody really pay attention to what we are thinking, doing, is there a reason to continue? If a photo is posted on Instagram and no one noticed it, does it make a difference?
Supporting. I believe that this worth the attention. I took part. I am worth it. I am significant. Does having your own values, opinion define you or expressing it define you? I pressed “like”, therefore I am. We create evidences of our existence by being on social sites. As Roland Barthes says in his book Camera Lucida: “Photography authenticates the existence of a certain being.”
"
Some safety regulations for using Instagram:
Be careful with the count of people you follow.You don’t want to be stuck on your phone 24/7. Of course there has been some days like that, but you have some other things to do too.

If you stalk someone, never like an old photo, because you don’t want them to know that you are more interested in them as you like them to think.

Try not to get depressed if you don’t have a lot of likes on your last amazing, super cool, creative, unique photo.
You know that amount of likes doesn’t mean anything, especially the fact that the boring person from school who is not even funny or smart, there is really nothing interesting about her, got twice as much likes on one photo than you, you don’t care about that at all, because Instagram is a joke actually (50/50 sarcasm).
Don't press “like” to all the memes you find funny.Everyone is shitposting (all their content consists of memes). You think it makes them look unprofessional, the way that all their life is actually one big joke. You don't want others to think about you that. “Like” only really funny jokes, that goes along with the impression you want to make about yourself. Doesn't matter that the joke about drinking was really funny, you don't want others to know that you can relate to it. You joke with your friends about dumb stuff, not in the public space a.k.a. the internet. 
"
Deleting social media apps from your phone for a certain time and watching “The Ways of Seeing” by John Berger is a good therapy.

MY SOCIAL MEDIA HISTORY LESSON

First time I sat down by the computer and actually did something with it was in 2001 when I was 5 years old at my mother's work. I played a game called “Lines'98”. As time passed by my interests changed – not only games interested me from now on. In 2004 when I was 8 we already had a computer at home so when my cousin came over and showed me a social internet platform called one.lv. Back then it was the most popular site for russian speakers in Latvia to socialise and it was also my first experience with creating social identity. The fact that I did not speak any russian makes it all seem quite absurd today, but there were also some Latvians registered.

The same year Latvians came up with their own social site called draugiem.lv so I registered there and started to use it regularly.

From 2011 till now I am a registered user of Twitter.

I guess somewhere from 2011 till 2013 I used Tumblr as well.

In 2013 as I like to say I “deleted myself” (instead of “deleted my profile” since social media plays such a big role in our life today, of course if we let it) from draugiem.lv and switched only to Facebook. I'm still using it.

From 2013 till now I am a registered user of Instagram.

Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are my main social media platforms that I use today.

Main reasons:

Facebook for me is to get in touch, network, get new information from my groups of interest.

Instagram to see how my friends are doing, get inspired from visual material.

Twitter to get satisfaction from smart, genius, laconic thoughts about any subject.

Poorly Drawn Lines