What's going on with Instagram? (My sincere opinion)

What happened to Instagram?

(What is going on with Instagram)

If you used to use Instagram before 2019, you're probably asking yourself: What the hell happened to it?

Going straight to the point: It is no longer a content platform, it has become a strip-tease/pole dance stage.

Sorry, but that is true.

Instagram used to be an excellent place where you could post your content and get some visualization about your work. 

The coolest thing is that you didn't need to be a professional in your area; you could be an amateur photographer or any other type of content producer, then, get your job done, visualized and, most importantly, get some recognition.

It was fun.

Let's take my case for example:

Back in 2016, I got a new account to share photos of my trips. 

Those pictures were quite distinctive once I tried to capture them in a way trying to take the viewer with me on that trip. The idea was to produce that feeling and sensation that you get when you're discovering a new place. 

Indeed, It had some success. 

It started with 0 followers (No friends, no relatives), and 

I used to get 200-400 likes by post, commentaries, and real engagement.

So, up to that point, Instagram was only about content.

If I could wrap their policy in a single phrase, it would be:

"You produce, we deliver"

(So if it is good enough, people will engage with you).

Years went by, and I continued to produce content. I did my best to keep traveling, and producing, and that worked until the end of 2019.

However, now I get no more than 15 likes per photo.

(Fifteen if it is really good; Otherwise, around 9 likes)

So, what happened?

People changed? Have I lost my touch?

Well, not really.

What happened is that Instagram's delivery policy has changed a lot.

At the end of 2019, Instagram deliberated started policies to make people spend more time on the platform rather than sharing your content.

So the goal was no longer to share the content of the creators but to make the users spend as much time as possible there.

So, from that point, The Reel Era has begun.

A reel is a short video that, once finished, goes to the next one, then to the next one, and then to the next one... (A hypnotic reel, let's say).

But in order to make his reel work, all the bullets inside the cylinder must be entertaining. (Otherwise, people wouldn't get "trapped" and would easily leave).

But by "entertaining" you can read: Video with hot/attractive people or funny (But preferably with hot people).

And after TikTok, it has become 10x worse.

(I am not sure how many times worse, but it has certainly aggravated the thing).

So, why did they do that?

Well, to be honest: Money and greed. 

(Simple like that)

Recently, one digital influencer joked about it in a podcast while talking about social media: 

"...And what about Instagram now? It turned crazy, right? Every week is different: This week you must upload 4 stories per day, 1 reel and 1 picture, this week you must upload 2 reels, 3 stories....".

A lot of people stop getting new followers just because they can only they are not aware of them, and also they change that fast).

Besides, the content level is getting so south that even those people in technical fields such as Computer programming and languages are "downgrading" their content level.

As a software developer, I almost got killed when I saw these posts about "working with arrays in Java". Really? Such a "complex" subject in a simple Instagram post? How people are desperate to get followers.

You know, I can totally understand someone sharing a course, a tutorial, or a video but "complicated" topics in a simple Instagram post? How substantial enough are they to talk about these topics? 

And what about languages? Another day I saw a guy "teaching" french wearing nothing more than underwear. Despite this example, in general, I can see daily a decrease in the quality of their content.

So, Instagram is no longer that tool you could rely on to make your content visible, hoping people would notice it.

Instead, it has become a stage for those willing to sell their souls to get some success and fame. (I have nothing against having success on social media but try at least to share something with some worthy personal value).

However, it is an opportunity for those who have something worthy of sharing to develop their interest more professionally and boost it indeed. 

Besides, who knows if someone will come up with a platform to do exactly what they used to do? 

Certainly, it would be a success.

Kyle.

Let's vent - A bad experience in a restaurant in Cologne (Köln, Germany)

Today's topic is restaurants.

So, I have a question:

Do you know what is worse than bad food? 

Answer:

Bad customer service.

Ok, sometimes they fail because the number of available waiters is not enough to serve everyone properly, and certainly, that can be disappointing. However, what I am talking about is when the waiter seems to be mean to you.

Do you know when they ignore or mistreat you simply because they don't like you?

And I always ask myself why.

They treat everyone well there, but it seems that you are the only person that is having a hard time with them.

Could you get the picture?

So let me tell you about a situation that happened to me two days ago.

I went on this weekend trip to Cologne, Germany (I live in Belgium, so it is not that far), and around 4 p.m. I decided to take a break and have a traditional German dessert somewhere. 

So I chose this restaurant close to me, got in, and this person that seemed to be the owner hosted me inwards. 

Then after choosing something on the menu (An apfelstrudel), I looked for someone to take my order and found this guy dressed up like what seemed to be a waiter that was apparently free (Like doing nothing).

So, I waved at him. 

He looked me back straight in the eyes and ignored me.

Then I thought, 

"Did he just ignore me?"

"Maybe he is not a waiter."

(Because he was just wearing a suit vest and had no waiter wallet in the waist). 

"Maybe he didn't see my hand because it wasn't high enough."

So, I decided to give the benefit of the doubt because maybe he hadn't seen my hand waving at him.

Ok, so I went for a second shot. 

I waved to him more firmly, trying to call him. 

And guess what just happened? 

He looked me back and ignored me again.

I was astonished.

Then I thought: "This dude is really ignoring me".

Still, I considered that maybe he wasn't a waiter or is just a host, so that's why he ignored me (Despite if he is a host, you don't simply ignore a customer as the way he did).

Anyway, I waited for someone else. (In this case, the owner that hosted me in the first place)

However, a few moments later, that dude started to serve the tables next to me, so that guy was indeed a waiter in charge of that area.

So, he had undoubtedly ignored me.

I was just stupefied.

How could he have done that to me?

Why?

And for what?

He had decided to attack me for no good reason.

Weird, isn't it?

But it hasn't finished yet.

When the check came, I got my card to pay (Because I didn't see any issue with paying 9,90 Euros by card, moreover, I am in Cologne, not a village).

But the owner refused to accept it. 

He said that card is usually accepted above 20 Euros ( in a condescending manner)

I simply couldn't believe it. 

So, feeling pretty odd, I opened my wallet and tried to wave to him a 50 Euro bill (because I couldn't see any other), but, in this meanwhile, he was giving a deep look at my wallet in my wallet and "kindly" pointed out to use the 10 Euro bill instead of the 50.... (Unbelievable, not only did he not accept my card, and looked invasively inside my wallet, but he also decided with which bill I should pay...)

But It hasn't finished yet....

After all of that, he explicitly said that I still needed to tip him...

Really, can you believe that??

I couldn't believe that he had the guts to say that (In the way he did it).

He specifically said: It is 1 Euro.

Ok, that's it.

That was too much.

Let's brief the whole thing: I was rudely ignored twice by that waiter, and this one was being so petty about how to pay by examining the inside of my wallet, choosing the money bill I should use, and now he calls me out about the tip? On the way he did it?

Are you fuck&%& kidding me??

End of the story, I didn't tip him and mentioned the situation about the waiter.

He seemed baffled. (Not because of the waiter but because I refused to give a tip anyway) 

Anyway, I simply stood up and walked away.

Ok, that's it.

I hope that you "enjoyed" it, and I will see you in the next post!

À la prochaine!

Obs: If you have been through a similar situation and want to share it, please use the comment section to tell me!

See you!!!

Kyle.

The importance of forgiveness and letting it go

Yeah, you read that title correctly.

So many times in my life, I paid people back according to their mistakes towards me. Do you know why?

Because it seemed fair;

In my head, it was like this: I was here calm and quiet, and then this piece of sh/#&  came and did that thing to me. So, guess what: I would pay it back. 

How?

Well, during my lifetime on earth, this "paying back" already had a lot of shapes.

In the beginning, it was more like doing exactly the same thing to that person. But after some years of practicing, I just got pain.  

Yes, pain for feeling bad about doing the same thing that I was condemning in the first place and also because it used to initiate a vicious circle of throwing and receiving.

So, I  would just get stuck in those emotional traps until the time that I decided not to fall into them anymore.

However, I would still get upset. And by getting upset, I would put a big hat of blame in people's heads that would basically lead to cutting them off of my life or not giving them any opportunity to build any relationship with them (Because in my head, they were the incarnated evil).

That seemed pretty fair to me.

But as life continues, you notice that you can't simply get rid of people; somehow, they must continue in your life. At work, for example.

For several reasons I will explain later, I decided to continue to be nice to them, no matter what. Like they never make a mistake towards me.

And guess what happened? They started to become nicer to me, To have more trust in me. Relationships began to be built up ( Just because I decided no longer to shut the door down).

With time I started to realize that those people were not as bad as I used to think. 

Forgiving them as they have never done what they did towards me, gave me every day a new opportunity to build up the relationship correctly.

Consequently, that starts to give a little piece of peace in your head.

Now, why have I decided to change? 

In life, we get this kind of thinking: "I can let people play with me",  "I can't let people make me a fool," and "they can't even think for a second that I am naive", "this is wrong, how could I let that go?".  

If you are human, you've probably already got stuck with these thoughts or situations that lead you to think like that. 

Yeah, it is "perfectly" natural. However, let me tell you that it is imperfect.

Yes, imperfect. 

Because justice utterly requires balance. 

"Justice is balance".

If you are human and do something wrong, justice brings justice to correct, cleanse and ultimately erase what you did wrong.

So, in an attempt to bring correction, it brings punishment ( through destruction).

In a so fallen world, justice would not only prevent us from developing, but ultimately it would obliterate us.

Imagine a big field of grass trying to grow, and then the forces of nature realize that they are not growing aesthetically perfect at a microscopic level; Then they would come and trim every imperfection. Well, you don't need to be a genius to realize that this field would never grow (Because it is imperfect, in essence)

Now, imagine for a second that this force of nature that is in charge of the field is just power and justice. So,  it would destroy the field while trying to correct it. Wouldn't it be much better if this force would care a little bit and let the grass grow even with those microscopic imperfections? Because in the end, we would get a beautiful grass field that potently could be a beautiful landscape.

So, the point is to care. To love what is in its hands.

So, love is the solution.

Love is perfection.

Love goes further and beyond justice.

Love forgives.

Justice is good, but love is perfect.

So, why have I changed?

Not only because I experienced its results. But also because I believe in God.

Yes, you read that correctly.

If you don't believe it, at least assume that what I have said so far makes sense. We are imperfect, and letting slide the imperfections of others allows us to get a good thing in the end.

I think that God behaves in the same way. He sees all our imperfections, shortcomings, missteps, etc.. But, he continuously gives us new opportunities every day because he knows that we have so much potential to do things right in the future, like the grass field that I mentioned.

So, in the end, because God is love.

Chinese characters explained for school subjects (Part 1)

Hello everyone,

In today's post, we will examine the character formation of the school's subjects in detail.

You can find the school subjects table at the following link.

I will divide it into a couple of posts because it is quite lengthy.

At first, It doesn't look that fascinating. However, one of the interesting things about the Chinese language is that most of the characters can be explained and understood. Therefore, you can fully understand a word only by examining its characters (Even the pronunciation you can get).

So, let's see!

1) 化学 (Chemistry)

化 (Huà) meaning is:

•    to make into / to change into

You can see this word in 变化 (biànhuà), to change (v.) or change(n.).

Besides, you can find it in 花 (Huā), a flower.  

(艹 (cao) and 化 for pronunciation).

化 is formed by two people followed by two people up-side down, meaning death. So, we have life and death in the same character, meaning change.

And what is chemistry if not the science of transforming/transmuting things to another (In ancient times related to alchemy).

 "...Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed" 

(Lavoiser).

So, that's a reasonable explanation for 化学.

2) 物理 (Physics)

The first character is 物 (wù) means:

• Thing, matter
• Content, substance

It is formed by 牛 (niú), cow (To give a meaning of something physical, like a cow pulling a plow), and 勿 (wù, for pronunciation). 

You can find 物 in words like

动物 - Animal - Thing that moves

植物 - Plant - Thing that is a plant/grows

理 (Lǐ), reason and logic. You can find this character in the word 理解 (Lǐjiě), to understand, understanding.

So, since 物 has this deep meaning of substance of things and 理 as reason, you can understand 物理 as logic/reason behind the substances that form this universe.

3) 科学 (Science)

科 (Kē), means branch (Part of, in the sense of division).

So, without much mystery, science is a generic term for a group of studies.