Why I hate Social Media.

As much as I am a believer of Social media and almost a case study of how social media has benefited me and changed my life, there are things about social media that really pisses me off these days. Do not get me wrong, social media is not "bad" especially for myself. I've found friends, clients, work, money, deals and love on social media.

Photo kope from thecambelles.com

The picture above tells quite a few stories itself and all the credits goes to Social Media.

1. Crocs use to be just my favorite brand of shoes but now they are my clients.
2. I get to meet pretty girls.
3. Friendships were built.
4. I look cuter on social media than in person.

Before I get ahead of myself and start talking about how I love social media again, let me just get into why I really HATE social media.

1. It's Commercial Media Time. 

I might be guilty of this but seriously this is how social media has evolved these days. When it first started the social web was about making friends. About playing games on facebook and maybe reading credible articles on blogs where people review food and happenings on their own free time. Within a few years, things has changed so much. You no longer make friends, you will only follow and then unfollow people to up your followers count or worst, you buy them. You will do everything SEO to up your blog's read count. You will scold your friend for sharing a game or asking for items but you will tag 10,000 friends trying your best to win a brand new iPhone 5. Bloggers no longer blogs about their life or things they ate but will only blog about events and reviews if things were given to them.  On top of that people are teaching others on how to make money using blogs. I know I've talk about these too often and by now you guys should be sick about it but I live in the world where I hope things are organic. Where is the social? Why not just call it commercial media? Sponsored ads, sponsored stories blah blah. Give us a like and we will donate $1 for every like. Like really?

2. Abuse Abuse Abuse. 

Abuse. Consumers abuses social media. We can see on certain facebook pages that some consumers are up right abusing the pages. Using the pages not just to ask for certain details but users it to threaten brand that they will write bad things and so on and the only thing  the brands can do is to give discounts or free items to "solve" the problem. Is this not an act of blackmailing? If your item is trashed after the warranty or what not, get a new piece. Do not go make noise and expect magic.   


3. Self Glorification made easy. 

Remember the popular Lorenzo von Matterhorn? No? Go google him, he is really famous. Just incase you are not very familiar with google. - http://www.lorenzovonmatterhorn.com/ Your eyes ain't seeing things. That is Neil Patrick aka Barney from how I met your mother. basically LVM is a play he came up with to trick girls into believing that he is somebody famous and popular. Same thing with social media, everyone
Most of the peeps wish to be famous. Below is a short walk thru legend of what it seems like and what it really means.
Model = I upload camwhore pictures onto instagram.
Photographer = I have an iPhone and instagram.
Chef Editor/Creative Director/Writer = I have a blog and I edit my own grammar mistakes.
Entrepreneur = I have a blog shops that sells my old clothes/ gifts from my ex boyfriend.
Celebrity = Featured on some other blogs of my friends before.
Producer/Director/Founder = I kinda am doing something but not really.
Singapore Top (Insert whatever) =  I am not humble, I think I am good and better and I wanna make you believe me by buying followers and likes on twitter, facebook youtube.
I am from (Insert a more interested country than where you really are from) = Because whatever a faraway land is always more interesting and I choose to drop my own nationality and tell you I am from New York, Paris,Japan or even Mars but the fact is I actually stays at maybe Tampines with my mum and in front of the computer. 


4. Social Status and Shit.

Maybe this happens everywhere in real life and it's silly of me to be unhappy about it but too often there are too many people with no balls and just follow what others says online. If you are more influential in some way, you just throw your weight around and everyone will believe you. And sad to say there more many people who doesn't care about their own image as an influencer and just uses it as a tool to cyber bully. We know too many of them.

 5. It's getting too much attention. 

Nothing really bad about this until you see that our TV and news has to report on facebook comments and tweets. Our ministers and politicians are basically "scare" of social media and how it could swamp them. Not all bad, at least they are watching their back and trying to be nicer in that way. And woman getting fired of her job because of an insensitive comment made on her personnel facebook page. To be fair, she really didn't see this coming. Nobody did. One min it's her facebook page and next it got her onto all, I repeat, ALL our major paper's headline. Amy Amy... oh well..

Education is the KEY! 

To be fair, not everybody takes social media seriously and not many people "gives a damn" about what is right practice and what is not. There is no hard and fast rules about how to be on it written anywhere. It's like water and it takes the shape of the cup. Social media takes the shape of the users and how the users wants to shape it. Base on the 1% rule, the 90% are the lurkers and "follows" the other 10% but to be frank I felt that more often than not it's the 10% which is trying to manage the 90%'s expectation these days. Marketers and bloggers will want to provide what the readers and consumers wants these days rather than making something new and letting people follow the trend. Isn't it so? End of the day brands and bloggers are always trying to penetrates into this 90%. Base on numbers we do know that they are more important no? Bottomline is that educating people on the social web is very important.

Social Web gives everyone a voice, but are you speaking what need to be said or are you just making yourself look stupid?

Mr.Smith, love hate relationship. That's the best kind isn't it?

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Did you buy twitter followers?

Hi, I am rich and I would like to buy you as my friend. Can I do that in real life? I guess not but can I do it online? On twitter? On facebook or even youtube channels?

I've always been ranting talking about this issue over twitter and to some of my friends on the social media scene. I seriously hate cannot agree with people who buy followers. Before I go on, this is one of the many available links that you can buy "friends" from.

In fact one of the most popular platform is started by none other than the famous Mark Zukerburg. Known as LIKE STORE. You have no idea who Mark is? Nope, he is not the founder of Facebook but he is the founder of like store. Read more about Mark here. 

Anyway, my point is why do you want to buy followers and buy like? Are you really that desperate to get friends or look famous? I will probably not blame most of these people who really buy it but more often I blame the marketing people(yes, including myself) which indirectly causes this to happen.

FYI to readers who has no idea why I am blaming the Marketing people, it's because very often our clients/bosses would like to know if the return of investment(ROI) to a certain bloggers is worth the money and on top of the clicks on their blog, what we will normally do is that we will actually estimate  calculate the number of reach/read base on their number of followers/readers/likes/fans on all the platform a blogger is on and than we will compared to our traditional media rate card from traditional media to give each blogger a "pricetag". 


For example, a certain size advertorial on certain magazine gives you 300,000 reach for $2,500 for an issue which is 30 days and than we will take a blogger's reach for example 5,000 reach and we are paying him $250 for an advertorial and if you multiply the reach by 6 and the price by 6 it is actually cheaper than going to traditional magazine where you still have to provide artwork and such which adds up the cost. Thus a blogger with higher reach will make be more "valuable" in that way. 


Please do not quote me that this is how everyone calculates the price or this is an industrial standard but I am just giving a daring assumption here but the idea is around there and because of this, it causes the bloggers to be very numbers sensitive. And of course, I am also not saying that more numbers of followers mean you are more influential or talented in anyway.

So with all these "wannabes" how can we identify who is really popular and who is not?

There are a few ways to identify and I am not saying that I am 100% right but this could be one of those signs that you can read.

Suspicious looking followers. 1 might be a bot, 2 might be coincidence but if it's a back to back of 50-60 numbers of more followers who follows a lot and very little followers and they all looks similar to what not on the list, they are most likely purchased followers.

There are also some other signs like - "list", "date of joining twitter" and even "number of tweets".

Let's take a look at some of the REAL popular local tweeple. Of course I am talking about Xiaxue and Mr.Brown.

Both of them are the Queen and GodFather of blogging and twitting in Singapore and they each have 100k and 60k followers respectively. They are both listed over 1,000 times, join twitter for more than 3 years at least and twitted around 20k +-.

Let's take a look at some local celebrities who are on twitter. Generally they are popular and on traditional media which makes them gain followers easier right?

This is Nat Ho and Joanne Peh and each of them has 18k and 28k followers and they are listed around 281 times and 418times. As they are celebrities, they do not even need to tweet a lot to get followers cause they are celebrities.

Even for Ex popular blogger Dawn Yang. She has some decent numbers.

And what about some normal users?

This is Mr. @CTHam, my good friend from twitter who has a very balance number of following and followers. Member since 09, listed 139times for twitting about things like photography, politics and humor.

Let's take a look at some of the accounts which I find it very very questionable.

From the way on how I look at it according to how I analyst what we have before, this person has 46k followers but only listed ONCE. He tweets less than 200 times and attracted 46k Followers. Is he a celebrity? NO. 

Member since '11 which means this acct has been around for less than 18months. Listed 8months tweeted 174times and has 174k followers which is even more than XX. 

This person twitter 37k times, listed 31times and has 22k followers. Not a celebrity. Not a "popular" blogger but has the same number of followers like a celebrity. Does not even tweet interesting stuff and more like using it as an IM and chat. 

Some of the account above looks really questionable but what about this one? 2k followers, 6k tweets, has been around for awhile but I'm not too sure how real this is either as I remember the numbers kinda hike overnight and this account do have some very weird followers. 

I guess you guys pretty much get what I am trying to say here. I am not trying to name and shame anyone because I didn't and neither am I encouraging you guys that numbers is important which is why I am paying attention to it but what I am trying to say here is that people who are on this platform long enough can easily identify you if you are real deal or not. There might be a lot of clients who are ignorant and you might be able to get away with it but in a long run are you sure this is what you want? 

Moreover, there are many sites who can track your followers gain graph as well. So if you have followers gain consistently of 166 per day OR a sudden jump of 5,000 followers, it is pretty obvious you are doing some magic there. 

Remember, enjoy twitter and social media fun, do not get caught in the number game of getting yourself more "popular". You can buy followers but can you buy friends and become really influential overnight? 

Mr.Smith, Why make yourself feel good only on twitter? you should really make youself feel good like... go fuck youself already.  

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Old Liao ...

I know I am or I should be at the peak of my life instead of feeling old. At the age of 27, I still look like im part of the early 20s thx to my chubby face and kiddo dress sense. Moreover I do not start conversation talking about property, stock, cars or children. All i know about is fun. (and sex.. yes that is fun too)

Some like to call me young at heart but some choose to call me immature but which ever it is, it comes back to the same point that I am young in the head.

It has been a good period for the young Waddup Team. We have back to back events since late March/ Early April until now. A little tiring, irregular sleeping hours and bad eating hours as well. Feeling a little tired now at the end of July.

Just when I thought I could have a good rest or maybe hit the gym this morning, I got injured yesterday. After the event with Lions Club, I saw a group of kids playing basketball and I decided to join them without proper gear and warm up. (And lack of sleep) And as a result I have a injured shoulder/back area. Funniest part of I still have to act an "okay no problem" look during the game just to look good. ( talk about man's pride eh?).

I can't deny the fact that I might look 21 but I am NOT 21 anymore.

Mr.Smith, may my body go back to the fitness level during army.

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Good Service, Bad Service - All under 1 roof

Simlim - we all have heard much about it. How it markup their pricing of product before selling it to tourist and stories like that. As much as I could I would try to avoid simlim less the days back in secondary school where simlim is the only place I could get a good deal for my computer parts.

Canon Ixus 100 is was going at $419 at courts and that was the reason I landed myself at simlim once again. peeps on the twitter was sharing with me information that simlim will be able to offer better pricing compared to Courts or major retail and two better name was mentioned.

Visited simlim yesterday and ask around and I was truly flabbergasted by the price ranges from $330 - $380. Even the highest quote is lower than what Major retail can offer, but I did not purchase right away.I was in the "i better look around mood"

Revisited the building during lunch and the experience was a "could have been better".

Shop #1 - "eh what u want" I was already pretty taken back by such "welcome". I told him what I wanted and he started asking me why this model and he started showing me another model and starting to rant in chunk and chunk of hokkien. "Sorry boss, my hokkien is not very good, don't really understand, mandarin is alright for me" He couldn't care less, he continue with his hokkien story and selling the other model, and say that why am I choosing such a lousy model.I ask him if it was $310 which his staff quoted me yesterday and he mention that $310 was before tax and the price should be ...He took out his calculated at this moment and started pressing in front of me,the figure after 7% was $331.70. Instead of offering to round it down he down it up and tell me it is $332.I serious wonder if they are really 7% GST Registered !!!And after mins of debating I told him I only want my Ixus 100. He picked up his phone, dial some numbers and told me - sorry no stock.

Shop #2 - I stepped in and ask him how much is a canon ixus 100 and he took out his sept IT fair price list - "$465 was the IT fair price.. i gib u better deal, $400" And I was trying to explain to him that I was here yesterday and I was quoted a price of $330. So the story goes on "Oh.. I know.. that was yesterday's price, you should have got it yesterday.. today different.. but since u want it, i gib you best price.. $330 before tax. so total $354" It still feels cheaper to me for $354 so I told him i want a set and call it a day. This guy is worst, he is even more persistent than the 1st guy, he took out more cams and tell me how bad Ixus was as it is old and cheap model. Interesting enough, god knows what he did to the Ixus, it looks even worst than my camera phone, totally blur images and not like what I saw from other shop.He took out cables, connect it on the tv, took pictures, zoom in, and tell me this other brand one is better. While in the process of him doing it, I was telling him I am sure I wanted one, I am in a hurry, I am doing lunch time shopping and need to go but in the end i gave up.I did something so rude but I do not feel guilty at ALL, I just walked out while he was talking. Apparently he can't hear what I say so very likely he can't see me as well.. F OFF !

Simlim !!! Seriously why do people even shop there !!

Shop #3 - I was totally disappointed with the kind of services I have gotten but I really wanted this camera and so I decided to give simlim another shot. I step into this certain shop which was mentioned to have a better reputation on cameras. I ask the sales person on the camera and they quoted me $380 without GST which blew me away because that was not the price they quoted me. When I was about to walk out of the shop, another gentleman came over and check with me if I did drop by yesterday and ask about the same product. He told me the best price he could offer was $350 before tax which is a good $374.50 after tax. It's still much cheaper comparing to $419 Courts is offering but they do not have the color I wanted. I would compromise on the color to save $45 anytime and moreover I am not so sure on getting the color I want with courts as this model surely ain't the latest model which explains the lack of choice in colors. He took out a set and show me the function and he also explains to me the spare battery would cost me this amount and so on and so for. Finally, I decided to get the camera from him and call it a day.

I am so telling myself not to return to simlim unless other wise stated. Pfffff..Bad service suck balls !!

Sorry for the serious ranting and wordy post..

Will update with more picture post soon since I have a nice camera now ! = )

Mr.Smith, Bad Service kills customer..

"And now ladies and gentlemen, that's the ugly truth"

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[Ranting] Male Slut !

It has been quite sometime since I last complain about my office i suppose. 3 months at least? ever since joining this new company. Everything seems to be pretty good, the work environment, the seniors and the colleagues.

I am not too sure how you guys handle such a "character" in the office, but there is this one individual in my office who is the "negative" magnet. "Negative Magnet"'s role in the office is one I must classified under "dangerous" if you ask me, he is not just unhappy about the office, he is also very vocal about his unhappiness and due to his unhappiness he is rubbing it onto everyone else. What do he benefit from it ? I have no clue at all, he is just doing it on a regular basis coming into the office and sharing negative news and positive news about other officers and competitor.. 军心 ！ He mess it all up, as much as my boss and I are trying to motivate the people, he is messing it up, and worst part is that he is not just an executive, he is a manager level personnel who should be responsible of what he say.

I really wish I can tell my boss about him but yet I do not wish to be the "Teacher's Pet" - DAMN IT !

FUCK THAT MALE SLUT !

Mr.Smith, 搞乱军心！！　杀杀杀！！

"我就是我行我素　我沒有風度　我只有態度　你說我太酷"

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