Brilliant depiction of Brands that Left Russia - Amazing Creativity

 

Brilliant depiction of  Brands that Left Russia - Amazing Creativity 

Reading newspapers from street walls - Orthodox Ethiopian Christians - Ethiopian Journey - Blog post no - 27

It was quite common to see people crowding in city square and reading newspapers and notices pasted on the wall. They were indulging in ‘reading from the wall in actual sense’ unlike virtual reading from the wall popularized by social media giants like Facebook. It was interesting to see many people crowd and read news. Once in a while somebody would read something aloud and all of them would burst out laughing out loud. It was social interaction at its best.

My father had told me that Indians too would do the same in the 50s and the 60s when people were hungry for news but could not afford to buy a newspaper. The major attraction was the wall outside the Kasturi building, Mount Road, Madras (now Chennai).

The iconic English newspaper ‘The Hindu’ was published from the Kasturi building. The Hindu would paste the next day’s news by the afternoon or the evening. People would crowd and read the news for free. They could also search for any typos or spelling mistakes.  Some lucky ones would infact find some.

Such lucky finders would be treated to a plate of hot idlis and a hot piping Chennai filter coffee, for free in The Hindu’s cafeteria.  That was the level of seriousness of The Hindu. As I saw what had unfolded in front of me, I wondered – ‘many get a chance to see the latest and peep into the future, but how many of us are lucky to go into the past and experience the life and times of our parents’. It was most surreal, to say the least.

It was a Sunday morning and the kids were still sleeping. Padma and me went out for a walk. A strange sight beckoned us. There are people standing on the road and facing an imposing building, Others were very close to the boundary wall of the building but were not touching it. Many had pressed their faces to the wall and some even kissing it. All the time I could hear muted murmurings and all of them looked serious and solemn. Overcome by curiosity, we crossed over and peeped inside the building. 

The sight stunned us, the building housed a huge church and there were many people inside the church premises, some I saw very close to the church steps and I assumed some were present inside.

I was puzzled “why where they standing outside the church and why were some of them standing outside the church building”. I could understand the inside of the church not having enough space but the space in the compound of the church could easily have accommodated all including the ones standing outside the main building, the faithful kissing the wall and the people on the road.

Later an Ethiopian friend explained “Ethiopians, especially the orthodox Christians are very pious and god fearing. They worship the god from a distance that is comfortable to them. Only the ones who believe that they are pious and pure enter the main church. The proximity or the remoteness from the god is decided by the self-belief of how pure or sinned one feels internally.” I found this thinking to be very deep, puzzling and unreal. But it had happened in front of me!

For many religious people, sinning is some thing that you leave to the mercy of the god. Huge donations, or penance is enough to wash away the sins. In-fact the proximity to the god is possible if one is materially rich! But being away from the god and that too voluntarily, touched my heart very deeply. 

Facebook Addiction

Facebook has emerged as a clear market leader in the social media networking sites. With an eye popping member list of over 1.1 billion people, it is said that more than 550 million people get on line at least once a day to check their profile pages. 

But along with the popularity has come a problem. Facebook is fast becoming an addiction. Psychologists have even coined a word - Facebook Addiction Disorder. So what are the reasons that make Facebook so addictive? Given below are some of the reasons.

Taken from the website Tech addiction (http://www.techaddiction.ca/why-is-facebook-addictive.html). The original article was very long. I have edited it.

Other articles include 

1.      Is Facebook an Addiction?

2.      The Facebook addiction test

3.      Facebook addiction statistics

4.      Facebook addiction disorder Help, advice and tips

20 reasons for Facebook addiction

1) Minimal Effort Catch-Up: Facebook allows users to catch up with friends and family with minimal effort. Posts are usually quite short (both to make and to read). One quick status update that goes out to the friends, a short comment on a picture, or a quick "like" and that is that.

2) Share Information with Many People Simultaneously: Facebook allows users to share personal information with others more efficiently and with potentially better "net etiquette". Matter sent by E-mail to friends may lie idle. The same matter posted on Facebook can be viewed by friends if they want.

3) Appeals To The Information Peeping TOMS: Humans, have an inborn and insatiable desire for knowledge and information - an infinite curiosity about the world around us. Facebook panders to this by presenting personally relevant information in an easy to access central portal (Facebook homepage).

4) Feeds Natural Voyeuristic Natures: An even stronger human desire is the need for information about other people. Humans are undeniably social animals and are natural voyeurs but in that we are extremely curious about what others are doing and saying. Facebook has made information about others public that would typically be kept private. This allows friends to "spy" on friends and to gain information that they would otherwise not be privy to. Many people spy on a friend's page to see what they were doing on a particular day, who they were with, who said what about him or her, or who they are friends with?

5) A Forum for Egos: I me, myself. We all love ourselves. There is a clear human need for self-expression - and especially self-expression followed by feedback from others. Facebook provides this forum for our egos and the small effort of posting a picture can provide a large investment return in the form of comments, or even better, compliments.

6) Meeting up with old friends: With Facebook is the possibility of reconnecting with old friends - perhaps even dating back to high school.

7) Makes us Feel Understood: One of the consequences of sharing personal information with others is (surprise) they will learn about us and understand us better. Opening up and sharing personally information is of course, a pathway to more meaningful interpersonal relationships

8) Family Contact: one of the most appealing aspects of Facebook is how easy it makes staying in touch with family. Even family members living on opposite sides of the world can quickly chat with or receive updates from each other.

9) Mood Booster: Facebook users report that they use it to feel better when they are depressed, stressed, or anxious. The boost in mood may come from the previously discussed points of feeling more connected, understood, and important to others.

10) Makes us Feel Part Of an expansive exciting World: Most of us lead pretty normal lives. We go to work or to school/college, we come home, look forward to weekends and holidays...and repeat. Every once in a while we do something a bit more interesting, enjoyable, or exciting and this makes the routine of our normal lives easier to accept. Part of the appeal of Facebook is that it allows us to temporarily escape our "normal" lives and be a part of something larger, more exciting, or more interesting.

11) Feeds the Essential Need For Human Connection: This point is so obvious it hardly needs to be mentioned - Facebook allows us to connect with others. As social animals we absolutely need human contact for emotional and psychological health. Consequently, we are hard-wired to seek connections with others. Facebook makes establishing these connections easier than any time in human history. Everything on Facebook is designed to establish more and more connections with others

12) I'm Thinking About You...But I Really Don't Want To Talk To You Right Now: Staying with the theme of "it's popular because it's easier", Facebook allows us to tell others we are thinking about them, but without the effort of a phone call, the thought required for a full email message, or the expectation of a reply following a text message.

13) Social Needs Fulfilled In Digital Form: Facebook is that it makes filling these social needs much easier compared to the effort that would be required for in-person contact. Of note, the "friends commenting on my life" structure of Facebook also addresses Esteem Needs (believing in personal worth and gaining social recognition).

14) I Can't Miss Out!: Not being on Facebook means missing out on online social interaction...and also being left out of real world activities. To avoid this undesirable situation, people may obsessively check their Facebook accounts dozens of times per day. It is easy to understand how a fear of being socially isolated could contribute to an addiction to Facebook.

15) Friendship Quantified (How many friends do you have?): Facebook that may lead to addiction or obsession is the simple fact of having a defined number attached to how many "friends" you have accumulated. As previously mentioned, being socially accepted appears to be a universal human need. Having friends makes us feel appreciated, validates our sense of self-worth, and boosts our self-esteem.

16) I'm Not Wasting My Time...This Is Meaningful!: However, for Facebook addiction it is much easier to justify excessive use…because how can something positive like forming friends and connecting with others be seen as a problem? The answer is that even activities that are healthy in moderation (e.g., exercise, dieting) can become problems when they develop into obsessions.

17) Socializing + Gaming = An Irresistible Combination: Not only does Facebook appeal to our need for social connections and friendships; it is increasingly becoming one of the world's most popular destinations for online gaming. Not surprisingly, Facebook tends to focus games that emphasize online social interactions with other players

18) How Do I Really Compare to Others: it also provides a forum for social comparison. Humans have a very strong drive to evaluate themselves by comparing their opinions, accomplishments, and abilities to others. Given this drive, the popularity of quizzes and personality tests on Facebook is not surprising. And of course, a large reason for their appeal is that after completion, they then allow the user to compare his or herself to others.

19) Insecurity Response: if someone is feeling insecure in a relationship, questions whether he/she has been told the truth by someone, or has trust issues in general, Facebook may be the source they turn to for "the real story".

20) Boredom buster for All: The reduction of boredom is a common reason people give for using Facebook. For some, the convenience of single, easy-to-use resource for news, games, and social interaction becomes the "go-to" activity whenever boredom arises.

Feeling alone is something that many people experience from time to time. When we have not had enough social contact with others feeling lonely is normal and hopefully encourages us to seek out others - this is the adaptive purpose of the loneliness emotion.

When used in moderation, interacting with others on Facebook can provide quick relief from loneliness - and there is absolutely nothing wrong with this. However, when used as a primary substitute for real world contact, digital loneliness relief may not be very long-lasting or satisfying. In some situations, spending more time on Facebook in an attempt to reduce loneliness may actually contribute to long-term loneliness, depression, and Facebook addiction.

Make Your day - send a greeting card!

A greeting card is an illustrated, folded card featuring an expression of friendship or other sentiment. Although greeting cards are usually given on special occasions such as birthdays, Christmas, Diwali, Ramadan, New Year day or other holidays, they are also sent to convey thanks or express other feeling.

The sending of greeting cards had reached a stage where there are occasions for father’s day, mother’s day, Grandparents day, Pet’s day, get well cards,  and what is touted as the ultimate marketing gimmick no occasion day. That is a card is sent Chumma (Simply like that) – without any occasion.

Some occasions have become popular mostly due to the greeting card companies. For example Valentines day was a celebration of love before it was turned into a mega celebration and a spree of card and gift giving, all courtesy - greeting card companies like the Hallmark. 

Greeting cards, usually packaged with an envelope, come in a variety of styles. There are both mass-produced as well as handmade versions that are distributed by hundreds of companies large and small.

Hallmark Cards and American Greetings are the largest producers of greeting cards in the world. An Indian company called Archies does excellent Work in India and is highly profitable.

Many people traditionally mail or post seasonally themed cards to their friends and relatives in December. Many businesses also send cards to their customers in this season, usually with a universally acceptable message such as "happy holidays" or "seasons’ greetings".

Types of greeting cards

Standard Greeting Cards: A standard greeting card is printed on high-quality paper and is rectangular and folded, with a picture on the front. Inside is a preprinted message appropriate for the occasion, along with a blank space for the sender to add a signature or handwritten message. A matching envelope is sold with the card.

Photo Greeting Cards: In recent years, photo greeting cards have gained widespread popularity and come in two main types. The first type is a photo insert card in which a hole has been cut in the center. The sender’s photo slides in just like a frame. The second type is a printed photo card in which the photo is combined with artwork and printed, usually on a high-end digital press, directly onto the face of the card.

Personalized Greeting Cards: Websites using special personalization technology, such as Moonpig, allow consumers to personalize a card which is then printed and sent directly to the recipient.

Musical Greeting Cards: Musical greeting cards have been conceived which play music or sound when they are opened. They commonly have 3D handmade birthday cards which play traditional celebration songs such as Happy Birthday to You.

Electronic Greeting Cards: (also called E-cards) Greeting cards can also be sent electronically. Flash-based cards can be sent by email, and many sites such as Facebook enable one to send greetings. More recently, services have launched which enable the sender to send greetings to a mobile phone by text message.

Two Greeting cards that I remember:(Both were pranks that were played out by my classmates on other classmates) 

The greeting card says “You are a legend”. The recipient excitedly opens the card. Inside it is written “In your own eyes”

The second card says “Eat shit” Shocked by the profanity the recipient opens the card to find a message that says “25 trillion insects eat shit, why don’t you?”

Any which way a greeting card is a very personalized way of greeting someone. So greet some one with a card and make her day and make your own day better!