Instagram changed and I don't like it.

    Instagram is a fun app to scroll through photos done by professionals, celebrities, friends, and family. It had a clean design where all photos were in a square crop and had equal real estate on the screen. This was a constraint but just like how Vine's six second constraint in video allowed for a whole new form of entertainment the square ratio constraint allowed Instagram to have a feed that was organized and well kept. This worked well since Instagram was primarily a social media platform on most smartphones that focused on photos. Each social media platform has it's advantages and disadvantages, but Instagram really shined through it's simple clean cut design. Yes only square photos could be posted but that made the explore page show you all the photos at their full instead something like a cropped thumbnail, and the same applies to any user's profile showing a preview of all their posted photos. But slowly Instagram was changing, some updates for the better and some for the worst. The subtle updates to the explore tab made it easier to see more content, and the addition of video at first felt like a last minute update to go against Vine but with the restriction of 15 second videos it fits the feeling of how Twitter also allows for short videos to be posted. Twitter is for short to the point 140 character thoughts, with maybe pictures and short videos. So with Instagram having at most 15 second videos along with a quick glance with photos doesn't seem ideal but it works.

SO HERE'S THE FUCKING PROBLEM.

    Instagram just introduce an update that may seem minor but throws the whole balance of the social media platform off. The restriction of photos only fitting a 1:1 ratio is gone. Now any photo regardless the ratio can be uploaded and the photo is just adjusted to fit the screen. Taking away this restriction is essentially taking away any fence between lions and zebras resulting in chaos or at least in this case, an ugly feed to scroll through favoring large portrait photos over any landscape ones. With the restriction gone there's no reason to upload a photo in square ratio anymore, it doesn't take up as much real estate as a vertical photo and that just looks better because the lack of white space on the phone screen. With every photo fitting that 1:1 ratio all photos had equal space around them so when scrolling through the feed on any phone regardless of how large it is it felt like it belonged and deserved as much as a glance from the eyes as any other. However now with this new update there is an unfair balance of how much space a photo takes on a screen and that all depends on the ratio it's uploaded as. Here's an example.

    Shown above are three photos, one in a square ratio, one uploaded as a landscape shot, and one uploaded as a full vertical shot. This is essentially the new feed, a mix and match of different ratios from 0-100. The square ratio worked so well because while scrolling through the feed everything felt equal, the only factor to judge on a photo is what the photo was of. Now the chance of getting a glance from scrolling through the feed isn't about the actual photo but rather if the photo was large enough to capture the attention of the user! There's no longer a reason to upload in any other ratio besides the largest vertical one. It would have been fine if that was the restriction for all photos but it isn't. There is essentially no reason to upload a landscape photo. Even if it is an amazing photo the resolution would have to shrink just because 100% of phones focus on the length rather than the height, once again showing why a portrait photo is favored now on Instagram over any other ratio. 

    Is there anything to do against this update? No probably not. Will I continue to use instagram? Yea probably. Will I only post vertical photos now? idk prob fam if it has a higher chance of getting likes hell yea im bout. 

Loss

The world is very scary and it's upsetting to see even after major events of loss, change isn't happening to prevent similar events from happening in the future. From feeling sad, to complete rage and then confusion on the current state of America's gun laws and restrictions today is just another prime example of these emotions. Alison Parker, and Adam Ward were just people doing their jobs with no idea of what was going to happen. This kind of event isn't an exception but has become common today, almost to the point where many feel desensitized from the whole event. And every similar event ends with a very similar reaction and ending, many yelling for some regulation to prevent more of these from happening, many yelling against it, and many graves dug for people whose lives ended much quicker than expected. At this point I don't know what to say or what to do except just ask how much more loss do we have to go through as a community to realize we need some form of change to prevent this type of pain.



Rest in Peace Alison and Adam and my thoughts and prayers go out to your families and friends.

G R I N D

    Another day, another... idk? There's a lot to talk about, my first time viewing Star Wars, my interest in feeling the Bern, or even the struggle of finding a cool tapestry for my room in college but let's save all that for later. Let's talk about the forgettable days.
    The days where nothing exciting or truly memorable happen are the days that aren't appreciated till they are gone forever. The normalcy of waking up everyday and doing a daily routine becomes boring but when really thinking about it, it's all taken for granted. Every small encounter, every stroke of luck, good or bad, is part of that day and that day will never happen again. Sure these events are surely going to happen again but the appreciation factor doesn't really come in until it's gone. That is what is a shame to it all. Trudging through life focusing on the mundane and being upset at it being boring will make it all the more sour when these moments are gone. Life is fleeting, everyone dies, and there's still going to be a world here after you end.
    Yesterday was about change and how difficult it is to adapting to it. Today is about the GRIND and how the appreciation of the GRIND can make it easier to adapt to whatever is happening throughout life. Having a conversation with change and daily mundane routines makes no sense! They're complete opposites! But right now for me I've already approached this thought process that this change has entered the mundane lifestyle, and that's why I have so much angst towards adapting it. I DON'T WANT THIS TO BE MY DAILY ROUTINE I WANT TO CHANGE THIS TO SOMETHING I'M COMFORTABLE WITH. Yesterday I briefly mentioned the fluff that eventually everything works out in the end, and honestly it's easier said than actually believing in it. I don't know what happened today that made me realize that everything will be okay except for that fact that everything today was just okay. There was nothing amazing, there was nothing horrific. It was a just a day.

CHANGE

      Change is a difficult aspect of life that I don't think I do really well with. Well at least BIG CHANGE. Going from a middle school where I knew everyone to a high school where I practically know nobody, and now for it to happen all over again in college, except this time I'm not a punk ass middle school kid but an arrogant lil fuq. Every transition seems to be radically different from the last meaning no matter how well prepared you may think you are, you really have no idea how to handle a big change in your life. The classic gut reaction from me is to be really sad during night and just really angry during the day, all while having a facade of being a clown on the outside (which probably doesn't help much either.)

     Adapting seems to be the most difficult part of the whole process and I really don't like it. It's understandable, nobody likes the rough parts! My life motto is that "Everything works out in the end." but damn man, the middle part fucking suck. Adapting to a whole new environment where you essentially know nobody and everyone you know that was super close to you is now hours away from you hurts. It's difficult to replace a long term relationship with a person you just met for a few weeks. Everyone else seems to do it so easily! How is it possible?!? Are they just lying to themselves?? Is everything just fake?!? I don't know and that's what's so upsetting. It's hard to share tough times too, especially when you have no one close to share it with. I'm angry, most of it probably being unjustified angst from the big transition and I don't know what to do with it all. I don't know how to make friends I truly respect, I don't know how to appreciate myself, and I don't know what to do with all my time and unrestricted freedom.

     There's a lot of change happening and I don't know how to handle it all so right now I'm just flopping like a fish out of water. But hey! Hopefully it does work out because if it doesn't shit idk what I'd do, maybe start a lemonade stand?