Shopping Area, 12/15
Do Not Feed The Monster: The Digital News Age
Image pulled from Google Search
If I wanted you to click on a post, video, or advertisement to generate $1.02 per click*, what would I post?
For starters, I would not post happy, well-mannered news. I would not post about people getting along and living peaceably. That is, well, too peaceful. I would not post about love and kind words, who would want to read that?
The guide to writing well instructs, "Where there is no conflict, there is no story."
To capture your attention, I have a variety of conflicts from which to draw: hate, violence, sex, racial tension, pain, disease, killings, and shootings. Any of these will pull you in and entice you to click to read more.
The unfortunate part about digital news in a modern society is it doesn't matter whether the organization is the New York Times, Huffington Post, or Chicago Tribune. The tactics are the same; to make a dollar off an impulsive need for twisted entertainment.
You are the tool. Whether red, yellow, black, or white -- you, me, us, we are feeding a hungry monster simply looking to make a profit.
I could inform you not to participate in the consumption, but that is not realistic. However, you should know what you feed will grow. The more money made on a particular topic per click, more content and information on that subject matter will be posted, good or bad.
The law of attraction, “like attracts like”, means by focusing on positive or negative thoughts a person brings positive or negative experiences into their life.
Then the question becomes, how do we stop attracting negatives and change to attract positives?
Here are suggestions
· be conscious of what you are viewing online
· realize that what you view is tracked and someone is turning a profit or creating more content from it
· create and post content that serves the greater good.
Feed that which creates a brighter future.
@earlinagreen
*The cost-per-click (CPC) is the amount you earn each time a user clicks on your ad. The CPC for any ad is determined by the advertiser; some advertisers may be willing to pay more per click than others, depending on what they're advertising. (Wikipedia
Futile Attempts
in Culture
(Futile Attempts also seen on my personal Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook page)
A piece from my personal collection of short essays. 12/5/2015
500,000 Instagram “Followers”, Thousands of Dollars in Endorsements and Depressed
Model, Youtuber, IG’er and social media “celebrity” Essena Oneill just bared her soul and it was absolutely beautiful! If you could make hundredths of thousands of dollars from social media would you? No really, would you? What if I told you that it required scripting your life, countless hours of self induced photo shoots, abandoning real friends for more popular friends to take pictures with and post on Instagram.
That is the truthful, tearful, and brutally honest story of Essena Oneill.
At age 12, she followed and ‘stalked’ all the famous and pretty girls on social media. Essena built a brand for herself by posting edited photos of her sometimes in nothing but a bathing suit on social media. It worked. She became one of the ‘famous’ girls amassing over 500,000 Instragram followers and hundredths of people watched her Youtube Channel but at the age of 18 (turning 19) the wake up call of a lifetime happens. Essena was depressed and miserable from the life she created and the kingdom she built up centered on self. She did what her soul needed to do in order to survive she gave it all up.
Those who try to gain their own life will lose it; but those who lose their life for my sake will gain it (Matthew 10:39).
Essena Oneill thank you for being transparent and authentic. The truth of our soul calls out and we must be brave enough to listen and take action.
“We are not followers, you are not a followers!” -Essena Oneill
If you connected with her message. Please support her mission.
www.letsbegamechangers.com
@earlinagreen
God’s Love Story In Lamar Odom
The story of Lamar Odom is not uncommon to each and every story we hear of regarding addiction; however, this one has a much better ending.
A life taken for granted is the sentiment that I have read online, but is his life much different than most of ours?
One more sniff, one more puff, one more pill. The odds stacking against him and on a particular night at a brothel outside of sin city, the game comes to an abrupt end. We all have our vices that seek to devour us. ‘I can tell this simple lie, I can sleep with this person and this person because it is my life, I can push, take, consume past all earthly limits, simply because I can.’ We all play the game of chance, the game of loading the gun, spinning the chamber and pointing it directly at ourselves hoping that this time we will escape with our lives but hope is not a strategy.
Why do any of us take this life for granted when some did not even make it out of their mothers wombs, some passed in their sleep, or tragically. Psychologists say that we are simply bored and caught in the monotony of life we seek things to make us feel alive. We create drama, power struggles, wars, poverty, self-destruction all to fill a void. Oh, but there is hope.
“Each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil DESIRE and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to DEATH (James 1:14-15).”
The hope I speak of will not be found in our own efforts by any means. It is not found in our partners, it is not found in a religious corporate gathering. The hope lies in a savior that set our human existence in motion. A God that created each of us and originally wanted heaven for our lives but in his infinite grace he gave us free will not to make us like robots, but for us to choose him with the very lives he created. The story of grace is a love story of epic proportions, but the summary is that we make a choice daily whether to pursue life or death and even with our ability to choose there still is grace.
Grace is what has been given to Lamar, to his family, and to the world around him witnessing the full-blown power of Jesus Christ in action. We can deny his existence or come alongside his awesome power to do a great work in the lives of people around the world, in our very lives. Grace does not mean we completely avoid the natural consequences of our decisions, it simply means that there is forgiveness and a chance at eternity with our greatest love, Christ.
Today, the story of Lamar Odom continues, not eclipsed by death, but by new challenges that await him. I pray he now believes in the depths of his being that God is for him, he has always been and always will be.
When Christ died, He died for you individually just as much as if you’d been the only man in the world. -C. S. Lewis
written by @earlinagreen
edited by April G.
My Superhero is a Police Officer
If you look around today you may ask yourself where have all the superheroes gone? The superheroes we looked up to as kids, the superheroes that fought off our ‘monsters in the closet’, our heroes that gave us courage on the first day of school and watched our back when we played make-believe crime stopper to save our own Gotham City. Well, my superhero has never left my side and to this day ‘she’ still is still fighting the good fight. She is my mother.
Where do I begin when I speak of my mother? The woman that had five kids raising them a majority of the time on her own, the woman that fought real crime on the streets of this city to provide a better life for her kids, the woman that had to buy everything in threes; including braces, backpacks and laptops to care for triplets, my sisters and I. The woman that even while being in retirement today still lends vast amounts of her time to serving at nursing homes and hospitals to care for the elderly and sick.
Mom, you are the hero the comic books spoke of and even though they don’t mention you by name not wanting to blow your cover, now, in retirement you deserve all the praise and recognition that one may receive. You are a woman fearlessly, phenomenally, and wonderfully made. God knew what he was doing when he knitted you together in his hands and I am forever grateful.
As we celebrate your birthday this month we celebrate a life lived in service to your community, your family, and for a purpose outside of yourself.
I love you mom, forever my hero.
Happy Birthday
@earlinagreen