It’s interesting how the lives of our generation are so intertwined with social media - many can’t imagine going a day without Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest, and all of the like. 

I’m not going to lie - I love that information spreads like wildfire through all of these innovations. I’m of the opinion that an individual should be as well-versed on as many issues as possible (sadly, that’s a normative statement). Knowledge is power - (ideally,) it forms the basis of our opinions and it’s what we use to make decisions. Knowledge is the foundation that is required for innovation and improvement. There’s the issue of whether knowledge is really being shared, but that’s for another day. 

Most will agree that creativity and being able to think for yourself are two essential skills that people should have. Tumblr is all about sharing and reblogging things (food, fashion, fotos…) that you like - the appeal is that the conglomeration of everything that you reblog becomes a unique representation of who you are. 

Is it really you?

How much of the content is actually yours? How many of the pretty photos with words on them are quoting you? If you reblog a bunch of witty things, are you yourself actually witty? 

Organizations / corporations often fall into the trap of “group think”, and our entire generation is no different. Create a pie chart or write an article that looks legitimate with shocking results and it’ll catch on like wildfire. People will reblog things without stopping to question the legitimacy of the source, or to question whether the post accurately represents reality. I worry sometimes about what will happen if things keep going the way its progressing. 

I appreciate content creators. My friend Josephine is into fashion, so she’s recently decided to step up her game - I think the result it quite cool . Another friend, Steven, recently was published on the Rolling Stone. Yet another, Samuel, started a t-shirt company called Akufuncture to fill in a void in the Asian American space. 

We need more people who can think for themselves and question the status quo. We need more people who can answer the hard questions like why we are doing what we are doing. We need more than just reblogging. Take a risk, find your niche, make your mark. 

It makes me smile when people use my photos for profile pictures and cover photos and what not. “Photo Credits” are appreciated, because as of right now, I don’t put watermarks on my photos.

Part of it is because I don’t consider myself a photographer (I’m nowhere as good as my friend Anna), but another part is simply that I don’t want to take what’s not mine - a mistake that happens very often with “photographers” who don’t really deserve that title. Actually, this blog post outlines pretty well the reasons why I don’t watermark (but also shows why you should). One of them:

 I think they send a message of slight arrogance in saying it must under no circumstances ever surface anywhere without its proper reference. I personally am happy to see that my photos are being shared, and while it’s never nice to see them without credit, I’m still glad people like them, feel inspired by them and want to share them with friends and followers.

But if you are to watermark, here’s what you need to know:

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1. Look at things that get a lot of likes/shares on Facebook. 

2. Look at things that are worth looking at / the links that are worth reading.

3. Feel sad because you did not just read/look at the same thing twice.*

*on average