Domain of Thoughts

Have you ever met someone you instantly connect with, where you don’t need to verbally communicate what you’re thinking and feeling for them to understand you, where you’re insanely attracted to them, can’t stop thinking about them, and you just know that you’ll be with each other forever?

No?

Neither have I. Or anyone else I know for that matter.

This notion of soulmates has been fed to us by film, TV, music, advertising and books, where each person has one other person they are ‘meant’ to be with - their one true love. But what’s the reality of this actually happening, and why do we even think this way to begin with? 

It is believed that the idea of soulmates started with ancient Greek mythology, where humans once consisted of four arms and legs and both male and female genitalia. However the gods didn’t believe that humans respected them enough, so split them down the middle - resulting in the humans with two arms and legs and one set of genitalia that we know and are today, and twice as many people to worship the gods. Over time though, it is believed that this separation left humans longing for the other half they were initially attached to - ‘the other half of his/her soul’. 

Since then, the concept of soulmates has cottoned on, with other religions and cultures creating their own version of what a soulmate is (usually always leading to being destined for one true love, though). This also carries with it the connotation that you will only ever find this type of connection with one person, so you need to be vigilant for when this person comes into your life (no pressure).

However there is one exception to the tradition, and that is of a new age belief. Here, soulmates are described as any person (friend, co worker, lover, family member etc.) who comes into your life to help you fulfill a specific ‘mission’. While this may seem far-fetched, it alludes to the idea that a person can have more than one soulmate in their life and each soulmate will help a person learn various lessons to reach ultimate enlightenment. 

So now that we have more of an idea of what a soulmate actually is and how they came about, do you have more of an opinion about them? 

While gathering some data on soulmates, I stumbled across this article on Refinery29 which demonstrates how nine different people describe their soulmates. These people’s soulmates range from friends and siblings to lifelong partners and lovers. 

One thing that really stuck out to me though, was the following quote:

“This connection, perhaps like all soulmates, has something to do with meeting at an important time in our lives...” 

I’ve always been a big believer in how timing can play a large part in the way various relationships pan out. You might meet someone who you’re incredibly attracted to and compatible with, but they might already be in a relationship. Or you meet someone who you get along with better than you’ve ever connected with your other friends, but you’re not in the head space to work on nurturing a new friendship. 

Timing can also be perfect though. You may meet someone at a transitional point in your life who understands what you’re going through, and who’s values align with yours.

What’s important to note, is that soulmates don’t just magically appear out of thin air. Like any relationship, they take work and need constant nurturing to remain long standing. I know I can be stand-off-ish when I first meet people, so I won’t be having any movie moments of instant, deep attraction. But it’s when we make the effort to get to know someone deeper than our initial first (or even second) impression, that we really start to connect with people and develop relationships. I’ve heard that friendships (and probably relationships) develop based on a combination of frequency and proximity, meaning you need at least one of these elements to effectively nurture a relationship.

While I think the idea of soulmates (in whatever form) is nice and can give people hope of finding someone they are truly compatible with, it can also shut us off to other experiences. Putting us on the clock to find our soulmate and settle down can be stressful and time consuming for some.

My advice? Take a deep breath, live your life, enjoy the small moments, connect with people, make an effort to nurture relationships, and see what happens from there. And also be ready to acknowledge when a relationship isn’t working out. Sometimes you’ll be able to salvage it and grow together, but other times you may have to accept that the next stage of growth will be on your own.

This is the final post for IPD so it will be a little more reflective of the blog work I've done over the last few weeks.

I have really enjoyed blogging as an assignment as I feel as though I can write to a different audience than I would with an essay. Obviously, a lot more people have access to a blog so I needed to be aware that a wide audience could stumble upon my posts. The aim was to create posts that were of a professional standard and we could show to a future employer. I think I have done this using thoughtful discussion with a casual edge. I have always liked personal blogs to be a little more casual as it is more reflective of me and how I would view these issues in day-to-day life. I also think a less formal approach to blogs is more readable for a wider audience.

In terms of my blog design, I wanted something simple to aid online readability. This is not so easy on a blog, as some settings are not changeable. However I think I have learnt a lot in terms of simplifying the text content to aid the simplicity of the design.

Overall I like blogs as a more personal take on issues regarding media and news. I like that they are accessible by many people who can pick-and-choose which blogs they wish to follow. They are a more personal way of communicating to a wide audience and the author has so much choice in what kind of content to publish. I would love to continue this blog to better my writing skills and awareness of issues in publication and design. 

Earlier this week, Blockbuster announced that their remaining 300 stores in the U.S. will shut down due to increased consumer demand for digital distribution. The article, which featured on Mashable.com, reminds us of Blockbuster’s financial trouble where the company filed for bankruptcy in 2010. This seems like a pretty steep decline considering they had 9,000 stores worldwide in 2004. Blockbuster will still aim to be present online for movie rental and purchase.

But what does this mean for Australian Blockbuster stores? If the U.S. couldn’t keep their stores open because consumers prefer online means of entertainment, then I think Australia has no hope. If you take a look at this article released after the final episode of Breaking Bad aired, you can see that Australia lead in world in the illegal download rate for the final episode – and apparently it wasn’t the first time. Australia seems to have a reputation for downloading movies, music and TV shows illegally.

I think Blockbuster has no hope. There may be a select few people that still physically purchase rental movies when they use their entire monthly internet download quota. An online Blockbuster store would be good because you know that you would be downloading a good quality movie without ripping off the billion-dollar movie industry. However the reality is that people like holding onto their money, and if a friend tells you where they got an awesome quality illegal download from, you will follow their lead.

In this post I will critique two other blog sites which I think have used publication and design principles well.

The first is David Sketchbook Art and Lifestyle Photography. The blog includes images of work by different artists from around the world. He has a theme of quirky, individual pieces which explore new ways of working with mediums. I think the blog works well as it is very simple but provides enough information for the reader to further explore the artists’ work if they wish. The focal point is the images as they are the largest and central aspect on the site. The side bar allows the reader to search for certain types of art that has been posted, and a small blurb is included at the end of each set of images to explain the works. A hyperlink is included which re-directs the reader to the artist’s own website or blog. As art is very visual, the blog definitely recognises this and showcases the visual works of the artists. David Sketchbook has utilised hyperlinks well, and has kept the look of his blog simple to enhance readability.

The next blog is 27b/6 by David Thorne. The content is quite controversial; however David provides a disclaimer on his home page to address this. His posts are quite text heavy but include a lot of white space. I feel as though the amount of white space helps to offset the overwhelming feeling of a text heavy document. The text colour is also a light grey which is easier on the eye, but still provides enough contrast between the text and background to aid readability. The posts are almost formatted like a newspaper column, with the author’s photo in the upper left-hand corner, a blurb about the author underneath the photo, and the actual story in another column to the right of the photo column. The different columns are defined by using boldface and different coloured text which allows the reader to easily define the separation between them. The left side bar includes a list of blog articles, while the right side bar consists of blog formalities (contact, comments, latest news etc.).

Facebook as a news source – the way of the future or just an opinionated recipe for disaster?

The Australian published an article online last Friday revealing that a US survey had found about 30% of the population consume news stories via Facebook, and 78% of these people ‘stumble’ upon news stories while using Facebook for other reasons (such as sharing photos).

The article states that the accidental nature of becoming aware of news stories via Facebook may actually increase the social media site’s importance as a news source, especially among people who do not closely follow the news.

Other facts in the story included:

• About a third of the Facebook news consumers were 18-29 years old

• Facebook exposes some people to news who otherwise may not get it

• The study allows an understanding of how social media is transforming the way news is shared and consumed

• Media organisations can gain insights on the behaviour and preferences of the people they are trying to reach.

While it may be a good thing that more people are becoming more informed of news stories, I can see that it can also be a bad thing. I know in my Facebook feed, people who post news stories generally attach a little piece of their own opinion to the post – not necessarily a good thing. I is generally up to the reader whether or not they agree with the poster’s opinion, however I think people are more strongly open to influence if they have no prior knowledge of the matter. I believe that Facebook is a social media site and should stay that way. People sign up to the website to be social, and if they want to be aware of news stories they can take initiative to seek those out themselves. Everything has a time and place and I, personally, do not find Facebook to be the appropriate place for trust worthy news stories.

The image below is just one example, from my own Facebook news feed, which shows someone sharing a news article along with their opinion.