My name is Sufyaan. My passion lies in computing and design. In fact, I regularly work for 4-7 hours on end tinkering applications, brainstorming new software ideas and practising brand design. My end goal is to impact the lives of as many people as possible through software and programming.
+My name is Sufyaan. My passion lies in computing and design. In fact, I regularly work for 4-7 hours on end tinkering applications, brainstorming new software ideas and practising brand design. My end goal is to impact the lives of as many people as possible through design and software.
I am currently open for brand design projects for technology companies.
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@I prefer to use products that are not from big corporations like Apple, Google, Microsoft or Meta. This is because of the invasive tracking, data collection and also because of centralization. If I have my email, pictures, videos, documents, notes and calendar on a Google account which gets banned or deleted, I will lose everything. Also, Google has full control over all of the aforementioned things even though they are technically mine. Don't get me wrong, I still use some of their products for specific things. However, I do not have complete dependence on them.
To chat with people, I use many apps. As mentioned before, I use XMPP, Session, Signal and WhatsApp. I also use email and will talk regularly with people as long as they use encryption with their emails.
-If you would like to connect with me, please keep reading.
My preferred way of communication is email. However, it is incredibly insecure. Therefore, I request you to encrypt your emails with me.
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@As aforementioned, I am not active on these platforms. I post rarely. This is the only website on which I post regularly.
I post branding and design related content on these websites.
-If you would like to support my by donating, you can send me some Monero or Bitcoin. Monero is preferred.
Monero: 8A8HeXwULYKWtbujMkGiBYKQPahJCT3ye2N6wCAdEv1L6ipoJjDmfVLKa7XnmE77nGLFmu5dGrL8U4zVGrkDncKEDfkpDEj
I know how you felt reading the title. If you are a heavy social media user, you probably said:
"What? Who in their right mind would delete their social media accounts? How are they supposed to live life and talk to their friends?"
Don't worry. That was me last year. I understand your feelings. However, the disadvantages of social media and the perks of deleting it far outweigh its benefits. In this post, I will go over the reasons why you should delete all of your social media.
A study counted 5 billion internet users and it was concluded that, on average, an internet user spends 6 hours and 53 minutes online per day. 6. HOURS. AND. 53. MINUTES. That is almost a whole third of people's daily lives. Another study concluded that people spend more time on social media in their whole lifetime than grooming, socialising (social media !=socialising) and doing the laundry combined.
It is not as if any of the time spent is valuable. Sure, you may learn one or two 'fun facts, which will make you think that you need social media. You may talk with your friends a lot, which will make you think that your account is required to socialise with people. However, these are all nonsensical excuses that your brain makes to justify getting cheap dopamine. Imagine how much work you can get done, how many actual connections you can make with people, and how many good habits can be formed that will make you happier in the long term than social media.
Whenever people hear that social media affects your mental health, they agree but say that it does not affect them specifically. The most common argument I hear is:
"Yeah, I know that it affects other people. However, I am fine with it. I feel normal and do not feel depressed at all.
All I can say is not to trust what your brain tells you whenever you are dealing with any addiction, not just social media. Think about it. The same brain that is telling you that you should keep using social media for meaningless reasons is the one telling you that it is not affecting you.
Social media is a constant source of comparison. You open it up, view a few triggering posts, find out that your favourite actor has passed away, and see your friends perfect lives. Before closing the app, you apply filters to yourself and edit the picture as much as possible for your stories to make yourself look artificially good.
You see, not only is social media fake, it also has an absurd effect on your mental health. It has been proven that many social media platforms track you to show you personalised content. They use human psychology to hook you onto their platforms.
There are two chemicals in your brain that are responsible for happiness:
In many cases, the effect of dopamine is much greater than the effect of endorphins. Recall back to a young age when you realised you were about to receive a toy that you had been waiting for for a few days. The feeling you got when you realised you would get it soon was more intense than the actual feeling of getting the toy.
The same trick applies on social media. Many social media platforms show you content that is completely different from the content that you like just before showing you content that you really like. This results in more dopamine being released, with a good amount of endorphin being released as well. To your brain, it has just achieved something great when, in reality, you have not.
Constantly high dopamine and endorphin releases raise your base happiness levels. This is why things that you used to love now seem boring to you. It is not 'growing up'. It is your social media addiction.
Social media metrics also contribute to this. It makes you think that likes and comments are proportional to your worth, which is simply not the case. When you get a like, it is a form of validation that you are valuable to someone. Someone not liking your post does not mean that you are not valuable.
FOMO (fear of missing out) plays a big role as well. The phrase:
"If everyone is using [insert anything here], why shouldn't I?"
is commonly said by an individual who experiences FOMO without the thing in question. There is a constant fear of missing out on information, which simply will not happen. You may miss some arbitrary information that you would not care about otherwise, but this is not a reason at all to continue using social media.
To hook you into their addiction, social media companies hire "attention designers" who take references and inspiration from casinos to keep you hooked.
Before ending this unexpectedly long section, I would like you to read this quote.
"You're either on, and you're connected and distracted all the time, or you're off, but then you're wondering, Am I missing something important? In other words, you're either distracted or you have a fear of missing out."
Tristan Harris, Former Design Ethicist at Google
If you post everything you do on social media, there is no longer any privacy. Anything you do is public information. If you have a 'private' account, your friends know everything you do. There is no privacy at all if you keep posting everything on social media.
Then there is the elephant in the room. diff --git a/style.css b/style.css index 633dba7..f0aefc1 100644 --- a/style.css +++ b/style.css @@ -12,6 +12,11 @@ figcaption{ .posts,h1,h2,h3,ol,p,ul{ margin-left:8vw } + +.pane{ + margin-left:1vw; +} + .nested-list,.posts,h1,ol,ul{ margin-top:1vw; margin-bottom:1vw @@ -140,12 +145,35 @@ div.desc{ display:table; clear:both } +.column { + float: left; + width: 33%; + padding: 10px; +} + +.row:after { + content: ""; + display: table; + clear: both; +} + +.row { + width: 85%; + margin: auto; +} + @media screen and (max-width:600px){ .posts,h1,h2,h3,ol,p,ul{ margin-left:20px; margin-right:20px; margin-top:30px } + .column { + width: 100%; + } + .row { + width: 100%; + } hr{ width:93% } diff --git a/tempindex.html b/tempindex.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f91e27e --- /dev/null +++ b/tempindex.html @@ -0,0 +1,58 @@ + + +
+
sf@titan [~/sf.cu]$ cat INTRO.md
My name is Sufyaan. I am a programmer and brand designer living in Qatar. I know Python and am learning C, JavaScript and shell scripting. I love creating free software. In both programming and designing, I prefer minimalism, following the UNIX Philosophy in software and creating minimal designs. My goal is to impact the lives of as many people as possible through design and software.
+ + + +
sf.cu > Blog > Tools I Use
+30 July 2023
2 min
+Post to be released soon!
+ + +