Tag: social media

Beware of Online Love + Crypto Scam. Personal experience included!

I was going to write this post several months ago, but I got lazy. But this issue happens too often, so I believe that it’s important for me to write a post about it to warn you all.

Nowadays, the younger generation spends most of their time online and on the phone. It isn’t uncommon for people to have various apps to stay in touch with friends, family, and even to meet strangers/potential love interests.

However, because you may be exposing yourself to the “world”, you really need to be careful. Sometimes, you’re not even actively searching, but they will find you.

For example, I received a random text from this dude who messaged me on Whatsapp a few months ago.

Translation:

Guy: Hi, Gwen. Nice to meet you. Auntie Wang gave me your phone number.

Me: Hi. My name is Grace. Who is Auntie Wang?

Guy: Auntie Wang said she already told you about me. Aren’t you Gwen? I have already messed up once. *angry face*

Me: You found the wrong person. I don’t know any Auntie Wang.

Guy: Forget it. I won’t keep searching. I’ll tell Auntie Wang I’ve found you. Nice to meet you, Grace. My name is Louis. Oh wait, you know Chinese?

This guy is clearly a scammer. First of all, I don’t know any Auntie Wang. And let’s say this “Auntie Wang” did exist, why the heck would she introduce me to someone that doesn’t even LIVE in Toronto? The phone number was from the U.S. And this person sounded surprised I know Chinese. Does he think I’m stupid? He is getting “introduced” to someone without knowing that person actually knows Chinese, but he messages me in Chinese?

Omg. I got so mad that I blocked him after a few more back and forth. I wanted to know how he would try to scam me, but it’s not worth my time.

And it’s also quite obvious he stole the picture of a random handsome “western” looking guy and is pretending to be him. I don’t know how he got my phone number, but I know of a few people who’ve also received messages from random strangers on Wechat and Whatsapp. My guy friend got a message from someone who claims she’s from Hong Kong. He told her she got the wrong person, but she kept talking and started talking about investing and etc. BEWARE. Continue reading “Beware of Online Love + Crypto Scam. Personal experience included!”

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Nine ways to retire early and achieve financial freedom

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could quit your job and not have to worry about paying your bills?

Even if you enjoy what you do, I think it’s fair to say that having the option to quit whenever you want while maintaining the same standard of living would be awesome.

But how?

I have come up with a list of nine ways.

  1. Earn more

There are multiple ways you can earn more money. For instance:

  • Work more hours. If people usually work 40 hours a week, you could try working 60 instead. However, there are only 24 hours in a day. There will be a limit on how much you can trade your time for money.
  • Have a high income skill. To be worth more in the workforce, you need to become a person that is harder to replace. It would be in your best interest to develop skills that make you more valuable. Ex. If you’re the only person that can fix X, then you will be compensated more. But if you were selling popcorn, they can easily hire someone else to do your job. (No offense to those selling popcorn)
  • Side hustle. This could be a business, being a social media influencer, your own personal project, and etc. Basically, it’s something that earns you additional income from your current job.
  1. Lower your costs

You can lower your costs by:

  • Finding a roommate/significant other to split the cost. Having two incomes to pay for expenses make it easier.
  • Moving to somewhere cheaper. If you are able to work online, perhaps you can move to another country where the cost of living is lower and your currency is worth more.
  • Spend less. Buy fewer things, eat less, and go out less.
  1. Use patreon/onlyfans and sell your own merchandise

This is tough. There are A LOT of content creators. Even if people watch you or consume your content, it doesn’t mean they will give you money or buy your merch. In fact, based on my own personal experience, only one in a hundred would donate/give monetary support.

However, this is a very good way to scale. You’re no longer trading time for money. For example, perhaps you spend 2 hours creating content for a tier, but you can have unlimited subscribers for that tier. This means, there is no cap on how much you can earn. Regardless if 100 or 1000 people subscribe to it, you only spent 2 hours.

Note: It is EXTREMELY difficult to get loyal followers who would pay for content. There’s also no guarantee how long they will support you for. Continue reading “Nine ways to retire early and achieve financial freedom”

My views on censorship: we can’t have an opinion

Lately, there has been an issue that has been bothering me and I would like to blog about it.

Ever since what happened on January 6th at the Capitol in the United States, Donald Trump has been banned from Twitter and I think every mainstream social media app out there (correct me if I’m wrong).

As the president of United States, I think he should not be able to say whatever he wants due to the effect his words may have on his followers. Actions have consequences, and those who have participated in violent acts should be punished.

Some of his supporters are so extreme that they would probably kill or die for Trump.

So, I thought limiting Trump’s access to Twitter was actually a pretty responsible thing to do.

I didn’t, however, expect him to be banned from everything. Furthermore, a super right winged conservative app, Parler, has also been taken down.

While I do understand, I do think it’s an issue that needs to be discussed.

There are extremists for everything. Does that mean all extremists should be banned? Or are we only focusing on right winged extremists? How about violent left winged extremists?

Now, I’m neither extreme left nor right, but I feel like nowadays, people can’t even have an opinion.

What if you’re just a non violent supporter of Trump? Or BLM? Or Communism? Or whatever you believe in!?!

If you state a political view, someone is going to be triggered. The more popular you are, the more backlashes you’ll receive from the other side.

Nowadays, people may be afraid to speak out their views because they want to avoid getting banned or losing access to their accounts. In more serious cases, they may even lose their jobs.

This is even worse if you have a following. Because that means you have impact and haters may just be waiting around the bush to strike. Continue reading “My views on censorship: we can’t have an opinion”

Luck

These days, I have been thinking a lot about luck.

I am currently reading a Korean novel called, “The Second Coming Of Gluttony” and it really inspired me to write this post.

In the novel, the main character, Seol Jihu, basically gets a second chance at life. He gets recruited and is given the Gold Mark in which he is given a lot of cheats.

The MC basically starts off with more money/items than the rest, and has an ability to see colours. Red signifies danger, orange – do not approach, yellow – take caution, green – safe (there are still more colours to be unlocked, I’m only 100+ chapters in).

However, as I keep reading, I really feel like it’s so unfair. Yes, he works and trains hard, but he had all these abilities/things that others didn’t. In my opinion, he already had a huge unfair advantage against everyone else.

Next, I thought about how all the MCs in dramas are usually rich guys who are already hot, those who already have power, status, and money. They don’t even have to do shit and all the women just flock to them. It is so unfair.

I can’t help but feel, “You’re just born lucky.”

Then, I thought about myself. How much of my accomplishments were based on my abilities alone? Am I just born lucky too?

I want to take credit and say I got to where I am with my hard work and persistence. But there are actually a lot of things that played a factor. For instance:

I mainly grew up in Canada, so English is the language that I studied in school. English happens to be an international language, which is used worldwide. This made it easier for my translations to get popular. Imagine if I had translated into Russian or something; most likely, only Russians would be able to understand. Continue reading “Luck”

The harsh reality of being a content creator

We are born in a generation where as long as you have the internet and a device (phone, laptop, video camera, etc), you can upload things online and share with the world. Depending on the person, there may be conflicting views on this. But we can’t deny the fact that the internet has created a lot more opportunities for people overall.

Today, I would like to blog about the harsh reality of being a content creator. Content creators are basically people who create content usually targeted towards a specific group of audience for their entertainment purposes.

Back then, most content creators started off as hobbyists. For example, when Youtube first became popular, most people were just posting random clips online. People never really thought of making money from it.

Eventually, people realized it was possible to make a living off Youtube. As long as you develop a huge following with lots of views, you can earn ad revenue!

So, people then started to make all sort of content in hopes of getting viral.

Maybe if they get popular enough, they could quit their jobs and pursue their dream career and do what they actually love!

While it sounds simple enough, reality is far from it.

In order to quit your job to pursue this type career, you must earn enough from your content so that it could replace your income. The problem is, most people do not want to pay for content.

Can you imagine if I charged you to read this? Chances are, you would just not read it. LOL

With so many other options, why would we pay for something that we could get free elsewhere?

Thus, if your dream is to become a content creator, you’re going to suffer A LOT. You’ll constantly be trying to get followers. Even if you have great and free content, you’re competing against countless of others and there is no guarantee people will watch/read/consume/follow. Continue reading “The harsh reality of being a content creator”

Don’t assume

To my dear readers,

I’m back! Sorry for not posting last week. I was very unwell. Fortunately, I feel better now. 🙂   Anyhow, today’s post is based on one of my real life interactions with a friend.

A few weeks ago, I finally caught up with my friend Nathan (fake name) after four years of not seeing him. Back in the days, we used to go to events and parties together. But due to my autoimmune disorder, I had been too ill in the past few years to attend any of his parties.

Nonetheless, we still stayed in touch via facebook and would update each other from time to time.

When we met up, Nathan was telling me how he had been going through depression and wanted to kill himself. Here was part of our conversation:

Nathan: Grace, you know, last year was so hard for me. I wanted to kill myself because I felt like my life was not worth living. My job contract ended and I didn’t get extended. I turned 30 and I am still living at home. Everyone on facebook seems to be doing better than me. I thought by now I would have a place of my own. I thought by now, I would have my own family.  Continue reading “Don’t assume”

Attention

Attention

Attention can make us feel acknowledged, appreciated, and valued. As a result, a lot of people seek attention.

In general, if one wants attention, he/she will do something to try to get others to notice them. This can include: posting a lot of pictures, messaging a lot, doing something out of the ordinary, being very loud, making controversial statements, and so on.

Some try extremely hard to get the attention of others. This may be because they feel that it validates their existence. For example, for devoted fans, it means the world to them if their celebrity crushes notice them. Thus, it is very common for extreme fans to continuously bombard their celebrities with tweets and comments. To them, if the celebrity ever responds or retweets to even one message, they feel like it’s all worth it.

Continue reading “Attention”

Reality vs the Internet

Reality vs real life

Today, I had a sudden urge to blog about a topic that has been on my mind for quite some time. I want to write about people who compare their lives with the lives of the people they have on facebook/instagram/twitter/other social media. It’s actually quite common, I think.

The reason this issue bothers me is because people actually take it too seriously. I know for a fact, some people are envious or jealous of certain lifestyles people portray online. Sometimes, it seems like everyone has a better life than us. There are people who look so hot, who look so rich, who look so successful, who look so happy, and etc. However, you must understand that people only show you what they want you to see. For example, someone can post up a picture of a house they newly bought. You, the viewer, is probably like, “Wow. Blah blah blah bought a house! He/she must be doing so well”. (or something along those lines). BUT GUESS WHAT? It’s not always true!! You don’t see them struggling to pay the bills. For all you know, they probably can’t even afford it. A lot of the times, people buy things they cannot afford.

Continue reading “Reality vs the Internet”