diaries-of-a-messy-traveler

[diaries-of-a-messy-traveler]

#silentstreets #diariesofamessytraveler #leuven #belgium #lonely_spring #belgium (at Groot Begijnhof, Leuven) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-ALXqenOGb/?igshid=zt7nbueg42q8

#silentstreets #diariesofamessytraveler #leuven #belgium #lonely_spring

[diaries-of-a-messy-traveler]

#diariesofamessytraveler #springiscoming #leuven #lifeinpictures #colors #belgium (at Leuven, Belgium) https://www.instagram.com/p/B8PF4yno4ee/?igshid=d4mlbd33u47o

#diariesofamessytraveler #springiscoming #leuven #lifeinpictures #colors #belgium

[diaries-of-a-messy-traveler]

#diariesofamessytraveler #leuevn #belgium #kuleuven #winter #crazylittlethings #mom #red (at Leuven, Belgium) https://www.instagram.com/p/B7lIlBjopGY/?igshid=1miu3inptitl

#diariesofamessytraveler #leuevn #belgium #kuleuven #winter #crazylittlethings #mom #red

[diaries-of-a-messy-traveler]

#diariesofamessytraveler #denmark🇩🇰 #copenhagen #castle #frederiksborgcastle #hillerød #ceiling #angel (at Frederiksborg Castle) https://www.instagram.com/p/B6z8hO0o3zZ/?igshid=whew9xl6prd7

#diariesofamessytraveler #denmark🇩🇰 #copenhagen #castle #frederiksborgcastle #hillerød #ceiling #angel

[diaries-of-a-messy-traveler]

#diariesofamessytraveler #denmark🇩🇰 #copenhagen #architecture #castle #frederiksborgcastle (at Frederiksborg Castle) https://www.instagram.com/p/B6yjo9qIADA/?igshid=sdfmlizozguz

#diariesofamessytraveler #denmark🇩🇰 #copenhagen #architecture #castle #frederiksborgcastle

[diaries-of-a-messy-traveler]

#diariesofamessytraveler #hamletcastle #denmark🇩🇰 #travelphotography #medival #kronborgcastle #helsingør (at Kronborg Castle, Home of Hamlet, Denmark) https://www.instagram.com/p/B6tE-2BItSe/?igshid=dxns8zuos5ff

#diariesofamessytraveler #hamletcastle #denmark🇩🇰 #travelphotography #medival #kronborgcastle #helsingør

[diaries-of-a-messy-traveler]

#diariesofamessytraveler (at The Marble Church , Copenhagn) https://www.instagram.com/p/B6rHqe0ozeK/?igshid=1qcd5586sq2bm

#diariesofamessytraveler

[diaries-of-a-messy-traveler]

#diariesofamessytraveler #mashrooms #littlethings #nature_brilliance #colors #winter #kuleuven #leuven #belgium (at Kasteel van Arenberg) https://www.instagram.com/p/B4143o-oNLv/?igshid=1aixxo03nutnt

#diariesofamessytraveler #mashrooms #littlethings #nature_brilliance #colors #winter #kuleuven #leuven #belgium

[diaries-of-a-messy-traveler]

#diariesofamessytraveler #lifeontop #ontopoftheworld #phdstudentlife #leuven #kuleuven #belgium (at Leuven, Belgium) https://www.instagram.com/p/B4ztngLILIj/?igshid=scg4d6qy0mvh

#diariesofamessytraveler #lifeontop #ontopoftheworld #phdstudentlife #leuven #kuleuven #belgium

[diaries-of-a-messy-traveler]

#diariesofamessytraveler #berlin #coworkingspace #rain #blackandwhite #winter #oberholzberlin (at St. Oberholz) https://www.instagram.com/p/B4X-9YIoxmA/?igshid=2x9n7qlkjtbn

#diariesofamessytraveler #berlin #coworkingspace #rain #blackandwhite #winter #oberholzberlin

[diaries-of-a-messy-traveler]

#MBWorldTour I’ve never been happier . I came across the world , it has been 8 years since I left Syria. I went to Egypt lived there , with a huge bless I arrived to Germany , I’ve been living in Berlin for 2 years now . And today , for the first time in a long time , I truly am happy. This was one of the rare times in my life that I did something completely for my self, I went to Michael Bublé’s concert because I wanted to, not because I had to .. today it felt that there are still, few things in life to warm the hearts of the lost souls :)) .. thank you @michaelbuble (at Mercedes-Benz Arena Berlin) https://www.instagram.com/p/B4Qm88YIKdi/?igshid=t1xhmg36igp9

#mbworldtour

[diaries-of-a-messy-traveler]

#diariesofamessytraveler #berlin #festivaloflightsberlin2019 #berlinerdom #moon #travelgram #b&w #shadows #germany #deutschland (at Berlin, Germany) https://www.instagram.com/p/B32cvc_oUkp/?igshid=nckmwsjwvbp2

#diariesofamessytraveler #berlin #festivaloflightsberlin2019 #berlinerdom #moon #travelgram #b #shadows #germany #deutschland

[diaries-of-a-messy-traveler]

#diariesofamessytraveler #berlin #festivaloflightsberlin #berlinerdom #moon #travelgram #colors (at Festival of Ligth) https://www.instagram.com/p/B3u89QTIY3u/?igshid=lo9vdm5j6vpi

#diariesofamessytraveler #berlin #festivaloflightsberlin #berlinerdom #moon #travelgram #colors

[diaries-of-a-messy-traveler]

#diariesofamessytraveler #deutschland #berlinerdom #festivaloflights #travelgram #berlin #artoflights (at Festival of Ligth) https://www.instagram.com/p/B3u7TceoHzh/?igshid=hxj4rwaqk9nn

#diariesofamessytraveler #deutschland #berlinerdom #festivaloflights #travelgram #berlin #artoflights

[diaries-of-a-messy-traveler]

#diariesofamessytraveler #travelblogger #people #deutschland #köpenick #patterns #inktober2019 #b&w (at Köpenick, Berlin, Germany) https://www.instagram.com/p/B3omu-go8f8/?igshid=7burs5jg2uw8

#diariesofamessytraveler #travelblogger #people #deutschland #köpenick #patterns #inktober2019 #b

[diaries-of-a-messy-traveler]

US or Them / reflections on online social Experiments

In these times of movement, digitalization and “no time” excuses, being new (or not) and living in a big city (or a small one), with a lot of people around, unfortunately doesn’t make it less lonely.  It is getting more difficult to find the “right people” to hang out with, and almost impossible to find the “one” that you’re “supposed” to end up with, thus people try to find online social spaces to reconnect in a world of strangers.

With these online platforms offering another type of “nearness” and aiming to bridge social gaps, they appear to provide pools of what can be seen as the “right people”. They are promoted as spaces where you are technically “free” to voice out your deepest thoughts, and “be yourself” in this era. Nevertheless, that is not how the “game” should be played. There are rules, some of them transmitted from the collective social rules developed in the non-digital world, to be presented and worked with in a new set of frames that have be (re)coded using 0s and 1s.

Based on the nature of the platform itself, we can see how different types of agency come to become a part of these worlds, the submissive, the resistant and the neutral (with many sublayers of differences and categorizations). Exclusion and Inclusion measures are played, and different types of borders rise, they start by whether “limited”, “restricted” to a certain level of interaction, “Accepted”, “liked/matched”, “followed” or “disliked/un-matched”. Till they reach also, for extreme exclusion measures reaching “block”, “unfriended”, or “block & report”.  To elaborate more, one could group them into:

The submissive kind:

This type of agency play by the rules, meaning that online social profile should reflect a certain image that fits the mainstream, which normally is based on non-virtual one and worked on by retrofitting of the societal current image online to reconstruct it to fit also the new members frameworks, which their social codes somehow similar. This start from a profile picture, how should you be appearing (or not) in this digital public scene, the way your main ideas are spoken and read, liked or commented on. This kind follow the rules exactly the way are given to them, till they can be considered the general public opinion online.

The resistant kind:

This type of agency play against the “mainstream/normal” rules, and creating their own pockets, meaning that online social profile should reflect a certain image that is far or completely the opposite of the mainstream. It appear to start from feelings of certain degree of rejection/or rejecting the non-virtual reality rules and constructing an image online that represents “othering on-self” to certain measure instead of feeling “othered”. This also works from a profile picture, how you truly are (and the mainstream can’t see or accept), to “make a room to be” in digital public scene and expressing the voicing out what seems to be unspoken/un-heard in reality.

This type has allowed different important causes to get a platform for expression with a real impact leading to a serious change, whether positive or negative. Some of these frameworks could convert temporarily to become a mainstream to a certain level in the times of wider public shocks, like the peak moments of revolutions/wars and can cause a certain level of chaos/change. Though that might be become accepted to a certain level based on their impact, and can be reignited by certain similar shocks, yet, they hardly become permanent mainstream.

The neutral kind:

Now this type of agency is there just to “be” there. They are to a certain degree submissive to follow some rules of the mainstream but don’t aim to attract real attention. Nevertheless, they follow the resistant kind “just to keep up with what is happening in the world” as it seems to be “changing”. They maintain a certain image by abstaining from participation of any kind in publicly contradictive discourses, yet they may play along with harmful types of resistances such as “stop the war” or “save the children” that seem to have positive moral connotations. They often the ones who use the “limit” and “restrict”, but not too extreme to reach “block” unless it is very personal!  

In all three cases, stepping outside the defined borders is usually minimal, and their borders aren’t as preamble as in real life. Frameworks are some-how superimposed and with minimal shifts, where the persons who don’t fit are excluded. Thus “being one-self”, in all these cases, is played by being proudly accepted (or not) in your goal circle, while the public image/opinions expressed seems to be ways to be “fishing for acceptance/complement”.

Though that these different online platforms seem to provide a space for the like-minded people around the world to find each other, they still create their own types of distances that have a more serious effect on the societal structure. Most of the images/opinions posted, are expressing and conveying a certain type of “in the moment” message, that is mainly stripped out of the context and the processes of formation/construction (past, present, future), gendered and looked at from a racial lens. Giving minimum space for understanding the human dimension and objectifying the people behind the screen/or the addressed and binding them to temporal unfixed images, that have short/long term effects.

The cravenness of online acceptance (though it might be limited to a very small number), becomes a type of addiction that can’t be controlled and a rainbow that can’t be chased, thus creating their own hardly controlled type of everyday minimum anxieties, where information can’t be processed fully, thus accumulated to burst out in the non-virtual reality as extreme measures, that have affected not only big cities, but reached (specially with hatred/xenophobia phenomena), to small remote towns. Online dating applications (tinder in my social experiment) appear to be the most dangerous kind, if not dealt with carefully, as they are deeply connected and have real effects (positive/negative) on the personal perception and appreciation of oneself not the collective one.  

The phenomena and the opposition between us/them will never cease to exist. But maybe nowadays, with a better more advanced ways to connect deeper, and hurt without noticing, it would be very important to remember that is a real person with stories, dreams, failures and success, who has minimum access to non-virtual support, and all this person is seeking is to be surrounded, accepted and seen even virtually.  

[diaries-of-a-messy-traveler]

#kuleuven #travelholic #diariesofamessytraveler #belgium #momlife #travelgram #waterwheel (at Kasteel van Arenberg) https://www.instagram.com/p/BrGv6Y5Au1I/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1idvcjx2y93e8

#kuleuven #travelholic #diariesofamessytraveler #belgium #momlife #travelgram #waterwheel