Nowadays we come across children with talents grown adults still haven’t mastered yet, one of them being cooking. I know i haven’t…
I interviewed my little brother on this topic of cooking as from an early age I knew he enjoyed doing it, even when it tasted like slop. However, he now has a log book of things he can cook and wanted to find out more about his own personal cooking journey outside of what I have always thought it has been.
So, I invite you to tune in to this talk with a cook.
I the pleasure of interviewing El Shaddai, 24, who is a student nurse and delved into her personal life as well as her life growing up. She opted to use images of herself as she said it “makes her life look like one of those life documentaries”. Envisioning other walks of life is so fascinating and here is one to listen to.
These were the following questions I put forward to her:
Q1: What is your name and age and where are you from?
Q2: What is your occupation if you have one?
Q3: Tell me about your life growing up?
Q4: Lastly, did you have any aspirations growing up or a dream job?
Social media is rampant in today’s society with more and more young people aspiring to lead a professional career on a social media platform. So where does Love Island come into this?
The dating show first aired on ITV in 2015, where a group of singletons live in luxury villa for 8 weeks in the hopes of finding love as well as wining a cash prize. The show is known for making contestants “famous” and popular due to their time on the show, but their popularity is mostly on social media.
With their audiences starting from 16-30 years old, young people are at the forefront of culture that perpetuates having a perfect body image as well as the need to have a large following on social media. Although this may not be the intention behind the show, it is what is being shown on mainstream TV repeatedly with no type of body inclusivity.
Statistics show that as of 2021, Instagram users in the UK had reached 28.89 million with the individuals aged 25-34 dominating with 31.8%, followed by users aged 18-24 at 23.8%.
Past contestants from the show have made a name for themselves on social media, blogs, and even fashion deals with big named brands such as Boohoo and Misguided just to name a few. This glamourous and lavish lifestyle has appealed to young people and the traditional career paths are no longer desirable. With millions of viewers tuning in to the show, Love Island is a hotspot for kick starting your presence as a ‘social media influencer’ and the term alone has amounted more than 2,600 searches a month.
Monetising on social media popularity is now a newfound way of establishing a career in so many different areas through networking and social media marketing. Social media or influencer marketing is a good way of promoting your brand by reaching a large audience and through understanding the media platform and its algorithms, your following and engagements will increase on your feed.
Popularity, however, has damaging effects on people especially on social media where thousands of people have an everlasting opinion of you whether you are an influencer or not. Cyberbullying and mental health issues has tainted Love Island entirely as stars from the show have been victim to online trolls and have even committed suicide.
Former host Caroline Flack had committed suicide in February of last year and during this time, she was receiving heavy amounts of social media backlash that could have contributed to her death. In April 2019, former contestant Gradon had also committed suicide and only two months later, contestant Mike Thalassitis had met the same fate.
It’s important to recognise the impact social media has on people’s lives both positively and negatively but also the strong hold it has on young people aspiring to be social media influencers.
Voters across the nation voted for their favoured candidate in the 2021 mayoral elections and whilst ballots are still being counted, the fate of London’s transport system hangs in the balance. So, what is each candidate offering?
CiTTi Magazine (City Transport and Traffic Innovation) summarises each parties’ policies
Merge zones 4, 5 and 6 to “flatten fares” and move towards a single fare zone for all London
Establish a “smarter, privacy-friendly road-pricing plan” to replace the Congestion Charge and ULEZ
Aim to reduce London’s overall traffic miles by 40% by 2026 and 60% by 2030. Close streets near schools and play areas to traffic, for “community use” during key times
Commission a redesign of London’s bus stops
Work towards zero deaths on London roads
Cancel the Silvertown Tunnel project, a twin-road tunnel beneath the River Thames in east London, and the Croydon Fiveways road redesign
Make London zero-carbon by 2030, including establishing a zero-emission bus fleet by this time
As of recent, the popular app TikTok has been used as a marketing tool, to reach several audiences at one time. Although the app is mostly used by young people as an entertainment source, music artists have benefited from it in more ways than some.
So how exactly does this work?
Popular trends and ‘challenges’ created by content creators could easily place a song on the charts or make it trend as a gleaming 1.1 billion active users‘ login worldwide.
It is no doubt that there is a distinct correlation between the music industry and social media, especially in today’s day and age where conquering social media can and will change your life entirely. Artist such as Lil Nas X, Doja Cat, Megan Thee Stallion, Cardi B and many more, are testament to this with all achieving No. 1 spots on the charts.
Majority of the times the music is used in dance challenges, lyric challenges comedy content or acting scenes but of course in other areas also.
Since the pandemic began early last year, TikTok has taken over social media and many artists have taken advantage of this by creating what people call ‘TikTok music’ that comes with a catchy dance routine. However, some people believe that TikTok has in fact “overrun the music industry and significantly distracted from its integrity”- where music seems to lack any substance just for popularity on the app.
Before TikTok had gained popularity, artists in the music industry thrived through streams on platforms such as Spotify, Soundcloud, and Youtube, as well as utilising other social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter. Despite artists capitalising on success on and off the app, the possibility of becoming a ‘one hit wonder’ is still a risk for artists if they don’t continue to release the same quality of music.
Artists who continue to use the traditional way of reaching audiences through platforms like Spotify alone, will struggle to connect with different audiences the way other artist do on TikTok simply because of how many people use the app daily, the high engagement and content creators. On top of that there’s the financial aspect, where Spotify has been known for paying artists less than what reflects their streams on the app.
In contrast, some content creators on TikTok say they can make between $50-150 per post with paid partnerships, so we can only imagine what artists make when they go viral.
Therefore, it is undeniable that TikTok has not aided in the increase of artists streams as well as impact the entire music industry for the better.
WNOL 