In March 2020, the world was shutting down. The new coronavirus was spreading faster than we could handle. Governments needed to buy time to prepare. But fast spread took the world off guard. The quarantine was established. All activities had to stop for an undefined period of time. Businesses had to reorganize their strategies to limit financial loss. COVID-19 rapid testing will help.

Small Business Protection Program

Luckily, the US administration launched the paycheck protection program (PPP) to help businesses navigate such a situation. The deal was clear. The employers had to keep their employees on the payroll for several months or had to rehire them afterward as the case may be. …

Reprogramming

If you are an Apple aficionado like I am, there always been a specific feature that I missed from day one after I transitioned from Android to iOS.

It has to do with homescreen customization. Until now, Apple’s operating systems have been particularly locked in regard to customization.

Since the beginning, Apple oriented us to the use of its own proprietary design, restricting at the same time the user’s liberty to perform actions it’s own way.

As iOS versions advanced in privacy and sophistication, Apple is giving back more and more freedom and flexibility to its users.

iPhone users can now design their own homescreen and decide the way to interact with it. …

Mental Health Awareness

I’m not surprised anymore. I know social media apps like TikTok and Facebook are seeking my attention. These apps are using many techniques to keep us connected all day long. It is addictive.

While writing an important document, We all experienced a smartphone located beside the coffee cup at reaching distance, waking up suddenly to notify that a friend just liked a post. Such an important event that it totally justified the distraction, didn’t it?

Another example is when we wanted to look at the clock on the smartphone screen and ended up clicking on this notification about someone following you on your fully dedicated social media platform. …

Mental Health Awareness

When Facebook first made an appearance, its main and only focus was to connect people. Mark Zuckerberg and friends created a virtual yearbook. Today, the Facebook app reaches a phenomenal number of 2.7 billion monthly active users.

Think about it, starting at a campus-scale to reach such a gigantic number of users, Facebook must be more than just an appealing social networking app. Amongst these 2.7 billion active users, you'll find a wide range of individuals with various centers of interest. You have the 13 years old teenagers — hopefully not younger — who play online video games with their friends. You also find 100-year-old grandpas and grandmas — with no exaggeration — who just try to stay connected with their grandkids. There are so many kinds of interests and people between these two examples, in this world, that, to manage to gather billions of people every month on the same platform, there must be something more than just appealing. …

When the technology era began, society experienced important changes. Tools like social media platforms i.e. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google,… managed to gather people from all around the world and created promising and unprecedented opportunities. Some of us reconnected with old friends from kindergarten, some were able to reunite lost family members, and others found organs donors for their loved ones. These revolutionary tools enabled many wonderful and meaningful societal things but no one would have ever imagined what the flip side of the coin would look like.

Behavior of Addiction

The number of smartphone users keeps increasing and will surpass 3 billion by the end of 2020. Such devices are omnipresent in our lives — it’s a fact. When you ask people about what the first thing they do after waking up in the morning, one of the first things they do after waking up is looking at their smartphone for news feed and notifications from social media apps they might have missed during the night. Is it becoming a “normal” behavior? Is it still possible to have a technology-free wakeup routine? Such behavior reminds me of what heavy smokers do after waking up — They light a cigarette. It reminds me also of what alcohol heavy drinkers do after waking up — They drink an alcoholic beverage. In other words, looking at the news feeds recommended your smartphone’s apps after waking up reminds me of what addicted people do. …

Mental Health Awareness

Depriving teenagers of one of their favorite pass times, including social media apps like TikTok could potentially harm mental health in the short term, but it will certainly be a good thing in the long run, especially for upcoming generations.

TikTok, a Video-Sharing App

In 2016, the company ByteDance released Douyin, a lip-syncing app. It was dedicated to the Chinese market only. Facing unexpected success with several million downloads, ByteDance decided to expand Douyin at the international under the name of TikTok. The success was again instantaneous and tremendous.

Millions of teenagers started filming themselves dancing and singing on well-known artists’ songs. So much fun between real and virtual friends. Hours and hours spent on the screen looking at physical details. Hours and hours spent on choosing the right filter to correct the natural imperfections. …

Hello, my friends.

Thank you so much for following Open-Minded Elixir (OME). We reached 522 followers on Facebook. Keep sharing the good words! Together, we will contribute to a brighter and healthier tomorrow.

🟢 Case You Missed It

This past month, OME was interested in a debate about the face masks mandate and freedom. Anti-maskers seem to carry misconceptions about liberty. Indeed, since the beginning, we all support the hard work, commitments, and sacrifices of professional health workers during the pandemic. It is not without consequences for their own health.

School reopening is a really hot topic. Is it too early for in-person classes? In any case, the decision should take into consideration data reported and analyzed with a scientific process. Looks like several universities decided to switch back to fully online courses after a surge of new cases due to student gatherings. Interestingly, more evidence seems to demonstrate that kids can carry a high load of the virus without exhibiting severe symptoms, but with the risk of transmission. …

Marketing

When I started my journey of writer/blogger, I thought that my posts will reach every single connected person in the world as soon as I clicked on the submit button. Well, I found out the hard way that it is not how it works. My naive vision of online content posting took a hit. Since then, I did my homework and decided to share my experience with y’all.

I compiled below a non-exhaustive list of social media platforms to post and promote content with the idea that it will help newbies to navigate the foggy waters of self-promotion.

7 Social Media Platforms to Consider

The first places to look at in order to create audiences are social media platforms. Today, the world is interconnected. People from all over the world talk to each other and stay informed via the use of social media apps. Today, if you want to make a difference, social media platforms are unavoidable. The number of monthly active users speaks by itself. Those numbers are from publicly available data and they are mentioned in between parenthesis. It represents your potential outreach as of April 2020. …