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Do you feel the pressure of getting good pictures clicked for your social media accounts? Read on to find out how many of us do.

Cameras play an essential role in our lives. Students document beautiful moments of their day, share pictures with their friends, send them back home to their parents, and upload them on Instagram and make Vlogs. They also share the details of their bad days through pictures, videos, and stories.

However, many of us undergo a slight pressure to conform to the aforementioned millennial practice because a section of the student body is camera shy. A student from Jesus and Mary College said, “My friends get pictures clicked almost every day and it is always fun. But, I don’t get myself clicked because I feel this pressure to look pristine in pictures that are shared on social media.” She added that the compulsion to look great in pictures gives her unnecessary stress.

Being camera shy becomes a liability at times. One feels excluded from their friend’s shenanigans and feel insecure about their body image. It becomes an activity which they don’t want to be a part of. Another student commented, “There is envy attached to pictures. A feeling of the other person looking better and more put together than you do. Shying away from camera becomes second nature to avoid the scrutiny of looking too tall, too short, too fat, etc.”

On the other hand, many students embrace their camera shyness by clicking pictures of other things, people, and animals. Gaurvi Rustogi, a student of Shaheed Sukhdev College of Commerce shared that she clicks the pictures for her friends always, while another student added that he loves clicking pictures of the sky, dogs, squirrels, tall trees, and anything aesthetic that comes in his way randomly. According to them, “Memory documentation doesn’t always involve you clicking pictures with you in it. Clicking pictures of things around you will make you remember that day, and bring peace.”

Recently, filters on social media applications have become another new trend for the students. A teacher in class once condemned these filters and said that “They have ruined the sanctity of photography.” But the students call them light and easy fun. Applications like Huji Camera and filters on Snapchat have become very popular among the youth.

Another aspect added by the editing apps that they remove blemishes off your face or makes your skin tone lighter. This also helps to uphold the unrealistic and unhealthy beauty standards already prevalent in society. While, a few argue in their favour by saying that they make one ‘feel good about themselves’ the counter opinion supported by many, including me, is that no one should need to remove a pimple off their pictures to feel good about themselves.

Even a daily millennial practice like clicking pictures comes with its stereotypical politics. People think that the girls who post more selfies want to grab attention while those who don’t are boring, those who use make-up are faking their beauty and those who don’t are just too simple. These gimmicky stereotypical narratives also push students to get out of their comfort zone- to get dressed and pose for a photograph.

Camera shyness isn’t easy to handle. It comes with its own problems but that is just the way some of us are. And, the real victory over it is to accept it rather than making efforts to look better or pose better, and conform to millennial norms of the era we live in.

Feature Image Credits: Chahat Singh for DU Beat

Sakshi Arora

[email protected]

Snapchat was launched in 2011 and quickly became the world’s favourite app-based social media platform to share multiple 10-second snippets (initially) of their day. Here is a look at why the app’s recent update might be its downfall.

Upon its launch, Snapchat took the world by storm and went viral. It gained popularity because of its unique concept of sharing timed-pictures with small captions, never before seen filters, and gave its users an avenue to be goofy, silly, and experiment with various photography styles. The smart phone based application soon became the premier place to share “stories” in terms of photos and videos. In fact, the app became so popular that other social media networks, like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp inculcated stories into their own layouts in the later years. Snapchat became an way not only for the general public, but for celebrities, social media influencers, companies, and media outlets like BuzzFeed etc. to promote their business ventures as the app provided them with access to over 150 million global users on a daily basis.

Earlier this month, Snapchat announced a new update which aimed to separate content uploaded by the “media” and “friends”. The update immediately received an enormous amount of backlash from users. So much so that over 800,000 people signed a petition to bring the old layout back. Research statistics displayed that the new update pushed most of its users over to its competition, Instagram, and that 80% of the numerous tweets about the update were negative.

The latest redesign that introduced an array of interface changes to the application is terribly designed and extremely confusing. These changes do not seem to be user friendly since many muscle memory movements, such as swiping left to view stories were removed. The stories from “friends” are now included to the left of the camera and the content from the media is kept to the right. The stories are no longer in a chronological order, but are showed to its users based on a “best friend algorithm”.

This update might be the downfall of one of the most-loved social media websites since the organisation sprung these changes onto users without any explanations or warnings. The only semblance of communication from the spokesperson of the company the public has received even after the severe criticism it faced, in terms of a public statement was “Updates as big as this one can take a little getting used to, but we hope the community will enjoy it once they settle in.”

 

Feature Image Credits: Daily Times

Bhavya Banerjee
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College life is driven by a lot of factors. Although, technology is not a very major one, it helps you to keep tab on various aspects of your college life. So, here’s the first part of the list of the hardware that we think would really help you in your undergraduate journey:

  1. Smartphone 

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    Source: pixabey.com

With time changing more swiftly than weather, a smartphone is a must for all new fuchchas out there unless you want to get on back foot for losing out on the random WhatsApp chats and latest class time updates and last minute changes declared by your popular class representative (CR). From taking a perfect selfie to calculating your monthly expenses, your smartphone can be the gateway to the world.

 

 

 

2. Earphones

Source: www.publicdomainpictures.net
Source: www.publicdomainpictures.net

From the drum beats of the theatre society to the noises of students bunking classes, you have to face a whole new level of distractions while trying to concentrate on something in college. In this situation a good earphone can come as a great rescue in time. With a great combination of right volume and right music it has the power to shift you to a different world where you can focus on your work in hand. No doubt some awesome companies like Google, Facebook and apple have earphone vending machines on their office premises.

 

3. Power Banks

Source: wikimedia.org
Source: wikimedia.org

From waking you up in the morning for the 8:30 classes to satisfying your soul with music during break within classes, your phone works harder than you. With WhatsApp and Facebook notifications pinging up in every ten minutes your phone’s battery life is going to get tired like you at the end or even middle of the day. A good power bank can ensure that your lifeline i.e. – phone doesn’t go out of its life and make your life more difficult. Go get one, before you decide between whether to make a last call of the day or to play your favourite song.

 

 

 

Having the right hardware is just not enough. One needs to know how to use it. Else it’s just dead weight that you’re carrying. So here’s the first part of the list of apps and software that would really help you in your undergraduate journey:

  1. For Social Needs

WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat – These are the four pillars of a good social life in not just DU, but in any university across the nation. Most of you, are already on Facebook and WhatsApp. Instagram and Snapchat are the ones on which many of you still aren’t. For an all-round social life, you need to be on the other two as well. You’ll realise their importance once the fest season comes. So register yourself right now and like the DU Beat pages (Yes! That is essential for a very cool social life as well. True Story!).

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2. For Documentation and Project Needs

Open Office & Libre Office – These three are free license office suites which will help you to do all your digital assignments, presentation, reports and projects on Laptop or PC. Microsoft Office suite is one the best but it is paid. These are the best free alternatives.

53. For Utility

Truecaller – If you have an active social life in college or you’re involved in various co-curricular activities, you’ll need to filter out the incoming calls. This app comes in handy. It’s a universal caller ID which gives you the name of the person along with some additional information. User can also block numbers, making it an excellent ‘pervert management tool for girls.

ColorNote– The app is one of the best apps for taking quick notes and messages on your phone. You can make check lists and can even pin your TODOs in the notification bar. It’s available for Android and Windows phone. Similar variants are available for Apple iPhones easily.

Pocket– The ultimate apps for bookmarks. There are various links leading to articles about plethora of things on various social networks which will resonate with your personality. This app helps you save such links so that they can be read anywhere, on any platform or device. You can even save them offline and load it later. All you need to do is save them under your pocket account.

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We wrap up the first part of our tech list here. Stay tuned for more. Do tell us about your personal experiences with apps and software in similar categories.

Image credits: natashascrazylife.blogspot.com

Kavach Chandra and Srivedant Kar
[email protected]
[email protected]