Categories
Allgemein

The Social Dilemma. How have current social media platforms used their users to make a profit and why does it have to change?

The social media platforms exploit their market dominance by selling data, knowing more about the users than they do themselves, and thus driving up prices for advertisers.

What is the current problem of social media?

We all heard about the negative influence of social media platforms. It is not only about our mental health, it is also about privacy. We all have heard that if you do not pay for the product it means that you are the product. Indeed, social media platforms started with a noble goal: reunite people and facilitate communication between them.

However, with no surprise, the development of such platforms has led to multinational companies focusing on profits. Hence using every aspect of their business to make more. One of them has been to use users’ personal data. This private data would be sold to companies and brands willing to advertise their products directly to interested customers. Even this relationship started as a kind of win-win as both sides were happy. On one side with the customers receiving adverts suited to their needs. On the other side with companies having the possibility to share their philosophy, vision, and products directly to customers.

Facebook requires advertising spend to reconnect its already acquired followers

Nowadays, this relationship has been shattered by the ferocious appetite of social media platforms. Indeed, their focus has been to control the flow of information that users and businesses can share. In that regard, both parties have been harmed. Brands, now have to pay for their own posts reaching the users following their page. This results in frustration from both users and companies who cannot interact freely.

What do we do to solve this issue?

Users and companies are now aware of the situation. This control by social media has led many users and brands to seek other solutions. They are looking for an app that will allow them to freely share their content. Without constantly having to pay to reach their audience. This, as well as data privacy issues, are problems that we at Soulside have vouched to solve. 

Users have also turned pessimistic about social media. They try to keep away from platforms and mobiles to improve their mental health and control of their time. These users need a new reason to go online. Our latest research conducted by FHTW Würzburg showed that people still are attracted to the online world. They want to stay in contact and communicate with their friends and family. About 20% of Users had no deep creative communication on the web before. Social media becomes soulful.

Soulful means also a healthy relationship with your social network 

At Soulside, we believe that both sides have the right to a relationship where the platform does not interfere with. A user who enjoys a brand should have the possibility to see the content that this brand shares. Easily and without the fear of data being stolen. A company should, in an unlimited way, be able to share its posts with all the users who follow her.

Social media platforms have fully taken control of the marketing funnels. We at Soulside have provided a solution to the issues that so many have been facing. In an easy way, users can decide to follow the 3D spaces of a brand or company. They can see all of what has been posted quickly in an immersive 3D environment.

The brands become the real influencers

For brands, this is a unique opportunity to not only share new products or new services. Brands will be able to share their vision, their philosophy, and their goals as a company. Additionally, the company’s can start a real collaboration with individual users or user groups and create new unique products for their followership loves. 

This launches a new era of marketing and advertising for companies. These will have the guarantee to reach without further costs the people who want to follow you. And for you, the users, you can choose exactly what you want to see and from which brand. And when you decide to follow one brand, you get the chance to see new products and services in a 3D environment, giving you the opportunity to see what’s coming.

We democratize the social media for corporates and Users

We believe that this will allow the win-win relationship between users and companies to rise again and further progress on various levels.

If you want to learn more about Soulside feel free to reach out here.

Download the IOS Version

Download the Android Version

If you are curious about our first blog article on the benefits of creativity, have a look here.

Categories
Allgemein

What does Soulside do to help you boost your creativity?

Creativity is everywhere and it can be trained! If you haven’t read our previous blog post, you might do so before explaining how Soulside can help you! The blog post is here.

There are a lot of ways to improve your creativity to get positive effects on your life. We selected some very interesting ones to unleash your creative super skills.

Creativity can become a habit:

Research, as well as experiences, have shown that creativity can be trained. “As strange as it sounds, creativity can become a habit,” says creativity researcher Jonathan Plucker, Ph.D., a psychology professor at Indiana University. “Making it one helps you become more productive.”

We can enhance it in various and multiple ways. First, you have to think of creativity as a muscle that you can exercise. The key is to encourage yourself and the people surrounding you to recognize that creativity is an acquired skill, and then provide ongoing opportunities to learn from creative experiences.

Firstly, research shows that when people try to think more creatively, they almost always can.

Those effects are both significant and repeatable. So one sure way to boost creative thinking is to Try. No, really! “Creativity isn’t made out of a magical fairy part of the brain,” the researcher Adam Green says. It’s essentially using all the same tools that go into doing everything else … but applying those tools in creativity-specific ways. However, this requires a lot of self-discipline so do not worry, there are other ways!

Secondly, pay attention to — and record — new ideas that come to you. 

As people age, the number of creative ideas doesn’t necessarily decrease, but they tend to capture fewer of them. When an idea comes to you, start making it a point to preserve it. Write it down on your phone, in a pocket-sized notebook you carry around, or sketch it on a napkin. “Capture now, evaluate later,” says Epstein. His research confirmed over and over that capturing your new ideas is the most valuable aspect of boosting creativity.

Lastly, You need to keep on challenging yourself and your creativity.

This might seem easy but the will to constantly challenge yourself in new and different activities is an amazing way to develop your creativity. Choosing to experience new activities and to prove to yourself that you can keep learning is extremely rewarding and will help you develop.

The fear of the blank page and how to overcome it:

We at Soulside have the goal of making you more creative and allowing you to express yourself in any way you desire, never seen before. In itself, you don’t urgently need an app, to make you more creative, everything starts in your head. But sometimes it can help to give you that nudge you need to release your inner creativity. We’ve all suffered from an impasse that’s prevented us from engaging our grey matter in the way we need to solve a design problem. With Soulside, we promise to help you solve the fear of the blank page. The hardest thing is starting and getting the idea that you like. 

Do you want to paint like David Hockney and create iPad art like him?

Soulside can help you to do so and to further innovation. With your 3D spaces, you have an extraordinary diversity of tools to help you achieve what you are imagining. We offer you different brushes and brush shapes with which you can paint the walls to immortalize yourself digitally forever. Or simply place your signature under a work that you are proud of. Use the text function and place your texts in 3D in your 3D collages. Add symbolic 3D objects from our library and express yourself visually and symbolically, with a graphical brilliance never seen before. You need to see it until you believe it.

To support you in your journey, we also provide beautiful 3D templates that help you in your first steps in the app.

Colour our templates and make them your own. Add your personal images to the 3D spaces and customise our templates to your taste by moving, adding or removing 3D objects. While colouring and drawing on the walls, finally relax and feel the benefits of using your creativity. We regularly add new colouring templates to stimulate you and let you reach new inspirations. 

The hardest step is always the first one: Start

We know this is a lot to take in. But as we always say at Soulside, simply begin. And don’t forget, you always have the possibility to publish your space in private mode. You can always take your time and save your progress and continue later when you have the right feeling again, until it is done. Leonardo Da Vinci took 3 years to finish his Mona Lisa or Michelangelo 4 years to finish the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  Creativity is there all the time. Some famous artists create thousands and hundreds of thousands of pieces in their life like Picasso or just a few for your private or job. You just need to enjoy practice. You need to begin, and then inspiration will come to you.

When you’re cranky, when all you can think about are all the things on your to-do list that need to get done, when you feel that you’re just not “in the mood” to create, when your inner critic tries to dissuade you from even trying, do it anyway.

The rewards will come much faster than you think.

Your progression curve will be completely unexpected. In the beginning, you will be amazed by how fast and easy you are learning to use the app intuitively. You need to see it to believe it but we can ensure that you will not be disappointed. Join us on Soulside, we are looking forward to seeing you develop your creativity there. 

Download the IOS Version

Download the Android Version

Categories
Allgemein

Creativity is the ultimate boost to mental flexibility, problem-solving, and art skills.

It has a high benefit for us and our brain and can positively impact many areas of your life. Creativity is the secret power to improve your quality of life.

What is creativity, how to ultimately boost and develop it and why does it matter so much to your life, job, and health?

Creativity is the ability and activity of creating new ideas, ways, views, possibilities and solutions. It is a core skill for a better life full of prosperity and mindfulness. Furthermore, imagination is not only good for your job, it is also beneficial for your mental health and wellbeing. Developing a flexible mind allows you to become better at problem solving and to think out of the box. 

Creativity is the representation of your imagination that supports you to express yourself. It makes you more flexible in mind and throughout life situations. Imagination helps you to adapt better to new contexts. It is something you get value from. To sum up, creativity is something intangible and helps you carry a vision.

Research about creativity and its benefits:

Einstein said real advances in science are marked by regarding an old problem from a  new angle. Einstein also explains that the formulation of a problem is often more challenging than its solution. Studies have found that individual artists and designers have also yielded interesting insights from changing perspectives. They have shown, for example, that creative ideation involves the elaboration of a “core idea” that takes shape through the ongoing interaction between artist and artwork. 

Often if you read about creativity you will hear about the 4 p’s: person, process,  product, and place  (Rhodes 1961). There is a lot of research about creativity and the latest research that is interesting for us is focused on the process, the personnel state and the environment.  

Furthermore, as many might think, anxiety and stress have a negative impact on creativity outcomes. Developing your creativity is a great way to overcome such daily issues and set yourself into a healthy routine. A new study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology presents a practical and encouraging answer to the issue of whether we can or not improve our creativity. A team of researchers has found that creativity is a skill that can be developed and sustained over time — even in the most unexpected places.

Find out more below where creativity comes from, how it is expressed, how to boost it, and what it is good for. 

Where does Creativity come from?

 

Creativity was the first expression of the soul in history. The link between humans and creativity is not something new. Already in the late Stone Age, as we can see with the paintings of the Lascaux Caves, our late ancestors used their creativity to make something out of nothing. Developing our senses and our imagination, getting the satisfaction of achieving and creating something you can look at. These are all elements that we have been progressively losing in the digital era.  

Mobile devices like tablets and smartphones have transformed the way we experience boredom. Most of us are becoming more and more passive and are always consuming faster, more hypnotizing content. Even us at Soulside cannot help ourselves to watch Netflix relentlessly. We no longer feel stimulated to engage and use our own creative thinking to spend time. And many have complained that they felt like they were not being inspired anymore by anything. 

However, Technology also enables us to achieve incredible things and to offer completely new experiences. No longer is a wayward computer forced to play Snake or Tetris, occupying themselves in a hardly satisfying, and utterly pixelated virtual reality. The tablet or smartphone travelers can now immerse themselves in an entire library of art and culture-related distractions, finding comfort in everything from a Monet game to a digital version of the Louvre.

How can creativity help?

Backed by Science and research:

Scientific research has proven the effectiveness of creativity and its benefit across a wide range of daily activities. In 2010, the American Journal of Public Health published a review called The Connection Between Art, Healing, and Public Health: A Review of Current Literature. It aimed at finding the connection between creativity (creative practices, creative training,..) and health and wellbeing. 

The research showed extreme strong links between art and mental health as well as physical health benefits. The researchers found that creativity and constantly developing it helped people on various levels, both personally and professionally, such as increased mood, decreased anxiety, heightened cognitive function, reduced risk of chronic illnesses and improved immune health.

The multiple benefits:

One of the most known benefits of doing creative practice is that it elevates your mood. Many people do not understand why creating new stuff makes them feel good. Everything that comes with it, such as overcoming tricky situations, delivers dopamin and hence joy to the person having used his or her creativity. 

Having a creative outlet has positive impacts on cognitive health. Researchers and academics have found proof as to how creativity affects the brain. Musicians, for example, have been studied for the heightened connectivity between their left and right brain hemispheres. This strong connection is believed to be one of the reasons why Einstein was a genius. His mastery of the violin allowed him to effectively use both sides of his brain simultaneously. Hence he could benefit from thisit in his work. 

Lastly, one of the long-term benefits of training and boosting creativity is its ability to prevent degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Clinics in the United States looked at how middle-aged and older adults who had a creative practice of any kind, such as crafting, sewing, woodworking or painting, had a reduced risk of cognitive decline. The key question is to know how to boost your creativity to get all the benefits mentioned above.

How to boost it?

Research, as well as experiences, have shown that creativity can be trained and that we can enhance it in various ways. First, you have to think of creativity as a muscle that you can exercise. The key is to encourage yourself and the people surrounding you to recognize that creativity is an acquired skill and provide ongoing opportunities to learn from creative experiences.

Firstly, research shows that when people try to think more creatively, they almost always can — and those effects are both significant and repeatable. So one sure way to boost creative thinking is to Try. No, really! “Creativity isn’t made out of a magical fairy part of the brain,” the researcher Green says. It’s essentially using all the same tools that go into doing everything else … but applying those tools in creativity-specific ways. However, this requires a lot of self-discipline so do not worry, there are other ways!

Secondly, pay attention to — and record — new ideas that come to you. As people age, the number of creative ideas doesn’t necessarily decrease, but they tend to capture fewer of them. When an idea comes to you, start making it a point to preserve it. Write it down on your phone, in a pocket-sized notebook you carry around or sketch it on a napkin. “Capture now, evaluate later,” says Epstein. His research confirmed over and over that capturing your new ideas is the most valuable aspect of boosting creativity.

Lastly, You need to keep on challenging yourself. This might seem easy but the will to constantly challenge yourself in new and different activities is an amazing way to develop your creativity. Choosing to experience new activities and to prove to yourself that you can keep learning is extremely rewarding and will help you develop.

If you want to learn more about Soulside and what we do to enhance your creativity with specific tools and features, read our next blog article here.

Download the IOS Version

Download the Android Version