Hasta La Gadget!

Witness the Millennial man: he listens to a podcast considering the topic of ‘unplugging’ as he walks to his local cafe, where he waits nine minutes for the barista to prepare his locally-roasted pour over coffee before continuing on to the co-working space where he’s set up shop to launch a consumer tech start-up. He’s raising over three million dollars on a deck that values his idea at ten, but he’s not doing it for the money: he’s interested in building a new kind of business with a great company culture that changes the world because, at the end of the day, that’s what it’s really about, you know? He has a meditation practice, snacks on Paleo-friendly artisanal grass-fed beef jerky, likes to go out with pretty girls who don’t care about their looks, isn’t afraid to be seen at a Farmer’s Market and has been known to smoke marijuana and/or experiment with mushrooms because they unlock creativity he then uses to improve himself and, by extension, the world.

This man doesn’t know it, but he is liberating femininity, and it’s going to be the thing that saves our society.

When we use the word femininity, what we’re actually talking about is experience-orientation. All the words we associate with femininity — sensitivity, sensuality, beauty, curiosity, creativity, compassion, connectivity, in-the-moment-ness — are traits that enhance the experience of a situation.

Masculinity, on the other hand, is results-orientation. Traits associated with masculinity — ambition, competition, focus, binary-logic, strength, measurability, goal-orientation — are muscles evolved to guide or control the result of a situation.

A masculine attitude cares about the result — we will win this war! A feminine attitude cares about the experience — let’s enjoy this meal! As such, masculinity tends to be the better attitude for some things — battles, discipline, fixing appliances — and femininity better for others — caregiving, lovemaking, original art — but most things can be done in either a masculine or a feminine way. If I go for a run because it’s a pretty day outside and I want to stretch my legs and I speed up at some point because I like the adrenaline of my heart beating fast in my chest, I’m running for the experience and so it’s a feminine way of running; if I go for a run because I’m training for a marathon and I want to lose three pounds by swimsuit season and I speed up to beat the guy running next to me to the stop sign, I’m focused on results and so it’s a masculine way of running.

When we toss around the word ‘balance,’ what we actually mean is balance between these two forces. Balance is the capacity to find pleasure and meaning in the experience of a situation and also pleasure and satisfaction in the result. But it’s also extremely practical: by being attuned to experience, femininity notices potential problems before they happen; by being focused on results, masculinity ensures growth and progress; if the two work together, sustainable, progressive systems are possible.

Traditional society understood the importance of this balance, and sought to achieve it by having women take responsibility for femininity, assigning them the tasks that most benefitted from an experience orientation – a beautiful home, a lovely dinner party, a caring environment for children and elderly – and holding men accountable for masculinity, putting them in charge of those activities that warranted such an outlook – a steady income, disciplined children, scientific progress.

This system makes sense on the macro-level – if everyone played his and her role, society should be in balance. It did not, however, make sense on the individual level, because masculinity and femininity actually don’t have anything to do with gender.

While there certainly are women who are extremely feminine, preferring to live life engrossed in experience, genuinely ambivalent to results, and men who are extremely masculine, seeing results as the only worthwhile motivation for any action, the vast majority of us are a combination of the two, preferring some unique blend of results and experience that, when our lives align with it, makes us happiest.

Women in the traditional system recognized this, and understood that, by being forced to stay within feminine bounds, they had to suppress part of who they were, which made them feel stifled, unnecessarily dependent on men, and frustrated by the waste of (masculine) value they could have contributed to society.

And so they fought for the right of women to flex their masculine muscles – for the right to be ambitious and competitive and results-oriented. The Women’s Lib movement was, in essence, about the liberation of masculinity in women.

And this was GREAT.

Except that it forgot to liberate femininity in men.

As women abandoned femininity, rushing to express their newly liberated masculinity, the energetic balance of society shifted in favor of masculinity (read: results orientation). The idea developed, moreover, that masculinity was BETTER than femininity (why else would women have fought so hard for the right to express it?) and women and men alike were encouraged to be more competitive, focused, and goal-oriented if they wanted to succeed in society.

This individual shift translated into a preference for masculinity at every level of society:

+ Our education system prioritizes test scores (results) over students’ learning process (experience)

+ Our healthcare system prioritizes fighting death (fixing) over improving experience of life (compassion)

+ Our financial system rewards companies who post favorable quarterly earnings (measurable results) over those who provide good working conditions for employees and sound products for customers (connectivity)

+ Our political system invests more time in winning office (competition) than serving society (care)

+ Our news media prefers headlines and soundbites that drive ratings (outcomes) over stories that pose questions and provoke thoughtful debate (exploration of ideas)

+ Our sexual culture gets off on porn and unemotional hook-ups (definable orgasm) over foreplay, commitment and trust (undefinable lovemaking)

+ Our perception of others assumes results-oriented motive (she wore that dress to get attention) rather than allowing the possibility for experiential motives (she wore that dress because she enjoys the way the skirt swishes on her skin)

An excessively-masculine society is not only sub optimally pleasant for all but the most masculine people who ‘win’ within it, it is also entirely unsustainable, as was made clear in the toppling of Wall Street that followed that most deliciously masculine results-obsessed orgy that was the lead up to the 2008 financial crisis.

Which brings us back to our Millennial man.

Our hero hasn’t always taken time to smell his coffee. He was raised in the era of masculine hype, spending time on things that looked good on his college application, measuring his worth by admissions and accolades. He was inundated with information and technology and Adderrall prescriptions that made him ever-more productive. He took out loans to get degrees that would make him more competitive in the world. And then the financial crisis happened, and all that results-orientation spat him out into a jobless economy with a pile of student debt and a lot of questions about why and how and what, exactly, he’d been working toward.

To a masculine Baby Boomer, the locally-roasted pour over latte seems like a waste of time; the do what you love mentality of work reeks of entitlement; the meditation might be justifiable, but only because of recent scientific surveys that suggest meditation can increase productivity.

But to me, all these things are symptoms of femininity quietly revolting against a masculine system that is failing, and, in liberating itself for men the same way masculinity liberated itself for women forty years ago, an important step toward true gender equality.

I do not mean to suggest there is not legitimacy to Baby Boomers’ concerns, or that femininity is better than masculinity – too feminine a society is no more ideal than too masculine of one. But I think the anger we sense in society right now is nothing more than the desperate last stand of a domineering masculinity that is slowly but surely losing its grip. And that if we can, in its place, learn to respect and appreciate that we need individuals who mind experience as much as we need individuals to mind results, and that it doesn’t matter the gender of who does what or if a person wants to dabble in a little of both, then I dare to hope that we are on the precipice of a society that works on both the individual and the macro level, which is a future to which I will gladly lift my locally-roasted single-origin raw cashew milk with organic fair trade Maca garnish pour over latte.

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I spent 5 years in Mexico, and one of my fondest memories was the occasional “Fiesta Caribeña” my friends and I organized. We mainly planned and executed the event to maintain our Caribbean identity and culture as well as to help our Mexican friends experience our different countries through us without actually going there. With that said, it then begs the question, how can the average Caribbean national or even better those in privileged positions like entertainers play their part by painting pictures of the Caribbean to others who are not as privileged to be there? My last two articles on the Huffington Post dealt with the responsibility Caribbean natives have to help control the narrative about our respective countries in the media and how Caribbean soca artists can use social media to build their brands worldwide. Those topics are very important to me, and I also think they go hand in hand since Caribbean artists and well-known personalities can make a significant contribution by promoting themselves while eliminating some of the misconceptions people may have about the Caribbean.

Often times, saying what should or needs to be done is easy but actually following through is most times where the difficulty lies. I firmly believe that action is the only true agent of change, so I thought the best way to strengthen my points was to follow up with an article highlighting someone of reputable standing that is practicing exactly what I outlined in my first two pieces. I thought who better to feature than the Caribbean Queen of Bacchanal herself Destra Garcia. In my opinion, Destra does a great job with social media and have built a raving community around her brand online. She uses her music to give people in different cities around the world a view of Caribbean, especially her home country Trinidad and Tobago, without really being there.

Her latest single, “Luv with the Riddim“, which is a cross between soca and pop, is a classic example of how she is able to infuse a Caribbean flavor into everything she does. While it is easy for me to provide my opinion on why Destra perfectly epitomises what I spoke about in my last two articles, I thought it would better to get the views directly from The Queen of Bacchanal herself. So I spoke with Destra, and I was absolutely blown away. Blown away not only because she is awesome, and I am a fan, but by the fact that she embodies everything I have been speaking about. Caribbean artists, especially those on the rise, should definitely take a page from her book to see that what I have been writing about is indeed possible.

In terms of helping shape and control the image and reputation of Caribbean countries, Destra indicated that whenever she goes to any country to perform, she does not tailor her performances to suit the country. Although she is blessed with the unique ability of versatility with many different musical genres such as reggae and the likes, she is primarily known as a soca artist, as evidenced by her eleven captivating albums. Consequently, when she performs, it’s authentically Caribbean. She brings a colourful display, energy, and plain fun to her performances which are all synonymous with soca and by extension the Caribbean.

In all fairness, a number of other artists carry the Caribbean with them wherever they go and try to help control its image. For instance, I clearly remember when the regrettable death of a tourist occurred in Grenada, Hollice “Mr. Killa” Mapp, one of Grenada’s cultural ambassadors, took to Facebook to address the issue and tried to dispel some of the rumours that were circulating at the time. However, not all Caribbean nationals and entertainers, particularly soca artists, take advantage of social media in that way to help shape their country’s image and build their brands.

Additionally, as a digital marketing strategist, one of the things I enjoyed most about my talk with Destra was how active she is on social media where she has cultivated a huge community around her music. While many popular figures have social media managers, Destra sees things differently. Therefore, to build a level of authenticity, she believes that it is imperative that she does it herself. Just like Gary Vaynerchuk, a social media mogul and chief advocate of its use, she is very engaging with her online community. Every tweet, mention, comment, like, retweet, and reply all come directly from The Queen of Bacchanal herself and not someone acting on her behalf like most people of her caliber do.

I believe that the Caribbean has a lot to offer and not only where music is concerned. For instance, if most Caribbean nationals, regardless the number of followers they have on Instagram or social media on a whole, decided to take matters into their own hands and not let the media houses in the large countries shape people’s perception of the Caribbean, huge changes may result. I also believe that Caribbean soca artists, entrepreneurs, athletes, and others need to use social media to build their brands and communities around their brands. Consequently, social media is certainly the way to go.

At the end of my talk with Destra, I was left with an interesting tidbit however. I asked her to name one thing a lot of people do not know about her, and she responded that many people do not know that she speaks three languages namely English, French, and Spanish. This was rather interesting to me since, I speak the same three languages. Well in all honesty, my French is terrible, but soon it will be as fluent as hers. More importantly, I even thought to myself that with her ability to speak multiple languages she is in a privileged position and has greater potential to share the Caribbean even further with foreign audiences if she so chooses.

I will keep advocating for Caribbean nationals and entertainers to help shape their countries’ brands online, and with renewed vigour after my conversation with Destra, The Queen of Bacchanal, who is a chief proponent of my belief, I will continue to encourage Caribbean people to use social media, the fastest, easiest, and off course the cheapest way, to build their communities around their brands. Why is Destra able to dominate social media and build a thriving community around her brand? It is because she stays true to herself and not afraid to help shape the narrative of the Caribbean wherever she goes.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Samsung has announced a new initiative called Samsung Creators; according to the company, it aims to take everyday ordinary creators and “empower” them to create content for VR, namely Samsung VR (formerly known as Samsung Milk VR). As well, the company has announced that Samsung VR now supports user-generated content, allowing anyone to upload a 360-degree video to Samsung’s virtual … Continue reading

Samsung has launched a new initiative called “Creators” to entice storytellers and filmmakers to spin VR and 360-degree tales that Gear VR users can enjoy. To start with, the Korean company has teamed up with YouTuber Casey Neistat to spotlight creat…

You don’t really need to go to Japan to know that anime and manga are big deals not only in the country, but around the world as well as it has become something of a global phenomenon. However given that many of us do not speak or read Japanese, some users have resorted to illegally ripped copies that have been subbed/dubbed in their native language.

Obviously this isn’t sitting well with the Japanese government who has relied on anime and manga as one of its economy-boosting exports, which is why interestingly enough instead of relying on hi-tech algorithms to help deal with online piracy, they have decided to go revert back to using actual human beings to help scour the internet of illegally uploaded copies of shows and comics.

Prior to this, the Japanese government relied on software to help detect piracy, but since pirates got smarter as they figured out how to slip past the software by making modifications to their uploads, this rendered the software less effective than the government would like. The job of these human “pirate hunters” will be to trawl forums and websites where anime and manga are uploaded and shared illegally.

We’re not sure if this is more efficient since humans can only do so much, but at the same time humans are obviously more adept at detecting when a file has been changed or modified to evade software. The trial to use humans is expected to kick off next week to prove its effectiveness.

Japan To Combat Anime Online Piracy With Human Personnel , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.