Comparing Instagram to an aquarium, this essay vigorously argues that the real problem with social media is not only the content drifting past, but the tank itself — the design, conditions, and behavioral systems that determine life inside it.

This is a developing story.

Here, we pull the algorithm out of folklore and into the limelight as a private ranking system that stalks you, conditions desire in the service of profit, and governs what rises, recedes, and feels worth seeing. What users often mistake for personalization is a textbook example of control.

Drawn from my time working for Christopher Makos (Warhol’s wingman) this essay interprets Andy as an artist so motivated by consumer culture that its logic began to show through both the work and the brand. His “superficiality” proves to be a method for decoding the visual systems still running modern life.

The story of using Instagram as a case study in order to understand how platforms disturbingly reward the body, superficial things, and sexual suggestion over original thought and critique. Here, we employ provocative digital activity to examine visibility versus suppression.

This essay follows how an Instagram demonstration spiraled into a live study of projection, stigma, and networked punishment, revealing how little evidence the digital crowd needs to start building a case. What begins as a prank becomes an inspection of cancellation as moral theater — fast, brutal, contagious, and fully capable of ruining someone’s life.

An initial reaction to the Meta verdict, as the trial revealed to the public that the root problem was never content alone but the UX of the platform itself, where Zuck’s greedy design choices impact emotional health, even when the user is off their phone.

This is a developing story.

Here, we consider what it means when sight becomes a resource to be mined.

Using the Ray-Ban Meta glasses as a focal point, it breaks down the normalization of machine mediated attention in public life.

A quick read on Santiago Ramón y Cajal’s drawings as a visual guide for understanding connection across neuroscience, ecology, telecommunications, and digital design, and for thinking critically about that which dictates the conditions of modern life.

Tracing the gap between good design and extractive tactics like pop-ups and forced prompts. Framed through the idea that life itself is a user experience, this small essay argues for respect in how systems guide attention.

An observation on how texting distorts disagreement by stripping away tone, timing, and physical presence, turning conversations into misread signals and delayed reactions. It suggests that conflict requires fuller forms of communication, where true meaning can land.

A brief sociological reflection on the familiar exchange “How are you?” and the automatic response “good,” examining how the phrase functions less as a genuine report of well-being and more as a small social ritual that maintains stability in everyday interaction.

Here, we analyze the recent courtroom scrutiny of Instagram, arguing that the real issue is not only harmful content but the platform’s underlying design. The essay shifts the focus from blaming the “fish” to inspecting the “aquarium.”

An essay on how changing countries revealed that environment is not backdrop but biology. The soil we inhabit, whether physical or digital, quietly shapes our nervous system, our pace, and the range of who we can become.

A brief examination of the phrase “own your narrative,” tracing its origins in media strategy and explaining why defining your own story has become essential in the internet age, where digital platforms rapidly circulate gossip and misrepresent people.

This essay interprets personal blogs as hybrid forms where lived experience becomes both narrative and method, with the ending reframing the beginning to reveal my narrative web.

And now, we transition to vibrant color — Kansas to Oz.

A teaser outlining my adventure inspecting Instagram as lived research — learning to manipulate the algorithm, tracking nervous system responses, talking to others, and observing how metrics impact identity. That being said, the process was not so simple.

Further context shall reveal itself with time.

A short note on why the core premise of American Fiction is one of the strongest concepts in recent cinema. Rather than satirizing the publishing industry, the film stages a narrative experiment that exposes how cultural markets authenticate simplified stereotypes while claiming to reward authenticity.