Tiktok videos offer  “tips” or “hacks” on how to go viral on TikTok, which is embarrassing in itself but even worse in practice: titles range from “<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@itxmejules/video/6936210746615270662?_t=8SS6ZkTMggs&_r=1">How to Grow Your Account to 1k Followers in 1 Week,</a>” to <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@itsmarisajo/video/6941540017609116934?_t=8SS6au5fMaI&_r=1">“10 Video Ideas Anyone Can Use,</a>” or “<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@hipsamagrowth/video/6976741619231935750?_t=8SS6Te0B3Tq&_r=1">How to EASILY Produce Video Ideas for TikTok.”</a> That last one gives the following advice: “Find somebody else’s TikTok that inspires you and then literally copy it. You don’t need to copy it completely, but you can get pretty close.”

TikTok Videos On Copying Others TikToks

Plagiarism, both the intentional kind that can fall anywhere on the spectrum of “pretty shitty” to “actively evil,” and the kind you do when you’re making content in a system of increasingly lucrative rewards for stealing successful people’s stuff. Though plagiarism is arguably most prevalent on TikTok, it’s even harder to police the plagiarism that happens between different platforms.

The Age Of Instant Plagiarism

Plagiarism, it should be noted, is perfectly legal in the United States, provided it doesn’t cross the (often nebulous) definition of intellectual property theft. Movies, music, or works of fiction have robust legal protections against this (recall the zillions of lawsuits between artists for stealing each other’s samples),  but it often isn’t worth the time and money to pursue legal action.

The Legal View On Plagiarism

Internet posts are, for the most part, not copyrightable intellectual property. Instead, they’re more like a hybrid of journalism and comedy, meaning that social media typically must police itself against thieves.As it turns out, aggregating and repacking content is quite easy on social media.

Social Media And Intellectual Property

The first was in the ’90s and early 2000s, when people stole each other’s work because they wanted to pass it off on their own, but didn’t necessarily have a profit motive. The second was in the mid-2000s, when search engine optimization became a widespread practice and sites could make money from crappy, AI-written work that capitalized on the strategic placement of certain keywords.  The third era is made up of the kind that flourishes on social media, where users compete for the most attention-grabbing content in the hopes they might make ad revenue or score a brand deal.

Internet Plagiarism: The Three Eras

While the technology to detect it has improved, it’s far more difficult to weed out plagiarism when it happens in different forms of media: written work that’s turned into a video, a podcast that’s turned into a book. Rather than relying on data systems to tell us when something is stolen, then, plagiarism experts acknowledge that the shift about proper idea attribution needs to happen culturally.

Everybody Is Looking For A Side Hustle

Are you "hopping on a trend" through viral growth hacks on TikTok and Instagram or are you plagiarizing?

Stashed ideas

How the internet gets people to plagiarize each other

It is estimated there are over 5 billion people who own mobile phones. With over half of the world’s population engaging with electronic devices, the spotlight has been on what technology can do for us, rather than what it is doing to us. Consequently, there has been less thought on what happens to our bodies while using handheld devices.Recent studies suggest 19 year olds have the same physical activity levels as 6o year olds. What is more, the widespread use of mobile phones has materialized into varying degrees of poor posture.

Five Billion Smartphone Users

In 2013, a survey conducted in the United Kingdom, found 84 percent of young adults ages 18–24 said they’ve suffered back pain, believing this to be caused by iPosture from using mobile devices.With the frequency and duration of phone usage across the globe, the implications of poor posture influenced by excessive usage is now well known. Yet, while today’s mobile phone users know more about why sitting slumped behind a screen isn’t good for them, they still don’t really know how to protect their stature while engaging with their devices.

The iPosture

You might not remember such a lesson because other than a health or physical education class, you probably didn’t learn how to use your body efficiently at school.You were never prepared or informed on ways to respond to all the triggers of life. Instead, you just acted and reacted. You formed these habits out of necessity — to survive — with no guidance or knowledge there was an alternative choice.

Body Education

Modern phones operate quite differently. They are designed to keep you on them. There are multiple triggers at play: texting, talking, reading, browsing, listening to music, watching videos, etc. Reacting to just a few of those activities simultaneously could easily put the body in overdrive.The aim of present day technology is to keep you engaged. However, the body has a hard time keeping up with all of the choices. Reacting to so much stimuli fatigues the body and leads to collapse, or iPosture.

Slow Down

The body is designed to bend at the joints. Most people who use electronic devices bring their heads down and bend their spine by rounding their backs towards the device. Alternatively, it would be more efficient to move forward from the hip joints and keep the back upright in the process.Overusing the spine and lower back muscles and under-using other muscles whose function is to hold the torso upright — like the core muscles, perpetuates body contortion.

Move with The Body as It Was Designed

Using the body effectively starts with awareness. While technology has been an exciting and invaluable part of life, there are more mindful ways to engage with it.For starters, how much pressure and tension do you apply to the devices you hold and carry? Chances are, you could easily loosen your grip and still enjoy using your handheld electronics. However, pay attention to the way you engage with your beloved device.

Loosen Your Grip

The next time you remember to check your posture while perusing your favorite app, think ‘up’ instead of straight. Imagine your head is going up like a balloon towards the sky and your spine is the string that follows. That balloon is lifting you up with the gentle breeze that isn’t forced and that string is coming along for the ride — both floating up freely.

Use Your Body in A Different Way

Technology has enabled us to connect to the world and each other in ways that weren’t previously possible. It can be easily credited with the innovation, communication and longevity we enjoy today. There are plenty of reasons to embrace and celebrate technology.Being mindful of how much, how often and to what extent we engage with technology is key to living a balanced lifestyle.

Technology Is Not the Enemy

Standing tall in a techno-savvy world is possible if we pay attention and recognize harmful habits that interfere with our body’s optimal functioning. <ul><li>The next time you want to reach for your phone, pause first. Check yourself out. Is your head up? Great. Did your spine follow? Excellent. </li><li>Did you bring the device up towards you rather than the other way around? Wonderful. </li><li>Now, what about that grip? When in doubt, less is more.</li></ul>

The Bottom Line

How technology is reshaping our bodies and what we can do about it

According to the Pew Research Center, it is estimated there are over 5 billion people who own mobile phones. With over half of the world’s population engaging with electronic devices, the spotlight…

Standing Tall in the Era of iPosture

Workers gaining more flexibility in how, where, and when they work is a shift that’s here to stay. Only few companies worked remote earlier, because many struggled to calculate what it would cost them, in terms of communication and efficiency, to have employees working across locations. The open question for companies now is how much flexibility to retain as workers return to the office. Companies will have to better describe what type of work and what kind of flexibility model is most valuable and least costly to production.

Workplace Flexibility Is Here to Stay

The pandemic has led to a rapid increase in the availability of data, including Zoom communications, online tests for recruiting, and remote monitoring technology.There’s a demand to put this information to use in improving operations. For eg, many companies are using survey tools to stay informed about employee engagement and to get feedback that can help them design hybrid workplaces. Companies can also use data to help with recruiting, promotions, and DEI goals. It can also help identify underlying biases in pay and promotions, task assignments, mentoring opportunities, and other areas.

“People Analytics” Will Increasingly Help  Manage Talent

We are seeing wage pressure building among big competitors. It’s hard to motivate people at a minimum wage, so just distinguishing yourself from other competitors can be a useful strategy

Research shows that in many cases, automation creates “tasks shifts” rather than job losses. For eg, as companies reduced business travel, virtual-meeting technology improved, professionals have more time to spend on other aspects of their jobs such as research and analysis. Some of the hospitality jobs might never come back, more programmers, technicians, and engineers will be required to design and maintain that virtual meeting tech. A shift towards e-commerce “means lower labor demand in retail stores and supermarkets, and increased demand for warehouses and transportation workers.”

Job Shift Is Real

Companies like Amazon, Best Buy have increased minimum wages to $15 or $16 per hour. Two forces have triggered the rise of retail’s minimum wage: strong pandemic profits and anticipation of impending regulatory changes. They are even calling out competitors, such as Walmart, for paying as low as $11 in some places, despite having an average minimum wage of $15 per hour. This pressure to standardize wages could help to lift them across the U.S.

Workers Will Command Higher Wages

From greater flexibility to higher wages, the workplace is never going to look the same.

COVID Has Accelerated These 4 Labor Market Trends

At the start of the pandemic, most people were forced to work from home. And although the change was difficult at first, people gradually figured out how to manage a work-life balance that has become the normal way of life.
As more people are getting vaccinated, businesses are mandating employees to return to work in physical locations. Many workers are dissatisfied to lose their newfound autonomy. However, you can still convince your boss to continue working remotely.

Continue working from home

Before your meeting, find out from your boss or HR what precautions the company is taking to keep employees safe within the office. 
It can help you decide if it is safe to come into the office.

Do your homework

Track your work for a couple of weeks. Ensure you spend work time on high-priority tasks that make you meet important deadlines.
Use this information to show your boss how productive you are when you work from home and that you prefer to continue doing it.

Track and highlight your productivity

Assure your boss that you will always be available during work hours and ensure your availability will not cause any bottlenecks for the rest of the team. Or approach your workday by splitting it up into different hours, which could benefit the team.

Clearly express that you will always be available during office hours

Let your boss know that you can come into the office for high-priority meetings and team activities. This way, you express your willingness to be flexible and that you are not opposed to in-person visits.

Emphasise that you are flexible

Ensure to approach the conversation with data and facts. Let your boss know how your productivity and work could be affected if you get sick because of in-person interactions. Let your boss know how uncomfortable you feel about returning to the office full time. If you have high-risk family members, let your boss know you are trying to protect them.

Describe how productivity can be affected if you get sick

You can still continue to work from home if you approach the conversation with your boss the right way.

6 Ways to Convince Your Boss to Continue Working From Home

There is great variation in the way people approach structuring their lives, with different approaches to planning, goal setting, and decision making.<ul><li>The first approach is to live for today. People in this category prefer what is current to what has already happened or what will occur. These people can be characterized as present time-oriented.</li><li>At the other end of the spectrum, there are the extreme planners, where meticulous control and extensive consideration of one’s life’s direction are thought to be the best ways to ensure success and overall well-being. </li></ul>

A spectrum of philosophies

<ol><li>Personal goals. Instead of creating multiple to-do lists, consider your life as a whole. By acknowledging that you are more than the sum of your parts, you can work on what researchers call intergoal facilitation. </li><li>Self-regulation. Once you have selected your integrated goals, you need to understand and manage your reactions to events happening around you. This self-regulation process involves practicing new skills or seizing the right moment, and finding ways to overcome obstacles to success.</li><li>Age-related expectations. You may need to adjust your goals based on the phase of your life. </li></ol>

The three pillars of life management

Holistic life management is never “done and dusted” — it’s a constant work in progress of selecting integrated goals, regulating our reactions, and adjusting our expectations. Lifelong learning and the willingness to explore, make mistakes, and adapt are all essential skills to make the most of your life.

Practicing life management skills

Your life is not a list. Rather than managing each aspect of your life separately, life management integrates all the moving parts of your life.

Life management: a holistic approach to make the most of your life

<ol>
<li>The Wimbledon championship uses about 53,000 balls, renewed after every nine games.</li>
<li>It is the largest annual sporting event in Europe, with about 6000 staff members, including 1800 for food and drinks.</li>
<li>Many thousand litres of fresh air is pumped into the Centre Court every minute.</li>
<li>The fastest serve happened in 2010 by Taylor Dent(148 mph).</li>
<li>For the women&#39;s championship, the speediest one was from Venus Williams in 2008(129mph).</li>
<li>About 700 security guards are deployed in the event.</li>
</ol>

Wimbledon Facts

<ol><li>A trained Harris hawk is deployed to keep the court pigeon free.</li><li>Highest quality strawberries arrive daily at the Centre court, with over 8600 punnets consumed each day.</li><li>Since 1922, rain has not interrupted the tournament only seven times.</li><li>A rain-proof roof has been installed since 2009.</li><li>Wimbledon is broadcast in 200 territories and has an audience of over one billion people.</li><li>Wimbledon players get paid heftily, even if they only make it to the first round.</li></ol>

More Facts About Wimbledon

Self Improvement

Do You Know These Wimbledon Facts?

<ul>
<li>Decide on how you wish your property to be managed. If you decide to let an agent handle your property, it's pretty common for them to take care of all the elements for about 10-15% of the rental income.</li>
<li>Make considerations on the taxes. Ensure that the HMRC is aware of your intentions and apply for the non-resident landlord scheme. </li>
<li>Find a suitable ex-pat landlord insurance that will cover you and your property including contents, damages, and any legal fees.</li>
<li>For mortgages, inform your provider.</li>
</ul>

Renting Out Your Property in The UK

<ul>
<li>Get your pet microchipped by your vet</li>
<li>Have your pet immunized against rabies at least 21 days before you are due to travel</li>
<li>Seek help from a professional animal transportation company</li>
<li>Consider their transportation - crate, food, water, and other comforts.</li>
</ul>

Factors to consider when bringing a pet

Before moving abroad get informed first about your short-term eligibility for medical care and social security benefits in your destination country. Make the necessary arrangements that ensure your health is covered as required.
If you are moving to another part of Europe for a short amount of time, you should consider applying for a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC). For the long-term, you must integrate with the local social insurance system.

Medical Insurance and Health Care

If you are intending on driving while in your new country of residence, ensure you know the local driving laws and regulations. There are many customs and laws which you need to be aware of, aside from the driving license requirements.
If you are heading outside of Europe, you need to request an international driving permit which you can do from the post office.

Driving and Getting Around

There may be things you could be paying unnecessarily because of currency fluctuations and transaction fees. To avoid this you should initially open an international bank account which is specifically designed to assist with the movement of money.
Moreover, it's sensible to open a bank account within your locality to help with day-to-day banking.

Bank Accounts

If you have an Individual Savings Account (ISA), a residential address is important for tax purposes so if you are planning to move abroad, you may not be eligible to carry on paying while you're away.
Instead, think about whether you want to keep your ISA while abroad, consider any payments that need attention before you move. In all else, get professional advice on your options to ensure you get the best return on your investments.

Other Investments

Things like mail packages need to be sorted out so that you don't miss anything important. There will be charges to organize this but the post office will be redirecting your mail for up to twelve months.
For utilities like gas and water, make sure to arrange that they need to be turned off. Let your local authorities know that you'll be moving, also inform your new residency's authorities.

Utilities and Other Things

Even as an ex-pat, you have an important role to play in the voting system.
The government policy of where you're from will affect you via taxation, immigration policy, and certain foreign affairs.

Registering To Vote

Moving abroad can be daunting, so we've created this moving abroad checklist to help simplify the process and reduce the stress.

Moving Abroad Checklist

<ol>
<li>Make a list of things that you would love to do. The stuff you list down may be challenging, but ensure that it is close to your heart and gives you meaning and purpose. It can be helping orphans, or the homeless, or any social cause.</li>
<li>Shortlist three to five such things from your list, and let your gut choose the one thing you would want to do.</li>
<li>Do a mini-version of your preferred activity in a two-week project. Experience this fully. If you like this, continue the same. If not, do a mini-version of the next thing on your shortlist.</li>
<li>Don’t feel hesitant and do not let uncertainty and doubt stop you.</li>
</ol>

A Life Of Purpose: Explore

A life well lived can be anything: meditating in the mountains, enjoying time with your family, travelling across the world, or even reading all day.
If what you do feels meaningful, then your life is a blessing. If you can serve others, life feels incredibly meaningful and purposeful. It is important to appreciate life, enjoy the challenges life serves and take care of yourself.

A Well-Lived Life

A Well Lived Life of Purpose - zen habits

A mentor is a wise older person every hero regularly sees in good stories, such as Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings, Yoda from Star Trek, or Alfred from Batman.
The mentor represents a bond between parent and child, teacher and student, god and man. The mentor is there to help the hero to face the unknown future and to accept adventure.

The mentor's role in humanity

In most hero&#39;s stories, the hero is busy in an everyday world when they get called to an adventure. Initially, they will be reluctant, either not feeling equipped for the task or too comfortable with life as it is. 
The mentor will hand the hero supplies, knowledge, and the confidence required to face the adventure. When the story seems to direct to a dead-end, mentors are the ones who provide aid, advice, or magical equipment. Mentors show that we often learn life&#39;s lessons from someone else.

The hero's journey: Meeting with the mentor

When you see a wise old man or woman in a story, they are often the mentor, an important part of satisfying stories and the hero's journey.

Why the Mentor Is an Important Role in Satisfying Stories

Today's world has comfortably dispensed with most myth and superstition for the last few hundred years.
That's the Enlightenment legacy: we have approached a very rational approach to life. This has brought us many great things, but it has also left us with a sort of meaning gap.

A very rational approach to life

Our need for meaning around the concept of death is still very present.
So it's no wonder that psychics and spiritual mediums have come in with a their version of meaning: even if they don't really offer useful, they give this impression anyway.

The need for meaning

Psychics and mediums have become very popular because we are desperate for some sort of narrative that gives us a sense of something bigger.
We know they sometimes are theatrical, but they tap into our need for that feeling of wonder, of transcendence.

Why we resort to magic

You only find meaning in life by finding a thing that's bigger than you and immersing yourself in that thing.
And meaning is more important than happiness.

Finding meaning in life

The psychology of magic: Where do we look for meaning in life? Watch the newest video from Big Think: https://bigth.ink/NewVideo Join Big Think Edge for exclusive videos: https://bigth.ink/Edge ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By embracing a rational approach to life, society at large has stripped away meaning from psychologically important elements of life, including death. A lack of meaning leads to discomfort, which results in a desperate search for narrative in things that feel transcendent and bigger than ourselves. For some, the wonder of magic fills that void and provides the meaning and structure that has been lost. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DERREN BROWN Derren Brown began his UK television career in December 2000 with a series of specials called Mind Control. In the UK, his name is now pretty much synonymous with the art of psychological manipulation. Amongst a varied and notorious TV career, Derren has played Russian Roulette live, convinced middle-managers to commit armed robbery, led the nation in a séance, stuck viewers at home to their sofas, successfully predicted the National Lottery, motivated a shy man to land a packed passenger plane at 30,000 feet, hypnotised a man to assassinate Stephen Fry, and created a zombie apocalypse for an unsuspecting participant after seemingly ending the world. He has also written several best-selling books and has toured with eight sell-out one-man stage shows. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Transcript: We live in a world now where we’ve comfortably dispensed with most myth and superstition for the last few hundred years. That’s the enlightenment project, you know, we have embraced a very rational approach to life and that’s wonderful and it has brought us many great things, but it’s also left us with a sort of a meaning gap. So, for example, we’ve removed any meaning around the idea of death so particularly morbid superstitions are the first things that we sort of got rid of. So, if death now doesn’t really have any meaning it means we don’t live comfortably with the idea of death, death is an unwelcome and absurd and terrifying and alienating sort of stranger when it comes rather than a companion to life that’s something that’s present and in the background that we sort of make our peace with, which plenty of other cultures do. And then when it happens we really struggled for a narrative. The only narrative we have really is the brave battle that someone is fighting. That’s sort of our cultural narrative around death, which is really not helpful. It’s not helpful for the person that’s dying, it just adds failure to another list of problems that they’ve already got. It’s more helpful for the people around them. And that’s sort of the problem our need for narrative and meaning at that point has been, well it’s there but the narrative, our sense of authorship has been jettisoned and the people around us are making the decisions. They’re taking authorship of this point in our life when we need maximum authorship really. We start to feel like or can start to feel like a cameo part while the doctors and loved ones and people are making decisions. So, there’s an example of meaning and myth been taken out of something where it’s psychologically important, it’s important for us to have some kind of sense of meaning in those times. So, it’s no coincidence that psychics and spiritual mediums and all of that world come in with a fairly tawdry sense of meaning, they don’t really offer anything useful, but they kind of seem like they do so they become very popular in our sort of society where we’re desperate for something, we’re desperate for some sort of narrative that just gives us a sense of something bigger. So, I think that’s very important because magic is in a secular way is promising those kind of things. And we know it’s theatrical, we certainly do with a stage magician, we don’t if it’s a medium where perhaps we believe in them maybe. But I think they’re always going to tap into our need for that element of life, that kind of feeling of wonder, of the thing that’s bigger than ourselves, of transcendence. I mean that’s what it’s tapping into. And that’s a hugely important thing in life; you only find meaning in life by finding the thing that’s bigger than you and throwing yourself into that thing. That’s how you find meaning. And meaning is more important than happiness. When people’s lives mean nothing that’s when they throw themselves off buildings, which we all deal with unhappiness all the time so meaning is the most important. And when we lack a sense of transcendence or when we lack a sense of narratives that are bigger than us that we can lose ourselves in we’re going to try and find it where we can and magic in it’s silly vaudevillian often childish way I think tends to appeal to that.

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career

Yahya Patel
@yahyap

How the internet gets people to plagiarize each other

Standing Tall in the Era of iPosture

COVID Has Accelerated These 4 Labor Market Trends

6 Ways to Convince Your Boss to Continue Working From Home

Life management: a holistic approach to make the most of your life

Bite-sized knowledgeto upgradeyour career

Yahya Patel@yahyap

How the internet gets people to plagiarize each other

Standing Tall in the Era of iPosture

COVID Has Accelerated These 4 Labor Market Trends

6 Ways to Convince Your Boss to Continue Working From Home

Life management: a holistic approach to make the most of your life

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career

Yahya Patel
@yahyap