It’s Not Social Media, It’s You

Social media didn’t create something new, it’s just the medium that exaggerated the existing problem

The Pyramid of Luxuries

The Bespoke - $4,000 Vacation + $1,000 VISA eGift Card

The Ultra High End - $100 Disney+ eGift Card

The Superpremium - Klyde Warren Park

The Premium Core - Digital Photo Frame

The Accessible Core - It’s Not Social Media, It’s You

The Affordable Luxury - What Videos Would You Rather See

The Everyday Luxury - The Accessible Core YouTube Videos

The Bespoke

I have selected a winner for January 2024, look out for an email or phone call if you have entered the January Bespoke contest.

Like the last 2 months, the prize will remain the same as most of the members have voted to win a vacation package.

Click on the banner to enter The Bespoke Photo Contest. Click here for the Official Contest Rules.

• Prize: $4,000 Vacation Voucher + $1,000 in VISA eGift Cards [ARV $5,012]

• Odds: For every 660 Ducky Tran premium member by the time of judging, I will give out one (1) vacation bundle Prize

• Contest Period: January 31, 2024 at 10 AM CST to February 27, 2024 at 10 PM CST

See Issue 1 for more content about The Bespoke Prize.

The Ultra High End

Previous Contest Winners

The winner for Issue 10 is Stacy from Mckinney, Texas! This is her submission for “a picture that makes you sing”:

If anyone is wondering, yes, Stacy is my wife and a member of Ducky Tran. She submits every week and lucky for her last week happens to have the least number of submissions. She will probably find out when she reads this newsletter in the morning that she has won the 4 tickets to Candlelight: A Tribute to Taylor Swift!

This Week’s Contest

Click on the banner to enter The Ultra High End Photo Contest. Click here for the Official Contest Rules.

• Prize: $100 Disney+ eGift Card [ARV $100]

• Odds: For every 65 Ducky Tran premium members by the time of judging, I will give out one (1) Disney+ eGift Card

• Contest Period: January 31, 2024 at 10 AM CST to February 6, 2024 at 10 PM CST

This week’s focus is mental health and sometimes you just need a little break. Most Americans have some form of streaming service and I have decided to award a Disney+ eGift Card so you don’t have to worry about the bill for a few months. Or if you don’t have it, you can catch up on the latest Star Wars or Marvel series. Even if you’re not a Disney fan, it can be saved as a gift to a friend that does.

The Superpremium

This week’s Superpremium topic is the Klyde Warren Park located in Dallas, Texas. This is an amazing park located right in the middle of the music and arts district of Dallas. The craziest thing is, it’s built right over a busy 8-lane highway!

The idea of the park was to create a green space that filled this modern area of the city with foot traffic and community to break up the busy urban atmosphere. It worked! The park receives over a million visitors annually and hosts fun events every year!

For those that live in the heart of urban Dallas or any metropolitan area, a great way to relieve stress and anxiety is to go outside and be with nature. Taking a walk on a trail, meditating by the ocean, or just watching birds at a park, all these outdoor activities can really bring peace and relaxation into your life.

The Klyde Warren Park really helps the local population to have a place to do this. The area is very urban with high traffic streets, but the park dampens the road noise and city ambiance dramatically. Every time I visit it, there is some event or a new area being expanded. I can’t wait to see what it becomes in the future and hopefully it catches on to more urban cities.

The Premium Core

This week’s Premium Core topic is a Digital Photo Frame from Amazon. I have a few photo frames at home and have gifted frames to a few family members. It brings joy to everyone that has one.

My family uses it to update pictures of all the kids in our family. Because the photo frame cycles through the photos that are loaded, sometimes you get a surprise from the past. Sometimes Stacy and I surprise our parents with new pictures by uploading them remotely and when they see it, they are surprised to see new pictures of the grandchildren in fancy outfits or making silly faces.

Photo albums are great keepsake and give great joy to many people. Seeing nostalgic pictures of when you had braces or a picture of your new puppy can really lighten your day and change the mood. That’s why a photo frame is so effective, you just don’t know what will pop up randomly (pictures you’ve uploaded obviously), but it just gives variety and nostalgia to your day.

So, this week, I want to make it more affordable to get a photo frame if you don’t already have one!

Here’s the deal this week:

Deal #1: I am offering a $49.99 10.1” Digital Photo Frame from Amazon for only $25 at shop.duckytran.com. There will only 10 available. Come get one for yourself or give it to someone as a gift!

The Accessible Core

It’s Not Social Media, It’s You

Social media has been taking over our lives for the last decade. In recent years, it has become so big that it has taken over advertising, gaming and even news. According to Hootsuite, about 58% of the world population utilizes social media and the Gen Z population averaging 3 hours a day on social media.

With something so intrusive in our daily lives and highly utilized, there have been a slew of articles attributing links and correlation between social media and depression or anxiety. However, what if I told you that information such as these articles have impact to increase depression or anxiety in history. Let me lay it out in a few points so it’s easier to digest:

1. In this research article, it shows that anxiety was defined back in 1621 and how it always existed but was just beginning to be described in medicine.

2. In this research article, it reveals how an increase in anxiety and/or depression diagnosis were occurring start in the 1960s through the 1980s, much earlier than the advent of social media. But more importantly, that the diagnosis each year corresponded to how often anxiety or depression commercials/ads/medicines were being pushed to the public. With positive correlation when the concept of anxiety or depression was being pushed to the public to seek out help for, the diagnosis was higher for those specific illnesses. With a peak in 2006 before major social media was in full-throttle.

3. In this Child Mind Institute article, it states that anxiety and depression illnesses show correlation with social media, not causation. This is my opinion, with social media growing so quickly in the last decade, the medium that emphasizes the commercials/ads/medicines for anxiety and depression has also increased exponentially manifesting to higher diagnosis of these illnesses. This may or may not be true, but it follows the research principles shown in the 2010 research article in #2.

4. Examining further into the Child Mind Institute article, it shows that many other things are highly correlated to the increase in anxiety and depression diagnosis. As the internet, online gaming, food delivery and indoor activities became more prevalent, a more inactive population exist. Kids are less active, less healthy which contributes to these mental illnesses.

5. Less physical contact and interaction is another contributor but not attributed just to social media alone, but to modern technology such as the smartphone, texting, streaming services, gaming, computer-reliant tasks, and food delivery services.

6. This is not to say social media has no play in causation, as social media exaggerates the need to be included, the need for attention, the condition of imposter syndrome, and makes it easier for younger kids to be in the scenario to become depressed or have anxiety.

At the end of the day, social media usage is a choice we have, unfortunately not everyone feels that way due to the pressure that is put on the youth to use or be “good” at social media. So here are a few ways to help with this:

1. For those with younger kids, make sure they have in-person interaction so they don’t rely on what is fed through social media avenues. Also, limit social media use for younger children.

2. Simply turning off the notifications on social media apps can alleviate a lot of anxiety or the “FOMO” feeling. The notifications keep you on your toes and make you check often, when you can go without it indefinitely and will probably see no effect on your daily life.

3. Like all things in life, moderation is the key. Make sure to have phone-free dinners with your family, limit social media on a specific day of the week so you can admire nature, or have a designated time where you write down things you want to achieve in the next week or month to distract you from endlessly swiping social media.

4. A major reason people scroll social media is the perception of boredom, so go find a physical hobby such as knitting, reading, sculpting, roller skating, swimming, painting, or any fun crafty activity. This will not only show your potential in these activities but give you more reason to have positivity on social media when you do use it.

I hope all these points revealed that you have the key to your mental well-being and social media can exaggerate it but it starts from you. You must want to change before it can happen and don’t blame something like social media when you have the power to simply let it go.

The Affordable Luxury

Issue 10 Community Poll Results

This last week’s poll surprised me, I didn’t expect these results:

1. Everyone but one member that answered has a skin regimen and most of you do it daily. I’m surprised about this because I don’t have one, but to see most of you taking care of your skin is a good sign. I probably need to get a regimen started before recording this rugged face.

2. 100% of you answered that you have no resolution for 2024. I am quite surprised because I thought this was common. But based on this article by Forbes, most people give up on their resolutions after 3 months so maybe having one would just waste your time.

3. I only received 1 suggestion for brands to connect with, which is Dior. I believe just saying that tells everyone familiar with the person to know who suggested it. Thank you and I will try my best!

This Week’s Community Poll

The Everyday Luxury

(The referral program is only viewable on the email version of the newsletter.)

I’ve been getting some feedback about making videos of the newsletter or topics in the newsletter. So, reply to the poll above so I can hone on the subjects you would like to see in video format.

At the very least, I would like to put together videos for the main topic so that it can be viewed instead of read, but let me know what you think and I will try to make it happen. Thanks for the feedback!

Visit shop.duckytran.com with the weekly password: disney