The short answer is yes.
Yes, after a year in which so many of our Black brothers and sisters were slain, I am willing to bet that a great number of Black Americans still hold fast to the idea of respectability—the notion that if you ‘act right’, you can avoid the discrimination and injustice that befalls so many of us.
The problem that most people have with respectability politics is…
Read the rest of my article at Las Morenas de España here, here, or here.
I decided to make this post because I couldn’t find (at least on the first few pages of Google results) anyone who mentioned how long it actually took to receive their check in the mail from Snap by Groupon. So far, I have waited 21 days or 15 business days. I will update this post with significant updates, so check back often.
Chances are, if you found yourself reading this post, you know about Snap by Groupon. For those who don’t here is a short description:
Better than a coupon, Snap gives you cash back on your groceries. When you shop, save on grocery items like fruits, veggies, beauty products, and cleaning supplies (via Google Play).
(NOTE: several calls took place between Snap’s customer service representatives and I between February 2-4 due to the volume of purchases)
Feburary 2, 2015: Made purchases and uploaded receipts to Snap
February 2-3, 2015: Email from Snap indicating my requests for checks were received
February 23, 2015: Email from Snap indicating my checks were on the way to my house.
February 28, 2015: Check mailed to my house!
God is still good! Prayer still works!
My journey hasn’t been perfectly linear, but it has been my own. Those who know me best know that two years ago, I applied to 9 marketing Ph.D. programs, interviewed with 2, and didn’t earn acceptance into any of them.
Let me plant a kickstand here. The Lord had other plans for my life. I moved to New York. I created a job in a company that I am just as fond of as the day I first reached out to them. I proposed to the love of my life. I started a business. I studied alongside exemplary academicians at New York University.
All of these life events and countless other experiences have helped continually shape me into the man I am destined to be. This past Friday, the Lord showed me that I am still acting within His will and have not left from His grace.
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) offered me admission into their College of Business Business Administration doctoral program for Fall 2014.
It was shouting time paragraphs ago, but again, those who know me best know that I have been working toward this moment ever since the original nine schools I applied to me reintroduced me to rejection…to humility.
I am proud to say that this letter of admission to UIUC is the first contact from the six schools I applied to this round. That means that I may be blessed with the burden of choosing which business Ph.D. program I’ll attend in August.
Let my blessing speak to the dreamer deep in your spirit driving you to achieve goals yet unseen. Continue praying. Continue preparing. Continue sacrificing. Your time is near.
Finally, I leave you with a Bible verse that has rung true ever since I first heard it years ago at Mt. Pisgah Missionary Baptist Church.
Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!
Malachi 3:10
![Consumer Behavior Trends: Mobile Payments are the Wave [Infographic]](https://www.aaronjbarnes.me/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/mobile_payments_today_what_is_a_mobile_payment_infographic.png)
In light of Paypal’s most recent update that allows customers to make purchases from thousands of merchants using your online Paypal balance, I decided to look further into what’s going on in this mobile space. It’s incredibly fascinating…and utterly terrifying. I found this infographic to help explain what’s going on in the area.
The most important mobile payment infographic. Ever.
Mercator Advisory Group just released a study explaining how minorities and adults are leading the way with mobile payment use.
This makes sense.
What makes this finding interesting is that these two populations loosely define the Millennial generation–the future of this country’s consumer base. 
This means that researchers like me will be interested in investigating what elements are at play when/if they decide how they interact with mobile environments. Wish me luck, lol.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston confirms this research area by reporting that consumers almost never switch their payment type over time. This means that if minorities and young adults latch on to mobile payments like the above report suggests, then they will be pretty loyal to this method into old age. (Think about all the seniors you’ve stood behind in the grocery store who still pay with check!)
We’re already concerned with the data that Facebook has on us and they’re getting into the mobile payments business as well. Think about how much more poignant the information Paypal will be able to analyze as they suggest nearby businesses that accept Paypal payments that are within a quarter mile of your workplace.
One company found that their customers were largely resistant to mobile payments perhaps for that very reason. I think that mobile payments will take over the majority of daily purchases. Like most revolutionary ideas, it’s scary at first. Decades from now, we’ll wonder how we ever got along without them.
What do you think? Do you use mobile payments already? What do you think of them? Discuss in the comments.
Here we are in September and wouldn’t you know it, Apple released another version of the iPhone. Arguably the most successful smart phone to date, the iPhone routinely captures the attention of Apple fanatics and detractors.
If you’ve ever held a conversation with me about cellular phones and/or mobile technology then you know I’m a faithful Apple supporter. Usually, I’m fully submissive to every single idea that they’ve ever had (let’s not even talk about that Apple Maps fiasco…or heaven forbid we bring up their failed attempt at a music social network).
For the most part, I’m still an extremely loyal brand ambassador for Apple products. What’s not to love? Their products are consistently cutting-edge, easy to use, and cool to own. When I was first able to afford my own iPod, I hurried to buy because I was enticed by the allure of social status and intrigue the Apple brand afforded me. I felt cooler. I felt more interesting. As I acquired more Apple products, I felt that the brand became a part of me..
None of my Apple products were as much a part of me as my iPhone. I mean, I literally carry it everywhere I go. For the majority of the past four years, associating myself with the iPhone has meant that my self concept was associated with the sleek, cutting-edge, superior qualities that the iPhone embodied.
Early in our relationship, it was easy for me to defend my precious self-validating iPhone against petty competitors. You have a Nokia? Nahh, you can’t seriously think that your phone compares to mine! Blackberry? Bah! Who uses BBM in 2013? Palm Pilot? Pssh! Styluses are for sissies. I gladly volunteered my time as an ad hoc salesman for iPhone.
I began to notice that my arguments for why iPhone was superior than other phones sounded weaker and weaker until they were ultimately untrue. I ignored this for a while and thought, “You’re tripping. iPhone is still the best thing out. Everyone has one. They have to be doing something right.”
This went on for a while until about a month ago when I decided that I’m going to leave iPhone behind.
I told myself that I wanted to learn something new. I told myself that Apple’s innovation seemed to plateau. I told myself that I was bored with iPhone. And while all of those things are likely to have some part to play in my decision, I feel that there are psychological rumblings deeper in my subconscious.
Simply put: the iPhone brand just does not represent me as well as it used to.
Because I identified so closely with my iPhone, the realization that we may not be as perfectly matched as I thought severely disrupted my psyche. I reached a point where the tension between why I thought I owned the iPhone (it was an extension and validator of my self concept) and my reality (there are cooler phones out there that more closely resemble my self concept) finally manifested itself in an epiphany: I’m leaving iPhone.
Think about the premise of movie, Inception. The engineers had to implant the seed of an idea deep within their target’s subconscious so that it could develop into actions that the target believed to be their own. In a similar way, the cognitive dissonance I experienced with my iPhone led me to this current state of dissatisfaction. Social Psychologist Leon Festinger coined the term, “cognitive dissonance,” in his book, When Prophecy Fails, in 1956.
My urge to abandon my iPhone was exacerbated with Apple’s latest release. I originally purchased an iPhone to separate myself from other phone users who weren’t as cool as I thought I was. Not only did Apple fail to appropriately innovate in a way that reinforced my perception of my personal coolness, now even MORE people around the world would have access to the technology due to its 5C extension…or as one source put it, “The First iPhone You Don’t Want.”
Meanwhile, all of the other close competitors’ advertisements seem to be speaking directly to me now…or, at least about people like me. Take the new Nokia, the phone for the photographer–or Instagram addict. How about the Moto X by Google? It’s the phone that let’s you customize every aspect of its appearance and operate touch-free. I think even the most staunch iPhone support can yield some innovation ground to the industry’s heir apparent, Samsung Galaxy.
What do you think? Am I just a simp being suckered in by all the new phones coming out? Are you getting tired of your iPhone too? Discuss it in the comments or on twitter.