A report covering Global Social Media Statistics by DataReportal, stated that at the start of 2021, 4.20 billion social media users were active around the world. From 12 months ago, 490 million new accounts were created and Instagram totaled 1.221 billion users. “I think we’re just attached to the hip with technology,” said Ivan Salgado, also an SF State student. He thinks Instagram is often portrayed in a negative light but admits that it can also be used as a unique way to escape. “You can see what someone else is doing in different parts of the world,” Salgado said. Salgado tries to abstain from using his phone in the mornings. He waits until he gets off work on Haight-Ashbury and gets a good seat on Muni for his commute home, where Salgado uses Minecraft – a video game where players survive by building a shelter from zombies – as his sweet escape from reality. During his commute home, Salgado remains focused on his phone, transforming a pixelated greenland into a city by only using his fingertips. “It’s not like I’m playing god or anything,” said Salgado. “It’s a change of scenery, being able to tweak things and make them better, it’s calming to have some sort of control.” He taps, slides, presses on the screen and after four days of collecting materials and placing individual blocks, Salgado has created a hotel big enough to mimic Trajan’s Market in Rome. Stone columns support arches on the first level, holding up the rest of the hotel that embraces a brick and wood aesthetic. Scarlet red tiles create a red carpet feeling that compliments pine green seating arrangements.
XPRESS MAGAZINE 32