Blog Post #8

For this week’s blog post I will be talking about how social media platforms that are so popular now, came about, but from my perspective. I will also be talking about how I was influenced to join these social media platforms and how be apart of them became such a normal thing for me overtime. First and foremost I would like to say that if so many people did not use social media, I would not either. I am not a big fan of the cell phone addicted culture that we currently live in, but when I’m out at dinner or something and I want to talk to people, but they are on their phones, what am I to do? Anyway back to the social media platforms. I encountered Snapchat before Twitter, so we’ll go over that first. If I remember correctly, I was in the 8^th grade. I had an android phone at the time, but I had an iPad. At the time, there would be a popular app for about a week or two and then everybody would stop using it and move onto the next popular app. I did not have very much storage on my iPad at the time, so I had to pick and choose my apps very carefully. At some point in the school year, Snapchat became the popular app. It was essentially texting, but with pictures. I did not like the concept of Snapchat because I am a very closed off person and I don’t like people knowing where I am or what I am doing, I wasn’t the most attractive middle schooler, so I didn’t like take selfies, and lastly I wasn’t used to using/having multiple social media accounts at the time. Also, facetime, skype, and oovoo were all big at the time, so why would I want to see someones face, but not be able to have an actual conversation and wait minutes or maybe hours for a response? For these reasons, I went a very long time without using Snapchat, but one of my bestfriends convinced me to try it out and so I downloaded it. I made my account and started snapchatting people. I hated it so much that I deleted it the same night I downloaded it. It wasn’t until the 9^th grade I believe, that I downloaded Snapchat again. Since I was in highschool now, lets just say the reasons why I downloaded Snapchat were much different than before. Overtime I used it enough where I became accustomed to it and it became like another instagram for me.

Now onto Twitter. Before I talk about how I started using Twitter, I want to talk about how I feel about Twitter today. Twitter is my favorite social media platform today, but that has a lot to do with features that have been added since I first joined. I was going to a party over the summer with my friends from high school. When we got there, there weren't too many people there yet, so after we said hello to everyone, we sat around for awhile just talking to one another. Eventually, the phones came out and we started talking about social media. My best friend to this day named Donovan, showed me a video he was laughing at on Twitter. I thought it was hilarious and he asked me why I hadn't seen it before and I told him I didn't have a Twitter account. After acting like he was the creator of Twitter himself, he grabbed my phone and immediately downloaded Twitter onto my phone. He proceeded to create my entire profile for me, including my username, which was changed just recently so before that I kept the one he created (that's why I remember this story so well). He told me to just try it out and if I don't like it, I can always delete it. I kept it for awhile, but it was never really that fun. I didn't see the same funny videos Donovan had been seeing and I was on the verge of deleting it. My older brother was also a big advocate for Twitter and when I brought up my issues with it to him, he told me its all about who you follow. This was great advice as from then on out, Twitter was by far the funniest and most informative form of social media I had ever used. Today I do still use both Twitter and Snapchat, along with Instagram. I still do not like Snapchatting people, but I have a few streaks that I snap at least once a day. Twitter and Instagram are great for me. 

Blog Post #7

For this weeks blog, I will be discussing one of the eight values of free expression that I believe is the most important, most inspiring, most underrated, and most meaning full is individual self fulfillment. If one were to examine grade school class from kindergarten to senior year of high school, you will notice that even at the tender and young age of five years old, people like to do things that make them happy or feel good. It all starts when children are born. My baby cousin ever since she was just a little baby, she would always fall asleep sucking her index and middle finger on her right hand. Its what made her most comfortable and she my sleep like that for the rest if her life. We all have things that we do like that where we have always done them and we don’t really have an answer as to why other than its what you do. We are all made different and in a world so heavily influenced by work and money, it is important that when we do have time away from school, work, or even family and friends, that we enjoy that time doing things that will make the daily grind that we call life easier. Self-fulfillment also promotes self-confidence and can change ones mood drastically. The way a person feels on the inside, typically directly affects the way that person acts on the outside. So if we all just do the things that make us happy and make us feel god about not only ourselves, but life in general, we can confidently and seamlessly put or best foot forward everyday.

Information on self-fulfillment

Blog Post #6

This week’s blog post is about the group presentations we did in class last week. Everyone did a very good on their projects and I believe the whole thing was a success. The thing I loved most about this project was the spontaneousness (if that is a word, which I don’t think it is, but this MY blog). When I walked into class two Tuesday’s ago, I 100% thought were going to stay in the classroom for the full hour and half and just write notes, like we usually do. I was pleasantly surprised when Professor Smith told us to pack up and go to Cottrell. I was very confused and thought he was playing at first, but sure enough, he was serious. I hadn’t seen the COM tech timeline before that day, so on the walk over to Cottrell I was thinking about what we could possibly be going to Cottrell for. I thought there was a public speaker or something. The fact that we have that timeline on campus is incredible (even though it should be in the communications building). My favorite thing that I learned about during the presentations was the messenger pigeon. I had no clue how big of a role they played in war efforts around the world. I hope Professor Smith continues to do this project because it was spontaneous and fun!

Blog Post #5

For this week’s blog post I decided to write about the video posted under week six, “Mad World Remix of Moby Video.” I noticed a few things almost immediately. Those things are the main character appears to be smaller than everyone else, which makes me believe he is a child. Another thing I noticed was everyone except for the main character was too busy looking at their phones to notice things like other people and things on the ground they could potentially step on or in. It seems as if everyone is way too focused on their cell phones to notice the little boy is alone and left out. The video depicts a lot of things that are currently happening in our society with cell phones like recording things for followers and likes instead of helping people in need. Another example of this is where the family is sitting at the table, but everyone is eating their food while they are in their phone. Even the baby has a phone in that scene. The scene I liked the most was the one where the director depicts people sending emojis that express an emotion, but they are not actually feeling any emotion and their faces are straight. Another scene I enjoyed a lot was the one where the girl is in black and white until she is behind the camera on her phone, which makes her come back into color. Overall, I enjoyed the video a lot. It scares me a lot to think that everyday our society is getting closer and closer to making this video a reality.

 

Link to the Assigned Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=5DU1B_XkyIk

Blog Post #4

For this week’s blog post, we were told to visit two websites (antiwar.com and theamericanconservative.com). Just from reading the names of these websites, you can tell pretty quickly what type of content these two websites will have. The anti-war website has a bunch of headlines that its viewers can click on that will take them to another website that talks more in depth about what the headline hints at. Some examples of the headlines used on this website include “US forces heading to Saudi Arabia to defend oil,” “US defends attacking Afghan farm laborers.” There are quite a few headlines that talk about Trump on this website too. This website also contains blogs, a contact us link, and a link to send donation. The American conservative website is similar to the anti war website because they both feature a large amount of news stories that viewers can easily access by clicking on the story/headline. The American conservative however contains pictures that go along with the stories. Aside from the links to news articles, this website also contains blogs, an about us page, and a donation link. These websites are well designed for the most part and they allow people who believe in both issues (anti-war and conservatism) to learn more about those things.  

Anti-war website

Conservative website

Blog Post #3

Forty-eight states out of 50 in the United States (and Washington, D.C.) have launched an anti-trust investigation into Google. A similar thing is currently happening to Facebook as well. Apparently Google is buying out most of their competition due to their lack of competition and this creates an unfair advantage for companies with large advertising/PR budgets. What I did not take into account was the affect that has on the states and the citizens within them. This unfair advantage causes many companies to be left out and not have their products or services advertised for a big crowd, which Google generates. In March of this year, Google was already fined $1.7 billion for forcing advertisers to only advertise with them. I forgot how dominant Google was as a company. When you think about it, they are all over our world and that is a negative thing if it comes out that Google and maybe even Facebook are guilty of the accusations against them. I think this story is very interesting because with how long both companies have been around, it’s scary to think of all of the things they may have done to abuse their power over our digital media.

 Google and Facebook under national investigation

Blog Post #2

The Supreme Court videos we had to watch for class was very educational. I have never been the best at history, so I learned a lot of new things and re-learned old things from watching these videos. The creators mission for the video seemed to be to humanize the Supreme Court. Not that us at citizens of the United States think that the justices of the Supreme Court are not human, but we may think of them as puppets of the government or "system." The director did a great job of allowing viewers to get an up close view of not only how the cases are decided in the Supreme Court, but the people who decide on the cases as well. In one scene, the justices agreed that their views on some cases change after the justices have met and discussed the case. That stuck out to me because it really illustrates the direct impact of human interaction, which ties into my previous theory that the creators were attempting to humanize the justices and change public opinion about them. There is another part in the video where the justices seem to go on for a while about how their cases are held in public and they cannot go into work with a pre-determined opinion on a given case. Overall, I enjoyed the video and learned a lot from it. 

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca8qSuWxcG8