Technology Assignment

There is new technology being produced every month, and with that there is bound to be something cool that shows itself. Everyone pretty much knows a little bit about facial recognition. It is most commonly used by Federal Agents to track down criminals. Well now there is a new use for it that is being developed by Google.

Imagine this scene. You are in a location where you think you might know a person, but you are too shy to go up and talk to them. You take out your phone and move it from one side of the room to the other scanning the faces of everyone. The next thing you know, you have all of their social media information that pops up on your screen. Now you can determine if you know the person or not.

Right now facial recognition is still in the “Developing stages.” When you take pictures on your phone or camera it has the capability to recognize certain features to know that what is being focused on is a face. What it can’t do yet is tell you to whom the face belongs to.

Can you imagine a future where you point your phone in the direction of a person and it pulls up their entire profile on some social media platform? Personally, I have two thoughts on that:

• The ultimate stalker will be born
•         The ease at which people can learn about someone else will make our society even more lazy

For my first thought of the ultimate stalker being born is technology like this will allow a person to sit down anywhere and gather information on another. If that isn’t creepy to you I don’t know what is. Also it dives into the world of personal privacy being breached. And it also brings up the ethical issue of is right for someone to gather data from you without your knowledge.

I think in our society we are already heading in a direction where people are more prone to be less social with others. So the ease at which people can learn about someone else will take the amount of laziness to the next level.

Now with all of that being said, I think there is some good that can come out of this as long as people use this technology in the proper way. One way this could be good is that by looking up someone’s profile it can give a person the opportunity to find out likes and dislikes, so they can go approach a person and have something to talk about.

Will this technology be available to the public in the next five years? The best answer to that is no, but companies are making strides to one day be able to get there. I hope that when that day comes people are still willing to talk to others face to face.

http://mashable.com/2009/06/01/social-media-future-tech/

Apps

Social Media Applications can function in two ways, ensuring anonymity or forcing an association to your real identity. Both of these functions are necessary for the establishment of an open dialogue. Facebook is the prime example of forcing users to operate from a actual identity. This is in part out of a belief that individuals will be more civil if they are held accountable by people they know. People used to attempt to have different personalities or identities depending on who they were around, Facebook essentially tried to end this. However what has actually happened is a proliferation of individuals are increasingly competitive in their desire to do more than their friends. This belief about individuals behaving civilly if they are coupled with their name has not been proven empirically. Any user of Facebook can testify that individuals, or trolls, are constantly seeking to start an argument.

Some social media apps have been bucking the current norm of not betting against Facebook, and have allowed users to interact anonymity. Apps such as Yik-Yak, Whisper and Secret all allow users to not couple their comments with a name and identity. This has had mixed results. Some individuals have a tendency to seek conflict and to destroy the emotional stability of others. However this is not always the case. There are stories of people rallying behind those who voice thinking of suicide, of showing up to be blood tested for someone’s mother with leukemia, and simply giving shout outs to others  almost always positive. Anonymous social media apps are increasingly used as individuals seek to voice sincere concerns and questions. Although responses are not always positive, it is suprising how often they are.  These examples speak to something more important than which social media app is used, they speak to the character of the individuals that are on them.

The Ring of Gyges is a object from Plato’s Republic which grants the wearer invisibility. Socrates then asks the question of whether an individual’s behavior would change. He was optimistic that because we feel good when we do good, eventually people would start to behave in way beneficial to society. The truth of this belief is something with mixed anecdotal evidence. Anonymous social media does have individuals that seek conflict, but that is not always the case. And maybe the cause isn’t the anonymous social media apps but rather is our character. Blaming social media apps for people’s actions is inappropriate.   

http://blog.hootsuite.com/can-anonymity-good-social-web/

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/07/anonymous-social-media-apps-encourage-overshare

Viral Videos

Viral Videos

Here is something that I am pretty positive everyone is curious to know about: viral videos. I have always wanted to know what makes a video go “viral,” the money that can be gained from it and many other things.  First, let us figure what a viral video is. According to Techopedia, my first article, a viral video is defined as any clip of animation or film that is spread rapidly through online sharing. Reading what a viral video is defined I learned I was completely wrong in what these are. I thought there had to be a certain number of times the video is viewed in a given time span. As it turns out most videos that go viral fall into one of three categories: unintentional, humorous, and promotional.

Something that is very common now-a-days is the rate at which viral videos pop up. Now that most mobile devices include a video camera, and a vast amount of people have video sharing capabilities a viral video is created pretty much daily. It is crazy to think that not even ten years ago if a video went viral it was pretty much a one way ticket to stardom.  During that time viral videos were a rare sight to watch and I feel often times it was the media that catapulted videos to the next level. One of the most well-known videos and most viewed on YouTube is Gangnam Style. I bet you are wondering how did a video that, 1: not American made, and 2: not even spoken in English, become the most watched video in the world? I was curious to find out so I went and did some research on how to create a viral video. What I found were some guidelines to follow:                                                        

1.       No need to have expensive equipment

2.       Make your videos for fun, not money

3.       Keep your videos short

4.       Keep your expectations in check

I think one of the reasons why Gangnam Style song was such a big hit with the world is it followed step two in the guideline. A person could tell that the artist was purely having fun with music making.  The guideline I find fascinating is the first one in that you don’t need fancy equipment to make a viral hit. To me it seems like common sense, yet people still go and spend thousands on special equipment to help them achieve their stardom. Now, if you will excuse me I have to go off and create my own viral video using my cell phone!

http://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/articles/2013/06/20/how-to-make-a-viral-video--and-make-money?page=2

http://www.techopedia.com/definition/26863/viral-video

Fastest Way To Topple Governments

Social Media Case Reflection #2: Arab Spring

The Arab Spring was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across the Middle East in early 2011. The use of social media platforms played a pivotal role in the organization of many protests across the Arab Nations. This post will focus on the uses of social media in how it made much of the protest possible.

It is amazing how only a few decades ago if people wanted to get to get together to protest it would take months of planning. There would be numerous phone calls made, people having to write newspaper ads etc. I think we all know that can take forever to achieve your goal especially when it involves other countries coming together for a common goal. That is where social media comes in. Social media bridged the gap in time. Before I continue I want to use a quote from an Egyptian Activist named Wael Ghonim.  This quote will set up everything I talk about. He said “If you want to liberate a people, give them the Internet.” I think that quote speaks volumes into the protests for numerous reasons. One being, having the internet allows for quick assembly and in the case of Arab Springs the governments could not control the content that was being exposed.

In one of the articles I read, it was discussed the extent to which people would go to show their defiance against the regime. This is also where I think the use of social media might have gone too far. The one that caught my eye was of a citizen of Sidi Bouzid by the name of Mohammed Bouaziz set himself on fire, and then his desperate act of defiance was posted on Facebook and YouTube. The problem with such heinous act posted on to social media platforms is anyone and everyone has the ability to watch it, including children. This is can also be thought of as a con of the protests because there might have been followers who were against violent acts. Personally, if I was part of a protest that was supposed to be non-violent I would lose my interest when I saw someone setting themselves on fire. To display the power social media has, president Hosni Mubarak was forced out of his office because of 5.5% of his population, were able to connect through social media. The 5.5% may seem like a small number to overthrow a president, but that percentage translates into about 6 million people! There is no way that many people would have been able to band together without the aid of social media. In this particular case Facebook was the platform of choice.

There were some big ethical issues that were taking place during this time. Some governments tried to control local and foreign information and support for the protestors by creating Internet blackouts. To fight this Google and Twitter offered a service they called “Speak-2-Tweet.” This is where I feel some rules of ethics were broken. I think it was unethical for Twitter and Google to bypass a country’s control on something so that others could know what is going on. I look at it this way; if there were a problem within my family that was going on, I would want to keep it within my family as to keep others from trying to put their two cents in on the matter.  I kind of feel that is what happened in this country. There was a clear issue and the government wanted to keep the problem within its country and not have outsiders attempting to fight a battle that is not theirs.

You all have probably heard the phrase “the pen is mightier than the sword.” Well I would like to introduce you to the new type of pen and its name is Social Media. It is scary how powerful social media can be when used properly. It blows my mind to think that such platforms have the ability to overthrow dictatorships and topple governments. There are definite downsides to using social media as a weapon of information, and at the same time it is a good thing to have when trying to bring massive groups of people together.

http://www.academia.edu/2370755/Explaining_the_role_and_impact_of_social_media_in_the_Arab_Spring_

http://middleeast.about.com/od/humanrightsdemocracy/a/Definition-Of-The-Arab-Spring.htm

http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/what-the-arab-spring-tells-us-about-the-future-of-social-media-in-revolutionary-movements

SEO

Search Engine Optimization

Up until the point I looked up what this phrase was, roughly five minutes ago, I had no idea what Search Engine Optimization entailed. I now know that it is defined as the process of maximizing the number of visitors to a particular website by ensuring that site appears high on the list results returned by a search engine. Knowing this, it comes as no surprise why being towards the top the results is an integral part of a company. Based on the article “Tips for SEO” from the Business Insider, if a company wants to find itself on the top of the results list there are a few things that need to happen. One of the biggest things is to have relevant and original content. I can see how this would be important attribute. The more original your content is the easier it is for others to find you. Another tip is to have good description and keywords.  Using keywords that describe what your companies do in as few words as possible can help the consumer to find you more easily. Think; less is more.

http://www.businessinsider.com/seo-tips-for-search-engine-optimization-2011-7

As I was doing my research on the topic of SEOs I decided to see how social media has an impact on them. I found some what I think are some interesting ways. The first way is the creation of link potential. If a reporter decides to write about a feature within the company and they link it back to the brand’s website, it becomes more accessible since others will have seen the link too; thus bringing us to the next way social media effects SEOs. It can increase the volume of traffic going to your website. This ties back into the linking potential.  The more times an item is looked at or shared on a social media platform the higher up it will start to appear in the results of search engines.

http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2342211/7-legitimate-ways-that-social-media-impacts-seo

In a face-paced social world, people do not have, nor care, to have to dig to find what they are looking for online; thus Search Engine Optimization appear to be an important aspect of being able to get a company noticed. From my personal experience I would have to say the links listed on the top ten of a search engine is about as far down I will look.

Aggregators

With so much technology and social media platforms in the world, how does one go about managing all of their accounts? Are they kind of like me and decide when they want to check another account or post the same thing on a different platform they have to first log out then log in to the other platform to say what they want to say? I can tell you from personal experience that having to log in and out of different accounts is complete overkill. By the time I have logged out of one and in to another I have all but forgot what I was wanting to post. This is where aggregators come in to play, but first let’s define what it means for all of you non-social lights out there. According to Google an aggregator is a website or program that collects related items of content and displays them or links to them. More simply put an aggregator takes out the hassle of needing to log in and out of platforms to get the same message across. Honestly, I did not know what an aggregator truly was until I looked up the definition. Although I have few social media platforms I am active on, it turns out I have been it to link out all of my messages.

In one of the articles I read I found something that I thought was interesting. As a business, it may be stretched across numerous platforms. On one platform the user may want to target one audience and target a different audience using another platform. What makes an aggregator an effective tool is the business can choose what platforms the message gets linked to. With that being said there doesn’t exist an aggregation tool that can seamlessly manage all of your platforms. An issue developers are running into is what exactly an aggregator should do because social sites are used in different ways by various groups of people.

http://smallbizlink.monster.com/benefits/articles/254-drowning-in-your-social-media-aggregators-to-the-rescue

Through my findings I have learned there exists many aggregating apps and websites with many of them targeting specific platform areas. An example of this is the tool called Tweetdeck. This tool was designed mainly for people who considered themselves to be tweeters. Since its creation, it has evolved into a comprehensive platform which services Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace.

http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/7-social-media-aggregation-tools-simplify-your-streams

Aggregators are a huge milestone achievement in social media. It has given people to ability to link out what they are saying across platforms; thus saving finger cramps from repetitive typing among other benefits.

Organizational Uses

With technology becoming more and more of the mainstream in society, the presence of social media within any business or company is becoming more vital. This is becoming more prevalent with small and medium size businesses (SMBs). Combined the roughly 1.3 million SMBs generate more than 5.5 trillion dollars of annual revenue and social media has become a vital axis on which they turn.

In the first article I read it discussed how small businesses are using social media to stay in the mix with bigger named businesses. There were some pretty interesting findings. The one I liked the most is a study that was conducted found ninety-four percent of SMBs use social media as a marketing tool and forty-nine percent use it for educational purposes. What makes this intriguing is ten years ago the thought of a business using social media for learning probably would have got someone fired. Companies trained their employees in classrooms through the use of instructors. Now it has become more frequent for a company to have its employees use social media to educate. This probably cuts down greatly on costs to have outside trainers come in train employees. This new take on social media has shifted the budgets of many businesses to put more into social markets.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/231515

One has to think there are many benefits for a business in using social media. One of top benefits I think exists is being able to get instant feedback from customers. No longer are the days of being put on hold for numerous hours to get your complaint out in the open. Social media has made it possible for a person to state an issue within a company and anyone has the capability of seeing the statement forcing companies to respond rather quickly as to avoid a potential issue. Another is social media has opened the door for companies to established meaningful relationships with their clients. I know I would feel good inside if I saw a business said my name on of their social platforms. It would make me think the company actually cares about me.

http://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-for-business/

Companies are shifting over to social media as its main use in the public sphere and it is a great thing. With technology continuously changing at an increasing rate being able to keep an edge on competition will come down to social media.

Class Cloud Assignment

The class cloud assignment was a great way to witness how and why people react to various tweets. I feel that I learned a lot about what drives a person to create tweets. I will use myself for my first example. At some point in the class a comment was made regarding Jennifer Lawerence in which I responded to the person by saying “you got that right.” We proceeded to high-five each other and the class thought it was funny. Then he said I should put it on Twitter. Once it was on Twitter though, the tweet received very few likes. This showed me even though a group of people found something to be funny it doesn’t necessarily means the others are going to be able to understand what the context of the tweet is, which is probably why there were not more likes and retweets. Something I found interesting is how often does get the chance to be in the same location as someone who is tweeting about the same topic? Probably not too often, so it was cool to be able to watch an individual say something in the class then ten seconds later it be up on the Twitter feed. One of the best moments of the class was when the professor showed a video from YouTube of his daughter’s one year birthday party. By the time the video was over and he refreshed the Twitter page, the same video had already been linked out. As funny as his reaction was to seeing it on Twitter it definitely brought to light some disturbing facts. For example, the speed at which the video was linked out was less than a minute. That just shows how quickly a person can post an image or video. I think it is kind of scary to know that someone can post something that I am in and there is a chance I would not know about it. Chances are a person never expects to get a tweet back from a celebrity and or a big name company. I have never seen it occur until the class. One of the students tweeted to Jet Blue and the company tweeted back to her. I looked them up and they have over 1 million followers. For them to be able to take the time to send a tweet to a specific person tells me there are companies  that care greatly about what their customers have to say. As for myself I sent a tweet to Facebook asking why they chose to make the process of uploading videos go through a “middle man”. I did not receive a response. At the same time I wasn't expecting to get one. This assignment was great exercise. It definitely opened my eyes.

https://twitter.com/blackman_PHD/status/572895675689521152

https://twitter.com/blackman_PHD/status/572888711991455744

https://twitter.com/blackman_PHD/status/572668168872714240

Online Reputation

Dustin, I looked you up online and found a lot of information on who you are. Or at least who the internet says you are.  Your LinkedIn, Facebook and other social media sites helped me to gather my information. Everything below is what I was able to learn.

I started off by looking for details in your professional life. What I found was interesting. First up was LinkedIn. Based on what I found you are an Intellectual Property Attorney at Superior IP located in Salt Lake City. You went to college at the University of Washington where you graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering. Before then you graduated with your first degree, Biochemistry, at Brigham Young University. Also you graduated from the University of Maryland Baltimore with a Law degree. You are highly skilled at working with patents and trademarking which brings me to believe your specialty within law is patenting.  You are a very accomplished person for someone so young.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinlcall

Suspecting that this was not you I decided to check on your Twitter profile. What I found there was pretty intriguing. For starters I did not know you were bald. Based on your bio you are a “political professional”. Based on some of your retweets I gathered you are a Republican who lives in the Woodland/Sacramento area of California with your wife. There was a hyperlink attached to your bio that I clicked on which took me to your professional website. There I found out you earned the achievement of being able to call yourself an Eagle Scout. You studied political science with an emphasis in public service at the University of California Davis. You specialize in political campaigning, legislative operations, policy development and volunteer organizations. Currently you serve as Chairman of the Yolo County Republican Party and you are the youngest County Chairman in the state of California. That sounds like a great accomplishment to be able to tell people such a thing.

https://twitter.com/dustincall

http://www.dustincall.com/

It seemed like every link I clicked on, you were some form of an attorney or political affiliate. So I decided to take a different approach and started to add attributes with your name. The first one I added was Utah State and I finally found you. Your professional LinkedIn account was the first to show up. After reading it I was able to gather a little bit of information about you. You consider yourself to be an entrepreneur. Also, you currently work at Keepsake Cottage Home Interiors as a secretary. Based on that information I gathered you like fashion and being able to create decorations.

https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=170151448&authType=NAME_SEARCH&authToken=O3Of&locale=en_US&srchid=2487664711424760996368&srchindex=1&srchtotal=10&trk=vsrp_people_res_name&trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A2487664711424760996368%2CVSRPtargetId%3A170151448%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary

The last item I checked was Facebook.  This was by far the easiest way to find you, mainly because we have a shared group in common with one another. When I went to your profile I was not able to find too much about you due to your settings. Based on what I could see I was able to gather you enjoy traveling and being with your friends. A few years ago you were, and possibly still are, close to a girl name Keiyana. You and your mother have a close relationship with each other.

https://www.facebook.com/dustincall8

After researching you this is what I have come to conclude. You have a very common name so it can be rather difficult for people to find you online. The most looked up people with your name are political figures and attorneys. This also tells me something else. You do not bolster your life on social media. If you do, a person would have to know what attributes to search under your name. Based on your FaceBook page I gathered you are somewhat a private person who does not mind allowing people to see small aspects of your life. The downside of having such a common name is you need to have something to help you stand out from others with your name especially when someone is looking at your LinkedIn. So I would consider expanding more on your professional page. Remember the world is becoming more active on social media so make yourself easier to find.

Legal, Policies, and Ethics

There are many issues surrounding this topic and there are lots of research papers posted to the internet discussing these matters. There is a very fine line between social media, legal and ethics.

I looked at an article from the website “usatoday” and what I found from there was pretty interesting. One of the biggest topics that was discussed in this article is the ethical issue with social media being used for academic research.  Where the issue lies in this is private companies are gathering vast amounts of information from individuals’ private accounts. Through this mining of online communication it has aided in giving new insight into all aspects of everyday life. Personally, I think this instance is a good thing because these companies such as, Microsoft and Facebook, have been able to identify key items in people’s lives. Microsoft has used its data to help identify women who are at risk of postpartum depression and Facebook has been able to show how parents and kids interact. What they found is the interaction between them drops at the age of 13 until the child moves out. The argument to this is, is it ethical for a company to be able to store your information you have into their databases? I think if it is for research to help identify and find solutions to everyday life problems then yes. If not, then no because technically it is an invasion of privacy.

The next article I read discussed seven ethical dilemmas faced in content marketing. The list this article came up with were invasion of privacy, spamming, public bashing, dishonesty and distortions, distorted endorsements and improper anonymity, misuse of free expertise and contests, and opportunism. I found it intriguing that spamming was listed as unethical because it is such a common thing to happen to people that I do not really think about it. What makes it unethical is the manner in which messages are broadcasted. Usually users are deceived through a trail of twitter and Facebook posts. I know I have been a victim of this and I cannot stand when a post shows up on my “wall” of one thing then when I click on it, it takes me to a completely different link than what I was under the impression I was going to.

Is it okay for companies to gather data from the information you have put on your personal page? Is it right for a company to send you links that take you to a site that is not associated with the link? The simple answer is no. At the same time the web was created where anything goes and the rules don’t apply which has created numerous problems. These ethical issues will never go away so what can a person do to avoid this? Simply be aware and careful of what you decide you want others to see online.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/08/data-online-behavior-research/5781447/

http://blog.socialcontentmarketing.com/7-ethical-dilemmas-faced-in-social-media-marketing/

Collaborative and Distance Communication Platforms and Tools

In today’s society the idea of going an entire day without having a way to communicate other than face to face would have a person go insane. How can you blame them though? With how fast paced the world is needing a constant connection to everything is important. There are many distance communication platforms out there and the two I’m going to talk about are Oovoo and SnapChat.

I bet a vast of amount of the readers have not heard of Oovoo before so I will give a little history. Oovoo is a video chat service similar to Skype that began it services in the year 2007. In the first article I read it discusses how Oovoo became the teenager’s favorite way to video chat. I actually can agree with that statement. I say that because Oovoo was the first form of video chatting I did when the chat first went live. One of the biggest benefits I found was during that time Oovoo and skype were somewhat competing and Oovoo offered free conference calls with up to six people in a party and 12 if you had a subscription. In the article it talks about how Oovoo was never trying to target a young audience rather the company solely wanted to provide quality service to anyone. It caught on with teenagers because of the features that make it more fun to use. Now the company is ranked in the top twenty on the technology brands on FaceBook.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/elizabethwoyke/2012/02/01/how-oovoo-became-teenagers-favorite-way-to-video-chat/

The next platform is SnapChat. Ever since this photo and video sharing app surfaced I have been hooked.  I like to think of this company as the future “walkie-talkie” form of communication. I say that because to me the app symbolizes a walkie-talkie. Think about it, a person can have a full-on conversation with another person without ever having to directly seeing them. In the article I read it discusses why kids love to use SnapChat and the overall consensus came down to because it is not FaceBook. SnapChat has widely been known as the “sexting” app but only a small quantity of pictures and videos are related to that subject. One of the big reasons why people love the app so much is the ability to control how long a person can see your images and on top of that everything gets deleted after the time limit has expired. Having control over this form of media is It is a “trend worth following because it runs counter to the ways most tech companies are trying to monetize social media.” The idea that people have control of their data is considered to be new and for FaceBook it is at odds with its underlying paradigm. Since the users are in control SnapChat can keep up with the rate of change kids go through in social media.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykosner/2012/12/19/wait-a-minute-facebook-the-kids-like-snapchat-because-its-not-facebook/

Location Based Platforms

When I first looked at the assignment and saw we were to write on Location Based Platforms I was definitely at a loss for what any of those words meant. With a little bit of research I found some interesting items. In an article I read it talked about how the future of location based apps will shape the way we shop in stores. By now most of us know that many platforms/applications used involve having to turn on our location features on our phones. Imagine you are walking around Walmart trying to find some items. Only problem is you have no idea where to look and there are no customer service representatives. I bet it would be nice to have an app that can tell where to locate any item you might be looking for. That is exactly what a company named Aisle 411 on a smaller scale. This company has mapped out every Walgreens drugstore. All a person has to do is enable their location feature, type in what they are looking for and the app will tell you exactly where to find the item. As technology becomes more sophisticated I can see this happening on a broader scale like in Walmart.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2014/04/30/how-location-based-apps-will-shape-the-future-of-shopping/#.VNB4Vf54pcQ

There are some pretty nifty things that can come out of Location Based Services, but with good there is also bad. Personally, unless I need my location feature on for something specific I keep it off for a few reasons. It helps conserve my battery life and most importantly I like my privacy. In the scholarly article Time for a Privacy Check-in it states, “Depending upon the information and who learns it, the ramifications could range from annoying to embarrassing to downright dangerous. Robberies have been linked to location status updates and GPS technology already has been involved in a significant number of stalking cases.” This is a big issue with LBS. Location information can be gathered knowingly or unknowingly to the user and when this happens it can spell trouble because someone who is looking at the information not only can tell where you are, over time they can pick up what a possible routine is for the user. As long as the location feature is enabled information is constantly being transmitted and it is stored indefinitely. What scares me is in the article there is discussion on how LBS have the potential to compile a large quantity of history of where the user has been. Talk about invasion of privacy.

http://aclunc-tech.org/files/lbs-privacy-checkin.pdf

I think there are upsides and downsides to having such features as the LBS. There can be a lot of great uses like not being able to get lost. At the same time I feel there is a general concern for the amount of privacy lost by deciding to use it.

Pizza Delivery Guy Gets Last Laugh

What it is the fasted way to get the internet to go crazy with comments? Simple, all you have to do is put a video online of a pizza delivery guy doing his job and the recipients berating him. In today’s world a person has a better chance at getting away with a speeding ticket than thinking a person can hide from the wrath social media. What happened to the pizza guy was a cruel display of a group believing they were better and had more power.  The group of individuals were probably thinking or in this case, not thinking, the footage from the security video would not make it to the internet. I can only imagine how the delivery guy felt as they talked down on him. Something I would like to know is why is it when people are put into a position of power they think it is okay to abuse it?

In the first article I read it appears the driver was clearly confused about the situation. I for one believe a food bill in the amount of $42 dollars deserves at least the five dollar tip. What made me get angry was hearing the dialogue that took place. When the driver asked about the additional money the employee clearly stated he knew he gave the extra money so he can have the opportunity to call the pizza company to have the driver go back to give it back to them. I feel that was so senseless. At one point in the video the female is heard saying to the driver to get out of the office before she sticks her foot up his “ass.” I think for this situation it was a good thing the security camera had audio capabilities because without it the pizza company would have probably made the decision to fire the driver. I was brought with the teachings of treat others the way you want to be treated. I say this because throughout the video you see the driver maintaining his composure and staying respectful while the transgressors steadily make the situation more and more destructive. I was glad to see towards the end of the article the owners of the dealership approached the manager of the pizza company to personally apologize numerous times. I tried to find information on whether the employees made a personal apology to the driver or were reprimanded for their actions but I could not find any information.

http://www.abc6.com/story/27860338/viral-video-westport-dealership-asks-local-pizza-delivery-man-for-tip-money-back

So now, what happens when the social media gets a hold of a video such as this? They go crazy with it! I already said I was not able to find information on the employees being punished but what I thought was interesting is the amount of people who began supporting the driver, and in some ways did their own form of social justice. One of the ways was they left negative comments in the reviews of the company. I think it is safe to say that the power of numerous negative reviews can easily break a company. This makes me wonder if the reason the owners of the dealership made it a priority to personally apologize was to get back on the public’s good side. To show how much support the driver had, there were donation pages created for him so he could receive his tip. Here is the crazy part, in only two days the donations were passed $22,000 dollars! I understand that people felt bad for him getting stiffed on a tip, at the same time I think it was a little bit overboard on the amount that was raised for what some might say was a rare case of bad tippers. Also, I feel this type of situation happens all over the Country, so I am curious to know what details made this particular case so special to people. I was able to find a plethora of videos on YouTube of employees being mistreated by others yet they did not receive any type of national attention.  I imagine that the delivery guy’s life has changed drastically due to this encounter with social media. It kind of makes me want to get a pizza delivery job in hopes of something like this would happen to me.  This entire situation from the negative reviews posted to the outlandish amount of money raised shows how powerful social media can be. It also puts into perspective how far some people are willing to go to show support for another.  The fact that this incident was happened privately and eventually given to the world can evoke some thoughts of caution. People need to be cautious of the material they post online because all it takes is one person to share it and another person’s life can be changed.

http://www.eater.com/2015/1/16/7559921/internet-bands-together-to-raise-22000-for-stiffed-pizza-driver

Platforms

These days people are looking to connect with others through many different platforms from FaceBook, LinkedIn, etc. It has even gotten to the point that phone game apps give the user the opportunity to communicate with other players. With so many platforms to communicate on it is no wonder why face-to-face communication is declining among our generation.

Ladies and gentleman I give you the greatest phone app a college student has student has ever come across: Yik Yak!

This app has been around for a little over a year and it has taken college campuses by storm.  With this app users are able to post anonymously and can say whatever they desire as long as it is within the 200 character limit. One of the great features of this Platform is the creators made it so that only other users within a 1.5 mile radius can send other post and comments that show up on your feed. One of the problems that arises with a platform like this is it opens up the realm of cyber bullying, which is becoming more prevalent in today’s society. Although many of the posts happen to jokes and one-liners, there have been posts made of confessions made of heinous crimes.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/21/yik-yak-anonymous-app-college-campus-whisper-secret

Up next we have the Platform that pretty went extinct the moment FaceBook got big. Let’s be honest though, this was pretty much the original Face Book. I give you MySpace. At the peak of its existence MySpace was considered a “Titan” of social media. With a title like that it can a person wonder what had to go wrong for such a strong Platform to almost become non-existent? According to the Bloomberg Business Week Magazine a compilation of mismanagement, a merger gone wrong and countless strategic blunders sent MySpace to its grave. Like many other Social Media Platforms MySpace made its money from advertisements. The issue with this was users started to become annoyed with the increased use of ads on their homepage. Now starting to make a small comeback MySpace is becoming a Platform to use if a person wants to create an identity in the music industry.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_27/b4235053917570.htm

I think few of the items which makes MySpace and YikYak such different platforms are the way content is presented. On YikYak there is a target audience of college students. So much so that they created what is called a “geofence.” This geofence is a barrier which disallows users on High School campuses from using the app. Also the fact that it’s anonymous makes it more of a “free-for-all” type platform.   I like to think of MySpace as the unprofessional LinkedIn page. Its main purpose is to connect people and socialize.

Blogging

Before I dive in to what blogging is, it is good idea for me to discuss where blogging came from. I read an article from the New York Magazine that gave a breakdown of the history of blogging. I never knew blogging has been around for 21 years! It was created by Justin Hall, a Swarthmore College student in January of 1994. His blog was posted on the website Links.net.  In December of 1997 Jorn Barger coined the term “Weblog.” Then a few years later another person came along and shortened it down to “blog”. In the same year blogger introduced the first popular free blog-creation service. Something I found interesting was in 2002 a lady by the name of Heather Armstrong was fired from her job because talked about it on her blog, Dooce. That word became a verb meaning “fired for blogging.” She was the first person to be fired for that reason. Believe it or not in the year 2004 the word “blog” was voted the “word of the year” according to Webster.

http://nymag.com/news/media/15971/

Now that we have made it through the history of the Blog let’s move on to fun stuff. Up until recently I had no clue what blogging entailed. In my second link it discusses how blogs work and the difference between a website. One of the first things I learned was blogging, also known as weblog, is a common thing for people to do these days. I used to think blogs were only for professionals such as reporters and others who are in the field of media. One of the key things to remember about a blog is it is public. So anyone can read what you write. Therefore always be aware with the items you choose to discuss. The great thing about blogs is a person can talk about anything and everything. Think of it as another form to your diary.  To create your blog simply go to one of the many web-based toolsets such as, Blogger, TypePad, Word Press and many more, and in less than five minutes you are set. Blogs can be used for many different purposes. To name a few a blogger may want to inform people about political issues, give lessons on how to cook, scrapbooking, and one that is becoming more popular talking about their lives. I think the idea of blogging is good because I feel there are fewer restrictions when typing a blog. Also, I have recently learned employers like to search for potential employee’s blogs to see what they like to talk about.

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/social-networking/information/blog3.htm

Social Media Change

Social media has affected the way we communicate in so many ways it can be thought of as outrageous. It is kind of crazy to think 10 years ago when a person would travel half way across the world and wanted to see their family they would have to wait until they returned back home. Now-a-days it does not matter where you are, a person can be as close to you as from the click of a button. Matter of fact, with some devices people do not even have to press a button. When you look at social media affecting communication in this situation it is great because we as humans long for a connection with others in some form.

On the other hand Social Media has also crutched communications. I am going to focus on the communications within college students. As a college student myself I witness everyday incidences when other students are glued to their phone and computer screens. One might think they would be doing homework on their devices but sadly they are not. Instead, their eyes are fixated on the latest viral video, social meme and so on. I sometimes find it difficult to have a conversation face-to-face with others. It almost seems as if Social Media has managed to reduce the ability for students to interact physically. A good example of this is the other day I saw a friend sitting down looking at their phone. When I attempted to grab their attention they remained engrossed in newest craze in social media. I thought to myself how I can divert their attention away from their device. Finally after repeated attempts I decided to slap them in the back of their head. It clearly, was not my first option, but it was the only thing that got them to lift their head up to look me in the eyes.

Social Media has done a lot of good in the world. It allows people to be constantly informed, gives easy access to family and friends, and it can act as an escape from the world. At the same time people have become more disconnected with the outside world. I think there needs to be a balance between using Social Media and Communicating .