Blog Posting 3

When thinking about how social media can create awareness among a mass of people about political revolution and social events and actually create change, I always come to wonder how simply liking, commenting, or sharing can move people in a way that makes them went to help make a change also how any of the media gathered from social media would be able to influence political revolution. For example if someone were to post a donation link to their facebook and/or twitter for breast cancer etc. does their "like" or comment really make a difference when it comes to the cause, or is it a way for someone to feel like they are helping out someone by giving them false support through a computer screen. I find that when you look at a lot links through facebook and twitter they may have a lot of likes or retweets, but once you actually reach the donation page it seems that a lot of people are just going through their newsfeed blindly "liking" posts without actually committing their attention to the real website where you can make donations and make a real life difference. I personally don't think that people with certain political views can make an actual change in politics just by posting a few tweets or articles through their social media because no one (at least myself) takes those kind of posts seriously unless I am getting information from a reliable source. Although I do see a lot of celebrities with millions of followers post their political views and/or social views some may just be tweets or links but others are motivated to make a change and get people to join their cause by providing their support through social media. Social media can be a very useful tool for people who have lots of followers as it is beneficial to creating awareness as people may repost your links and share with their other friends that use social media. I really loved the example that the professor gave on KONY and how not only teenagers that use social media but people from all different demographics were thinking that they were making a difference by just liking and sharing with their followers because it obviously didn't make a real difference although it did create awareness which is technically better than nothing. There is a lot of examples like the one that was provided whether it be social or political people think that using social media as a way to make a change in the world is a far stretched idea but it could possibly work in smaller social groups rather than a revolution or a change in society. I'm sure majority of us have liked something on our social media in relation to creating awareness for medical illnesses and have not gone through with what the post is originally asking for, for example donations, it may seem like a bad thing but I find that there are thousands of organizations using social media to gain attention from people all over the world, it is a good idea although as I stated previously many people don't get involved other than "liking" the posts which gives people a false sense of accomplishment.

Blog Posting 2

When it comes to social media and any form of news whether it be world news, pop culture and celebrity news I personally find it really hard to trust what anyone writes on the internet because it could be false information that is not trust worthy. The only news that most people believe anymore is what they see on national news stations because it cannot be false information and is seen by millions of viewers all over the world. As for celebrity news like what you see in magazines, online and what people write on their own blogs, twitter etc it is most likely that it is false information. For example if you were to type in a celebrities name on google and write death afterwards it is likely that their name will come up stating a false death, just to give an example, the other day I was going down my news feed on twitter and saw that someone had wrote "Amanda Bynes is dead!", I could not believe it which showed how much I do not rely on what random people say on the internet. I then researched "Amanda Bynes dead" into google (that sounds really harsh, I know) but I needed to get some closure on the situation and of course after looking at several pages then soon going to Amanda Bynes official twitter profile I then saw that she had tweeted and our earlier pretty much confirming that she had not passed away although she is extremely mentally unstable which I discovered while reading her tweets. In a way having access to news 24/7 can be a good thing it is also unsettling considering how fast the news gets out about something major and how reliable the source is that you are using. I just believe that trying to find a reliable source for news on social media can be difficult at times but is also very convenient if you find a source that is legitimate. I am sure that in this day and age that most of us know of the pop-culture news source TMZ, it is more of a source that enjoys making fun of celebrities which I also enjoy most of the time but a lot of people that use social media everyday and want to find legit news about celebrities etc, resort to TMZ. As for social media and world news it is really hard to believe some of the stuff that people post, that is why for me it is important to research deeper if I see a major news headline on social media rather than believing what I saw and spreading the word immediately. I am not sure if anyone else feels the same way that I do, but I do know that it can be hard to find true news of any kind on social media.

Link to TMZ's website: http://www.tmz.com

Social Media Diet

While taking part in my Social Media Diet, I honestly found that I did not have a hard time straying away from any of the social media tools that I normally use every single day. Sometimes I even leave my phone at home for a few hours while going to the grocery store etc. because originally I don't feel the need to be attached to every person in my life at all times. During my "diet" I occasionally peaked at my phone out of pure habit  , I am not the type of person to update my status as I feel that there is no need for the world to know my every single move so I didn't really have a problem with running to my phone and panicking if I received any texts or not. My friends and family still tried to reach me during these 48 hours because I forgot to mention that I was taking part in this experiment, plus my parents tend to get a little worried when I don't respond within a few hours or so. As I mentioned previously I did cheat quite a bit due to my everyday habits and I like to keep in contact with my boyfriend and family as much as possible so it was pretty difficult to stray from that. Communication seems to be changing every single day and I don't think it will ever stop evolving, from social media to regular texts and phone calls I think that our society is hooked on having the ability to converse with people on a day to day basis. Some of the societal implications that are connected to social media use is that people feel the need to be in contact with someone 24/7 and I personally don't think that is healthy but the way technology is developing people seem to be more attached than ever to social media and their devices. When thinking about what I have learned and what I can do to change my habits when using social media I feel as if there is no need to be on social media everyday even if I use my phone once a day to check my social media that would be a major improvement because I am used to checking everything multiple times in one day. I think that if I focus more on my schooling, relationships and work instead of using a large amount of time on social media I could live a happier and healthier life as well as improve my relationships. Overall I feel as if every person on this earth could use a little step back from social media and take a look into their lives instead, while reading A Magical Block of Time: Lessons Learned from my Digital Sabbatical I honestly agreed with every point that she made because it is completely true, others might have different opinions but I agree on the point that we use social media as a distraction from our lives, whether you are having a rough day or procrastinating, social media and our technological devices should come second place always and our problems should come first.

My First Blog Ever

Hello, my name is Stephanie McGillivray and I am a second year student at Niagara College, NOTL campus and I am studying Business Sales & Marketing. I am looking forward to see what this course has to offer and what I can learn from it!