The Last Post

Top Ten Things that I Learned from COMM 373:

1. Your profile picture says a lot about you. Presentation of a good profile picture is everything!
2. Consider reading the terms and services so you know your privacy settings and what rights the social media platform can do to sell your information.
3. When it comes to public shaming think before you post!
4. I learned that social media campaigns involve a lot of creativity and thinking of new ways getting people to look at your page
5. That you can make money from blogging your opinion and if you are really good at what you blog about companies can sponsor you and make the big bucks ($$$)
6. I learned about Twitter through the readings and through using it in my social media campaign. From taking this class I am influenced to create an account
7. I learned how to make an interesting blog and personalize it to my liking with pictures and gifs
8. I found that I like reading new stories and academic work about social media platforms
9. I also learned that I spend a lot of time on social media. Writing down my use of social media and Netflix was almost embarrassing but also gave me perspective.
10. Finally, I liked and enjoyed my last course with Dr. Kennedy. I will miss her being my professor because she is the person who persuaded me to be a Communication major.

"Happy Feet" as the semester is ending! Courtesy of Google Images.  

The one assignment that I did not like about the class, was the opinion paper. I thought that it was repetitive of the blogs that we have to write for the class. I thought a lot of our opinions were posted on our blogs and a formal paper was just repeating what weekly assignment that I had to do. I offer that making the opinion paper to be more of a reflection paper for future coarses. I think that all other class assignments were good maybe more than two Skype lectures in a semester if possible. 

How I will feel once this semester is over. Courtesy of Google Images. 

Snapchats can be used for evidence

The following story is about two teens and a 20-year-old man charged with abusing a cat with evidence that was shared on Snapchat.

https://globalnews.ca/news/3877372/2-teens-charged-in-connection-with-cat-abuse-video-shared-on-snapchat/

This short story reveals that two teens and a 20 year old, were abusing a cat and sending what they did to the owner of the cat via Snapchat. In the snap video, the cat was drugged, shaved, and then thrown out the window. The owner of the cat received the Snapchat video while they were away from their home. The two teens and the 20-year-old are charged with suffering an animal.

It is amazing that Snapchat can now be used as evidence. Usually, once you send a Snapchat video it goes away and you have one more chance to review the video. However, if the person who created the video has the setting on repeat then the person will see the video multiple times before they tap on the screen to make it disappear. What I have analyzed from this story is that people can now face criminal charges based on evidence proof of Snapchat.

Google images photo

It makes me wonder if police would be able to see the Snap video or if they can now get a warrant to obtain someone's phone for criminal evidence. It will only take one more incident to where police can access somones Snapchat account or personal cellular device to find the criminal which is both just and scary to think about. It is just because the bad guy will be caught although it may be an invasion of privacy. 

The story was reported by GlobalNews. Global News is a television network in Canada. This story received 3.8 k shares on Facebook. Meaning that this story reached a lot of people in Canada in the U.S. Corus Entertainment owns Global News broadcasting.

Be Thankful for a Change of Scenery

Over Thanksgiving break, I spent time with my mom, dad, and older sister. It was nice to be home and to have a change of scenery from school. However, over this past Thanksgiving break, I was typing a seven-page paper. So it was a restful yet very productive break. However, I did get to see some family members that I have not seen in a couple of years. It was so nice to catch up with them as we shared a meal together.

I thought that Janie Henderson's talk about Social Movement was very informative. She is really good at research and background information about social movements in her community. Her insights about the national guard coming to her street and following the mandatory locked down would have made me uneasy. Also thought it was interesting that she was following Twitter versus the news because it was more accurate and more geared towards her needs versus the local news was an interesting piece of advice.  

My reaction to this ending of this semester featuring the cast of Anchorman

I am looking forward to ending my last fall semester of college on a good note. I will be happy and relieved and jump for joy when this semester is over. I am going to "give it my all" for my last assignments. Also the last couple of weeks I have really enjoyed the classes I have been taking even though the work has been hard. I like my professors and I look forward to going to all my classes.

It's A Shame

Public Shaming a person online is a sticky situation. It's usually very embarrassing for the person who posted the content. People who also draw attention to the post can also cause more harm than help a person. I do not believe in publicly shaming someone. I believe that it normally ends in cyberbullying. However, if you are a parent trying to teach your child a lesson and they believe in public shaming them to teach them a lesson then that is okay because that is their child and they will parent as they see fit. The picture below is a good example of public shaming and makes me think that a parent was trying to teach a lesson to their child.

Three tips to keep in mind about posting online:

1. Always, Always! check what you want to post. Check your caption, and check why you want to the world to see your content. See my last blog post (Check yourself...Is what you post private?)

2. Ask yourself "What is the worse possible thing that could happen when you post content?" This is a good question that I picked up from my social media class as we watched a TED Talk about a Twitter employee whose job was to analyze content on Twitter and see if the content was harmful or not. 

3. Finally, make sure that you will not get fired from your job because of what you posted on your social media accounts. It is embarrassing to write on a job application that you got fired over what you said on social media. You will look like an uncreditable and non trusted employee.

Check yourself... Is what you post private?

Every time before I post anything online I always check for spelling what content I am sending over the interweb. I always ask myself "should I post?", "Will someone call me out"? The same goes for searching information on the internet. I can imagine that someone is benefiting from my Google searches. If another algorithm is analyzing my searches or a physical human being is, it is in a sense "creepy" that I am being watched one way or another. I never feel protected on the interweb no matter if I have all of my privacy settings on for just about every social media website.

I would like to think that I once upon of time in the web 1.0 and beginning of the web 2.0 world no one was watching what I was searching online. I would like to think that I will never get hacked but I know there are no guarantees in life and no one is fully protected. Even if someone has high protective services hackers and scammers can still access your information. My understanding of privacy is that you are only protected until you send or post anything on the internet. 

Photo from Google Images. I like this image because it makes me rethink before I hit the enter button. 

Personally, I try to keep my information private. I never tell google to remember my password on any site except for canvas and moodle. I keep track of my passwords in a journal. I also ask the sites to never remember me and make me ask the security questions. This keeps me safe and allows no one except for me know the answers to my questions. 

Below are some online privacy guidelines that I would suggest to high school seniors.

1)  Do not post any picture of alcohol or drugs. Reason being is that you are underage and you should not have a reputation for drinking or taking drugs in high school. Your adult life is about to start. Be smart and save yourself and check yourself before you wreck yourself. The future university or job that you are applying to should accept you based on your values and merits don't let one post deny cripple your chance of achieving your dream. This also applies to photos that you are tagged in. Make sure that photos are an accurate representation of yourself.  

2) Make sure that before you accept a friend request or follower you know who it is. You do not want to accept another user and not know who it is. There are creepy people in the world who will try to hack you or try to be your friend for other reasons. 

3) Look up your name on Google. You should be aware what the common person can try to find about you. That way you will know how to protect yourself and you will know what information is public knowledge about yourself. 

Photo Courtesy Google images of Parks and Recreation scene 

YouTube Challenge

This past Tuesday I was challenged to create a video with a couple of my classmates of "why I love the Mount". The objective was to produce a video with the answering the question then, posting the video to Twitter to monitor the video by making it viral. My team won the challenge collectively we got 102 retweets and favorites by 2 pm class time on Thursday. My team was the first to post the video and we did ask our friends and family with a Twitter account to either like or retweet it. Our prize was 25 points of extra credit! 

I believe the reason why my group won the challenge was that we post the video early Tuesday evening. We then asked our friends and family to retweet and favorite it. If this was a video challenge where we couldn't promote our video but to naturally watch the video to go viral on its own, that would be a different story.  

I thought that our video was funny and it was fun to create the content. The only challenge that we faced was asking people to be a part of the video. The video only contained my group member's but we got creative with the little things of why we love the mount. 

If I had to redo this assignment I would try to shoot different areas of the campus and encourage other people to be apart of our video. I would also want our presentation of our video to be the full screen and not just a small square. This activity taught me to be creative with the setting of the mount and with the people on my team. The activity also taught me to trust my instincts and to have fun with the question. Below is the link to my team's video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHriVQHO7a8&feature=share

Finally, word of mouth is the way that my team won the challenge. Referring back to Kawasaki and Fitzpatrick tips my group followed the pass the reshare test and reshare your pals' posts of for our video campaign. The reshare test was our proof that Twitter users would risk their social media reputation to like and share our video. This activity taught me that word of mouth is one of the good ways to markets our video. It also taught me that the more you market a video the more attention traffic something will 

FOOTBALL!

One of my favorite football teams is the Buffalo Bills. This team is not one of the popular teams but I like the team because it is the team that my dad likes. My dad grew up in Buffalo and we still have family who live there. The team grew on me because growing up my dad likes having company when he watches the games on a Sunday afternoon. Now that I am at college I do not watch football but instead, I follow the team on social media.

Twitter page for the Buffalo Bills

 The Buffalo Bills have social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter. On all of these platforms, the Bills has several thousand followers but they do not follow back many other users. The most followers they have is on Twitter which is 812.6 K.

A recent promotion for the Buffalo Bills and Fans

 A recent promotion that happened today was asking the fans to take a selfie and use the geotag filter Bills Selfie. This promotion was presented by Aesthetic Associates. This promotion was to push fans to submit a selfie and in exchange their picture would be on the scoreboard at the football game this afternoon. This was a smart promotion to get the fans to show off their bills spirit and to sport their face in between halftime and quarters.

An Instagram post of two teammates dancing after scoring a touchdown 

I follow the Bills on Facebook and Instagram. I get to see the live stream score on Facebook. As of right now, they are beating the Oakland Raiders. The Bills post a picture every time they score a touchdown to try to spread the word that they are winning and promote action shots of the players. This tactic helps with promoting the team and to let their followers know that they are doing well in the games.

Stay Calm and Embrace Chnage

School is back in full swing after a nice mid-semester break. The weather is starting to feel like fall at the good ole Mount St. Mary's. Student, faculty, staff, administrators, and other community members are starting to order the typical pumpkin spice lattes, wearing boots and vests. With being back at school I am now trying to master time management again. I look up quotes and gifs to remind myself to relax and stay calm.

A little pep talk from Mark Walhberg. (google images)

Mark Wahlberg is one of my favorite actors. He is in one of my favorite films called The Other Guys. I like his character that he plays in this movie. I frequently like quoting movie lines when talking to my friends and for the past week I have been quoting Wahlberg's line "I'm a peacock, you gotta let me fly."

Overall, being a college student has been busy in all aspects. However, I am managing by telling myself one day at a time. I also tell myself if my day is not going according to plan to breathe and read remind myself of the quote below. I believe that these quotes were trending around 2012 and I am glad that they still circulate the internet today.

Motivation quote for the week. (google images)

Just Checking In

It's Midterms week here at Mount St. Mary's University. Since it's my last set of Midterms for a fall semester I am still keeping up the spirit up while giving my best!

   So far in COMM 373, I have learned that each social media platforms are broken into a technology, users, content, ownership, governance, and business models categories. I find this to be the most interesting because I have never thought of social in these terms. These terms help me rethink of what I am actually doing on my social media. I also think it is interesting that VanDijk thought of social media in these terms because I have never thought that social media would be a "technology" so to speak. 

 The most boring assignment that we had was reading the Sular reading. It was an extremely long text about social media that was hard to digest. Luckily as a class, we dissected the important aspects but it was still challenging. Other additional readings have been okay but they are still long and very and dry about 50% of the time. 

What I have been learning is the technicality of social media. I have experience with social media for the past four years and I am still learning the ways to optimize my profile and how to present the best version of myself online. By taking COMM 373 I will learn the tools to present my online self more professionally.

Image from Google. This quote targets me because I too turn to scripture during midterms week.

Tweet Tweet

In my opinion, when I think of Twitter I think of an open social media conversation that any user can partake. Twitter is for anyone who wants to voice their opinion or facts about any topic. We can favorite, save tweets, retweet, subtweet, and follow friends, family, other people or, organizations. Users can also share articles, Direct Message other users, quote other tweets, and upload pictures and videos. Verified accounts is another function on Twitter. Certain accounts have verified blue check mark to verify to other users that the person is real. Mostly celebrities and politicians have this function because they are followed by a lot of people.  

This platform of social media holds high power because it voices users private and public perspectives. This is so important because it leaves a trail of what a user does, thinks, values, and supports. We can learn a lot about a user based off what they Tweet. In the link below this article can give a person an understanding of how Twitter works in an interactive way. The FBI interns of Albuquerque New Mexico offered to answers to questions about certain their honors internship program and the conversation went into a different direction.

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/fbi-interns-twitter-albuquerque_us_59cca1e4e4b05063fe0f276f

Based on this article from the Huffington Post, my perception of Twitter stands. Twitter is a social media platform that allows users to have an open conversation with any other user under any topic. Users who were replying to the FBI by taking advantage of their professional help and turning it into a mockery. 

So can we be Facebook friends?

 Ahh, Facebook! One of the most successful and game-changing social media platforms. Facebook started when I was in elementary school in 2004. A couple years later as I entered in high school, Facebook was the way incoming freshman got to know each other. The "cool" thing was to see how many Facebook friends you can get. The more people you know the more popular you were. My parents were against me having a Facebook and I thought that if someone wanted to get to know me then, they can meet in the hallways and not on the internet. I liked my privacy but I also told myself someday I will eventually sign up and get an account.

 When I was 18 years old after I graduated high school; I got a Facebook. My parents were against social media but I knew that Facebook would help me connect and network with people.  Although Facebook was an older form of social media in 2014, I thought that was okay to be apart of the hype now. I knew to be careful of what I liked, comment and post. I knew that my private life would be online and I was ready to share who I am.  Reasons, why I got a Facebook, was because I wanted to have a change in my life and I also thought that I would have closer friendships with people from college than in high school.

Now of being apart of Facebook for about three years, I use it daily. I am in touch with people from overseas and other states. I like to see what my family and friends are up to. I am still careful with what I share and I try to limit how much of my time I spend on it. I am now more free with clicking the "Like" button but I am still careful because I know that I am being tracked. Facebook is also social media platform that I used for school purposes with class pages. I also use Facebook to share my interest of cute videos and "like" the photos that people post. 

Am I impressing you or not?...

Have you ever stretched the truth about yourself on social media? Have you used a filter to enhance your profile image or post something that you thought was funny but a lot of people thought it was offensive?

Our online decisions tap into who we are in face form. What we do and what we post, like, share, re-tweet is a reflection of our behavior and how to portray ourselves in an ethical way.

Ethical considerations that people should face to present to people online are their personal information such as your age, sex, and where you are from. A profile photo of just yourself is also a good is also idea because the person does not want to confuse you with someone else. What you post is also matters because it adds to your personality. It tells your friends and followers what your interests you have and what you care about. If you have a certain appearance on one social platform you should be the same with all of them.

Some of the pitfalls/dark sides of impression management are the photos, and posts that we get tagged in. These can give us a good or bad reputation when it comes to the job search. Another pitfall is that people may think you judgmental if you tweet or post your opinion all the time. Your followers and friends may like or not like what you have to say and you can be classified as that annoying friend on social media. If you alter your social media face to be a certain way when your real self is the opposite, it can cause some unnecessary drama. It can be messy on all sides. For yourself, for people who know you personally, and people who follow your online self.

Moderating what we say and share with our social media accounts is key. Therefore, impression management is typically in the back of our heads when we look at our social media accounts.

Google images

Top Ten Ways that College Students Can "Professional Adult(ing)"

The following is a combination of helpful tips about maintaining a positive social media profile and how to write effective emails:

10) Less (<) is more (>): 

When emailing a person, you want to be direct and to the point. The same goes for bio line or mantra line on your social media accounts. 

9) Make your profile pictures the same on ALL your social media accounts!:

This is an important tip because if someone is trying to connect with you and your profile pictures are all different they might be unsure if they are connecting with the right person. I recommend keeping your picture professional with a face shot. 

8) Screen names and email addresses MATTER!:

      To keep things professional, you want to have a simple email address such as janedoe2018@gmail.com. This shows employers and professors, that you are professional and want to have a good online image. An example of a bad email address is puddin-pants@gmail.com. Screen names apply to this as well. Do not have a screen name that you will regret later. People do judge you off your picture and screen name.

7) Formatting an email and post matters:

      When sending an email or posting a message on social media make sure you do not have text that is yellow and font size 20. People can read normal size font of 12 with black text. Be mindful of also what you want to stress. People can detect emphasis with bold, italics, and underline. 

 

6) Be yourself:

     When sending an email or posting on social media it is important to communicate clearly who you are. A simple "Enjoy your weekend!" is acceptable and meaningful. People can tell if you over compliment in any email or post.

5) Make yourself easy to be found:

      Adding an URL, a blog, or any other personal product in your signature is also helpful. This is a good tip because people already look up other people on social media or any other platform if you add your extra links to your profile or email signature you are beating them to the punch.

4) Go Anonymous: 

      This is a smart tip because you get to evaluate what the outside world sees on your profile. You can analyze what future employers can see. 

3) Always have the goal to be understood:

       This applies to both social media and email writing. When we send messages on both platforms know that it will read by somebody, if what you are saying makes sense, will it upset or annoy anyone, and does it take too much time for someone to read. These are simple goals to have before sending or posting. 

2) So what's the point?...

      This is important to ask yourself before you send your email or post online. In a social media setting people are judging you so be careful you are not offending anyone. As for email make sure that you are not wasting your time as well as the receivers time with a question, concern, or comment that you can figure out yourself.

1) Check yourself!:

Think before you hit send, share, post, like, comment, heart, follow, favorite etc.

      This is SUPER important for college students. Take a moment and look at your history. Anything that you post on the internet is traceable.

 

Introducing Me

Hello, my name is Michelle Whissel 

I am a Senior at Mount St. Mary's University. My major is in Communication with a concentration in Public Relations and Human Communication. 

I have accepted that this is my last year of undergrad however, I am not ready to go into the adult world". By May 2018, I believe that I will be ready and have some sort of a plan post-graduation. The past three years was a blast and I have grown into a responsible young adult that I always wanted to be. I am proud that I made it to my senior year and feel blessed with the people that I have encountered. My professors pushed me to my full potential. My friends became my family, and my classmates helped shaped me to be the kind of person who I desire to be.   

I am currently struggling to try to find what kind of career would best fit the lifestyle I desire. The search to network with companies and to speak to employers has begun. I am keeping all my options open with a positive attitude. I am not yet worried about my job search because I am confident that I will figure out my path before I leave my "mount home". 

My interests are photography, traveling, attending exercising classes, painting, swimming, biking, dogs, reading motivational quotes and attending sports games. I like to stay up to date on current events in the news and occasionally go to museums. I am happy if I am active and with my friends.

The things that make me tick are people who complain all the time, people who are rude with no sensitivity, and people who think they are superior to others.

My goal with this blog is to share my ideas with my opinion with my audience while having a theme of motivational life quotes.