Social Media coming to an end....or is it?

Zitzsolutions.com

Over the last semester I have learned a lot about the world of "Social Media."  When I first got to the class I thought we were just going to talk about Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.  You know the three main websites that everyone thinks define "Social Media."  Throughout the semester I learned how to make my own Facebook and Twitter pages effective enough, to the point where it is presentable to possible job opportunities.  

I also learned how to make a Facebook fan page effective.  With the knowledge I gained from hearing and seeing a useful fan page, I think that I am more enlightened about how to make and maintain a successful page if I ever have to make one.

Aside from just learning about social media tools, I now have a much better grasp on how to use them wisely in order to reach the most people.  Monitoring Klout scores helps assess the usefulness of a Twitter account.  Although my personal score is around 30, it has grown tremendously from where it was a month ago.

I don’t really like LinkedIn or find it to be extremely useful to me, but I do see how it can be useful as a professional networking site.  I don’t really check my account very often, unless someone sends me a add request or a question that they ask me.  Besides that, I now have the skills to keep a LinkedIn profile and now know the potential it has.

I think one of the most valuable things I learned through Social Media was how to use Twitter. I had no idea what to do when I first started, but now I see what an important tool it truly is. I foresee it gaining popularity and becoming even more influential than it is today.

My advice to my fellow journalism colleagues is that they should definitely take the Social Media class if they can, you will learn a lot about pretty much anything that you will ever want to know about “Social Media,” it is important to have knowledge above and beyond what you thought your knowledge could have ever been.  My favorite hashtag would have to be #jmcawesome because it pretty much sums everything that the Creighton University Journalism Department stands for.

To get an iPad or not to get an iPad 2

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I have been contemplating over the last couple of weeks on whether or not to get an iPad.  I mean they are the coolest thing to come since the iPhone came out.  I know so many people who have either the first generation iPad and people who have the iPad 2, and they all love that they got one.  There are so many cool things that you can do and get on the iPads.

Here are 10 facts about the iPad:

1.  Apple has positioned between the smartphone and the laptop, but the iPad doesn't create its own category, it just improves upon the not-so-successful segment of PCs.

2.  The device has a 10-hour battery life.

3.  It is powered by a 1 GHz Apple A4 chip and comes with 16GB and 64GB of flash storage.

4.  Apple's latest creation features a 9.7-inch IPS display and has a built-in accelerometer that adjusts the orientation automatically.

5.  Users can surf the Net, check emails, see images, watch videos, play music and games and read e-books.

6.  The iPad doesn't seem to have a camera.

7.  The iPad will be able to run apps meant for the iPhone.

8.  Apple's tablet also comes with the capabilities for word processing and presentations, but at a price of $9.99 per application.

9.  It has Wi-Fi, but there are models with 3G, with prices ranging from $499 to $829.

10.  And it's a touch screen, of course.

( http://gadgets.ndtv.com/shownews.aspx?id=GADEN20100127968 )

Those facts right there are enough to get me to buy just the iPad first generation.  I think that Apple will eventually make a better, faster and stronger iPad that the iPad 2.  I don't think that it is going to happen anytime in the next six months, but I could be wrong.  Who knows...

Nikes on My Feet

Nikeblog.com

I have figured something out in the almost year I have been living in my apartment.  I have more than enough pairs of Nike shoes, I mean seriously who needs fourteen of Nike shoes for only living in an apartment for one single year?  Apparently I do.

There are some days were I am wearing Nike shoes, socks, shorts and even a Nike shirt.  I have so much clothes made by Nike.  There are a lot of things that I have that show off to the world that Nike is my brand of choice.

Here are five reasons why Nike shoes are so popular:


Reason Number One 

Shox are famous for being the leading designer brand for the skills that is related to making them. Createing this footwear spends a very long time. 

Reason Number Two 

A large number of work is put into making these pair of shoes. There are lots of jobs involved, like handcrafting. The variety handcrafted has many fans. That is because they have a unique and wonderful design. What's more, it's a fact that they are high quality. 

Reason Number Three 

You will find that they use fine leather in the classic handcrafted varieties, which has added some spunk to famous shoe brand. 

Reason Number Four 

Due to the concern for International clientele, the Nike shoe brand has evolved applause all over the world. The creators understand what individuals want and they try to implement the best. 

Reason Number Five 

The last reason is one of the most important. These shoes are very durable and comfortable, which is one of the main reasons that why they are so popular around the world. Face it, this is a working world where we are constantly on the move. Nike knows this that we do not want to be stuck with a shoe that is going to make our feet hurt. That is why the Nike Shox Shoes are so popular. 
(http://www.ubscure.com/Art/107185/211/Why-Are-Nike-Air-Max-Shoes-So-Popular.html)

Pie Day, with a little Peep

http://coffeeshopjournal.com/2010/04/02/easter-peeps/

On Wednesday we had a "Pie Day" in my Social Media class.  Carol brought in at least six or seven pies for everyone in my class.  There were also cookies which were pretty awesome as well as Peeps.

Now I started this blog thinking that I was going to write about our "Pie Day" but I thought that I would change it to be about Peeps!  The reasoning behind this is, my brother brought home eight paper bags filled with Peeps.  There were over fifty boxes of yellow, pink and green marshmallow peeps.  I don't know why or what made him think to buy and bring home that many peeps but I am glad that he did.  I personally, like peeps, I just can't eat too many of them or they will make me sick.

I found out that there are a lot of mixed feelings toward these marshmallow delights, some people hate them with a passion and others are in love with them.  There are Easter, Halloween, Christmas and Valentine's Day peeps, peeps dipped in chocolate and there are even sugar free peeps.  Who would have thought there would be so many different kinds of peeps.

There is even a Peeps World!  How sweet is that.  It has all kinds of stores and attractions and pretty much anything that you could ever ask for in the Wide World of Peeps.

You wouldn't find this in a newspaper...

res.dallasnews.com/mobile-alerts

The 2011 State of the News Media overview is saying that newspapers are no long the main source of news, but who didn't think that this was going to happen.  The increase in online social networking sites should have been everyone's clue that the Internet was going to be the main source for news in today's society.  As well as the introduction of any kind of smartphone that the population could ask for.

Online media's audience went up 17.1 percent while all other ways of getting the news went down.  I am a news major and even I know that newspapers are going out of style.  It is bad for newspapers, even though people will still be picking up newspapers but that number will decrease by a good amount.  I personally don't have a problem with the change in news and how people are getting it.

In the special report on mobile it says that local news are going mobile.  Nearly half of all American adults report that they get at least some local news and information on their cellphones or tablet computers.  I think that it is easier to find information online through phones and tablet computers because it is handy and is easier to get a hold of.  It is easier to connect with news from all around the world especially with issues like the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.  If we didn't have the tools to get news from an online source the majority of the population would not know about what happened.

The technological future is upon us, it is changing everything hopefully for the better.  For all you anti-social media people, you better get over it and join the rest of the world; because time is of the essence and it is about time everyone is on the same level.

Is your page effective?

(Image via LogoPond.com)

The Invisible Children is a non-profit organization which through hundreds of volunteers and students, aid is brought to Northern Uganda in hopes of ending the longest running war in Africa. Invisible Children fights to end a genocide of people, while also trying to create a better world.

It seems that Invisible Children does use their Facebook page effectively. In the information section, the page has the founded, about, company overview, mission and websites sections filled out and it seems that they did it effectively. There are a lot of pictures on the organization's Facebook page, many of them are the logo but there are also pictures of people around the world who are doing something to support the organization. The wall posts consist of people commenting about how the Invisible Children organization came to their school's to talk about the organization.

To make this page better, I think that the organization should add events to the page. Maybe try showing where they are going to travel to to talk about what they are all about and what they are doing for the world.  I think that people spend time on this page because they want to learn more about the organization as well as looking through photos and watching videos to see what people around the world have done with this organization.  There are about 340,00 likes on this organization's Facebook page, the wall is updated every couple hours or so.

Is social media affecting the youth of tomorrow?

Social media is an important part of today's society.  It seems that everywhere you look someone is either on Facebook, Twitter or even checking/sending emails.  Are these social media tools sucking people into them? Trying to keep them on for hours on end?  No, I don't think that the tools are keeping people there.  The people who obsess over these tools are the ones who are going to be addicted to them. I agree that the girl on Facebook, who committed suicide, with the thousands of "friends" is tragic, but did Facebook cause her to commit suicide? I am pretty sure people have been taunting mentally ill people throughout the the world before Facebook was even thought up.

The majority of my friends and people that I know are on Facebook and Twitter to keep in touch with their friends who don't live close, but I am pretty sure that none of them are constantly on those tools updating their lives one minute at a time.  There would be no need for that, and it would mean that they devote all of their time to social media.  There is no need for that.

I think that everyone is very connected through social media tools.  Are we too connected?  That would have to be answered by those who never log out of these tools.  There are a lot of people who think that using social media tools is a must for today's society and I agree with that but there is no need to constantly be on them.  These tools are very good at distracting people from the real world and living their real lives.  I think that it is important for people to be able to disconnect themselves from the social media world.  If that is not possible for people, everyone is going to have a problem with getting back to their own lives outside of the internet and will not completely understand why other people don't get what they are talking about.

Who Am I? Who Am I? Let's Find Out.

In 1962, Clare Boothe Luce, one of the first women to serve in the U.S. Congress, offered some advice to President John F. Kennedy.  “A great man,” she told him, “is one sentence.”  Abraham Lincoln’s sentence was: “He preserved the union and freed the slaves.”  Franklin Roosevelt’s was: “He lifted us out of a great depression and helped us win a world war.”  Luce feared that Kennedy’s attention was so splintered among different priorities that his sentence risked becoming a muddled paragraph.  (from Daniel Pink's latest book "Drive")

When we were shown Pink's video, I didn't know what to think of it.  Could it be possible to have only one sentence to summarize your life?  Only one sentence to show what the purpose is in my everyday life.


So…what do you think your sentence would be? 


Let's try and think about it like this.  What do you want people to say about you when its your time pass on?  If they could only do it in just one sentence, what would you want them to say?  How about a couple heart warming words thrown together to describe who you were?  Would you like that?  Probably not, what would YOU want that sentence to say about you? 

Would you want it to describe your accomplishments in life?  The type of person you were, if people actually took the time to get to know you?  How you treated those closest to you as well as those who weren't?  What you did to change the world around you for the better?  What would you want that one sentence to describe?


It's a tough thing to think about huh?  You only get one sentence to explain who you are...

So once again...what’s my sentence?

My Sentence is:

"I am an ambitious person who, when all else fails, knows that I will

succeed at changing the minds of those who doubted me."

Being a better journalist and financial difficulties

My area of interest is the News part of Journalism.  It is something that I am most interested in because I think that everyone needs to to get the news, no matter how they get it.  Reading blogs is not only a way for people to share their opinions and thoughts about everything, but it is also a great way to get news about anything related to journalism.  It is kind of cool actually.

The two blogs that I read were Ricochet by Chrys Wu and Eat Sleep Publish: thoughts on the future of publishing by Jason Preston.  In the first blog by Chrys Wu, I saw a pretty cool time lapse video of snow build up on a picnic table.  It became a internet sensation on December 30th, it has received over 2.5 million views so far and that number continues to grow.  This time lapse video was important in this post because it shows that even though putting a video like this on your blog is cool and all it isn't a solid way to get views for your own personal blog.  Photographer Chase Jarvis is credited with saying, "the best camera is the one that you have with you."  There is also a a tutorial for how to not let weather ruin a time lapse video that you can make.  Another blog post that I read about was one about how to become a better journalist.  An important part of being a journalist is leaving room for yourself to improve your craft.  The approach that was used was pretty good, the posts that I read through started by the author talking about his personal life and a story of some sort to lead into the topic of the post.  I really liked the picture that came with the post, it shows that you are never too young or old to learn something new.


The other blog that I read was Eat Sleep Publish: thoughts on the future of publishing by Jason Preston.  This blog talked a lot about how autocorrect can change the entire meaning of something as it did for the American Airlines tweet, saying that it was going to send doctors to haiti but actually didn't mean that at all.  But the post that caught my eye more than the rest was one about newspaper circulation.  The chart in the post showed how The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Daily News, The New York Post, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal newspaper circulation has decreased drastically over the last 20 years of their existence.  Though all of the newspapers have stayed above 400,000 it still looks like they are going to decline in the years to come.  There were some other posts talking about what the author thought about publishing in previous years and then again what they did in today's society.  


None of the blog posts that  I read had any labels which was kind of weird to me, because you would think that there would need to be at least a couple labels so people know what they author is talking about.  But to me, I think that both authors did a good job at getting to the point in each post so that they wouldn't need labels to help the reader.