Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Senior Speeches
What should I blog about? This was the question of the day March 6, 2012. It’s my last blog post and I can’t figure out what to blog about. So what did I do? I turned to the Internet, which seemed fitting for my social media class. I started by Googling different social media questions thinking it would give me an idea. Needless to say, it didn't give me one. I got distracted, maybe a symptom of social media. I started to Google my brother Beau, my girlfriend Brooke, and finally myself. I found an old video of myself giving a senior speech for my old high school. We have a tradition at The University School of Milwaukee that every senior has to give a senior speech. This speech can be about anything you want. A lot of people use their college essays, because they don't want to have to write another paper. The speech is about ten minutes long, give or take a few minutes. The person giving the speech also picks someone to introduce him or her, often their best friend, or sometimes even their mom. It is really interesting to hear all of your classmates talk about a topic that means so much to them. Many speeches are very personal and expressed something about the person that you would not know. My senior year a lot of people choked up on stage talking about a loved one who had passed. That was kind of awkward though. Our class also had a lot of funny speeches and some not appreciated so much by the teachers. My speech was about hosting a black family of eight in our home my senior year. We hosted this family because they had lost their home in a flood. They had no place where they could go, so they put an ad in the paper. My mom saw the ad and offered them to live with us for a few months.
After googling myself, I stumbled upon this video. This was all possible because of the social media site Vimeo. Vimeo is a video sharing website just like YouTube. Jake Lodwick and Zach Klien founded Vimeo in 2004. If it was not for Vimeo, I would not have been able to reminisce to my old high school days and re-watch all of my friends’ speeches.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Live Oscar Blog
What are you wearing? Who are you Wearing? While watching the Oscars and all of the interviews of the actors, directors, and writers, I couldn’t help but wonder why the majority of the interview was about the women’s dress. There were even special segments put into the show about how designers get the stars to wear their dresses. The interviewer said that she is contractually obligated to ask the female stars what designer they are wearing. I can’t help but wonder why there is so much fuss about the dress instead of what the Oscars are really about. The Oscars are really about receiving an Academy Award for your hard work, whether writing, acting, or directing. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences chooses who receives the academy award. So why not spend more time interviewing about the films instead of the dresses.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Reviews
After watching my beastly brother Beau play Harvard in the freezing cold, my family and I were ready for a feast. The car was filled with my brothers Drew and Tyler, sister Holly, parents, and our family friend Augie Reimen and we were all starving after the long day. After debating on what to eat, we finally agreed on Chinese food. My mom went on Urban Spoon to look for a good Chinese restaurant. She read good reviews for a restaurant near by, so we decided to go. We pulled up to the restaurant the sign outside was half lit and there was only one table you could see inside. I was thinking, “oh shit not now I’m so hungry they probably cant even feed all of us”. We debated in the car for a few minutes whether we should go in or just drive somewhere else. My dad made the decision “we’re going in I’m not driving anywhere else” he said after having my mom direct him around the city for fifteen minutes. We squeezed in at our table trapped between the kitchen and the door. Our server was wearing a wife beater showing off his tattoos and defined arms. Soon after we ordered we got our food, it looked great and smelled great to. Everyone started eating and stopped talking, the food was outstanding the meat was moist and the veggies were fresh. My mother even said “this is the best Chinese food I have had in a long time”. Sometimes looks can be deceiving. This is why reviews can be great. I guarantee most people look at that restaurant and drive right past. I know I would have. Although our review turned out to be great, reviews are not always the most reliable. Social media apps on your IPhone or computer make it easy to access reviews. Social media also allows everybody to be a critic so you often don’t know whom to trust. Without social media there were only a few critics but they were all credible. You would be able to decide which critic you agree with and stick with them. You can still do that today, there are just a lot more options and less credible sources out there. It would be beneficial for you to find one credible source that you consistently agree with, so you wont have to fret if the review is legitimate or not.
Friday, February 17, 2012
Valentines Day
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Why Is Twitter so popular?
I was sitting on the couch watching TV three years ago and my mom was telling me how she is signing up for a new social network site called Twitter. She urged me to come over and see what its all about. I reluctantly got off the couch to appease my mother. She said it was like the new Facebook, no joke. She was telling me how it all worked. She told me she was following Lance Armstrong and Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa, a great woman by the way. I never thought Twitter would catch on. I said “Who cares what these people are doing every second of their days, Twitter is so lame”. I vowed to myself I would never get a Twitter account.
This year I had to give in and get a Twitter. My social media class required I sign up for Twitter and follow at least fifty people. I really have only tweeted twice and don’t really deserve any followers. But I don’t despise Twitter as much as I thought I would. Every time I found myself with time to kill I looked at my Twitter on my phone. I love reading all the ‘WTF Facts” and the "most interesting man in the world" quotes. I actually like reading my friends tweets even though I think to myself I would never write that on the Internet. So really the question is, how did my mom foretell the future? Why is Twitter so popular?
After reading Jason Preston and Nicky’s articles about why Twitter is so popular, I have come five main reasons. One: The layout and usage is so simple. Two: It is easy to use on your phone if you want to tweet on the go. Three: Everybody is already on twitter, your friends, sports stars, and political figures. All you have to do is click "follow". Four: It is the newest and fastest way to get the latest news. It's how I first heard that Whitney Houston died. Five: All the most interesting celebrities are on Twitter. It is a direct way to hear from your favorite stars. Twitter has blown up the past few years for all of these reasons.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA-tOsM6F4Y
Friday, February 10, 2012
Active V.S. Passive Protest
Students were yelling across the room with intent to force their point home with a final anecdote. Interruptions were not off limits, just put your your hand up and start talking louder and faster. I found my self put back by this just in awe of how intense this argument became. The students were heated. You might think this argument was about abortion, or gay marriage to be this confrontational. No this debate was about how new media effects protest. It is a question of does new media effects protest in a positive or negative way. How doe’s new media effect active versus passive protest?
First we have to distinguish between active protest and passive protest. Active protest suggests being out on the streets being active whether you’re marching or participating in a sit in. You are being active. Passive protest would be sitting at home on twitter or blog spreading the word about your cause. Passive protest would also be participating on a sight donating money or just adding your thoughts.
We also need to be specific about whether you are under the rule of a dictatorship or a democracy. I think we all can agree that protesting under a dictatorship is much different than under a democracy. Under a dictatorship passive protest really becomes an active protest. Under a dictatorship you will be imprisoned or killed actively protesting against the government. Passive protest can help with this because “Most dictators don’t have social media strategies.”(Casey) The dictators have a lot of trouble trying to find people who use social media to protest making it safer. This has been proven throughout the Arab spring. “The number of tweets from Egypt went from 2,300 to 230,000 in the week leading to the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak.”(Casey) Social media is a good way to get people together to fight for their cause.
In a democracy it is a lot different because the reasons for using social media to protest are different. The reasons for using a passive protest in say America would be because you have a job and a family to take care of. That’s a much less significant reason than fearing death or jail time. Although the reasons for use are drastically different passive and active protest really benefit each other. Passive protest is a good way to put the word out there while active protest makes a statement.
--TPM “Study: Twitter Played Pivotal Role in Arab Spring” by Tina Casey
--“#Riot: Self-Organized, Hyper-Networked Revolts—Coming to a City Near You” by Bill Wasik