Final Project Draft

Abstract

In a exploration of the photoblog Humans of New York (HONY), a blog by photographer Brandon Stanton. The photoblog provides a unique way to share stories via social sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Blog. The photoblog introduces viewers to various stories that explore issues such a sexism, freedom and loss just to name a few. This new platform of that shares stories has changed photojournalism. The purpose of the project is to identify the best practices that HONY uses and try a create an image using their best practices. The success of the project will be determined by how many likes, share, user engagement the image receives across various social media sites.

My Write Up, Reflection and Presentation are located on my ePortfolio profile.

 

Here are the links to my personal Social Media Sites that I used for the purpose of the project:

InstagramFacebook, Twitter, my WordPress personal blog Black Attire Aficionado .

Here are the links to Humans of New York social media sites that I used for the purpose of the project:

Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and the website Humans of New York.

Final Reflection- Deliverables

In the week of 11/29 after returning from a relaxing break, I returned feeling very excited. During the evening of 11/30 I worked on my second progress presentation. In the second progress report, I wrote candidly about my struggles with having a clear understanding of my project and the end results. I wrote about the ways in which the project made me more disciplined. There were certain elements of the project that was to have been completed however due to timing it was not completed. Also on 11/30 I posted my first image rendition of Humans of New York photo. I interviewed a male friend of mine who is twenty-three years old. He was super excited to share his thoughts on loss. Earlier in the day, after my internship, I met him in China Town, New York where he interns. I took a photo of him from the back because he did not want to show his face. He did not feel comfortable with his face in the photo which is understandable. I took the photo and asked him to send me his quote via text on loss.

The quote: #1 The Loss of Time

Jodieann's Human of New York Facebook

“The worst kind of loss is the loss of time, because it’s constant and never ending, you won’t stop losing time until you die. This can drive one crazy as your goals becomes more immediate and crunched under the weight of time. Time lost also manifests itself in moments spent with others, it’s a little scary how long we can go without seeing someone or doing something and be instantly reminded of that once we see the person or participate in that activity again. Our memories remind us of how fast time flies and how if we don’t use it responsibly we can waste a lot of time, as time waits for no one.”#HumansofNewYork

 

This photo was shared via these four social media platforms Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Black Attire Aficionado. I posted the image and the quote from participant #1 along with the hashtag (#HumansofNewYork). The response was surprising. For the first few moments when I shared the photo via Instagram which was shared to Facebook, there was no response. I was worried that no one would interact with the image which would make my project unsuccessful. Within the next hour my photo received likes on both platforms. The photo via Instagram received 11 likes and 3 comments. Three instagrammers participated in the conversation. Many found the quote on loss to be “powerful”. I did not engage with any of the commenters because Brendan Stanton does not engage with users, it is one of the strategies I listed in my Humans of New York Best Practices, which will be shared on my ePortfolio site on 12/15. I found the photo shared on Instagram to be successful because it received likes and users engaged with the photo. On the platform Facebook, I received 9 likes within a matter of minutes. There was no user engagement on this platform. I did not find this very successful because I have over 700 Facebook friends and was quite surprised by the lack of response. On Twitter, I took a different approach to sharing the image. I posted the image with a short sentence from the quote and linked it to my personal blog Black Attire Aficionado using Bitly and the hashtag #HONY so that anyone searching the hashtag would see the tweet. The photo shared via Twitter, received over 100 impressions(the amount of times people saw the tweet on Twitter), and received over 10 user engagements such as clicking the link, the hashtag and the media(the photo). I would say that the image was successful to some degree because over 100 people saw it but no one engaged. I screenshot these findings and posted it to my blogpost Coming to Grips: Projection Reflection-Round 2.

The following day I met with professor Belli to discuss the progress of my project, I received feedback to revisit my proposed timeline where I did not complete the deliverables. Also, I was advised to write my best practices on the blog Humans of New York. Later that evening I reworked my blog post but for some reason it was not updated. I did not find this out until 12/3 after I presented my Prezi presentation. Also after my presentation, I received feedback from my class that was very positive. In the feedback, I was told that the project had a clearer understanding than before. Samantha mentioned that she would have a prospect for me because I was unable to find someone to share their story on loss.

On 12/5 I crated my second image using my own quote. I decided to write about myself because I could not find anyone and I thought it would be more intimate. On the subject of loss, I wrote about losing my ability to laugh during hard times. I did not want to do the traditional story on relationship. I chose a photo that was taken during the summer and wrote.

The quote:# 2 The Loss of LaughterIMG_2195

“I’m afraid of losing my ability to laugh during moments of hard times. My laugh is what I cherish most of all. Sometimes there are people who come into your life whose purpose is to destroy you and by some miracle it changes you. Often times this can make you a better person and other times it can make you bitter. My laugh is infectious and youthful and losing it is a constant fear of mine. . .” #humansofnewyork

 

This photo was shared via these four social media platforms Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Black Attire Aficionado. I posted the image and the quote from participant #2 along with the hashtag (#HumansofNewYork). The response was immediate. For the first few moments when I shared the photo via Instagram which was shared to Facebook, it received over 20 likes. The responses were “love that smile, hearts <3 <3, I love this picture, you’re glowing and you’re absolutely right keep smiling”. I would say this was a great start, I will continue to monitor it because I have over 700 friends. The photo via Instagram received over 30 likes with only one Instagram comment. I was expecting a more intense response because the photo was of myself and I thought my friends would have engaged more. On Twitter, I took a different approach to sharing the image. I posted the image with a short sentence from the quote and linked it to my personal blog Black Attire Aficionado using Bitly and the hashtag #HONY so that anyone searching the hashtag would see the tweet. The photo shared via Twitter, received over 60 impressions and 2 twitter engagements. I would say that the image was successful to some degree because over 60 people saw it but no one engaged.

 

The quote:# 3 The Loss of a Grandmother

“Losing my grandmother was one of the worst feelings in the world. She was like a second mother to me. She raised me and lived right downstairs from me. All I knew was her being there. She moved to Canada a few years before her passing. It was sudden and out of nowhere and by far one of the worst things that I would have found out. She had an aneurysm. We went to Canada right away to be by her side. When I saw her it wasn’t her, she wasn’t herself and she was not conscious. It’s a horrible feeling seeing someone you love so much in that type of state. I was in the room with her and some family when she passed.

A Granddaughters Loss

A Granddaughters Loss

My heart was sinking and I felt like I was dying inside. When we heard the machine go off I knew she was gone. I felt like I died inside. I starred at her and spoke to her in her ear before she went. It wasn’t easy to deal with at all. But thank God I had my son, Aiden there to hug and kiss and keep me strong and keep my mind busy. I know she’s in a better place, I just think it was too early for her to leave. It’s not an easy thing to deal with losing someone you love so much. I am grateful she was able to be here when my son was born and she knew him for a year and a half. I still miss her to this day but I smile knowing she’s watching over my family and me. I know she sees my son growing up and is proud of the job I’m doing as a mother. I see her in my dreams and sometimes feel that she’s around, either by smell or just feeling her presence.” #HumansofNewYork

This photo was shared via these four social media platforms Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Black Attire Aficionado. I posted the image and the quote from participant #3 along with the hashtag (#HumansofNewYork) on social media sites. The response was slower than I expected. I expected it would have a lot more engagements because it was a quote on the loss of a loved one which I’m sure many people have experienced at some point in their life. For the first few moments when I shared the photo via Instagram which was shared to Facebook, it received 8 likes. The responses were “I love this!”. I would say this was a great start, I will continue to monitor it because I have over 700 friends and it is a great read. The photo via Instagram received over 10 likes with only one Instagram comment. Because the quote was very long, I broke it up into 2 parts. On 12/6 I posted part one and will post part 2 on 12/7. One of the best practices I found in my analysis of HONY was that for long quotes Brandon Stanton broke it up into short quotes and would post the rest the following day.

In some ways I was expecting a more intense response because the quote was powerful. On Twitter, I took a different approach to sharing the image. I posted the image with a short sentence from the quote and linked it to my personal blog Black Attire Aficionado using Bitly and the hashtag #HONY so that anyone searching the hashtag would see the tweet. The photo shared via Twitter, received over 40 impressions and 2 twitter engagements. I have not determined the success of this image because there is one more part to post.

This will be updated on 12/8,  12/10 and 12/12 is the final analysis of the amount of user engagements that occurred on the social media sites.  

Progress Update 11/30

Last week I outlined my success, shortcomings and plans for the next phase of the project. This week organization has gotten much better and so has picking and choosing content to engage with.

In terms of organizing i started screen shotting note worthy tweets as they happened rather than scrolling back. I created a separate folder on my phone as well as my desktop to store the information quick and easily. I’m finding this makes writing the progress update as well as the power point so much easier as a whole.

In terms of picking content I tried to stick to things that I had real opinions or feelings about because content with no meaning usually goes no place. I also found that evenings are the best time to tweet because they gain the most views. So i’ve been tweeting during the day but mainly engaging at night.

This weeks highlights

This week (albeit a short one) was more successful in terms of my content getting viewed. Though I haven’t gained many more followers my tweets gain more views per hour than they did last week. The most noted tweets this week came on friday the 27th after I tweeted out about Planned Parenthood in the wake of the tragedy in Colorado. I did not tweet directly at anyone or state a clear opinion I merely provided fact about the organization. In the first half hour alone these two tweets had gained 100+ views and engagements. tIMG_2751 IMG_2752

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To date this pair of tweets has been my most successful and I plan to implement this idea in the final week of my project. I thought this project would be a lot more difficult but I’m finding that its really not much different from what I usually did except now i’m doing it with an agenda or strategy and purpose. I think i’ve progressed nicely and I will have a decent amount of data to draw on for the final product.

Looking Ahead

This week will be the final leg of the project experiment phase. The last week will be about cross posting content from other sites to my twitter feed and though I have done this before I will focus on it more in addition to my hashtags and engagement strategies. Originally i was playing with the idea of using hoot suite or tweet deck but i’ve shied away from them because i want to stay genuine to the projects main focus which is twitter. I honestly did not like tweet deck and hoot suite takes a bit of getting used to and I don’t want to taint my projects results because I’m not familiar with the platform. SO! In the final week it will be a hashtagging, topic engaging and cross posting blitz. I hope to have enough data to compare to the sources I based my proposal on as well as the strategies I utilized. I will also break down my final results into categories instead of doing it by week. So far my main content engagement has been with trending topics so I need another week to balance it out.

UPDATE FOR 12/3

-live tweeting professionally (look for local event related to social media, digital, etc.) and compare to personal live tweeting, check analytics
-revisit 3rd party analytics for further insights (especially Hootsuite)
-play around with Jetpack (for analytics) for ePortfolio
-other efforts to increase engagement through social media (your work via Dept. of Education)
-analog efforts for branding, networking (e.g., business cards)

After meeting with Professor Belli I realized there are some important things i’ve been doing but neglecting to mention. So as mentioned last week and with Professor Belli I wanted to toy around with a third party app, I hated tweet deck but i’m going to give hoot suite another run and see if scheduling tweets makes a difference in my user engagement. Live tweeting is also something i’m looking to do but I havent yet found a program or event that fits in with my account or my time schedule so I may just do scheduling tweets as the last element of the project. Jetpack the plug in was pretty complicated and I havent yet gotten access to the instructions so i’ve let it be for now for the sake of time.

Other related elements that i’ve been creating are, business cards to promote my accounts and my brand and i’ve been asked to help manage the NYC DOE district 21 twitter account, which I created for them last week. By applying some of the strategies to that account i’m hoping to be able to get them decent recognition and foot traffic.

Download (PPTX, 1016KB)

 

(POWER POINT NOT YET UPDATED 12/2)

It’s All a Work in Progress.

The project so far has been both an outward search, and an insightful inner task. I have had to rely on the research articles in this part of the project to tell me what to expect in regard to what effects such as detachment and worry. I did not imagine that it would be as bad as it is. The first day of Friday the 20th was not as bad because most of it was spent in work, however, when I went on break I found myself lost. I had nothing to do but eat my lunch. I paid attention to the food, the way it tasted, the colors and smells of the food. It was a new experience because I could not remember the last time I looked at the food that was going into my mouth. Most times I am staring at my phone busily scrolling through what seems like an endless feed. I also noticed that the time went a lot slower. Thirty minutes felt like an hour. It is amazing how quickly I was able to gauge the changing sense of time. I was able to give an account for where my minutes went instead of mindlessly wondering if I had really just spent 4 hours scrolling and re-blogging on Tumblr without noticing it.

The second thing Processed with VSCOcam with c1 presetI noticed about myself was the constant worry about what I was missing out on. As a guilty pleasure I read, “The Shade Room” (TSR), a celebrity blog that gives updates about trending celebrity stories. I have grown attached and soothed by this blog. It has been my way to unwind after a long days’ work or school. For the past four days however I have been lost and it worries me. I am worried that I will have to catch up on so much and I will also miss out so much. I have no idea what is going on and I have had to find a new ways to deal with my new time—coloring. In four days I have reassigned and invested my time in more creative outlets. I have never colored so much since the fourth grade but although it does occupy my time I still find myself worrying about missing out on some outrageous seflies or videos.

I have also noticed my ability to pay more attention to smaller IMG_3455things. I notice the people around me, words on the wall, and even the objects on the ground. These things which I have gone months without noticing because my head would be buried in my phone; scrolling through social media. My attention to detail has caused me to become not only more aware of the things I do but the manner in which I do them. I pay more attention because I am not being drawn to or constantly stopping to check my SNS. I am more interested and invested in people and their stories because I have nothing to distract me with.

The last effect of this experiment that I have noticed is that I am relearning how to use my iPhone (who knew there was more to it than my SNS apps). I am more cautious of what I do and how I do it on my phone. Since Friday I have downloaded games, and photo editing apps that allow me to take advantage more of what the phone h
as to offer. I have been taking advantage of my camera and all that it has to offer. I have also noticed that when I take a picture now I take it not for the ‘likes’ but for a purpose. I have found an interest and enjoyment in taking photos that I never knew before. I would before this experiment take a picture for the sole purpose of posting it and seeing people like it or share it; now I find pleasure in capturing a moment for myself and no one else.

So far I thiIMG_3565nk that I have been able to capture videos and pictures that represent these feelings and effects. In moving I plan on continuing to capture more videos and pictures of the day that represent and coincide with the blog post that goes along with it.  I also plan on starting to put my short video together for the final presentation as to give myself enough time to edit.

Lastly, moving away from the project, I have too beeIMG_3575n working on my e-portfolio site as which will house the final project piece. I have been working hard on ‘The Sliding Doors’ theme and I believe I am finding some success.

I ask that anyone if willing take a look and give me some feedback. Feel free to ask any questions that you may have about the project so far. I hope you will be able to enjoy the finished item.

 

Progress Update 11/25

I began my project a week ago and to be honest I lacked confidence in myself and the success I could bring to it. I combined and tweaked some of my strategies due to time constraints but they’re all still of the same genre. So my updated timeline looks more like this,

Week #1- Leverage trending topics. I will explore the moments and trending sections of twitter and engage in the conversation for at least 2 of them per day. Boost visibility by tweeting with at least three content based hashtags that represent a call to action.

Week #2- Fuel my profile with shared content. I will share and comment on popular stories to attract or raise questions about the content.Branch out. I will locate and attempt to engage with three professionals in my desired career field (marketing).

Week #3- Cross post. In the last week I will share my content from linkedin and open lab on my twitter to show professional work on my twitter feed as well.

Week #4- For the last week I will gather and assess my data, see which week had the largest engagement and overall by how much (if any) my engagement increased.

I mainly combined similar strategies and will be continuing to apply all strategies as I incorporate new ones. I started out with 27 followers, less than 50 views per tweet, 5 or less mentions per month and had never been added to any lists.

What i’ve done to date

So far, as I touched upon in class last week my tactics have been rather successful. As of 11/23 (One week since I began) I have,

  • Gained 6 new followers
  • Been retweeted 4 times
  • Been favorited 7 times
  • Added to two lists
  • Mentioned 2 times
  • Had an all time high record of 101 interactions per tweet

I actually surprised myself with how much my tweeting and interactions took off by using hashtags and joining into trending conversations. I chimed in about Charlie Sheen, Heart Health, Obama, Womens rights just to name a few. It was actually pretty fun and interesting, because I got to read all these people’s ideas on the subject to scroll through a category.

The biggest obstacle so far has been without a doubt keeping my content up to date with the ever fluid topics of twitter. I go to class or work for a few hours and now what’s on my timeline is eons old. So thats a challenge for sure. Otherwise I haven’t had any major roadblocks that I see as a threat to my project.

Critically though I need to be more organized and write down the results over every day instead of scrolling back through my timeline as thats really time consuming. I also want to sit down and really read through hoot suite and see how I can get that to really work for me because right now I still end up back on the twitter app because I’m so versed in it.

This week I think I did a good job of being on more regularly and reading through content instead of scrolling like a madman. Moments without a doubt makes it easier to see stories but harder to interact with individual tweets so I have to move away from using that and stick to the trending topics tool which is a little harder but necessary for this project.

Moving forward and looking ahead I look forward to trying the next strategy and implementing it in addition to week ones. This week I am sharing content like crazy, news stories, blogs, journal articles and more and then commenting or interacting with it by asking questions or giving feedback. I hope to have an even keel of both informative news sources and op ed interest pieces to balance out the kinds of interaction I get.

Revised Final Project Proposal

My focus for this final project will be framed around twitter and user engagement. I originally wanted to observe two very popular and active twitter accounts for their user engagement but now I’m tailoring it to build my brand on twitter. I am basing my strategy on the textbooks and material we’ve read in class as well as outside sources. My objective is to see if by applying these concepts I can gain a larger following. After looking through the material and realizing I would like to have a larger twitter presence I propose to apply one strategy a week and in the end seeing if they have increased my user engagement or following.

On twitter there is a feature that allows you to track the engagement of your tweets, it tells you how many users have seen my content. So I would in turn be able to see if the tactics are working.

REVISION: The deliverables i will be providing will be in the form of the analytics bar on twitter, i will be screen shotting and posting the weeks results on my e portfolio and then reflecting on the experience and then comparing the results to the sources suggested outcomes.

First I will average my current user engagement to compare to the engagement at the end.

I have broken down into 5 weeks the strategies I plan to apply and at the end of the week I will see by how much, if any my engagement increased.

Week #1- Leverage trending topics. I will explore the moments and trending sections of twitter and engage in the conversation for at least 2 of them per day.

Week #2- Boost visibility by tweeting with at least three content based hashtags that represent a call to action.

Week #3- Fuel my profile with shared content. I will share and comment on popular stories to attract or raise questions about the content.

Week #4- Branch out. I will locate and attempt to engage with three professionals in my desired career field (marketing).

Week #5- Cross post. In the last week I will share my content from linkedin and open lab on my twitter to show professional work on my twitter feed as well.

Week #6- For the last week I will gather and assess my data, see which week had the largest engagement and overall by how much (if any) my engagement increased.

My objective for doing this project is to better learn how to management my content online and build a profile to reflect that of an emerging professional. At the end and in the final version I want to answer these three questions.

  1. How did I apply each strategy? What was hardest and what was easiest about doing so? Which did I feel worked the best?
  2. Which one statistically had the largest engagement increase and over all by what percent did my user engagement change?
  3. Did I accomplish my goal? If not how do I plan on continuing to do so and what do I think my twitter profile now reflects of me as a student, professional and person?

My sources potentially would be:

Digital Literacy Text

Writing with new Media Text

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnrampton/2014/09/29/25-ways-to-grow-your-social-media-presence/

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/26-tips-strengthen-social-media-marketing/

http://mashable.com/2011/12/15/branding-and-social-media/#j_qJ42Q0haqM

I plan to add additional sources as I go into depth about why people are drawn to certain content, what makes content engaging and what is the best time of day to publish content.

 

Final Project Proposal

Throughout this semester we have covered a variety of new media trends and how they change how we use the affordances of social media. For my project I would like to focus on virility and how stories, ideas and even current fads spread.

My focus or main tool will be twitter as that is my favorite social media platform, it is also the one that changes the fastest and is the most fluid in its trends. I propose following two verified (twitter’s label for reputable users) sources, one being entertainment or trends and one being news and current events. At this moment I have two main twitter feeds I would like to track the first being Cosmopolitan and the other being CNN.

My goal is to sit down daily and track both accounts daily activity and then record their virility. I will ask the following questions,

  1. Which account posted more, was it frequent throughout the day or grouped together?
  2. Which account got more retweets or shares, mentions and overall response?
  3. Were there any similarities in the stories, if so how were the reporting of the events different?
  4. Which account saw a more positive user engagement? Why might that be?

My goal is to see what type of information a twitter user notices and gives reaction to. For example does a political story about Syria or a “Top 5” blog from Cosmo rake in more web-traffic?

We as a society do most of our day to day activities online but how much of that information do we actually process and are we jaded or indifferent to the current events of the world and more interested in what’s keeping us entertained. By following both these twitter feeds over a month’s time I hope to see overall which twitter account garnishes more regular recognition and engagement. Both accounts are big names in their respective worlds and are widely recognized names.

At the end of the project I plan to answer the following in my final product,

  1. Which account consistently had more user engagement? Was it positive, negative or neutral?
  2. Which account posted more regularly and was that a factor?
  3. Formulate a hypothesis with the collected data as to why one was more favored over the other.
  4. Does this data suggest a change in the type of information we prefer to see online?

Viral posts are a norm online and often we will see the same story told through multiple channels and we all have a favorite source. However is that source a cookie cutter news outlet like CNN or FOX or is it a blog like the gothamist or Cosmo. I hope to gage whether or not there is a preference among twitter users and if so what it is.

The only variation to my project that i am on the fence about is potentially following two types of each account for example CNN and FOX and Cosmo and US weekly to better back up any results i may find. Overall though the general idea is news vs. entertainment.

NEW ‘MOMENTS’ IN TWITTER

As a non-Twitter Tweeter, I must say that the new feature is quite refreshing. The usual chaos of Twitter has always been a turn off for me. According to, Twitter’s Moments Will To Tame the Chaos, by Farhad Manjoo,

“The feature, called Moments, tries to transform Twitter’s chaotic timeline into a series of narratives that are easily navigated by people who aren’t familiar with the service’s strange rituals.”

Now with this new addition it is easy to filter through the piles of trending content;  at a first glance shines lights on the changes in the filtering process of hashtags and the actual nature of a hashtag, the archiviblity of twitter, the curating of these said moments, and the actual meaning of a moment. However, it does raise the question of how all this content is being complied:

  1. How are these moments being filtered?
  2. Are “moments of the moment” based on the number of tweets?
  3. In what ways does this addition differ from other Social media feeds that offer the same categorical trending feature?
  4. Is this a loss or a gain for Twitter in the sense that they lose their identity of being the social media that allows users to bounce from one topic to another, or is it a gain because it opens to being a more organized and better structured medium?
  5. How are these moments curated and by whom?
  6. Are moments viewed in different ways via different mediums (smart phones vs. computer screens)?
  7. How long do these moments last?
  8. What are the ethical responsibilities of Twitter in this new feature to Tweets and their content?
  9. How has the Terms and Services changed based on this addition? Has it changed?

How do you feel about this new moment in Twitter’s history? Where do you think it goes from here? How long do think it will last? Will Twitter’s Moments only last a moment?

Twitter: The power of a retweet

http://prezi.com/rbn9g9rp3tdo/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Abstract

Twitter, launched on March 21, 2006, is a popular social media platform which has millions of users world wide. Twitter is unique because posts are limited to 140 characters, meaning you have to say what you want to say and get to the point.Twitter is used by many organizations to reach their customers, fans or supporters and to gain new marketing strategies. A powerful aspect of twitter though is a users ability to retweet posts, meaning you can forward, share and comment on things ranging from political posts, breaking news, weather and things as simple as comedy. Retweeting is both a blessing and a curse because a positive message as well as a negative one can be spread relatively quickly. There is no stopping a post once it gets going, even if the original poster removes the content its been copied so many times getting it back is almost never an option. However all in all twitter has a positive reputation in the social media community and continues to build its brand. Retweeting or just tweeting in general is specific to Twitters brand and it’s how people distinguish where a personal social media content came from. Donald trump has a major following and his tweets both good and bad get dragged all over the Twitterverse sometimes within minutes, showing just how quickly a retweet can spread.

Prezi Summary

This presentation was the first time I had ever heard of prezi let alone used it. I have to admit it was a bit of a challenge because it proves to be much more complex than power point. In my first ten minutes I had circles flying all over my screen, talk about overwhelming. Once I got the hang of it though I organized my content in sequential order, starting at what I was going to be talking about and then the sub topic within it. I typed out all the content and then I fixed the sizing, font and spacing. Once I had all my content in those tricky little circles I played with moving them around the screen and seeing where they looked best but also made the most sense. My big blunder though came when I added the background after I placed the circles, meaning I had to totally redo it when I chose the background.. oops! After all was said and done though I thought prezi was kind of cool though I didn’t find it to be more professional than power point.

 

Social Media’s Effects on Writing and Language

How do I even begin to define language? Dictionary.com describes language as a body of words and the systems for their use common to a people who are of the same community or nation, the same geographical area, or the same cultural tradition. But I believe language to be more than that. I think it can be viewed as a journey in connecting people, things and giving them an chance to co-exist. As I look to dictionary.com to define writing, I realize there is no true words that can define writing or what has been written or the act of writing. The one word that comes close to writing seems to be magic. Writing is magic because its an art of producing art, despite how mundane that may sound. It’s magic and beauty in the purest of sense.

In Chapter 8 of the Carroll textbook (pg. 253) he says “Both Twitter and the telegraph have been blamed for erosion of language. Email, texting, Facebooking, and chat, too, are likely having a corrosive effect on language.” I was surprised by the bold claim Carroll made about the effects social media has had on writing. When I look further into it, Carroll does have a point. Most of us are participating in emailing, texting, facebooking, tweeting, sharing, instagraming, snapchatting, blogging, and the other mediums and each require the user to be knowledgeable in that space. In addition to the users being knowledgable on how to communicate in these spaces, the way in which they communicate in the space is extremely important. The way in which a composer speaks on a blog or sends a tweet or a Facebook post is entirely different. Sites like Twitter, limit the user to 140 characters to convey his or her thoughts. For this purpose the user must use language that pertains to that audience and the space. By using these many medium they all play a role in our language.  Our communication styles on these platforms significantly affect how we write. Some of these habits make their way into our professional careers or school work. Social media is giving new meaning to writing whether or not we see it as a affordance or a constraint. Even the dictionary has changed. Words like seflie, bruh, fleek, awesomesauce, manspreading, etc.  has someway made it into the dictionary. It is absolutely no doubt the impact of social media and generating new words will have on the way in which we digest information.

Like all things, discourse as we know it, language as we know it, is being redefined by social media. This new development in social media has given new meaning to words such as friend, like, tweet, hashtag. These words are more actionable than before which creates new meaning and new communities. This impressive online community and the way in which they communicate in a short 140 character can have a detrimental effect on language. Many of the our short/crafted responses are limited to characters which leaves many of room for grammatical error for example:

 

JB Tweet

JB Tweet

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You're

You’re

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Awesome-Twitter-Grammar

 

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The beautiful art of writing and language is suffering due to social media and it’s up to us to be the guardians of our art.