Social media is an important aspect of our lives in many ways. It keeps us in touch with friends, loved ones, and helps us meet new people. It also helps us make a name for ourselves and show others how creative we can be. A few examples of these sites are Facebook, Twitter, and Dailymotion.However the most impactful site by today’s standards is none other than Youtube. Youtube is a place where anyone can post videos and share them with the world ranging from educational, comedy, or animation. Other individuals have access to these videos at anytime they please and can comment on how they feel about the video they just watched. Youtube can be used for business purposes and for those who become Youtube Partners and Youtube Partners can even make profit from the content they produce. While all of this seems like nothing but positive points about Youtube, it also seems to suffer from many things that negatively affect other social media sites such as Cyber – Bullying, hate comments towards an individual, and discrimination against race, gender, and religion. I assert that Youtube affects the behaviors of many individuals in a negative, cruel way. In this essay, I will perform the following: provide information about Youtube’s effect on an individual, how it could affect the completion of daily tasks, and how it can change someone’s mind frame entirely.

Second, Youtube seems like a harmless little website in which you just watch or upload videos for the world to see but in actuality, many people don’t see harmful it can be to someone’s well being. For instance, young adults who use social media sites such as Youtube are the ones at a bigger risks than most individuals due to the fact that they are exposed to hateful, cruel comments that they don’t want to hear. One quote that supports this claim is, “ Social media data such as weblog contents are more promising sources to gauge the public mood. Despite the diversity of content at an individual level, the aggregate of millions of social media data points may provide a pragmatic representation of public mood”(Won, Par. 3). In other words, today’s media can change the way people see themselves because they will get the feeling that they’re imperfect and hideous. After talking to one of my peers who frequently uses Youtube on a daily basis, he had this to say, “ I don’t feel that people should interact with each other in such a negative way because in the end, they just come as insecure jerks. For example, a young girl named Amanda Todd created a Youtube video before she committed suicide and the viewers in the comment section, rather than respect her memory, they instead said that she deserved to die” (Nazmus, par. 3). In other words, rather than using the comment section for a tool for feedback for the content creator or create decent conversation, people nowadays just use to complain about random things they don’t like or bring down others just to brighten up their own day. Some content creators on Youtube are afraid of doing certain things to diversify their videos because they don’t know how their audience will react to it. It seems that Youtube is slowly becoming a site where viewers just sit down and complain about everything and enjoy oppressing video makers into doing whatever they want them to. Online bullying is never ok in any sense and maybe these few individuals don’t see what their doing but, what they don’t realize how their actions are affecting others in negative ways. I have also seen some of these instances when I go Youtube as a casual user and content creator. Some of things that I’ve been exposed to in recent memory have been controversies involving equality in Gaming, which mostly has to do with GamerGate and radical feminists such as Anita Sarkeesian. But what does this have to do with Cyber – Bullying on Youtube? Well, quite a lot actually. People like Anita Sarkeesian and Zoe Quinn act as if they are victims of online bullying but they only do so just to get attention while young teens or adults are actually being attacked for being who they are.

While Cyber – Bullying on social media sites such as Youtube may be hard to avoid, there are many ways to get around the negativity that occurs on the site everyday. For instance, if you are a content creator who isn’t very fond of negative criticism, then maybe disable the comments altogether so you don’t need to be exposed to them. Mean comments usually stem from personal insecurities or for one’s selfish desires for joy. Another option would be just to ignore it, you should know that things other people say about you aren’t true anyway so you should just shake it off and move on with your day. You shouldn’t let it bother you to the point that you fall into a state of depression, which could eventually lead to suicide. But, you can also use Youtube to lighten up your day such as watching some comedy videos or listening to your favorite songs to relax. One quote that also adds on to this is, “YouTube brings benefits to children and teenagers, including enhancing communication, broadening social connections, and learning technical skills” (McBride, Par. 3). This means that Youtube can be used for a lot more than just traditional means that most people take it for. Another benefit of using Youtube is the fact that you could easily spread awareness about serious topics such as Cyber – Bullying so others who may not know about these problems or at least know what to expect when using any social media outlet. Lastly, if you are concerned about the world may think of you as a person, then maybe it would be a good idea to practice good common sense while on the internet. Once you upload a video on the internet, it will be there for a long time so the best thing to do is to consider what you are going to put on Youtube beforehand.

In conclusion, I have argued that Youtube affects the behaviors of many individuals in a negative, cruel way and could even drive someone into depression or even suicide. Even though Youtube contains a large amount of vulgar language that may offend people and make them feel horrible about themselves, I feel that the individuals that use Youtube will eventually learn how to respect each other as users of the site. As human beings, we shouldn’t be so harsh and cruel to each other considering that there is so much violence in today’s world as it is. So many young lives were taken due to the dangers of social media sites such as Youtube and the people who use it. Hopefully, as time passes on, young teens and adults don’t have to worry about Cyber – Bullying and can live comfortable, normal lives and could feel; confident about who they are as a person. In my opinion, Youtube should just be a place where anyone of any race, gender, and religion could enjoy themselves with watching online videos of their own interests.

Works CIted:

Won, Hong-Hee, et al. “Predicting National Suicide Numbers With Social Media Data.” Plos ONE 8.4 (2013): 1-6. Academic Search Complete. Web. 8 Dec. 2015.

McBride, Deborah L. “Risks and Benefits of Social Media for Children and Adolescents.” N.p., n.d. Web.

Tanway, Nazmus, Interview. 8 Dec. 2015

My name is Marcus Lauren Lamothe. I am currently eighteen years old and attending New York City College of Technology. The official name of the degree that I am pursuing is a Bachelor in Communication Design. With the skills that gain from my courses at City Tech, I will be able to do a lot more in the means of designing various things such as beautiful logos for companies. I feel that Communicative Design is the best for me because it allows me to go further in depth about my passion within the design field. I’ve always been passionate about various forms of art ever since I was young. A few other reasons I went into this major is so I could share my creativity with the world and leave my landmark on tomorrow’s society. In this essay, I will discuss the following: I will provide some background on Communicative Design, my reasons for why I chose this major and how it connects me as an artist, and explain how I plan to excel in my future career.

Second, what is Communicative Design you may ask? Well, in small terms, Communicative Design is the combination of technology and design used as an alternative means of communication with others. Some examples of these would be T.V. commercials, advertisements, and other sources which would then be used to convey or promote a message to others. According to the City Tech College Catalog, “Graduates of the Communicative Design bachelor of technology (Btech) degree program are prepared to obtain employment as designers, junior art directors, and art directors in advertising, graphic designers, art directors, web designers, broadcast designers, animators and game graphics designers” (City Tech Catalog 200). In other words, with a Bachelor degree in Communicative Design, you will be able not only  learn about various forms of visual communication but also, you will have a large array of career possibilities that you can access due to all of the knowledge and experience that you’ve gained. Also, this career path mostly caters to those who have creative and expansive minds to conjure up new, innovative content that the world hasn’t seen before. In a way, I plan to be a “Steve Jobs of Design” in the near future, as in becoming a great innovator in the Graphic Design industry. One of the benefits of graduating after finishing  four years in Communication Design, according to the City Tech College Catalog, “graduates of the program have been employed by such organizations as Jc Penny, ABC-TV, SONY, Saatchi and Saatchi Advertising, Marriott, Book of the Month Club, DC Comics, Metropolitan Transit Authority, Simon & Schuster, McGraw-Hill, Draft-FCB Advertising, Fairchild Publications, Citicorp, Grey Advertising and many others” (City Tech Catalog 200). From this statement alone, you can see that a career in Communicative Design allows you to fully explore your creativity in ways not seen before. The more that I learn about what I could do in my chosen major, the more invested I become towards my career goal. This also shows that there are many open doors for new designers to make a visual difference in our society. The most important thing to me as a soon to be member of society is to do a job that I love, not one that I will regret doing.

Though with the challenges of many career fields, Communication Design is not an easy job to get into. Along with a powerful, creative mind, you have to be willing to work extremely hard and even do multiple tasks at once. There is a lot of pressure that I will have to endure but I’m sure that when the time comes, I’ll be ready for anything. According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, “Employment of graphic designers is projected to grow 7 percent from 2012 – 2022, slower than then the average for all occupations. Graphic designers are expected to face strong competition for all available positions” (U.S. Sect. 5). In other words, the demand for Graphic Designers are estimated to greatly increase by each year so there will be a small gap for new designers to enter into the industry and show the world their creativity. When I was in highschool, I became more aware of the risk of entering this industry but, even with all the potential dangers of doing so, I wasn’t afraid of what I would have to face in the near future. I’m confident in my skills as a designer and I’ve come too far to just give up just because the task at hand maybe too difficult. According to an article on Graphic Design, “ When we think of Graphic Communications(which we don’t very often), newspapers and magazines usually come to mind but, the industry is much broader than this initial thought” (Cary, 24). In a sense, there is so much more to Graphic Design than what most people thought because, Graphic Design is shown in many forms such as Building Design and the creation of advertisements or commercials that are later released to the public. After reading this article, I also learned a bit more about Communication Design after seeing how it could be applied to other real world aspects within our daily lives.

In conclusion, I believe that Communication Design is the best path for me because, I have always loved to draw and show my creativity to others so I decided to go along this road. In this day and age, our world is lacking the same spark or amazement that is use to have. What do I mean by this? Without Communication Design(or Graphic Design), our world would be bland and grey, just more of the same scenery everywhere you go. I said to myself, “If I am going to choose a career that I will be doing for the rest of my life, I want to pursue a career that enjoy and love”. As for my current plans to pursue my career in Communication Design, I will complete my last three years at City Tech and then, I plan to work  for big name companies such as Sony and FOX to advertise or help in the creation of new series’. I’ve already learned many of the basics of design and technology but, after my time at City Tech, I will have all the skills I need to excel in my career. Every year, there are more and more designers that steps up to create a visual change in our society and I plan to do just that. I’m glad that I among many other individuals has the chance to make their passion into a lifelong career. That’s why I decided to go to college in the first place, to aid me in my goal to change the world.

Works Cited:

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2015.

Cary, Jana. “Careers In Graphic Communications.” Tech Directions 59.10 (2000): 24. Academic Search Complete. Web. 8 Nov. 2015.

New York City College of Technology College Catalog 2015 – 2016(CityTech). New York: NYCCT,2015. Web. 8 Nov. 2015.

Hello, my name is Marcus Lauren Lamothe or you can also refer to me as the future leader of tomorrow. I’m eighteen years old and currently attending New York City College of Technology. The major I am currently going for is the field of Communicative Design. As for me, my favorite interests consists of playing video games, drawing manga characters, watching anime. In the means of illustration, I have always been very passionate about drawing ever since I was young and was mostly due to the fact that it gave me a positive outlet for expressing my emotions and creating stories straight from my imagination. Its like creating an entire universe with nothing but a pencil and paper. To me, anime is in a different level (visually) from a normal cartoon, not only through art style but it’s movie like and captivating nature to drag in audiences of all ages. In addition to all of these interests, video games are an important part of my life for various reasons such as emotional support through my hardest times, teaching me how to think for myself, and making me a more confident individual. Many people wouldn’t really take video games as seriously as gamers would mostly because they would compare it to something like toys in the means that eventually we grow out of it but what many people do not realize is how inspiring video games could be to someone.

Ever since I was young, I’ve always loved to play video games. It was kind of like love at first sight or discovering a new environment you’ve never been to. From its music to its level design, characters, and the new stories that they tell, you weren’t just playing the game anymore, you were experiencing it. Anyway, when people are at their low points in life, they would usually try to find some kind of outlet like overeating or crying however for me, I would just play video games. Video games or as I like to call them, digital pastimes (mostly because so much time passes while playing them), has gotten me through so many emotional moments in my life such as a death of a friend or a relationship breakup. How you may ask? Well, rather than sitting down and giving up on life like most people, I decided that something that would help cheer me up or boost up my spirits would be doing something like slaying a massive armies of demons or beating people in a game of Street Fighter and setting people on fire with your bare fists, shouting out words you don’t know the meaning to like “Shoryuken!!”. When you are engaged in these thrill rides, you’ve already forgotten what made you so sad or angry in the first place. All of your emotion was washed away  moments ago after speeding through seven zones at supersonic speeds. In my opinion, it is one of the best feelings because everything just feels right in the world again.

Nowadays, its very important to be able to think for yourself because that is the main thing that forms your personality. What does this have to do with video games? Quite a lot actually. As I play and finish various games, like everyone, I would summarize the game in the means of how I felt about it or how the game was in general. Based on experience, you would either say you enjoyed it or despised it. Its also kind of funny to see how people react to the fact that you don’t like the game that they like. This seems like a little problem to most people but to gamers, it was like an invitation to start a war. I honestly would not believe how offended others became just because I respectfully criticized a product that I didn’t find that enjoyable or worth my time. In the same means of reviewing a movie, giving an honest opinion about a game will not only benefit any interested consumer but it is also like free promotion that could help developers make better games. I don’t buy games that people tell me to buy because in reality, that doesn’t show that I could think for myself and I would just bend to anyone’s will. Yeah it’s just a video game but for all I know, this could apply to any situation kind of like peer pressure. Anyway, I’m going to keep this mentality because overall, it makes me a smarter consumer for following my own instinct.

Confidence is something that an individual develops overtime (it also means the will to succeed) but in my case, I could say that I got most of my inspiration from characters I got to know and love. Video game heros such as Link, Dante, and Nathan Drake go against unspeakable odds just save the world and risk everything to do so. How does this apply to me exactly? Growing up, I was not a very confident person, I didn’t feel like I could excel very well at things such as playing sports or anything else for that matter. It’s like how young boys get inspired to play basketball after watching Lebron James or Kobe play the way they play, but more importantly they never gave up. Now, I can say that I’m a more confident in myself than I ever was before mostly because I could actually speak in front of large audiences and not feel intimidated to express myself. The funny thing is most of my confidence comes from the video games that I’ve played in the past. There was also other important people in my life that helped me out with many obstacles in my way. I would still have to say that video games help me in more ways than I could count. Yet again many would say “oh it’s just a videogame” but for people like me, it goes quite a long way to as it just being a little distraction like watching TV or anything else like that. What I mean by this is that people don’t realize how much you can learn from a video game. In a way, video games teach about important life lessons such as trial and error. In reality, you will make some mistakes here and there and you will become very frustrated when you can’t solve the problem directly. That is how a game challenges and provokes you, it tries to push you into a situation where if you want to escape, you have to use your knowledge and wit to beat a challenge and in turn, you feel a sense of accomplishment and you learn from the mistakes that you’ve made previously and therefore makes you smarter.

Overall, I feel that video games are much more important compared to movies or plays because it connects more with the audience in so many ways from it visuals, soundtracks, and gameplay. It was an escape from the rustle and bustle of modern day because in all honesty, life can be pretty stressful and tragic but turning on a video game and having a great time gives you a peaceful feeling and is also relaxing. I feel that video games can make a player go through a variety of different feelings such as a sense of accomplishment or anger maybe because you constantly lose at a level. This is just an example of how easily a video game can bring you into its world, you feel like you are actually in the game that you’re playing because it is that immersive. Nowadays, as I’m getting older, it’s not about your high score any more, it’s not about how fast you could finish a level, it’s all about the general experience. You are the one going to stop the oncoming threat, you are the one who got smarter and stronger for each level, and as an end result, you became better at the game you played. Additionally, I feel that in a very small way, video games can teach you to be a bigger person than you would ever think of before. Anyway, I didn’t choose to become a gamer because I have no life, I chose to be a gamer so I could have many more lives to live.