WRD Documentary

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CoFeg2nMX8&feature=g-crec-u

Short Essay:

For my documentary, my topic was on Twitter and my argument was about the people who you decide to follow and if it is a reflection on you.  I interviewed a few people and had them talk about the reasons why they follow certain people and if the people who they chose to follow have a reflection upon them. This was my argument in this project. I got pretty good shots and film for this but if I had more time I think I could have interviewed more people and got more shots. I interviewed these girls who became best friends from meeting on Twitter. I was glad that worked out and that I have found people who actually follow each other who didn’t know each other but ended up being friends. I wanted to interview more people but that didn’t work because a lot of people that I had asked didn’t want to speak in front of a camera. If I had more time I probably would have liked to get shots of people around campus interacting with each other and have them talking about my topic. I would have liked to film them having a conversation with each other about my topic so it looks very natural and maybe easier for people to talk with the camera in their face. I achieved in having a good amount of people talk about the topic and who they follow and why it is a reflection upon them and who they like to surround themselves with. I came up short with shots so it is mostly just people talking. I wanted to have their voices over the pictures I added but that didn’t work for me to well. All my questions in this was answered and I believe that my argument in my documentary is clear and understanding and something that will catch other’s attention.

Shooting Schedule

I plan to start filming for my documentary on Monday and get as much shots as I can on that day and Tuesday. I want to be done with the interviews by friday. I have four people in mind that I want to interview next week. The week after that I plan on starting the narration that I plan on using in the film.
The questions that I have in mind that I am going to ask are:
Why do you follow people who you do not know?
Why do you not follow people who you do know?
Do you follow people who you do not like? If so why?
Why do you unfollow people?
What does this say about you?
What makes you want to start communicating with someone you know nothing about?
Have you met friends on Twitter? How?

Scrpit Rough Draft

For my documentary I am going to interview a few people and have them talk about the reasons why they follow people they do not know or like on Twitter and why they do not follow back people they do know and why do they unfollow people. I am going to be filming them sometime next week. I am not sure how many people I am going to interview. I am also going to interview people who became friends off of Twitter. The interviews will take place around campus. I want to take a few shots of the campus and maybe some shots of Twitter if I can and do some narration over some of this. I am hoping that their answers will explain the reasons behind the follow button on Twitter and if it really tells the people who we like to surround ourselves with.

Final Documentary Proposal

For my documentary, I am going to find out why people choose to follow certain people on Twitter and why they do not follow other people back. I am going to find out why people follow others who they do not know or never met. What makes you want to follow people you do not know but not follow people you do know? What makes people want to unfollow others? Why do you continue to follow someone who doesn't follow you back? My audience is going to be UK freshmen. I plan on interviewing college freshmen on campus to get the information that I need. I want to ask people if they follow back everybody that follows them and if not, why. I will be asking why they follow people they do not know and if so have they ever met them in person. If I can I would like to find people who actually became friends on Twitter. I want to ask them what made them follow each other since they didn't know each other at all. I want them to let us know how did they start talking to each other and did they feel like friends before actually meeting. Another thing I would like to know is if they appeared the same in person from what you thought of them on Twitter. What made them want to meet in person?  I will be shooting the documentary all around the campus and take some shots outdoors as well as indoors. I plan on talking to the people that I became friends with on Twitter and ask them these questions. I would like to talk to my followers and the people that I follow and film them being interviewed. 

This is important because I want the audience to know that the people who you follow may tell who you want to surround yourself with or have things in common with or who you want to be. What does this say about you?

My thesis will be if you can’t change the people around you, CHANGE the people around you. If you don’t like a person that you follow you can easily change that by unfollowing them. It is like choosing the people that you surround yourself with. You can change it by a click of a button.

I can arrange the footage by first talking about this topic, showing shots of the campus and then showing the people I am going to interview. The last part of the documentary I want to show people telling the story of the friend or friends they met on Twitter without knowing them first. If I can I would like to have both of them together in  the footage talking about how did they became connected over a social site.

I plan on doing all the filming within a week or two. This should be enough time to get all the footage that I will need to use for this documentary.

Documentary Proposal

For my documentary, I want to find out if people act a certain way on Twitter than they do in person and why. What makes them want to appear on Twitter a different person than who they really are? Are they trying to be someone who they can’t be in person? I want to know why some people decide to make their pages private and why some decide to keep theirs public. When you set your Twitter to private you decide who can follow you. I want to know do they not feel comfortable letting a stranger view their tweets and they ones that keep theirs public they must not care.   Along with this I want to know why people choose to follow certain people and why they do not follow other people back. I am going to find out why people follow others who they do not know or never met. What makes you want to follow people who you do not know or don’t follow people back who you do know? What makes people want to unfollow others? Why do you continue to follow someone who doesn't follow you back? I want to find out if Twitter is only used among college and high school students. Why is it popular among younger generations. I plan on interviewing people on campus to get the information that I need. If I can, I would like to interview people back home. I want to ask people if they follow back everybody that follows them and if not, why. I will be asking why they follow people they do not know and if so have they ever met them in person. If I can I would like to find people who actually became friends on Twitter. I want to ask them what made them follow each other since they didn't know each other at all. I want them to let us know how did they start talking to each other and did they feel like friends before actually meeting. Another thing I would like to know is if they appeared the same in person from what you thought of them on Twitter. What made them want to meet in person? I will be shooting the documentary around the campus and take some shots outdoors as well as indoors. I plan on talking to the people that I became friends with on Twitter and ask them these questions. I would like to talk to my followers and the people that I follow and film them being interviewed. 

Link to Movie

http://youtu.be/frm0NemSrKE

Works Cited

http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&sa=G&biw=1366&bih=600&tbm=isch&tbnid=quh7wxDcc9WzIM:&imgrefurl=http://www.sheknows.com/love-and-sex/articles/824685/relationship-rules-for-facebook&docid=Z344KTWOgo7pVM&imgurl=http://cdn.sheknows.com/articles/2011/03/facebook_heart.png&w=256&h=256&ei=vXuPUK6_DKnC0QGEjYFw&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=2&sig=118041852940583496692&page=1&tbnh=136&tbnw=132&start=0&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,i:92&tx=568&ty=290

http://www.greenlights.org/blog/2011/03/31/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-twitter/i-love-twitter/

http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&biw=1517&bih=666&tbm=isch&tbnid=dUr3eF1JafO3iM:&imgrefurl=http://www.my-diary.org/&docid=NikMpFl_QPgiCM&imgurl=http://www.my-diary.org/images/toshbook7.jpg&w=399&h=240&ei=oXyPUKrfAfS_0QH16ICoBw&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=180&sig=118041852940583496692&page=1&tbnh=135&tbnw=250&start=0&ndsp=3&ved=1t:429,i:141&tx=184&ty=35

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOh3hNqiof4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0EF4nqhNHY

Dark days

This documentary “Dark Day” really connects to the audience and has a clear message. This showed a lot of detail. The characters show and talk about how they became homeless and their struggles through all of this. They talk about all they have been through and their struggles and hustles to make it and survive through the bad times during that part of their life. They all lived in a dark tunnel right near a train. This documentary shows them from the bottom and them trying to make it in life. They were barely surviving. Finally you see them happy when they each get an apartment of their own. They got an opportunity in life to live better. They started out on the bottom and worked their way up to the top.

The color through this whole documentary was black and white. These colors are dark, dull, plain and boring. These colors represent them living in a dark and dull and plain place with lives that were not exciting. The intense music during these frames shows the lives of these guys and how they just dragged. At the end the music is more happy because they get their own homes. They were not living exiting lives and color brings excitement. Black, white, and gray are not exciting and happy colors. This is why this goes with the shots in this documentary. They were showing their ways to the camera and their everyday struggles. Just being themselves.

The guy talks about how he ended up living the way he did. He says how he was scared at first then realized that no one goes into tunnels anyway because they are scared of what is down there so he somewhat felt like no one was going to mess with them even though they had to deal with the rats. He talks about how leaving in the tunnel he didn't have to worry about things you would have to worry about if he was living in an apartment. He didn't have to worry about paying bills and could basically do whatever he wanted and didn't have to worry about anything. He liked living like this.

After living like this for years the end shows them tearing up and destroying their place in by the tracks. They are moving on to a better life and going to have their own homes. The moods in the documentary change. They are living better and happier lives and never want to go back to the homeless life again.

Just like the other documentaries that we have watched in class, this one leaves you wondering what happens next in their lives. This one leaves me wondering if they continue to be happy with the changes in their lives. It is different because of the tone and mood. This one is black and white throughout the whole thing.

Three ideas

1. How Facebook shows a documentary through your life.
2. How Twitter is like the news.
3. How Twitter is used as a public diary.

Movie

Video Games

I never thought of video games as being art. But now that I think about it I guess you can put it under the category of art. The images, characters, shapes and the actions going on can be described as art. I use to play video games like Mario Kart and Grand Theft Auto. These games did have forms of art.

I never thought of video games having a storyline either. I always saw them as something to do for entertainment and for fun. Nothing you really have to do hard thinking about. It’s just something that people do to relax.

Thinking back on games that I have played, some of them didn’t actually have a storyline. I played games like Mario Kart a lot, Grand Theft Auto, and Mortal Kombat. They were just racing, killing and fighting. There wasn’t a story to these games. Just to play for the fun of it.

There are other games that told stories. Learning games that I would play when I was younger. I think they did tell better stories then literature because it is easier to remember and understand. Some things that you may learn from a book may be boring and may find yourself less interested in it. In the game it may be easier to understand.

Depending on the game I do think that video games can tell stories better than literature. But in other games there are no storylines. All games do not have storylines but all games are considered art.

Storyboard

I chose this picture because in the beginning i use the metaphore of how twitter is a diary.

I use this one becausse I talk about Twitter

I talk about facebook in the second parapgraph



I use this one because I talk about meeting my boyfriend on facebook



This one goes with the second paragraph

second paragrapgh

second paragraph

I chose this picture when I talk about meeting friends on twitter

this goes with the third paragraph when I talk about frends

third paragraph

third paragraph

The first song that is going to be played is Sure Thing by Miguel. The second song that is going to be played is Right By Your Side by Nicki Minaj and Chris Brown.

Music Tracks

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0EF4nqhNHY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOh3hNqiof4
The two songs I chose was Sure Thing by Miguel and Right by Your Side by Nicki Minaj and Chris Brown. The first song relates to the begining when im talkin about meeting my bf on facebook. The second song relates to the last part of the essay when I talked about meeting friends from UK on Twitter. I'm using this song as if I was saying I couldn't live without Twitter.

Screen shots of music video



Intro of the video. Shows them as a couple and talks about how they met.




Shows them as a very close and loving family.




She gets a call about her having to leave for deployment.




Says bye to her husband and daughter as she leaves for deployment.




She is talking to her family over webcam.




Fighting in the war.



Trey taking care of the his daughter while his wife is away.

Hard for him to sleep when she is not there with him on her side of the bed.

The soliders come to the house to tell him that she died in the war.



He is sad about the news that his wife is no longer coming back.




The message in this video.



Music Video Analysis

The video I chose was “Your Side of the Bed” by Trey Songz. I heard the song before I saw the music video. When I heard the song I assumed it was about his girlfriend or wife leaving him or walked out on him and he didn’t know if she was coming back or leaving him for good. The title of the song your side of the bed is saying that when she is not there at night, her side of the bed is very lonely and he can’t sleep when she is not laying there with him. When I watched the video I realized that I was wrong. The video is very emotional. His wife in this video is a soldier in the United States Army. When she has orders to be deployed and has to go overseas for the war, both of them are very upset. He is saying that when she is not there on her side of the bed he is lonely and can’t sleep because he stays up worrying about her and he misses her. In the song he says he doesn’t know if she is gone for good or returning in the morning. By just listening to the song I thought he meant he doesn’t know if she was going to come back to him. When I watched the video he is saying that he doesn’t know if she will return home from war or be gone for good. This video is emotional because it shows her in Iraq and them communicating over webcam with their baby girl. Then it shows her at war. The next scene it shows soldiers coming to his house with the American Flag to tell him that she has died in the war. Then it shows him crying while holding their daughter. This video is very emotional and you can feel his emotions in this. I think the message in this whole video was to support our troops. They sacrifice their life to fight for our country. I can somewhat relate to this because my dad is in the Army. Some people may not realize how important they are and how families are really affected by this and how much they worry every time they have to leave for deployment.

TIB rough draft

Twitter is a diary. Facebook is similar to this as well. Social media is that mutual friend that gets you acquainted.  I didn’t think about it like that before. On these sites I easily talk to people that I do not know. I believe in Social Networks and how it makes communication easier and how it lets you come out of your shell to say things that you normally wouldn’t say in person.

Both of these sites made it easy for me to talk to people. I am a quiet person so talking to new people can be difficult. Two years ago I met my boyfriend in this driving class. He added me on Facebook that same week. Every time he seen that I was online he instant messaged me. We went to different high schools so we barely seen each other unless we made plans to meet up or accidently ran into each other at Wal-Mart. Me and him would chat on Facebook about five times a week for a little over a month. After that we started to hang out and been doing good ever since. It wasn’t awkward to talk to him when I hung out with him for the first time because I felt like I knew him pretty well since we talked so much online. Therefore I was comfortable.

 Making friends can take me a while.  Before I came to college, I met a lot of people on Twitter that were in the same boat as me. I was going to be a freshman at the University of Kentucky and wasn’t going to know a lot of people. I had this is in common with plenty of the people that I met on Twitter this past summer. During the summer I talked to a lot of them and can relate to plenty of their tweets. I would start a conversation with them and they would start a conversation with me. We built a bond over this site so when I got to campus I met a lot of them in person so I already had friends when I arrived to college. The first weeks arriving on campus it was helpful knowing people that I can hang out with and have things in common with.

Social Networks act as that mutual friend that gets you acquainted. Twitter and Facebook makes it easy to talk to people especially the ones that I don’t know very well. I probably wouldn’t have known the people I do know now if it wasn't for these sites. These haven’t been just a social network to me, but my life.

This I Believe draft

Twitter is a life’s daily timeline. Twitter is a diary. Twitter is a combination of both of these. Twitter shows news and events.  I didn’t think about it like that before. But I record my daily life on this media. I record my journey in everyday’s activities. I record my personal feelings that I do not mind sharing to the public or my followers. I am informed with events going on around me. I believe in Twitter and how I can easily express myself.  Tweets are an addiction.

 A few years ago I had a completely different opinion. I created a Twitter account when I was in the 9^th grade which was in 2009. I thought it was pointless so I never got on it. I didn’t get it so I didn’t put it to use.  My opinion completely changed years later when I began to use Twitter on the regular basis at the beginning of my senior year last year in 2011. I saw it as enjoyment and entertainment.  

I believe Twitter makes is easy to talk to people. I am a quiet person so talking to new people can be difficult. Making friends can take a while.  Before I came to college, I met a lot of people on here that were in the same boat as me. I was going to be a freshman at the University of Kentucky and wasn’t going to know a lot of people. I had this is in common with plenty of the people that I met on Twitter this past summer. During the summer I talked to a lot of them and can relate to plenty of their tweets. I would start a conversation with them and they would start a conversation with me. We built a bond over this site so when I got to campus I met a lot of them in person so I already had friends when I arrived to college.

I believe Twitter is helpful. I am always informed about what is happening around me. I tweet daily and I read tweets daily. When I want to know something I tweet about it and I get answers. Events going on around campus I am informed. The first weeks arriving on campus it was helpful knowing people that I can hang out with and have things in common with. I posted tweets about when was the game or when is this party and was instantly informed. I can easily creep on people and contact anyone with no problem especially if I don’t have their phone number. I am usually nosey and enjoy creeping and reading about drama and gossip. Things like this flood my Timeline. I use this site as my public diary. I tweet my feelings that I am unable to say. I can be myself and say whatever I want because my parents or older family members don’t use Twitter. Well for now that is.

I believe that twitter is a life’s daily timeline and dairy. If anyone were to scroll through my tweets and my timeline they would see what I do in my everyday life. My feelings are recorded and how I spent my night. I believe Twitter makes it easy to talk to people because I probably wouldn’t have known the people I do now. Twitter hasn’t been just a social network to me, but my life.

TIB that didn't interest me

The “This I Believe” essay I listened to was called “Never Give Up” by Mary Curran Hackett. She was talking about every since she was young her father always givin her and her siblings lectures on life and how to achieve to be the best. He started these lectures when she was only five years old. In sports, if she were to miss a free throw or got three strikes, her father would lecture about that. This is something she went through her whole life. Her father would also tell her to never give up on anything. Only the strongest survive. She felt like no matter how hard she worked or how hard she tried he was always giving her and her siblings lectures. He would always say if you give up you will never win and someone else would take over. She didn’t care too much for the lectures. She got pregnant young and was living alone and was about to be a single mother. She called her dad saying that she has givin up. She felt like she disappointed him and couldn’t look at him in the face when they packed up the apartment and drove back home. She then realized her father never gave up on her so now she wasn’t going to start giving up on herself. She suffered through the struggle of having to raise a child on her own and working and not having a lot of money. Every day she heard her father’s voice in her head and realized that she will never give up. I wasn’t interested in this story when I first started listing to it. It didn’t seem like anything that I could relate to. As I got closer to the end of the story I began to like it. I didn’t know it was going to end the way it did. It sounded to me that her father was strict and that didn’t interest me to listen or read this story. It was a good story in my opinion. She realized in the end her father’s words meant so much when she needed him the most.

TIB Becoming a Parent Is a Gift

Becoming a Parent Is a Gift is the “This I Believe” essay that I just listened to. Chris Huntington is the author of this essay. He and his wife wanted a child so bad but they were unable to have one. This made both of them very depressed because they really wanted a child of their own. Since they couldn’t have a child the old fashioned way, they decided to consider adoption. He believed that a family doesn’t always have to be traditional. His child doesn’t have to look like him but he wants to be a father. He and his wife adopted a Chinese girl. He wanted to give this girl a family and open up their home to her since her parents didn’t want her. This wasn’t the only reason. He wanted to be a father. It brought joy to him to know that he will be raising a baby girl. He was giving her a home and she was giving them a family. It wasn’t important to him anymore that she won’t look anything like them, but she would call him dad and be in a loving home. He grew up knowing about traditional family but considered adoption when he and his wife were unable to have their own children. I really like this essay. As I was listening to the essay, I felt his pain and sadness. I could tell that this was very personal to him. I can feel the emotion in his voice as he was telling the story. I enjoyed listening to Chris tell his story. It was interesting and I felt their pain when he was talking about how upset they were seeing other people with their children or other women pregnant so they decided to stop going to parks. Even though I can’t relate to this story from personal experience I felt the hurt in his voice when listening to this. I felt the joy when he adopted a baby girl and realized that he can finally be a father that he had wanted to be for so long and he can have the family he always wanted.

Speech Outline

Title: Making Life Easier

Intro:
I. Attention Catcher:
You are missing out on life if you  don't have a laptop.

II. Speaker Credibility:
I got my laptop on my 17th birthday and I have been attatched to it since then.

III. LRL:
Everyone should have a laptop because it is very useful and makes things a lot easier.

IV. Thesis: I can't imagine my life without my laptop.

Why is the laptop so great?

Body:
I. Internet
a. I can check my bank account online. Instead of going out to the bank all the time, it is very convient to just log into my account on my laptop.
B. I can access my email. I don't have to go out to a library because I can easily pull it up on my laptop
C. I can find out where a place is if I am not familar or in a new area. I can look on mapquest and google to figure out how to get to a certain location.

My laptop is very helpful with school.

II. School
a. My laptop makes research a lot easier than having to search through books. I can go on search engines like google to get the information I am looking for.
B. Laptop makes writing papers a lot easier. If i make a mistake I can easily correct it without having to start over, earse, or scratch anything out. I can save my work.
C. I can look online for upcoming assignments, check my grades, and email my professors if I question about anything and won't be able to ask them in person.

I love music and I can do things with that on this as well

III. Music
A. I can download music onto my ipod from itunes. Fast and Easy.
B. I can go on youtube and watch music videos that I didn't get a chance to see on TV. Youtube will have the full version of every video.
C. I can listen to my music without having to attach speakers to my ipod. I can play it directly from itunes or youtube.

Keeps me entertained

IV. Entertainment
A. My laptop keeps me entertained on social media sites like Facebook.
B. I can watch movies that I don't have on my laptop and any TV show. Especially if its a new epoisde.
C. I can video chat with friends and family with ovoo and skype on my laptop. Video chatting with these are free.

Conclusion
I. Restatement: If I didn't have a laptop, my life would be so different

II. Summary: With the laptop you can easily access the internet, it's helpful with anything school related, you can look up your favorite music, and keeps you entertatained.

III. Clincher: Once you have expericened the laptop, you'll realize how much it makes your life easier.

Speech overview

I can't imagine my life without my laptop.

I. Internet
a. I can check my banking account.
b. I can access my email.
c. I can find where a place is located.

II. Schoool
a. I can reasearch on search engines like google.
b. I can type all my papers instead of writing them and save my work.
c. I can check my grades or upcoming assignments and email my professors if I have a question.

III. Music
a. I can download music from iTunes onto my ipod.
b. I can look up music videos.
c. I can play music on iTunes without speakers.

IV. Entertainment
a. Social Media like Twitter and Facebook
b. Movies and TV shows especially if you missed a new episode you can look it up and watch it.
c. Games.

Social media Identity Final Copy



Facebook Logo!!



          What exactly is social media and why is it so popular? Social media networks are known for staying connected with friends, communication, meeting new people, sharing pictures and more.  Facebook was the biggest social network in years. Now Twitter is slowly taking over. Facebook was a big part of my life. There was never a day that went by that I did not check facebook at least twice. I use to be a huge fan of Facebook for years along with millions of other people I’m sure. I was addicted. Being an Army Bratt I moved around a lot so it has been very easy for me to stay connected with old friends from facebook. When it first came out Faceboook was the biggest thing. I feel that I have changed a little bit through these social networks from Facebook to Twitter.



Mark Zuckerberg

           Facebook was originally called thefacebook and was founded by Mark Zuckerberg who was a Harvard student.  It spread within months across the Harvard campus and eventually to other universities. When this site became a national student network phenomenon, he dropped out of Hardvard and focused on facebook full time. In 2005 it was officially called Facebook. It was first opened to college students, then it got popular with high school students, then eventually facebook opened up to anyone 13 and up. 

One of my first Facebook pictures in 9th grade.



I made a facebook account when I was in 7^th grade but didn’t start using it till my sophomore year of high school in 2009 which was when MySpace started to fade away. I quickly became attached to Facebook when my friend from school got me hooked on it. Then before I knew it my whole school had a facebook.  I found my old friends on there and was able to stay in touch with them and see what has been going on in their life. I get on there to read the latest news and gossip. I wasn’t the type of person that always posted things every thirty minutes. I was mainly on there to post pictures, read what’s going on, and see what other people have been up to. Honestly, I basically would be nosy. There was always some type of drama going on that I found entertaining. There were always a lot of games to choose from that you could play which I never found interesting. The status I posted was mainly about my day, what I did, or something funny. I would also post quotes and even song lyrics. Just like about anybody else, I liked when I would get notifications that someone liked my post and my pictures. I mean who wouldn’t. Posting things on facebook I was able to show old friends how I have been doing and if I have changed any.



One of my many pictures that I edited.

          When I first started using facebook I was on there all the time. Sometimes I would be on there all day when I was bored on a weekend and during the summer. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one. Even when I had important things I had to do I was always distracted by Facebook.  My parents hated that but I couldn’t help it.  Usually there was always something going on and I didn’t want to miss out. I would always know about any events or parties that are coming up. Anything that went on in my community I was informed about it through facebook. On my facebook page I didn’t want to put personal feelings or show certain emotion. I wanted to appear how I am in person or even better. I liked to come off on facebook as a person that had a fun life and was always doing things. I would post pictures of me at school, hanging with friends, and with my teammates. When I would take pictures to post on facebook, I didn’t just put any kind of picture on there. I would edit my pics (not too much) to make them look nice. Photo editing was very popular and still is. Everybody wants their pics to look cool with all the different effects to choose from. I would spend a lot a time getting my pics to look perfect on websites like PicNik.com. Before I discovered the Facebook app, I could only be on it from a computer. When I realized I could access it on my phone it was a WRAP. Lol. Eventually, Facebook became popular with the older generations, as in my parents and older family members.
          Around my junior year is when parents and older adults started to get into Facebook. My parents and extended family would send me friend requests and I hesitated on accepting them. Having adults on my page from the ages of 30 and up, I really had to watch what I say. I couldn’t post any kind of status that I wanted to because my family members were always watching me and commenting on my stuff. How embarrassing Lol. This past year I haven’t been posting much on Facebook because I have moved on to Twitter.


My first Twitter Picture

           Twitter started in 2006 but didn’t become popular until 2009.  Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone and Evan Williams are part of a company called Odeo that created Twitter. I made an account my freshmen year of High School but didn’t start using it till the beginning of my senior year. It took me a while to get into Twitter because it looked boring. I didn’t get the point of it and really didn’t know how to use it. But just like any other site, when you start to get the hang of it, you become attached. That is exactly what happened to me with Twitter. At first I thought it was stupid. I saw that everybody from my school was getting Twitter accounts so of course that is why I started to get on mine.  I had to keep up with what was the biggest thing. “Follow Me on Twitter” was the phrase everybody was putting in their facebook statuses. As I started to follow people and get followers, Twitter was becoming more and more entertaining. All you do on Twitter is post statuses which or known as “Tweets”. I am extremely addicted to twitter. I guess you can say I’m a Twitter Junkie. I am on there 24/7, literally.  I have a twitter app on my Smartphone which allows me to have access to it all day. I am constantly reading tweets and composing tweets throughout the day. I like to stay connected and twitter keeps me updated more than facebook. I like when I get new Twitter followers. When I post things on Twitter there is usually an audience. This site gives me a bit of a platform to be heard that I don’t get in person. When I get retweets and mentions I feel like I am noticed. Twitter feels like a public diary and an escape for me. My parents and older family members don’t have twitter accounts so I am free to say whatever I want and be myself without having to worry about them reading and having something to say about everything I post. I’m usually quiet so I talk to people easily on Twitter and met a lot of my friends from college on there. I came to college alone so it was good to know some people when I came here. Because of Twitter I stay updated on things going on around campus and stay in the loop.  The students that go to my college are always on my timeline talking about things that I can relate to. Without Twitter, I would have come to college alone and probably would have taken me longer to make friends. On Facebook I wanted to appear more fun but on Twitter I am just being myself as talk about my college life and my experiences.


Most recent picture I last uploaded on Facebook.

          Even though facebook was very big and popular with billions of users, it is slowly getting old and Twitter is taking over. I stopped getting on facebook all the time around November 2011. I still always look back to facebook on all the old pictures and memories that are stored in my account. I don’t delete any pictures so I can always look back and see how much I have changed. Also see the changes in not only me but my friends as well. I still get on Faceboook every now and then, but not as much anymore. Even though Twitter is what I use now, I catch myself looking back on Facebook to reminisce on the old memories it still holds.

Is Google Making Us stupid?

Is Google really making us stupid?  I wouldn’t say it’s making us stupid just kind of lazy. As I was reading the article I was surprised by how true it was. If an article is really long we tend to skim over instead of actually reading the entire thing. That is funny because when I realized how long this article was I started to skim. I read a few paragraphs then stopped to check how long it actually was. I started to skim and then started looking at something else and became distracted. There is a lot of truth in this article. It was said in the article when you have to do research we just do a few clicks and click on a couple of links and get the information that we need rather than sit in a library searching through books for the information that we need. This is what I mean by Google is making us lazy and not stupid. We rather research information on the internet rather than open up a book. I know I rather search on Google than open a book. I don’t think it is making us stupid because we can use the internet to learn anything that we want. It is right there and we have the ability to access a large amount of knowledge at any time. Just about anything you want to know you will find on Google. It is easier and faster than looking through books to find what you are searching for. We are not stupid. Just lazy.

Essay Rough Draft

What exactly is social media and why is it so popular? Social media networks are known for staying connected with friends, communication, meeting new people, sharing pictures and more.  Businesses and companies also use networks like Facebook to advertise for free and try to get people to “Like” their page. The popularity of social media has grown over the years. Facebook was the biggest social network in years. Now Twitter is slowly taking over. I love social networks. I use to be a huge fan of Facebook for years along with millions of other people I’m sure. These sites have been a big part of my life. Being an Army Bratt I moved around a lot so it has been very easy for me to stay connected with old friends from facebook. When it first came out Faceboook was the biggest thing. Facebook was a big part of my life which is why I have chosen this as my social identity topic. 

            Facebook was originally called thefacebook and was founded by Mark Zuckerberg who was a Harvard student.  It spread within months across the Harvard campus and eventually to other universities. When this site became a national student network phenomenon, he dropped out of Hardvard and focused on facebook full time. In 2005 it was officially called Facebook. It was first opened to college students, then it got popular with high school students, then eventually facebook opened up to anyone 13 and up.  Facebook became so popular with all the groups they have to join and how they can stay connected.

           Have you ever thought about the psychology behind facebook? People may not realize this but facebook has been an escape for people to feel like they are being heard. Also it may feel like a rescue. It gives them a platform that they may not get in person. When people post pictures and status and get comments and likes they feel appreciated and noticed. I know I do. People on Facebook crave for this kind of attention when they post things for everybody to see. What exactly makes facebook so interesting? Something that makes facebook so interesting is how humans like to stay connected in what is going on and what is happening with others around them. We like to stay updated with the latest news. I do for sure.  A lot of things that we post there is an audience that are interested in what is going on in our life and may find it entertaining. This is mostly the reason why facebook users are always posting things constantly throughout the day. A lot of users try to get as many friends as possible. Facebook can get you addicted. With all the games and other things to do on facebook, you can really make the day go by fast. You can also find yourself wasting time on facebook when you have important stuff that you should be doing. It was a big distraction for me when I had homework or chores.  Even though this site can get you addictated and waste your time, there are some good positive things about facebook.

           Since I moved around a lot and being a mostly quiet person, I met some friends on facebook in the town  that I live in who I later met in person. Social media networks make it easy to talk to people online. Facebook may control people’s self esteem. A good comment may make them feel good about themselves.

            Facebook was a big part of my life. There was never a day that went by that I did not check facebook at least twice. I made a facebook account when I was in 7^th grade but didn’t start using it till my sophomore of high school which was in 2009. I’m mostly quiet so facebook made it easy for me to talk to people online. I stay in touch with old friends and family and can always see what has been going on with them. I wouldn’t say that I have a big social identity. I get on there so read the latest news and gossip. When I first started using facebook I was on there all the time. Sometimes I would be on there all when I was bored on a weekend. Usually there was always something going on. I would always know about any events or parties that are coming up. Anything that went on in my community I was informed about it through facebook.

I wasn’t the type of person that always posted things every thirty minutes or every hour. I was mainly on there to post pictures, read what’s going on, and see what other  people have been up to. Honestly, I basically would be nosy. I would “Like” and “Comment” on my friends pictures and status and also post things on their wall. There was always some type of drama going on that I found entertaining. There were always a lot of games to choose from that you could play. I never played any games on there because I was just never interested. I got a lot of invites that I just ignored. On my facebook page I didn’t want to put personal feelings or show certain emotions. Unlike some people who always put their business on their page so everyone knew their personal stuff, I didn’t want to be like that. I wanted to appear how I am in person. When I would take pictures to post on facebook, I didn’t just put any kind of picture on there. I would edit my pics (not too much) to make them look nice. I liked to come off on facebook as a person that liked to have fun and enjoyed playing sports. I would post pictures of me at school, hanging with friends, and with my teammates. The status I posted was mainly about my day or what I did or something funny. I would also post quotes and even song lyrics. Just like about anybody else, I liked when I would get notifications that someone liked my post and my pictures. I mean who wouldn’t. Posting things on facebook I was able to show old friends who don’t live in the same town as me anymore how I have been doing and if I have changed any. Also I would show my accomplishments that I have made.

Even though facebook was very big and popular with billions of users, it is slowly getting old and Twitter is taking over. I stopped getting on facebook all the time around November 2011. I still always look back to facebook on all the old pictures and memories that are stored in my facebook account. I don’t delete any pictures so I can always look back and see how much I have changed. Also see the changes in not only me but my friends as well. I still get on Faceboook every now and then, but not as much anymore. Even though Twitter is what I use now, I catch myself looking back on Facebook to reminisce on the old memories it still holds.

Rhetorical

First of all, I noticed the article was really long which made me not want to even read it. It just looked boring and dry and I felt like I had to force myself to read it.  It was not easy to follow. It seemed like he was talking about a lot of things at once. Everything was all mixed together which made it a little harder for me to understand. When I am reading something that is difficult to understand, I usually have to re read it a few times and sometimes not even finish the reading. After looking over it again I understood a little bit more about the meaning of rhetorical. He includes a lot of examples in this article which can be a good thing so we can understand his point more. I feel like he included too many examples that just made this article extremely long. His point in this reading was that there are many meanings to the word rhetorical. He started talking about the importance of rhetorical situations in writing. The only meaning I knew of rhetorical before reading this was a rhetorical question which is a question that you don’t have to answer. From this article I learned that rhetorical situations have three main points. Those are exigencies, audience, and constraints. When you are writing it is good to include these. Audience is how you appear to people in your writing. Exigencies are imperfections marked by urgency. Constraints can be brought to bear upon the audience.

5 sources

http://www.msimail.net/why-is-facebook-so-popular/

 

http://www.lifestoryandme.com/2011/06/why-facebook-is-so-popular-psychology.html

http://mashable.com/2006/08/25/facebook-profile/

http://socialnetworking.lovetoknow.com/How_Did_Facebook_Originate

 

http://blog.thoughtpick.com/2009/10/the-addicitve-psychology-behind-facebooks-use-popularity.html

Huxley vs. Orwell

I read the web-comic a few times and noticed that Huxley's disscussions reates to what we have been talking about in class. We will be ruined by the things that we love. Orwell feels that we will be hated by the things that we love. This comic talks about the society that we live in. We are obsessed with the things we love and it is making us apathetic. When we were talking about realty tv and why we watch it. We live in a world where we rather watch people make fools out of themselves rather than watch something that is going to educate us. We would waste time watching unnecessary things than do things that are more important.
I like the way McMillen used the comic strip. I think it was a good idea because it is appealing and makes it more interesting than reading an article. It is easy to understand and gets his point across rather than reading a long article that most of us wouldn't have read anyway.

Honey Boo Boo Child

Watching the video about honey boo boo and the video about the sucide for the first time, I find it very disturbing. After reading Albom's article, I feel that we had similar feelings about these videos. I think that he linked these two to show how shocking they are. A little girl acting the way she does and someone recorded a guy commited sucide and doing nothing about it are things that make your jaw drop as you watch these in shock. Watching the sucide will make some people feel some type of saddness because it is horrifying. That's not anything that is entertaining to watch. Honey boo on the other hand is entertaining to a lot of people because of how outrageous she is. We are so drawn to reality tv because of shows like honey boo boo which are amusing even though they can be disturbing. We are drawn to these shows because the people are different from what we are use to seeing in everyday life. Also, seeing someone else and their familes act so outrageous can be entertaing. I don't think reality tv is making us apathetic. I don't think watching these shows makes us apathetic we just enjoy watching a family that's different from us that brings humor.

Identity Topic

My social media topic is going to be facebook.

Reality TV

I believe that reality TV has had an impact on society in both negative and positive ways. Reality TV is mostly enjoyed by young audiences. Most people in reality shows are not celebrities. The audience may feel the emotions in these shows are very real because they are normal people who face real life situations. Reality TV shows like Teen Mom and 16 & Pregnant show how these people face these hard situations and how they deal with them in their everyday life. Some of these shows you can actually learn from them. Some of the viewers can relate to the situations these people go through. Also, they can be influential. The audience may feel a connection to the people on these shows. They can relate to the hardships they may have experienced.

In other reality shows, they show a negative impact on society. Some shows like Bad Girls Club view others drinking, partying, and fighting. People feed into these kinds of shows. The viewers of these shows enjoy watching this because of the entertainment. I feel that things people see and gain on reality TV is not always real. Some people may not realize the impact these Reality shows have on society.

A lot of these shows show grown people acting immature or like teenagers. I don’t think people’s lives are that interesting but Reality TV makes it more dramatic so it brings entertainment.

I would say that Reality TV has had an impact on my life. Most of the shows I watch now are reality shows. I am a big fan of Reality TV. I’m one of those people who keep up with shows like Bad Girls Club, Love and Hip Hop, Basketball Wives, Jersey Shore, and Teen Mom. I am one of those people who can’t wait to see the next episode. Most of these shows are the same and very childish. The people on here make complete fools of themselves for attention. I watch this because it is very entertaining to me.

I think that the only things that make Reality TV REAL are that there are real people with real emotions and real situations. But to make it entertaining for the cameras they make it a lot more dramatic than it should be.