Blog Post #3

My Career Plans

In the near future (a time frame that encompasses 3-5 years), I hope to become a full-time web designer. Whether it means that I’ll be working full time for a company to maintain its web site, or that I go out on my own and be freelance, that is still up in the air. Either way, I intend to use what I have learned in my Social Media class to help bring attention to my web sites. It could be done in a variety of ways: if the company I will one day work for hasn’t done so already, I’ll start a Facebook page for it to help promote them and bring more attention. I could perhaps make a Wikipedia article about the company to add some much-needed information about them. However, if I end up striking out on my own, then it becomes even more important to create a Facebook page, not only for the websites I create, but to help promote myself as well. I’ll be a completely new face in the market, so exposing myself (figuratively, of course), will help being some much-needed attention to myself and my works. I will also start up a Twitter page as well. This quick way of connecting will help inform my clients of whatever changes and updates I have/will make to their websites, if I haven’t already done so through e-mail.

All in all, the best way for me to be successful in this business is to utilize the Three C’s: Content, Creativity and Consistency. Without those three, my websites will stagnate, and if they stagnate, I lose visitors, and if I lose visitors, I will eventually lose clients as well. And for a web designer to create a dull website that no one would want to visit, that would be the biggest shame of all, bar none.

Social media has allowed everyday citizens to become authors, editors, and publishers of news and information. Do you believe that social media has increased the quality of news and information or decreased it? Support your position using material discussed in class as well as additional facts that you are aware of concerning this issue.

My teacher Mr. Collis asked me in class to answer this question, so here's my thoughts on the subject.

Social media has greatly changed how old media gathers it's news. Before the time of camera phones and blogs, old media such as newspapers and news shows completely controlled what kind of news people got and how it was presented. This was mainly because of limitations in technology back then. Not only that, but it takes time for the news to be made public, whether to record on tape for television, or to edit and print on paper for newspapers. Now, anyone with a camera and a connection to the internet can report on any news that happens right in front of them. Not only that, but it can happen almost instantaneously compared to the several hour gap.

Also, there's the matter of the accuracy of the information. Back then, if there was a mistake in the information, there would be almost no way to fix it in time before it was brought out. The newspapers would have to print a retraction in the next issue, or the live news would state their mistakes on their next broadcast. By that point though, this misinformation would have spread very far and would be ingrained in the viewers' minds. With the rise of blogs and miniblogs however, any mistake that the poster has made about an event can simply be erased or otherwise edited out almost instantly before one could notice there even was a mistake. Heck, I could even do that to this post in case I spot any spelling errors afterwards!

Due to this rise in "citizen journalism" several news media outlets have taken advantage of this. One of the more notable examples out there is CNN and it's iReport website, where people can submit videos, photos and news reports directly to CNN to be posted on their website. Not only that, but any news posts that have been decided as urgent according to their moderators are then looked over for accuracy, and then actually integrated into their live news reports. Wikinews is a similar news-posting site run by the Wikimedia foundation that lets users post news on their website. However, they distinguish themselves over the others by actually handing out legitimate press passes to some of their more active and more accurate posters that let them enter events that are otherwise press-only affairs.

In conclusion, I believe that all this has allowed news to become more accurate and up-to-date, and therefore increase in quality.

It has been argued that social media has become far more than a convenient way to stay in touch with friends and family. Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Support your position using material discussed in class as well as additional facts that you are aware of concerning this issue.

I was asked this question in my Social Media class and here's my thoughts and evidence to back it up.

I honestly believe that, yes, social media has become a lot more than just staying in contact with people.

One example of such is Wikipedia. For the three of you that don't know, it's a humongous online encyclopedia that ANYONE with the knowledge of the subject and the skill to utilize the interface can edit. For example, one can add new and relevant information to an existing article, or edit out false information that was made by previous editors. This allows this encyclopedia to stay relevant and accurate, which was a major problem for printed versions of encyclopedias.

Not only that, we also have the prevalence of Skype in recent years. A voice communication program that can be downloaded for free, Skype allows people to make voice calls to not only other Skype users from all over the world absolutely free, but can even call phone numbers for a small fee. This even extends to making video calls on both ends, provided that the users have web cameras to take advantage of this function. This has completely changed how people can keep in contact with each other, and it has only helped that the whole thing is free so long as you call other people's Skype accounts.

But by far, one of THE biggest examples on how social media has progressed can be seen on the MMOG scene. An acronym for Massively Multiplayer Online Game, MMOs have unprecedentedly changed how we socially play games. Before, whenever someone wanted to play against a person in a video game, you either have to visit that person’s house, or you’d meet up in an arcade and spend quarters on the machine of your choice. However, these days all you need to play against someone on a game is to simply have an internet connection and you can play with and talk to friends and complete strangers online. Some of the biggest and most successful examples of such games are EverQuest, World of Warcraft, and League of Legends. (for those interested, League of Legends it totally free to play. If you aren't playing it, you're doing yourself a MAJOR injustice.)

And these are merely three examples on how much social media has evolved beyond keeping track of friends and family. I haven’t even touched on Youtube and Facebook, and they’re separate, monolithic entities onto their own that'll take their own articles to do in order to do them justice.

Well hot damn. This actually works! ^_^

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