Websites Are Taking Over

There are many ways to promote something someone has done. With the world we live in today, there are more ways every single day. The Internet as a whole has many different sites and places to upload work, questions, and media of any kind. One way to promote something is to have social media accounts. It is a fast and easy way to put something out there for the world to see and interact with. Sometimes people post on multiple medias. This helps get the word out to different people, depending on the social media that it is being posted to.

A good way to promote social media accounts is to create a website. The website can be personalized in many different ways to be exactly what someone wants. For example, if someone is a photographer the website can be created so it has an artsy look and resemble that persons personality. A website can be used for anything someone is trying to accomplish. It is also a good way to have all of someone’s social media accounts in one place. On the website, it is simple to link to a bunch of social medias and have contact information all in one place. This makes it easy for others to get to know the website owner and their craft better.

To have a website thrive, it is good to keep it up-to-date with new work, updated contact information and a modern look. Every aspect of the website is important because that is how someone will determine to come back or not. If someone's website sticks out and has good content, that person will likely be back to see what they do in the future. However, if the website is boring and hard to navigate it is unlikely someone would come back, even if the content is decent.

Making a website might sound hard but there are different ways to do it. For a class, we were given a template and asked to fill it in with our own content. The template was filled with lines of coding that had to be typed in exactly or something could go wrong with the entire web page. For anyone that had MySpace back in the day, it was like personalizing the page with different color schemes and content. The coding was a little difficult but it got done eventually. The best part was choosing a color scheme because that is where the personality comes from. The hardest part was choosing the content to go up on the website. This was because over the years many things have been created and for the class we were limited on items we could put on the website.

It took a little while to figure out the coding, but the website turned out well and it will be used for a promotion for work that is created in the future. This whole semester of college has been very informative of different social media and how they are all used differently. Websites are just a different form of social media but it combines them together in an easy layout.

Is It Possible to Communicate Without Words?

There are many different tools someone can use in order to show the world how they want to be seen. One way to give information to the world could be the way someone talks to others. If the person is rude to people a majority of the time it is clear that's just their personality. Another tool someone can use is based on the music someone listens to. Although this could throw off the accuracy, it is stereotyped that certain personalities listen to certain kinds of music. Everybody has assumptions about each other, but are these assumptions correct? Probably not. 

This post is about how to communicate to the world, without using words, how someone wants to be portrayed by others. Everyone has a certain version of themselves that they believe they are. The problem with that is sometimes others don’t see that person the same way. For example, if someone thinks they are friendly and kind to everyone, there might be one or two people who saw that person on a bad day and think they are one of the rudest people. It is also not possible to correctly stereotype anyone. Just by looking at someone, it is hard to tell any personality besides maybe the way someone is dressed. Even that could throw people off as well. 

So, what things should someone do in order to accurately portray themselves? Maybe play a song, maybe tell someone their favorite movies, food, or book etc. This may help someone get to know more about a person. But now try to get to know someone without using any words. It just got a bit harder didn’t it? Well for a class we were asked to do just that: use a theme to communicate to others about our personalities without dialogue or text. We were asked to make a one minute video about ourselves, all while following the theme of politics, more precisely the politics of being a commuter. 

There were many struggles that had to be dealt with for the making of this video including, having to make the video exactly one minute. There are a lot of things one could show so people get a solid understanding of their personalities. Yes the person is a commuter but what else can people learn about them? Maybe for a second there is a pet in the video. Maybe their favorite color is being worn or comes up a few times. There are many visual contexts that could be subtly put in the video to get a personality across. The main struggle was the use of no words, spoken or written. Another way to give a sense of personality was based on what kind of music was in the background of the video. The background music could help the viewer understand or maybe even help connect with the other person. The final personal struggle was with having to film in a group and to get all four people together. We all had to make time outside of class to film for the project (one person never even showed up). We also had to edit the project, together and separately and combine the work that we had done.

The use of video as a way of communication is a good way to go. In daily life it is easy to communicate with someone by using video (FaceTime, Skype etc.). Compared to writing a letter or a note, video chatting has taken over. This also applies to texting. Most people have given up texting for a phone call or a FaceTime. While all of these tools are useful, there is also another visual communication tools and that is photographs. The use of photographs, or GIFs help to tell a story without words most of the time. Because of all of these tools, there are many different ways a society is able to communicate. So why use video as opposed to text and photographs? Well in short, we had to for the project. But if we had to use only one of these mediums, the easiest one would be using only text. This way we could get the point across of who each group member is, and what they are like.

The last thing is the publicity and the timing. Since the video was shown to the class, it possibly swayed us to film something safe. The whole video might have been different if we were showing it to our family or our friends, as opposed to strangers that we just met 4 months ago. But I guess that also pushed us to explain more of who we are since the rest of the class doesn’t know each other on personal levels. Because of the public nature of the videos, both while filming and eventually showing the video, as a group we did not show everything we might have wanted. Another thing is that only being given one minute, the video needed to be fast-paced and cohesive in order to get the point across.

Twitter: Good or Bad?

How has Twitter been used beyond socializing, and for marketing? Use the articles connected to the project to outline how Twitter was used in these instances.

One of the things Twitter is used for beyond socializing and marketing is for emergencies. In one of the articles, people in Houston during hurricane Harvey were trying to survive the floods but couldn’t get in contact with emergency crews via 911. Instead, some people took to Twitter, posting that they needed help and including their addresses in the tweet in case someone would see it and somehow help. Another example of Twitter being used in emergencies is during the Boston bombing in 2013. After the bombing happened people who were at the event put their opinions that looked like facts on Twitter. This made it hard for the news and the investigators. Neither one knew fact from fiction based on the tweets of people claiming they know what happened. 

In what ways can Twitter be useful as a journalistic, political and / or organizational tool?

Twitter can be used as a political tool since the President and anyone in government gets to have a Twitter and pretty much tweet whatever and whenever they feel like. If they feel like saying something but don’t want to say it on TV or in front of people in real life, they can do it online and behind a screen. Regarding the journalistic side, a lot of journalists use tweets as a reference to an event. For example, if the article is about something the President said the journalist could use tweets from him to back up the statement or to add on to sway the opinions of the reader. 

Name and elaborate on three events (in the past twelve months) where Twitter was used as a communicator of these events. Discuss the success or failure of the use of Twitter concerning these events.

One event that happened in 2018 was March For Our Lives. This was a student-led movement about gun control in America. The movement demanded change in a lot of aspects of how the laws of guns are handled. It is way too easy to get a hold of a gun in the US and this movement was trying to change that. This event also happened a month after the school shooting in Parkland, Florida where a former student opened fire which killed 17 students and injured 17 others. According to Wikipedia, this school shooting surpassed the Columbine shooting in 1999, which killed 15, as the deadliest school shooting in the US. 

One event that happened in 2017, 2018, and still happening in 2019 is the #MeToo movement. This movement acknowledges the sexual abuse and sexual harassment many people have been through. The hashtag grew popularity in 2017 when actress Alyssa Milano asked people on Twitter to respond to her tweet about sexual assault with #MeToo to show just how prevalent it is around the world. This tweet lead to many celebrities coming forward about their stories.

Finally, the third event that has happened is regarding climate change. In September of 2019 there were climate strikes across the world between the 20th and 27th. This week was chosen because of the United Nations Climate Summit on the 23rd. Many people participated in the strikes around the world including Greta Thunberg, who has become an inspiration to many people at sixteen years old. As a side note, at the bottom of the Boston bombing article there is now a message at the bottom of the page that talks about climate change and what they are doing to help.

What topics / subjects did you choose to follow on Twitter and why?

The three subjects chosen for the Twitter project were YouTube, 13 Reasons Why and the Buffalo Bills. These topics were chosen because of background knowledge and to learn more about each subject. Twitter is a fast-paced media, especially with the Buffalo Bills account. It seemed as though every day there were hundreds of tweets. When there is a lot happening on a team it makes sense that they would tweet about it but it was just a bit overwhelming, especially with it being the one chosen as “someone you would never follow”.

How has this experience using Twitter differentiated from blogging? From any social media?

Twitter is different from the blog  because it is not as thought out. People usually spend time on an idea for a blog and take time writing it so it makes sense. On Twitter, people can just type whatever they want, even if it’s just LOL. Twitter is also different from other social media because of how fast-paced it is. There are not many people on Facebook or Instagram talking about their day-to-day life as much as people on Twitter. There may be some people who write things about things that happen on Facebook but it won’t be seen by anyone that hasn’t friended them. Twitter has a way of connecting people around the world in a very quick and easy manner, which allows for things to be spread quickly and efficiently.

How to write a wikiHow article

In order to communicate how to do something, like in a wikiHow article, there are many ways to effectively get the point across. A lot of people might think a wikiHow article is just writing down steps and an explanation to those steps. A problem with this could be forgetting a step or even multiple steps. There is also the issue of not having a good flow of these steps. If the article has too many, or not enough steps, the writer could run into a problem. The article can’t be too long, but it also can’t be too short. The writer’s job is to find a happy middle for the steps and the words that are included in the descriptions.

Only writing down steps and an explanation can be effective but it also doesn’t hold the attention of the reader. To intrigue the reader for a longer span of time, it is best to write the article in concise sentences. These sentences should be short but informative. The reader doesn't want to read a wordy four sentence paragraph that explains how to do the step in the first sentence. Avoid repetition of points and remove any excess verbiage. Some ways to help with this is to reread the article after it has been written. It is also a great idea to have another person, or multiple people, read the article as well. These people can help check for errors in grammar or help come up with ideas to add to the article. They can also help make sure the steps written down make sense and that there aren’t any steps missing.

A great way to write a wikiHow article is to choose a topic that has a personal aspect. This means to choose a topic with which the writer has had a personal experience. This experience could be something generic that many people may have experienced (ie. going on vacation) or something not well known (ie. a family recipe). It is also a good idea to talk to someone else who may have had a similar experience. Having two sides of an experience can help the writer bounce ideas off of the other person. Another place to look for information is the Internet.

The Internet has a bunch of articles to help come up with steps or to research a topic. The Internet is full of people who have had experiences. Sending out a Tweet or posting on Facebook and asking for help can bring in a bunch of people with knowledge of the subject. This is a good way to come up with steps or ideas that the writer may not have considered the first time. It is recommended to try multiple social medias, who knows what kind of people are out there. If using a website or another source of information, make sure to include a reference to the source to avoid plagiarism. The source should be relevant to the article. For example, if the article is about enjoying vacation, the source can list the items that the reader may want to consider bringing for the vacation.

(https://www.eaglecreek.com/blog/what-pack-ultimate-travel-packing-checklist.html)

Another good way to communicate information in a wikiHow article is to add pictures. These pictures can’t just be of anything, they should correspond with the message in the step that is being talked about. For example, if the first step is to prepare items for a recipe, it would be best to include a photo of all of the utensils and/or ingredients needed for the recipe. It is not necessary to have a photo for every step but it could be helpful to get the point across. Also, having a photo for every step helps create order in the article to help it flow.

In order to make any project for school, it is best to have good time management skills. These skills help the writer stay on track with due dates, especially the date that the project is due. By working on the project a little every day, it can help the writer feel like they are getting closer to the finished product. If it is hard to work on the project a little every day, it is okay to plan a few hours of the day to work on it. As long as the writer feels happy with the finished product, and it is handed in on time, then the times and days worked on it become insignificant. The writer should also remember to share the article and link people to it. This helps spread the word of the article and it also may help another person who needs help: https://www.wikihow.com/Enjoy-Vacation

Three wikiHow Article Topics

A class project for COM 336 was to create a wikiHow account and find three topics that have not been talked about before on the site. wikiHow is an online community consisting of an extensive database of how-to guides. It was founded in 2005. The website aims to create the world's most helpful how-to instructions in order to enable everyone in the world to learn how to do anything. 

The first topic is how to make tater tot casserole. This recipe is good for anyone who needs a quick and easy meal during the week. Everybody has busy lives and this recipe doesn’t take very long. At the end of a long day most people don’t want to spend another hour slaving over the stove to make a hot meal for their families, or even just for themselves. With that being said, this recipe would be best for parents who work during the week. The recipe can be prepared ahead of time so it just needs to be put in the oven and then served. Another bonus is that the meal can be reheated and kept as leftovers for the next day! As an ever-moving society, it has been taught to “work smarter, not harder” and this recipe is just that. A few ingredients and minimal preparation time creates more of a chance to spend the evening creating memories with family. Also, don't be afraid to have the kids help! 

The second topic is how to change the notification icon on a Samsung Galaxy A50. The A50 was released in the US in June of 2019. This phone has a different look from some of the previous Samsung Galaxy phones. Since it is relatively new, there is nothing about this phone on wikiHow at all! All the Galaxy phones are grouped together which makes it difficult to find exactly what someone needs. The A50 starts out looking different with notifications when first bought. It has a little circle with no information about what the notification means until the screen is dragged down from the top. For anyone that likes to take a quick glance at their phone to see which notification they have just received, this is a hassle. This wikiHow can help a lot of people with the issue of having a small circle for a phone notification and change it into what most people are used to. 

The third topic is how to enjoy a vacation. Some people, when on vacation, don’t know how to live in the moment and enjoy their time. They feel the need to call their friends and family to talk about all of the fun things they are doing. They feel the need to post about everything they are doing that day all over social media. While it is fun to take pictures for memories or to document the fun things someone has experienced, it also doesn’t need to be broadcasted for everyone to see. When people are glued to their phones and aren't fully enjoying the things that they are experiencing, what was the point of going? For that one good selfie taken that can be used as a profile picture? This article would help people disconnect from the Internet and connect with what's right in front of them.

If someone needs an easy, step-by-step guide in order to do something, wikiHow is an endless resource to search. Currently, these three topics are on wikiHow as tutorials, but give it a few weeks and these topics will hopefully be on the homescreen!

Social Media and the Internet: Do You Really Need It?

As most people know, the Internet and social media as a whole has been a topic of discussion. Is it good? Is it bad? There are many different viewpoints and people are conflicted. Does anyone know how the Internet was made? Most people probably don’t, but here’s a rundown. According to History.com, in the 60’s there was a “workable prototype” called ARPANET. Then in the 70’s, a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP) were created and finally in the 80’s all three were combined and the Internet was created!

From there we were granted things such as the World Wide Web and a plethora of social media websites. The Internet and social media has changed drastically from the 90’s to now. Most millenials first social media platform was probably Myspace. Nowadays most people have multiple social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.). Society enjoys being connected to friends, family and celebrities. This could either be a good thing or a bad thing. 

On the good side, society stays updated on important news and events without missing a thing. For example, a few weeks ago every social media platform was bombarded with news articles and status updates about the Amazon being on fire. There were news articles saying “The Amazon is on fire and no one seems to care” that were being shared constantly. This brought attention to the issue and is currently helping everyone stay up to date with the destruction. 

On the bad side, there can be news articles that give fake news. Maybe they say the destruction isn’t as bad or it is a lot worse than it is. As long as people look into multiple sources, they won’t be caught in the trap. Another thing is that society sees EVERYTHING a person is doing at an instant. Does everyone need to know that their favorite celebrity just got Starbucks for the 10th time this week? Secondly, how does anyone have anything to talk about in person anymore? By seeing everything someone posts it creates a barrier in real life. Because of this reason, social media can be a little intrusive. 

With everyone's information out there it is really easy for people to know things about others. It is very easy to “stalk” people's social media (especially if they are not even on a private mode). If someone wants to know something, it is only a few clicks away. Social media needs to be used responsibly. If someone isn’t responsible with their social media there can be a lot of consequences for that person. There is also a lot of talk about kids and when is the right age for them to get social media but since the Internet and social media is ever changing, there will never be a right time to introduce a child to it. Because social media is forever changing it is hard to determine what sites will be introduced and which sites will go to the social media graveyard (sorry Myspace).