Twitter is Life

Since its availability, Twitter has been used for much more than socializing and marketing. One example of this is when the Egyptian people used it to plan and coordinate their protests against the government. One man says they used twitter to coordinate their massive gatherings and protests. Twitter served as a unification tool and really gathered like-minded people together in order to fight for what they thought was right and just. Twitter is perhaps the fastest social media platform of them all at leaking information. An example of this would be the Boston Marathon explosions. Within minutes of these explosions happening, they were all over Twitter, some even being recorded in real time. Twitter is now used as a news distribution platform because of its immediacy. Some people even get their news updates strictly from Twitter. Another example of Twitter being a news platform would be the Paris terrorist attacks. Within 24 hours of the attacks happening, there were four million tweets that were sent out regarding the issue. ISIS is known for using social media as a means of recruiting people. Due to this number of tweets being sent out, it is safe to say that violence garners much more negative attention than positive. This is contradictory of what ISIS plans to do when they claim responsibility for things like this on social media. Much the same way that the Egyptian people used Twitter to band together to fight government, the people of the world used Twitter to condemn ISIS and come together as one to try and fight the terrorist organization.

Twitter can be used very effectively as a journalistic, political and organizational tool simply because of its reach. It is a massive social media platform with tens of millions of people on it every day. In terms of journalism, speed and timeliness are the two most important factors when breaking a story or reporting on something. Twitter allows literally instantaneous release of information. If a newsworthy event happens and someone who has Twitter is standing there watching, they can tweet it out within a few seconds, and everyone who follows them will know about what is going on. Twitter is a very powerful tool when in the hands of a journalist.

Twitter and social media was used more than ever in this past election cycle, and for good reason. The whole point of politics is to reach as many people as possible in the hopes that they will like your ideas, and ultimately support you in an election. How do you reach the maximum amount of people with the least amount of effort and resources? The answer is social media. The majority of the population in the advanced world has a cell phone and social media, so it is very easy to reach all of these people and get your message out. It also allows the candidate to remain in constant contact with their followers, which is impossible to do if all you have are phone numbers or house addresses.

Organization is also something that can be done very easily with Twitter. If you want to create a protest or a huge gathering of people, sending a tweet is still the fastest and most effective way of doing so. Think about it, you would have the potential to reach millions of people in order to get them to do something. Even something as simple as a hashtag can create awareness and alert people as to what is going on around them. It is not a guarantee that every single person who sees your tweet will unify to do something, but when you are reaching that many people, there is a good chance that a lot will.

Three events where Twitter was used as a communication tool would be the 2016 Rio Olympics, the 2016 Presidential Election, and the reveal of Pokemon Go. Most of the communication that was done with these three events was done through simple hashtags. #Rio2016 presented an unusual opportunity for the people to interact with the athletes. Athletes would often post pictures and videos to their Twitter accounts thanking fans for the support, and letting the people see a little bit into the more personal side of the Olympics. The communication that took place between the athletes and fans was a very positive thing for both sides. It made people more interested in watching specific athletes, and it made people feel closer to them and the sports than usual. If an athlete has a bigger social media presence, then naturally more people will follow them because it makes them more than just a name on a jersey. It creates a more interpersonal relationship between athlete and fan.

#Election2016 was the second most used hashtag in 2016. More than 75 million tweets were sent out with this hashtag. Twitter served as a continuous stream of communication between the candidates and the people who would be voting between them. This was a huge success because it allowed people to pay very close attention to something that they usually wouldn’t, and it allowed them to be somewhat more informed than they usually would be in an election. They got information directly from the candidates, not from biased friends or family, or biased news organizations. It was an organic way for people to get information and use it for what they think it is.

The release of Pokemon Go was a viral event. The app was downloaded over 500 million times. The whole point of the game was to get people outside to “hunt” for virtual Pokemon. Twitter was a success in this situation also because it let users of the game communicate with one another about where the rare Pokemon were. Pokemon were scattered all over the world in different areas, so this let people all over the world who play the game communicate with each other in order to play the game together and find all the Pokemon. Due to the use of Twitter, an amazing amount of people downloaded and played the game.

I followed ArchDigest because I want to go to grad school to be an architect and I really enjoy it and think it is interesting. I also followed VIPstylecars because I love cars. My dad has a classic car and I owned a second car in order to modify it as a hobby. It is my passion. I also followed Elon Musk because he started the Tesla car company which I have interest in, but he also has a company called SpaceX which I didn’t know anything about. This experience using Twitter was much different from blogging because it was much faster, and it actually let you communicate with others

Separation Video

Making a video about separation, without spoken word, and only cinematography to get your point across can be very difficult. The different phases of creating a concept, shooting the video, and editing it all require thorough planning and attention to detail. Creating a concept is something that requires trial and error because of the absence of spoken word to contribute to getting the theme of separation across to the viewers. It is hard to create a concept that will not only make sense to the creator, but the viewers also. Something that is clearly representing separation to the creator may not even create the slightest idea of it to a viewer. The creator needs to find the medium between creatively displaying the theme, without being too literal about it. With separation, the creator is able to create a tone of being alone simply by having only themselves appear in the video, but again, it may be hard for a viewer to pick up on such a small detail such as that. Creating a concept is definitely the hardest part of making the video.

Shooting the video clips can also be difficult because a lot of the time, the creator needs to film themselves when they appear in the video. This will be much easier with the use of a tripod and a remote shutter. That allows the video creator to frame the shot, release the shutter, and act out the scene while being consistent. However, even with a tripod; the clips may not always come out as planned. The framing might be off, the shutter button could have not gone off, or the camera focus or settings could have been messed up. This requires a lot of precision and attention to detail. If attention is not given, the creator could waste a lot of time shooting, and re-shooting clips.

Editing is arguably the most important part of putting together a video, regardless of subject matter. If one were to shoot ten video clips, and then just import them into imovie in no particular order without trimming them, the video would make no sense. With the use of editing, the creator can take a bunch of random video clips, and make them into something that conveys a narrative. It is also very easy to spot bad editing, which ruins the video. If the clips are too long, too short, or if the sound effects don’t fade and fit well over the clips, it lowers the quality of the video by a lot. In the case of the projects we had to do, the hardest part about editing the video is when the creators have to mesh all four of their videos together. It is hard even when all of their videos connect to one another in some way. But if the videos don’t make sense when put next to each other, the combination of them will make even less sense than they would if they weren’t combined. The group members must communicate effectively and make sure everyone is on the same page when filming their individual videos. This is critical to making the final video legible.

Using video as a communication tool is the most effective way to show somebody something. Writing and photography are also great ways of communicating things to people. However, video is much more powerful than the other options. In order from highest to lowest effect, it would be video, photography, and then writing. The world that we live in today is more visually displayed than ever. And people are starting to read less and less. Newspapers are going out of business, Twitter only allows 160 characters because people start to get lazy and bored with their reading once they pass that point. Memes are taking control of our digital newsfeeds because they are images that display emotion very clearly. The majority of people prefer an image to words. All video is, is moving pictures. Video captures attention very well and people are stimulated the most by video. Attention spans automatically get longer when confronted with a video. People are able to sit through a movie that is three hours long and keep their attention focused for the entire movie; but they can’t read halfway through a 1,000 word blog post without getting bored and going somewhere else. That is partly due to the rise of social media, which is fast paced, tailored to the user’s interests and convenient. The fact that it is tailored to the user just makes it too easy for people to abandon a current task and run to it in order to see something that interests them. For some reason, video kind of negates that need to run to something more interesting. The movement involved in video is cause enough for most people to pay attention. Viewers may glance at a photograph for 2-4 seconds, but they watch a video for much longer than that because it is stimulating and they never know what is coming next.

The public nature of our video didn’t really affect the subject matter because our topic was separation. It doesn’t really need to be watered down for public consumption. If anything, putting somewhat controversial things in there can enhance the theme of separation greatly, which we actually did. One of our group members is a combat veteran, and he chose to center his video around how veterans feel once they return back home. This is a sensitive topic and could rub some people the wrong way; but we as a group felt that this would really display separation. Instead of keeping our video friendly to the viewers, we decided to throw in a somewhat sensitive topic to add to the theme.

The self-portrait experience was the most fun part of the video. Doing your own video is nice because you can do everything just the way you want it. Shooting your own video can be somewhat therapeutic if you enjoy that kind of stuff. It really allows you to be creative and try things by way of trial and error. There weren’t any issues with sharing the video on social media.

The Wiki Writing Experience

Writing a wikiHow page can be very enjoyable and fulfilling, but at the same time it can be difficult and tedious. There are many different ways in which people can use different types of communication in order to make their wiki. People use photos, information from another wiki, personal experience and step by step instructions. It is very important that the appropriate forms of communication are used while making a wiki page because if the information is hard to understand or not clearly expressed, the whole point of the wiki page is lost.

As with anything in life, it seems to be easier with step by step instructions. A good example of step by step instructions making things easier is when people buy furniture or decorations. Chairs, Christmas trees, ping pong tables and TV stands are all examples of things that come with step by step instructions to help people assemble them. Whether the wiki is about how to make a recipe, perform a task or navigate through life; a step by step list is always the simplest way to get someone to do something right. When people are trying to do something, a lot of the difficulty comes from simply not knowing the steps that they have to do in order to get the task done. The difficulty isn’t in doing the steps, it is identifying what the steps are. So when a wiki gives the person the steps, it is often very easy for that person to accomplish whatever it is that they are trying to do. Even wiki pages such as “how to survive four years of college” have steps in them. A topic as broad as that doesn’t really have set steps, and there are a lot of variables present considering everyone’s life and school is different. However, it is useful to have a step by step instruction because someone who wants to learn how to survive college will most likely have no idea where to start! So steps, even if they apply specifically to that person or not, will help them. It is vitally important that the steps are very organized and clear so anyone reading them can do that. Using simple language and short, concise steps is a must.

Personal Experience is even more important that writing a step by step list about how to do something. Steps are much more effective if the person who has written them has experienced the task first hand. In order to teach someone something effectively, the person who is teaching and making the wiki page must have a background in the topic before teaching it to someone else! If someone wants to write a wiki on how to take care of a puppy, it would help a lot if that person has taken care of a puppy at some point in the past. In terms of actually writing a wiki page, it is a dangerous slope. The coding that is required for the wiki environment is very tedious and attention to detail is a must. One misplaced hashtag or comma can really throw off the presentation of the wiki page. Coding an internet page is like trying to learn a new language only by listening to natives speak it. Speaking from experience, choosing a thing that you have had previous experience doing is a very smart move. If you don’t know anything about Indian food, then it probably would not be a good idea to make a wiki page about how to make a spicy curry dish. Think about how hard it would be for a 12 year old to teach someone how to drive a car correctly, it probably would not go too well. In order for someone to teach somebody else how to do something, the teacher will be much better off if they have done it a few times before. It’s just a fact.

Another thing that is extremely important when making a wiki page is photographs. Wikihow obviously is an internet website that allows people to learn things. This means that there is not any face to face communication between the person who is consuming the information, and the author of the Wikihow article. So, a Wikihow article without pictures is like trying to do an oil painting with blackout glasses on. It just isn’t going to go the way it should. People can follow words on a screen very well, but not everyone can read a paragraph or bullet points and create an accurate image in their heads of what they are reading. Imagine trying to do a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle. All the pieces fit together, and they make a perfect rectangle, but all the pieces are black with no images or patterns on them. So the person knows that the pieces do fit together in some way, but they cannot match up the colors or patterns on the pieces. It would be much more difficult than having a regular puzzle where people can see what pieces might fit together. Having a photo or two with each step on a Wikihow page makes it so easy for the consumer to put the steps together and ultimately do the thing they are trying to do! This is one reason that Youtube is often the “go to” for people to find out how to do something. Instead of still images, Youtube offers video which allows the consumer to see the process in full. With photos, there is still some grey area between the steps. Use tying a tie as an example. With photos, people are able to show the end result of each step. But with video, the consumer is able to actually see each step being done in full. Photos are great, but videos are even better when it comes to learning how to do something.

The experience of writing a wiki page is both educational and enjoyable, but it can also be long and difficult if the producer of the page doesn’t know what they are doing! No matter what you do, DO NOT hit publish before you are one hundred percent confident that the wiki page is done! Be sure to use various types of communication, it will only make the wiki page more effective.

The Changing World of The World Wide Web

The Web has gone through two major transitions since its conception. And it has grown faster than almost anything on earth. It has made significant advancements in a short amount of time in terms of history. Technology is now being shaped by the Internet and Internet connectivity. It is commonplace to be able to surf the Web on your phone or buy an app from the Apple store in your car. The Internet has become a staple in human life.

The Advancement of the Web

The emergence of Web 2.0 took the iIternet by storm. It was like nothing anyone had ever seen before; it allowed people to do things that weren’t even thought of when Web 1.0 rolled out. I think the main objective of Web 2.0 was to get people to not only visit web pages, but revisit them multiple times in the future. Web 2.0 is described as the participatory web. This means that the user can interact with it as opposed to Web 1.0 where it was purely for reading consumption. With Web 2.0 people can write to web pages, sharing content like photos and video, review things like movies and books as well as comment on news threads. Web 3.0 is characterized by connecting the whole thing and making it more open, and in a way, smarter. Web 3.0 is often referred to as the semantic web.

I think Web 2.0 provided a lot more for users that Web 1.0 simply couldn’t even attempt to. It provided things like bookmarking, Wiki pages and RSS. Things like bookmarking and Wiki seem to be so simple nowadays that we take them for granted. But at one time these tools were groundbreaking. For example, in Web 1.0 days if you found an apple pie recipe that you loved, you would get out your favorite clicky pen and write it on a piece of paper, and then keep it somewhere where you know it wouldn’t go missing. But with the introduction of Web 2.0, keeping track of things via bookmarks made life so much easier. Now, it’s Web 2.0 and you again find a great apple pie recipe. Instead of getting that pen and paper, you can save that web page in your own private library on your computer which basically has infinite space. That recipe, along with many others on that website are at your fingertips whenever you desire. Simple things like this have made using the web an essential part of our lives. I think Web 2.0 has provided many positive things that we take advantage of on a daily basis. However, things like the amateurization of the Web is very negative. Now, anyone can post something to the Internet even if it is not true. This has been an enormous problem in this country’s latest presidential election.

I think Web 3.0 is taking us into an even more advanced, facilitating time period in terms of the Internet. It is being driven forward by technological changes within the structure of the Internet. Web 3.0 is described as the semantic web and that is all about the collection of data. The biggest advantage that Web 3.0 has given us is Google. Google allows us to find virtually any information that we want. The pros and cons of Web 3.0 are expansive.

What Stage of the Web Are We In Now?

Are we really in Web 3.0 already? Or are we, as a society, still in transition from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0? This question is a subject of debate among experts. It is accepted that it took somewhere around 10 years to fully transition from Web 1.0 to 2.0. By using that logic, we would have broken into the Web 3.0 stage in 2015. So it would be impossible to go from a 10 year transition to a 2 year transition. The line is blurred as to whether or not we actually broke that threshold. Web 3.0 has a heavy influence on connecting the world around us. There is no doubt that the internet is connected, but is our life outside of the Internet fully connected? Evidence suggests that we are still in a state of transition with that. For instance, you can now have a refrigerator that will live stream a video of the inside of the fridge to show you what you do and do not have at your house while you are at the grocery store. This kind of thing is the result of things being connected to wireless networks, which is the Internet. This is an example of Web 3.0 rearing its head, but not being fully assimilated. Not everybody has that kind of refrigerator, but they do exist. We can only say that we have completely graduated to Web 3.0 when everybody in your neighborhood has a fridge with a camera in it. When that kind of technology becomes commonplace, then we can say that Web 3.0 is completely born. Web 3.0 can also be described as a fundamental change in the way we use the web.

https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-web-3-0-3486623

Each Web evolution is marked by distinct characteristics. Web 1.0 is characterized by a static environment. It was only one way communication. The information was coming from the page to the reader only, the reader could not interact with the page. The page itself would also never change, it didn’t have other things to click on that would take you to a new page environment. What you saw was what you got. A lot of companies would have Web pages so people could read about the company and what it did or what it offered, and that was the only objective.

Web 2.0 was a big jump from Web 1.0. The biggest change was the fact that people could now interact with the Web. It marked the transition from a static environment, to interactive web pages. It also created amateurization among the Web. Meaning that anybody can put information on the internet regardless of it being true or false. This is still a big issue today. Social networking also became a thing in Web 2.0, Facebook, Twitter and Myspace were new things.

Web 3.0 is all about building upon what Web 2.0 started. It wants to make in the Internet more connected and efficient. It is characterized by technological changes. For example, Google and other search engines are more powerful than ever. And the Internet now collects data on its users to create a more streamlined experience. You can search for a used car on eBay and then go on Google, and get a sidebar ad for that specific kind of car; all because the computer now knows what you have been looking for.

It is ultimately up to the individual about whether or not the internet and its various stages has made either a positive or negative impact on life. Whether or not people like the Internet and social media, they cannot deny that it is here to stay; and it will only get bigger and play a more important role in everyday life at home, work, and leisure.

Social Media is an Above Ground Minefield

I first used social media when I was a freshman in high school. I really only used Facebook at the time because that was the biggest and most popular social media platform. Facebook was back then what SnapChat is now. A lot of my friends and family had it. I was very late to join social media, by the time I joined everyone had been on it for a year or so already.

Social media is as intrusive as you make it. As of right now the only social media platforms that I use are Facebook and Instagram. It can be very intrusive towards your personal and professional life if you’re not careful about what you post. I follow a lot of personal photography accounts on Instagram, and I don’t know a single thing about their lives besides their photography. If you openly argue with a girlfriend or boyfriend like some people do, then social media can get very ugly. I’ve seen that happen before. In other words, you have to determine how much and what parts of your life you want to open up with strangers on the internet. Lately one of the things that expose people in a negative way the most is politics. I think there is a very big responsibility to using social media. If people post things that are socially unacceptable, then strangers will be able to see parts of their lives that shouldn't be seen. If people post appropriate things, then it can benefit them in different parts of life like social and professional situations. 

One event where social media was used in the recent past was when Mercedes Benz live streamed the unveiling of the new Maybach S650 on Instagram. For the unveiling of the flagship car for the brand “Maybach,” it was a private unveiling that was only available to those who were invited by Mercedes. People who weren't present at the event were see the car being shown in real time, due to the live stream. I think social media played a very positive role in this situation. It created a lot of excitement with people who like cars because it gave them the opportunity to see something that they normally would never have a chance to see. I really enjoy the live stream of Instagram and Facebook live videos. It makes you feel like you are actually at whatever event you are watching. Although these live videos are new, a lot of big companies and celebrities use these to connect with their public.

I see the role of social media becoming even more important and prevalent than it is now. Not so much with individual people, social media will always be a big part of our lives from now on; but I see social media becoming a mainstay in the world of big companies and celebrities alike. A big social media presence is an amazing tool for corporations to communicate with the people. Car companies usually take advantage of this by seeing how their products are received by the public. Sports figures now get contracts that require them to do things on social media. Antonio Brown of the Pittsburgh Steelers has a contract with Facebook that requires him to do four live streams a month for about 400,000 dollars per year.