Most Used Platforms

Most Used Platforms

This was a really fun thing to learn about because I have never really looked into which social media platforms are used the most. For me the top three social medias have always been Instagram, Twitter, and snapchat. I believe that is becuase those were the top three at my high school, for some reason at my school Facebook was never a big thing people didn't really talk about it so it wasn't used very much. When doing a little research I found that the most used social media platform is Facebook with 1.59 billion active users, that is absolutely crazy to me. Now what I found really interesting is out of the 1.59 billion people who use Facebook on 1 million small/medium business owners use it as a marketing tool, I would have thought much more companies would be all over Facebook. As far as being professional and using social media as a form of marketing and advertising the best platform to use is LinkedIn. This website has over 400 million active users now in the world of advertising this is such an amazing website with over 24 language choices, this is such a wonderful place to display your self as well as a company.

The website livewire gave me in order of the most used social media platforms I will list those for you to view. 1) Facebook. 2) Twitter. 3) Linked In. 4) Google+. 5) Youtube. 6) Instagram. 7) Pinterest. 8) Tumblr. 9) Vine. 10) Snapchat. 11) Reddit. 12) Flickr. 13) Swarm by Foursquare. 14) Kik. 15) Yik Yak

The website DreamGrow was really neat to look at becuase it showed you in a bar graph the differences between all of the platforms. This chart was really helpful to me because it really put the numbers into perspective how many more users there are on each platform.

Another think that is very cool is that snapchat is going to go public hear in the next month or so. This means that you are able to buy stock in the company, giving you part ownership in the company. They are predicting that shared will be as good or better then Facebook was a few years back.





Resources:

https://smallbiztrends.com/2016/05/popular-social-media-sites.html
https://www.lifewire.com/top-social-networking-sites-people-are-using-3486554
https://www.dreamgrow.com/top-15-most-popular-social-networking-sites/

Blogging

For years I have always thought about blogging as something a stay at home mom or elderly person does. But since coming to college my eyes have truly been opened. Blogging is becoming more and more popular with each passing year. As a way for people to post about there days all the way up to advise on anything you would need to know. There are literally blogs out there for everyone, there are blogs about cooking, cars, movies anything and everything you would ever want to read about you are able to through blogging.

"A blog is a frequently updated online personal journal or diary. It is a place to express yourself to the world. A place to share your thoughts and your passions. Really, it’s anything you want it to be." Now you might be asking your self why do people even blog? The answer is for someone to voice their opinion. Many people such as you or myself have never been able to talk to a big audience about our day or maybe a hobby we enjoy. Well the internet and blogging allows people to voice there thoughts for hundreds or maybe thousands of people to see what they have to say. There are many benefits to blogging other then reading about someones day or hobby. For many people writing is a form of therapy and it allows people to express there true emotions. Think of a blog as a diary many people use there blog as a way to express there true emotions. These blogs benefit the writer as well as the reader as both of them are struggling. This blog is a life saver and allows so many people the freedom of letting out there emotions. 

For some people a blog is a means of income. When blogging first was created it was full of glorified writers who never made it into the big leagues of writing. Blogging was there chance to be heard again and make a name for them selves. Those bloggers who were excellent writers were slowly hired onto newspaper companies, or were even lucky enough to become a personal author. So the final question is why do people blog? In my opinion it is an escape from the real world, the people who blog seriously this is another world for them. For those couple hours of reading and writing blogs they are free and able to get things off there chest.

Articles:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-dekmezian/why-do-people-blog-the-be_b_8178624.html

http://blogbasics.com/what-is-a-blog/

Social Media Change

     Social Media has changed the way that people communicate without a doubt. I remember as a kid I used to ride my bike over to my friends house to see if they could hangout. Now days kids snapchat,text, facetime, Etc. It has really been mind blowing to grow up with little siblings and see the way that they communicate with all of there friends.

     Before Social media people had a very small means of communication that reached as far as speaking in person and every so often a brief phone call. Now days many of us are able to let thousands of people read and hear what we have to say all with the click of a button. Oscar Kimanuka in his article http://www.newtimes.co.rw/section/article/2015-05-02/188395/ Made some very good points through out his article about how people change when they are behind the screen of there phone or computer. He states that many people will act very confident and will say anything over the web but as soon as human contact is made all of there confidence goes out the window.

     Another really big issue with social media is the bullying that takes place. Many people feel as if they are empowered with how many followers they have and that they are able to say anything that they want. The article http://www.cyberbullyhotline.com/07-10-12-scourge.html gives so many upsetting facts about the truth of cyber bullying. Suicide is the number 3 killer of teens in the US 42% of those deaths are caused due to cyber bullying. I find this so sad that social media is literally killing our youth and if not death it is really hurting them. The fact that people base there social status on how many likes they have or how many favorites they get is really demeaning to the true characteristics that people have. I know so many people who have been crushed due to social media and the fact that they don't have followers or favorites.

     In closing I just want to say that I personally think that social media has changed our way of communication. Now days people don't want to ever talk to people in person they would rather just text or use social media as a way of communication. It has even gone as far as self check out lines at stores becuase people would rather do things on there own and not have to associate with the people around them. Social media should be something that is a privilege to us not a means of communication.

Social Media Case Reflection 1

Fake News 

     Until this class I had never heard the term "Fake News". Now when I had first heard about fake news I just assumed that it was those super dramatic magazines that you see when you are standing in line at a store. After reading an article published by BBC I learned that there are many things that fall under the category fake news. First being that the people who are giving the news or the writers or people involved in the fake news are doing it for there own benefit. Many times people will create stories that are a little stretched from the truth. They do this for the publicity and the money that can be made from the story. There are also times were people will give hits to authors just to have a story made up about them. Second is false information that is circulated from one journalist to another without them knowing. Many times there are multiple Journalist who will hear a good story and try to make it there own by putting there own twist on it, by the time the story reaches the media it is like the game telephone. Meaning the story has been stretched far from the truth making it "Fake News". Third is news that people really do not want out for the public to see or hear. When these people here the stories about them and they don't like it they will call it fake news and try to make sure people believe them. This has been going on a lot with Donald Trump recently as people are finding out information about him that he doesn't want the public to know. Many times this fake news will cause so much controversy it can make the stories even bigger and worse then the person would ever want.  It turns out that we are surrounded by this fake news all the time.

     During the presidential election there has been lots of fake news that has surrounded the public. Much of it has to do with Donald Trumps election. Just a little bit ago BuzzFeed came out with an article stating that Donald had rigged the election and made it so he was able to win the election. Also with the election there has been a new story out about Donald Trumps ties with the Russian government and supposedly they plan to pair up together. Many people have also said that Russia has had something to do with the election and they helped rigged the system. The "Fake News" that has been coming out over our future president has started to build anger into some of his alleged trump supporters. I have come to find that fake news is lots of the time people trying to take out one another by exposing them to the public.

     When doing research to really find out what fake news is I found that many times fake news is put out in ways that everyone will see. Nowadays the way for everyone to see these crazy stories is through social media. Social media is everywhere and most people have access to it, one of the largest contributors to fake news is through a website known as BuzzFeed. BuzzFeed is responsible for some of the latest stories on Donald Trump as well as Hillary clinton who claims that fake news made it so she was not able to win her election. This Fake News that all of us see everyday is truly not for any of us with everything that I have read this news is fed to us like candy. The media decides what they want all of us to see and how they can make more money off of us. The game of fake news is money and marketing these companies use social media for all of us to buy into there products or there belief all to make money. Fake news is something that we need to stand up against so we are able to hear the real news that is happening in our world. Fake news really is tailored to the community you live in. Many times we see all of these famous people and there problems more then the real news and terrible things that are going on around the world.


http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-38636042

https://www.buzzfeed.com/kenbensinger/these-reports-allege-trump-has-deep-ties-to-russia?utm_term=.ke3K5XvAv#.ouZP7a9Z9

https://www.conservativereview.com/commentary/2016/12/what-is-fake-news-anyway