Blogging

Blogging. Everyone seems to be doing it right now. I feel like every time I get on Facebook or Instagram, I see at least one post about someone’s blog. So why is it so popular all of a sudden? Well, for people who write personal blogs, there are actually a lot of health benefits, both psychological and physiological. According to Scientific American, there is a high therapeutic value when writing about personal experiences, thoughts, and emotions. Research shows that it actually “improves memory and sleep, boosts immune cell activity, and even speeds healing after surgery.” So, if bloggers truly believe this, why not just keep a journal? Why put everything online for other people to see? I personally believe that bloggers like that other people can comment with their thoughts on experiences, or whatever was put on the blog, so that the blogger can feel a sense of validity. I also think that a lot of bloggers want to help others that have been in similar situations or trials; I almost think of the ‘blogosphere’ as being a support group.

Another huge trend is for businesses to set up blogs. What’s the point of that? On a blog called Wishpond, it gives four reasons for why blogging is so important for businesses: (1) drive traffic to your website, (2) increase your SEO/SERP, (3) position your brand as an industry leader, (4) develop better customer relationships. I believe the fourth reason, developing better customer relationships, is the most important. When a company sets up a blog, they invite the customer to get to know the business (or the product). This builds trust with the consumer because it’s telling them that the company has nothing to hide, since they are welcoming the consumer to explore all of their information. The business is then able to develop a loyal customer base that they definitely wouldn’t be able to do without a blog. 

Sources:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-healthy-type/

http://blog.wishpond.com/post/47804902390/4-reasons-why-blogging-is-important-for-your-business 

Social Media Case Reflection 1

Social media is one of the best innovations of our time, but a lot of people tend to abuse and misunderstand its power. According to Ditch the Label, a self-help organization, 7 out of 10 young people have been victims of cyber bullying and 37% of young people have experienced cyber bullying on a highly frequent basis. So what’s going on? What makes a person feel comfortable with bullying someone else on the internet? The answer is actually pretty obvious: it’s easier. It’s so much simpler to sit behind a computer screen to attack someone than actually doing it to their face. Psychology Today released a great article in which it stated that one of the big reasons bullies are more comfortable on the web is because “online interactions are devoid of emotions.” So, to me, I feel like it gives people a sense of anonymity, which in turn gives them the excuse to almost lose a little bit of their human nature. When you can’t see the emotions of the person you are interacting with, of course it’s going to be a heck of a lot easier to say horrible, inappropriate things to them; it almost feels like you’re not even talking to another person, you’re just typing words.

The specific case that I want to talk about happened pretty recently, just right after New Year’s. A woman went on a rant on Facebook after she felt like she wasn’t given enough attention at a restaurant/bar when she was trying to pay her bill. The reason that she wasn’t given full attention was because a separate older woman had a heart attack, was thought to be dead, and employees were trying to help the situation. Now, what happened with her Facebook jab at the restaurant is the problem with a lot of controversial posts: the woman that went on the rant was both misinformed and had jumped the gun on making a post. She was misinformed because she had somehow thought that the woman who was thought to have been dead was a druggie who had overdosed. She had jumped the gun on making the post because if she had just waited, found out more information about the situation, and cooled down a little bit then probably none of this would have happened. After this woman had made the post, the managing partner of the restaurant gave a response that pretty much told the woman that she was misinformed, cold-hearted, and that her bill didn’t take precedence over a human life. All of these posts then went viral. Since then, this woman has seen some major backlash on many social media sites. Social media users have once again absorbed the mob mentality with this situation, sending her death threats, asking her employers to fire her, even mistakenly attacking someone who happened to have the same name. Yes, what the woman had posted was absolutely despicable and appalling, but that doesn’t give other people the right to publicly persecute her and even try to ruin her personal life. How many of these persecutors have posted something terrible on the internet that they most likely regret? Probably the majority of them since they definitely aren’t afraid to say awful things to this woman, even threaten to kill her. I really respect how the managing partner responded; it may have been harsh (which the woman definitely deserved), but he stood up for what was right in an appropriate manner. The people on both sides of this situation need to learn a lesson from him, instead of thinking they can say whatever they want just because they can.

The internet is an awesome tool with so many positive benefits, but all of this cyber bullying and people thinking they can attack others is both unethical and the internet’s biggest detriment. Once something is put on the internet, you can’t get rid of it nor can you take it back. Social media users desperately need to learn how to use these sites with caution. People need to realize that there is an actual living, emotional person on the receiving end of their bullying and harassment. If you feel uncomfortable saying something to someone face to face, then it also has no place on the web.

Sources: 

http://www.indystar.com/story/life/food/2016/01/04/kilroys-goes-viral-after-response-angry-customer/78252026

http://www.ditchthelabel.org/cyber-bullying-statistics-what-they-tell-us/ 

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/behind-online-behavior/201408/the-psychology-behind-social-media-interactions

http://metro.co.uk/2016/01/08/hairdresser-sacked-after-complaining-new-years-eve-dinner-was-ruined-by-woman-having-heart-attack-5610374/

Social Media Change

Since I am a 22 year old college student, naturally I use social media every single day. If I’m not posting something myself, I’m scrolling through the news feed seeing what others thought was worthy to be put on the internet. As I have reflected on the past when social media wasn’t nearly as prevalent as it is today, I came to a pretty concrete conclusion: social media has significantly altered the way that we communicate in today’s society. Our ability to interact with other people has become so much easier and faster since the start of the social media trend. We are now better able to keep in contact and maintain relationships with people. For instance, most people don’t stay in constant contact with friends who have either moved away or even just moved on to a different stage in life (like me with my high school friends); social media makes it possible to see what’s going on in the lives of people that you care about when they are away from you, which I think is one of the best benefits of social media sites. The change in communication that I find the most interesting is the fact that we now have the opportunity to interact with people that we wouldn’t have been able to meet in our normal, everyday lives.  Millenial CEO wrote a great article describing how at our fingertips, we can communicate with people that we would never have even known existed without social media; someone in Laramie, Wyoming can easily communicate with someone in Melbourne, Australia within seconds. We also have the means to communicate with people that otherwise wouldn’t be able to hear our opinion; for instance, we can tweet a talk show host like Jimmy Fallon on our view of a certain topic or Justin Bieber about his latest concert. Now, whether they would read or listen to what we have to say is a different story. An event that I found particularly interesting happened in 2014 when the riots in Ferguson, Missouri broke out after Michael Brown was shot and killed by a police officer. During this event, many people were shocked when people all the way from Palestine were tweeting to the rioters in Ferguson, using the hashtag Ferguson, about different strategies of protection from tear gas. This proves just how easy and fast the spread of information and communication is via social media. Now, whether you think that social media has effected communication for the better or worse is up to you, but one thing is for sure: communication is not the same.  

Sources: http://millennialceo.com/social-media/social-media-changed-communicate/

http://www.ryot.org/palestinians-tweet-tear-gas-advice-to-ferguson-protesters/786953