Grand Finale

            I think that this class really opened my eyes to how much we use social media.  I’m not a newbie to the Internet, but by using all of these social media networks I saw just how many of my friends already had a profile on these sites.  And to think that a couple of years ago I had dial up and a few years before that we didn’t even have access to the internet…woah crazy right?!  Now with our computers and smartphones we are constantly connected and this could be with our social lives or even unrealistic gaming lives.  The social media sites are what allows us to stay in touch with others and to strengthen our knowledge about other’s interests as well. 

            It is definitely hard to say knowing that this course is cut short because it’s an online semester but I didn’t think that only having a week to figure out a social media site was enough.  I’m not too sure if it was just me but I couldn’t understand Flickr for the life of me.  It maybe because I’m not really the photography type, I don’t particularly like to take pictures or even create a profile of pictures.  But then in saying that I guess I would be a hypocrite because I am in love with Pinterest.  I could sit on Pinterest all day and browse through the pins creating and adding to my many boards.

            I am usually found with my phone but occasionally I swear it plays hide and seek with me.  I must say that constantly being connected leaves me feeling comfortable yet sometimes anxious.  I love having the power to pretty much do anything with my phone from surfing the internet, checking on my social media profiles, checking the weather, gaming, texting and calling anyone etc.  But sometimes I just want to cut the connection and shut off my phone to relax for a few days. 

            I would have to say that my most used apps are Pinterest, Weather channel, Twitter, Instagram, and my bank.  Although I may not be constantly posting information, I love to just browse through to see what all of my friends are doing and to get a laugh here and there from my twitter feed.  I don’t think that I have many unusual apps on my phone but some may not be found on any of my friends’ phones like, the app for my hospital.  This app allows me to stay in contact with my doctor’s office.  If there is a problem that isn’t an emergency I can send a message to them and they can help me with what to do until they see schedule an appointment.  It also allows me to read my health summaries, medication list, test results and show me when my appointments are.  I don’t use this app everyday but when needed it is very convenient especially due to the fact that I am practically a walking insurance policy. 

            I must say that it is going to be nice not having to hurry up after work and get my homework done but on the flip side, this class really brought many topics to my attention like, how the presidential campaign uses social media, how organizations use social media, how connected many people around the world are etc.  I would say that I probably would not continue using my Flickr account and blogging.  I like blogging and getting what I have to say out there but until I get a job or a sweet internship, I don’t think that I will have any interest continuing it. 

Whelp.....

Social Media and the Presidential Campaign

When following both of the 2012 presidential candidates I learned many things.

Mitt Romney’s twitter feed is filled with advertisements promoting his app for smartphones.  This app will give the user all of the inside information first hand like who his VP will be, etc.  He also has many tweets that are geared to share how he will better our country, the steps he will take as president, and articles filled with why he is better than President Obama.  His Facebook page is filled with all of the same information but with more pictures and videos. 

Current President, Barrack Obama’s twitter feed is loaded with advertisements to win a chance to play basketball with the President and Michael Jordan.  He also has updates on his campaign as well as what’s going on in the Olympics and what the president is doing with pictures.   His Twitter feed and Facebook page look very similar except I think that there are more pictures on his Twitter feed than his Facebook (opposite to Romney). 

I learned many things about both candidates and felt the need to research a little bit more on both so I could really understand what they are all about (can’t you tell…I’m not really the politics type).   I learned that Romney changed his view on abortion, formerly he was in full support of abortion but recently he is only in favor of abortion if the mother is a victim of rape, incest, or if the mother’s life is in danger.  I also found that Romney is not in favor of embryonic stem cell research.  He would love to find a cure for cancer and is in full support to stop disease but does not support stem cell research because it involves bringing in a living thing to then have it killed.  Some thing that I learned about Barrack Obama is a greater knowledge for his Obamacare.  I learned many of the pro’s and con’s of this healthcare.  It’s plan is to reduce the healthcare costs, parents can add their children on their health insurance until they are 26; and some down falls are taxes will be raised in the majority of homes, millions of people may lose their company sponsored health plans, and so much more. 

I posted two articles dealing with the presidential campaign and I found that few of my Facebook friends “liked” and no one commented on the post.  I believe that it goes in hand with people not wanting to speak their mind about whom they choose to support.  I also think that with my generation/age group, we are not yet out there in the real world, many of us are still living off of our parents and the little money we earn, so we don’t really follow the candidacy as much as generations older than us that have to provide for themselves or others directly. 

I feel that blogging and social media is very important when dealing with the presidential election because it is a way for the candidates to get out there and for citizens to learn about them.  I also think that it is a way for people to share their ideas and knowledge about the presidential election for those of us who are a little bit on the “clueless” side when it comes to politics.  It is a great way to share knowledge and to learn as well.  

Iran Against Western Culture

                One country that is fighting against western culture is Iran.  Iran 's leader decided that there needs to be a "cyber center" whose job is to monitor the use of the internet.  This is to prevent improper use.  My first thought after learning about this was, "How does one use the internet improperly?"  Well, Iran doesn't want the internet to be used for immoral activity which includes pornography, planning political protests, etc.  But more recently Iran has been trying to plan a "battle against the invasion of western culture".  This has not only banned sites for immoral activity but also western music and movies.  Crazy right?  While reading these articles I got the sense that Iran really doesn't agree with the western culture.  I mean, I know the western culture may to some be provocative but it doesn't mean that with western culture our people are bad.
                Iran goes even farther with blocking sites on Facebook and Twitter.  It shows that their leader or government is intimidated by their citizens sharing their thoughts.  The country has thoughts about creating an Iran internet so that it is monitored and absolutely no western culture will shared.  It's almost like Iran doesn't want their people to know or learn about anyone that is not a Muslim country.
                I guess monitoring the Internet for their citizens preserves their country because their citizens have no access to learn or even know about countries that are not Muslim.  The only access they have are westernized movies sold on the black market.  If their access was granted to any site I think that their citizens will gather together to protest.  Right now it seems as if the Iran people are deprived because the government is scared.

 Some articles that I read to learn about Iran's "battle against western culture".
http://www.bikyamasr.com/60917/iran-in-battle-against-the-invasion-of-western-culture/
http://www.masress.com/en/bikyamasr/60917

The "Occupy" Movement

             While searching for the “Occupy” movement I stumbled upon many blogs, websites, Facebook pages, tweets, videos, and news articles on the topic.  Many of which were very interesting.  I had little knowledge of the “Occupy” movement before.  I knew what the protests were about but not in detail of all of the issues the movement was fighting. For those of you reading this and not knowing about the “Occupy” movement, it is a group of individuals with different backgrounds and political beliefs but think that elected officials are incapable of representing them unlike their wealthiest donors.  So the “regular” people are now coming together in saying that they don’t want the wealthy to have power in our government anymore. The bigger issues that they are fighting are Corporate Influence, Corporate Personhood, Student Debt, Wrongful Foreclosures, Too Big to Fail Blanks, Healthcare, Living Wage, and 99% Budget Cuts.  This covers a great chunk of what they are all about. 

             They are in support of no leaders and to have the “Average Joes” to take a stand and fight back, spread the word, and take part in resisting, restructuring, and remixing.   Their web pages are very inviting.  All over their pages it says get involved, work together, we are the 99%, spread the word, and join our marches.  (occupytogether.org & occupymaine.org)

            I don’t think that the media is one sided, there are many people who feel strongly about this and not all are in support.  I think that the news is showing both sides of the spectrum here, people in favor are asking people to join together while others are yelling back “GO GET A JOB”.  I think that the media shows both sides of issues and people in favor or not. 

            In my opinion both social media sites and news centers are getting out the same message.  The biggest difference is that with social media sites the posts are very “cut to the chase” and straight forward while the news centers write articles that can be very lengthy giving the reader great detail.  

Blog Searching on Presidential Campaigns...

             So after figuring out what exactly we should be looking for in blogs, I finally figured it out.  I found a vast amount of blogs that were about both of the presidential campaigns.  I believe that blogs are definitely making their way up the totem pole in society.  Many people are having a growing passion to write blogs and get their thoughts and ideas out there.  And one thought that is on many minds around the nation is the 2012 presidential candidates.  I think that these blogs about them are very influential and it brings up many topics and deeper thoughts that the news stations and newspapers aren’t bringing to the table. 

            I scanned many blogs for hours upon hours trying to get a deeper knowledge of the presidential campaign looking through different ideas of people that I never would have even thought about. 

            Some of the blogs that I found were on news sites where people can post blogs about the presidential campaign.  The only downfall with that is that trying to analyze these sites, because the host site was a news station there is no need for a profile of the bloggers.  This gave me some trouble trying to find out if these people actually had a greater knowledge of politics or if they were amateurs (similar to myself) and were just blogging about their thoughts with the information given by a news station.   

            One blog site in particular that I thought was very influential was by a man named, Matthew Dickinson.   He is a political science professor at Middlebury College and former professor at Harvard University where he received his Ph D.  Dickinson has many blogs about the political race.  By reading some of the blogs Dickinson seems to be give valid information from both parties.  He touches upon many topics in the electoral race like how the 2012 race is very similar to the previous, electoral landslide for Obama, why Obama may lose, etc.  Dickinson didn’t have a spot where it shows who his followers were.  It may be because it was an education site. 

            Another blog that I came upon was from Feministing.com.  The title of the post was “Is Mitt Romney the most dishonest presidential candidate ever?” and was written by a woman who goes by Zerlina.  She attended Rutgers Law School and is a field organizer for Obama’s “Campaign for a Change”.  Her writings appeared in The Loop 21, This Week in Blackness, The Urban Politico, theroot.com and salon.com.  She makes it a point to touch upon many different topics like film, Olympics, what’s new in the news, and her support for same sex marriage.  Her blogs didn’t show how many followers she had but her posts had many comments from many different users.  

Beauty In The Skin Your In

               In today's society many women have a very bad perception of how they should look.  Women of all ages look at magazines and think "I want to look like her".  They want the flawless and skinny body.  It ruins how people perceive themselves.  Girls are now thinking that they need to be a size 0 or big eyes or a smaller nose to be beautiful.
               Women should not be ashamed of who they are as long as they are healthy.  Everyone is beautiful in their own way and by photoshopping every photo that is in a magazine that morphs the way people view themselves.  People are thinking too negatively about themselves and I think that this would go along with the Dove Self Esteem movement.   Having such a negative outlook on ourselves is what is causing all of the eating disorders and this bullying mess.  Honestly it is sickening to think of all of the people with these problems and what actually impacts them are our celebrities or people in the public eye with their botox and lypo.  Women across the world now compare themselves to who they see on the magazines or in movies.  These are not real people, they are photoshopped to look a certain way.
               A big competitor for beauty is the doll Barbie.  I remember wanting to look just like barbie when I was younger.   But some people take it to the extreme by wanting to be the same size as Barbie.  Barbie is not realistic.  If Barbie were to be real she would be like 7 feet tall with a super skinny waist, huge bust, and a small head.  This is super unrealistic yet society views Barbie as a figure of beauty.
               I believe that people should feel the beauty in the skin they are in.  I dont think that people should be bringing in photos of celebs to the plastic surgeon so they can be identical.  Be happy that everyone is different and beautiful in their own way.

Body is Art (Continued)

               I chose Oliviero Toscani because his anorexia ad hit a similar topic like the dove ads.  That our bodies are beautiful the way they are.  Many believe that being skinny is the way our bodies should look but becoming anorexic to view ourselves as beautiful is not exactly the way we should be thinking.  Toscani is very controversial but I believe it sends a great message to people of all ages.  

               I looked at the website etsy.  Etsy is a website for crafts,  this is a place where people can buy and sell art of their own.  I stand by everything they are about

"Etsy is the world’s handmade marketplace.

Our mission is to empower people to change the way the global economy works. We see a world in which very-very small businesses have much-much more sway in shaping the economy, local living economies are thriving everywhere, and people value authorship and provenance as much as price and convenience. We are bringing heart to commerce and making the world more fair, more sustainable, and more fun."

               Etsy is geared to help create businesses easily.  Many people use this site because there are endless possibilities of art that one can find on here.  The site is growing and growing where no matter what a person is searching for I'm sure they have it even if they don't quite have it under a certain category.  

               Of art that is on digital media sites I think that messages are sent both indirect and direct for example some of the art are literal pictures of the controversial topic showing viewers exactly what they are meaning, where others like cartoons are a drawn picture of the perception.   

               I believe that more recently digital media is growing.  More and more with the technology of smart phones people are having the luxury of being able to share their digital photographs.  This is changing our perception of digital art because I think that art is gaining a greater meaning.  Art used to have the title of something that can be captured or created and now I believe it has the same meaning but it can be created by many in so many different ways where art can be anything.  Art could be a blurred picture, a clear picture, a garden, or even a sculpture.  Art is anything, one just needs to keep an open mind to view it as art. 

Body is Art

            

             This week I searched for videos for Dove.  Dove is a line of personal care products but their foundation is geared to raise women’s self esteem.  I found many videos that dove has posted for their Self Esteem Movement. 

One, asked women what their least favorite body part was, and women were quick to give an answer with a reason.  Next, they asked women what their most beautiful body part was, and the answer took much longer.  This video was to show to women that they need to stop having negative outlooks on their body and think more about what makes women beautiful. (Video at bottom of blog, Titled: "Dove: Inner Critic")

Another, was geared to show what are on young girls minds when they think about their bodies.  Many of the topics that came up were very negative like, anorexia, ugliness, too fat, too skinny, too tall, too short, having no friends, etc.   Some even were quick to say that in today’s society no one cares about personality it’s all about how sexy a person is.  Society is full of pressures and this generation has to deal with the thought of not being good enough.  Dove’s ending remark was that “things won’t change until we change them” and I think that has a lot of meaning.  Today young girls need to feel beautiful because this generation always thinks about the negatives about a person and that needs to change.  Girls need to start believing and thinking that everyone is beautiful because they are.  It may sound super cliché but I believe that everyone is beautiful in their own way and we all have something to bring to the table, to help one another out. (Video at bottom of blog, Titled: "A Dove Film- Girl's Self Esteem")

This goes hand in hand with art.  I think that the body is a beautiful thing and although I do not have a favorite artist I have found what speaks to me the most.  Artists that show women how truly beautiful their body is.  I have also found an artist who is well known in controversial photography, Oliviero Toscani.  Some of his art may hit close to home to many people I do believe that it clearly gets his message across.  He is the artist that took photos of the anorexic model, Isabelle Caro to send the message that being skinny isn’t as beautiful as people think.  Toscani also has photography that deals with race issues like the picture of three hearts with the captions of white, black, and yellow.  All of the hearts look very similar but some feel that they are not equal. 

 This art may hit close to home for some people but I love the messages that are being sent.