BLOG 11 Communication Technology: UNPLUGGED

As a student, technology is a necessary evil. Since I have started college, almost all assignments have moved online, and getting in contact with your professors is almost exclusively done through email, so for me, my laptop and i-Phone are always on me, especially on campus. However, as technology has started to get more and more entrenched into our daily lives, I have started to pull back a little and I must admit that I use my phone far less frequently then most people my age, however I still use it very often. As I read Jenna Worthom’s articles, “Turn Off the Phone (and the Tension)” I immediately found myself picturing my friends. Like Jenna, my friends are often unable to disconnect from the internet/ their phones no matter where they are, on a hike, in the pool, even in the shower sometimes! I was glad to see that Worthom began to realize the beauty of living in the moment and looking at the world around her, and not just the digital world. I was so excited to hear that I wasn’t the only one who started to feel that I was missing out when I looked at social networks and saw my friends or family doing things that I wasn’t there for.  I think JOMO (Joy of missing out) is precisely accurate, if we look less on what everyone else is doing and more on what we are doing, we will be much happier. John T. Peters’ article, “Your Summer Vacation Unplugged: is it even possible”, really got me thinking and almost… almost tempted me to try out a summer disconnected for myself. But then I realized that, while social media and technology can easily get in our way of fully enjoying life, it is also a super helpful and definitely cool tool at times!

The challenge we were assigned to unplug from our phone and the Internet for me was do-able since I actually do it more often than I thought! However, I had to wait until the weekend to try this out since I can’t disconnect during the school week. Yesterday (Saturday) I disconnected for almost a full day, from about 11am till 8pm. During this time I did things like catch up on the books I am juggling currently, I made a home-cooked meal from a recipe from an actual book (ha!), and I also went to see a movie. At about the middle of the day I found my mind wondering to Instagram and my email, but I quickly let those thoughts pass. I did run into a problem however when I headed to the movie theatre to see Divergent for the third time (I checked the times before unplugging), and realized I don’t know how to get to the theatre without using the GPS on my phone. So I went old-school and pulled into a gas-station to ask for directions. Other than those few small problems, the day went over with ease.

This class has been one of my favorites of the semester and I couldn’t have picked a better time to have taken it because it pairs perfectly with the things we are learning in my communication social media class. This semester in this class has brought a lot of really awesome statistics to my attention about major companies, and what they are doing/have done in the past, as well as helped me to realize just how much our society today relies on technology, and the internet especially. One of the most shocking things of the semester was hearing just how much these major companies spend on buying other companies or apps. Hearing that Google spent so many billions on something was insane, and help to put it into perspective just how much power these fortune 500 companies have.

Overall I have very much enjoyed this class and everything it has taught me! I would recommend it to all Communication majors or minors at UofL.

HootSuite University Reflection

            When Professor Freberg introduced us to this assignment at the beginning of the semester I must admit that I had never heard of HootSuite. Sadly, I must admit that I had no idea that social media monitoring and management was even a thing, let alone that there were a variety of different companies that offered these services.  Nonetheless, I was excited to be able to have the free opportunity to get “certified” regardless to the fact that I did not originally know what this meant. Dr. Freberg assured us that future potential employers, especially ones in the social media field, would be impressed with this certification.

            After a couple months went by I finally got around to giving this program a try and attempting to figure out how it all worked. Initially, logging on to the site, I found myself getting a little frazzled by the layout of the “home page.” One of my biggest complaints about the program itself was that it was difficult to know exactly what needed to be done, and where to find it. I feel that there could be a more user-friendly layout that wouldn’t require as much training in order to understand. If this was the case, a lot more people could utilize this tool to its full potential. Once I finally figured out where the HootSuite University tab was located, a whole new lever of confusion ensued. There should be a step-by-step guide on what needs to be done in order to get certified, but instead it just throws you into the program and lists a plethora of video –exam combos and expects you to just know what to do.

            However, once I asked around to a few of my classmates, I figured out what needed to be done. Unfortunately, most people do not have a variety of people to chose from for help and this is problematic given the confusing set-up. I also found it hard to believe that there was no contact phone number for customer service so that users could call in with question, I am sure that one exists however I was never able to find it on the website.

            On to the positive aspects of this program; once I finally figured out where everything was located and what all I needed to do, I found the certification process to be enjoyable. The social media courseware exams 110 to 160 were fun, easy, and helpful reminders of aspects of social media I had forgotten about or that were not fresh in my mind. This process was also quick and I was able to get it done in a timely manner. I also found it helpful to be able to see what questions I had missed and what the answers were so that I knew what I was doing wrong.

            The final exam however sort of stumped me up. I felt that the questions that were in the courseware exams were not applicable to the HootSuite program itself, but more so a broad reiteration of social media practices. I had to take the final exam three times before receiving a perfect score, which I found confusing because I felt like the courseware exams should have better prepared me. On a whole, I must admit that I found this program to be somewhat unorganized and not user-friendly, faintly boring, and slightly repetitive. Conversely, I think the repetitive nature of it can be wholly attributed to the fact that I learned the majority of the topics covered in the exams throughout the duration of Professor Freberg’s class, and the rest I knew from prior experience with social media.

            Unfortunately, I am hesitant to put that I am HootSuite certified on my resume or LinkedIn account. This is because I am worried that if a future employer asked me to be in charge of social media and utilize HootSuite to do so, I would not be able to.

            When Mark Murdock, my favorite guest speaker of the year came in to class, he briefly showed the class how his company uses the social media management program, Sprout Social. From the brief few minutes that he showed us this, I was already impressed by it. It seemed to be very user-friendly, easy to read, and its sleek black and green color scheme made it fun and enjoyable to look at.  I took a further look into this program and found out that it only costs $10 more per month than HootSuite does, and from a small companies standpoint I would say it would be well worth it. Not only was it more user-friendly and easy on the eyes, it also seemed to have a more vast variety of things that it could do from the analytic stance.

            As a whole, I am thankful to have had the opportunity to explore HootSuite and get to see a side of social media that I did not know existed. It was also a great refresher of the many “tools” that different social media platforms have that I had forgotten about.

COM304: Privacy

In this advanced and fast paced world of social media, privacy has become increasingly more questionable. Social media and communication technologies have provided such a positive platform for so many aspects of our modern lives, but with the good always comes the bad, and the concern of privacy is definitely the bad. As a 21-year-old communications major, it is safe to say that I am on a vast majority of social media sites. Back in 2006 when I first set up my Facebook account as a freshman in college, privacy concerns were never addressed. More recently however, in my college career, I have noticed this issue has gotten some serious face time. As a soon-to-be graduate, the job search is on, which means Facebook privacy is on lock-down for me. Although I am not ashamed of who I am or what I’ve done, I have to admit that my early college party days got the best of me and the unfortunately the pictures that came along with that, did not. I have made intense efforts to get rid of potentially embarrassing and damaging pictures but FB makes it nearly impossible to do so. My social media class here at UofL has taught me recently that FB is a scary place, very scary, and the amount of information that the right (well really wrong) person could collect on me just from using FB, is terrifying. I am a private person in my “real-life” so my virtual life is the same, and with the lack of privacy on the Internet these days, this has become difficult to manage. There have been many times that I have attempted to delete my FB account entirely but when I am almost finished, I end up not going through with it, because no matter how terrible it is, it is also a wonderful networking tool, and I can’t afford to give that aspect of it up. I personally do think that society should be concerned about their privacy, especially their “virtual privacy.” Our society today is almost entirely technology based and with this taken into consideration, I feel we should be able to express ourselves freely, in a tasteful way of course, without being scrutinized or penalized. My fear is that if we continue on this path of a lack of privacy ethics, we will soon be looking at a much more brutal playing field.

This comical diagram from Pinterest just about sums it up! 

College: Learn, Love, Live, & of course, Laugh

So all week I have been debating what to write about for my last Comm460 blog ever :( Originally I was going to follow my typical path of a movie review and review the film, Noah, which I saw earlier this week. But as the days went by I kept putting it off and realized that Noah was not a very memorable film (despite it staring one of my favorite actors, Emma Watson.) So in hopes of not boring those who read these posts I decided Noah would not be my last post. After reading one of my classmates posts where she wrote a letter to incoming college students and provided advice for do’s & don’ts of your college career, it inspired me to reflect on my own college career. Which is suiting since I will be finally earning my degree with a major in Communications and minor in Sociology this August; I say “finally” lightly however, I have been wishing for this day to come for so long and now that it is finally here, I am terrified, in the best way.

Ahh, where do I begin? College has been a whirlwind for me and I can easily admit that my college career has been quite different from all of my friends. Before I started my freshman year at UK, a girl messaged me saying that she was excited to meet me and that she was going to be living down the hall from me in the dorm. I am beyond thankful for this conversation, which shaped the entire path of my college years. This person, Nicole, became one of my very best friends and to this day I can call on her whenever I need her and I know she will be there. I cannot imagine what my life would be today if I hadn’t met her.  Freshman year was insane for me, my entire lifestyle took a 180 in just a few short months and before I knew it I was 30 pounds lighter and on my first college spring break in Fort Lauderdale, what an experience! Second semester came along and I was still having the time of my life with my new group of friends that I had met through Nicole. I was becoming entrenched in a social lifestyle that was like nothing I had ever known before, and it started to take a toll on me, and my weight.

Sophomore year creeped in quickly after what can only be described as the best summer of my life so far. Nicole spent her first semester in Barcelona, leaving my friends Karli and Megan and myself to peruse the town with our usual shenanigans. This fall semester I can honestly say I drank more and partied more than I ever have. Everything changed second semester however and I started to become more of an introvert after I dislocated my knee and gradually began to gain more and more weight. This spring semester is when I took a lot of time to figure out who I was, or try to, and discover what I wanted out of life. I wanted a chance to start over new and change my lifestyle around, so I transferred to the University of Louisville the following year, where I have bee for my junior and senior years! I have to admit; I would have never imagined that two cities, so close to each other geographically, could be so different. I digged the laid-back vibe of Louisville and the openness and accepting nature that allowed me to thrive and become who I wanted to be. My junior year was still a rough year for me, much life sophomore year, but I was finally starting to be happy again, and enjoying life and the city was a major contributor to that. But most of all my roommates have become my rock and I love them dearly! Senior year is the year I can say I have finally become the person I want to be, and that I am proud to be. Of course, life is a work in progress and we will always be changing, learning and hopefully thriving; but right now, for the first time in a long time, I am happy to be me, and it’s the best feeling.

I’m a promoter of self-improvement and always trying to be the best you that you can possibly be. I am a firm believer in becoming spiritually engaged with the earth, and loving animals and people, and helping others whenever possible, in any way at all. So my advice for those entering into college, or for anyone at all is; never stray too far from yourself, don’t be afraid of change, and learn to love yourself for all that you are, because you are amazing, unique, but most of all, you are you!

I'll end with some food for thought, a few of my favorite quotes! 

Have a beautiful, spiritual & enlightened day! 

Guest Speaker: Mark Murdock aka "Murdock"

It’s official, Mark Murdock (@ohexcuseme) has been my favorite guest speaker in #Freberg14 thus far. His inspiring outlook on life, work, and his enthusiasm for what he does was the best start to my sleepy morning! Mark Murdock is the Community and Content Manager for Bandy Carroll Hellige (BCH), a ground breaking company based in Louisville and Indy that does PR, Advertising, Digital & Interactive, Social, Qualitative Research, among other things. With over 25 clients, some of which include Four Roses Bourbon, Kentucky Lottery, Louisville Zoo and McDonalds (select areas); it is safe to say they are pretty good at what they do.

Murdock began with a short introduction into his life and told us that if we take anything at all away from the lecture, it should be that in life we need to remember to be grateful, enthusiastic, passionate and in love with what we do above all else. Murdock really caught my attention when he referenced one of his friends, CEO of Buddy Media, Michael Lazerow, who wrote, “Why Weirdos Outperform Normals”.( http://blogs.salesforce.com/company/2013/03/why-weirdos-outperform-normals.html ) Being an outsider and “weirdo” all my life, I found this article entirely relatable. It gave me hope that there are employers out there that don’t just look at the words on your resume when considering giving you a job, but take into account your personality, talent, and celebrate your being different. At the end of the lecture, Murdock mentioned that he had an internship opportunity available, he said “shoot me an email, don’t bother sending me your resume, the things you did in the past are not as important as things you're going to do in the future.” I think that people should take this into consideration in all aspects of their lives, try not to regret things, make the now count and your future will be what you make it! As if Murdock hadn’t captured my full attention at this point, his referring to the “9 to 5’ers” as “soul-sucking jerks” made my heart smile.

That all being said, um… hire me?

I appreciate Murdock taking the time to come visit our class!

It's Time to Reflect!

It’s reflection time, which can only mean one thing, the semester is coming to a close! Can you tell I’m excited? After 8 college semesters I am both excited and scared shitless for my college career to be ending. One thing I have come to realize over the years however is that good professors with a solid curriculum are hard to come by, but Dr. Freberg is a different story. At the end of my Fall 2013 semester I was desperate to find a 400 level communication class, all were either full, lame, or not interesting.

When I stumbled upon Dr. Freberg’s Social Media course it sparked my interest and I went to meet with her. She warned me that this class was work intensive and required a lot of attention. With this advice I was hesitant but decided to enroll anyways since Professor Freberg seemed like a really sweet person. And I am so pleased with my choice! This semester has carried with it a very intense workload, especially with me being the group leader, and the fact that I am taking 18 credit hours this semester, but it is so worth it!

COMM 460 has been the first class that I have taken in my entire college career that I have actually felt like it has prepared me for entering the workforce and provided me with real-life, applicable knowledge that will help me to succeed in my career and have an advantage over other potential employees. Aside from the time consumption and hard work, I am happy to have made a few new friends in this class and to have a pretty good group for our semester long project. This class has introduced me to so many new technologies, jobs and other aspects that come along with social media that I would have never have known if I hadn’t taken this class. I am thankful for Dr. Freberg for being so warm and inviting to her students and making them feel like their voice matters. She has been a pleasant change from the typical college professors that I have taken in the past.

I recommend this class to anyone who is majoring in Communications at UofL.

Reflect on all aspects of your life, it is the best way to change and learn more about yourself!
Being a grateful, honest, kind, and loving person is the most important thing in life!
Be the best you you can be!