Social Media and the benefits of the election

Ever since social media has existed people have become not just more aware about things going on, but also an easier platform for anyone to post their opinion. Just in the past few weeks we as a country have dealt with many big changes and have had one of the biggest elections out country has ever had between two popular candidates… Donald Trump VS. Hillary Clinton. The number of people who have posted something about the election has skyrocketed with over 1.13 billion users posting to Facebook. One of the most famous tweets and hashtags that were used throughout the campaigns were Hillary Clinton’s famous #DeleteYourAccount and how that reached millions of users in minutes and how big of an effect that has on our country.

More and more people are starting to receive information through social media. Look at Twitter for example, we now have an entire page called “Moments” devoted to recent news that is trending in the United States. Social media is biggest with millenniums and are typically the ones to be up to date on it.  In many cases, millenniums have most often had the lowest turnouts in elections, with only 46 percent showing up to vote in the 2012 election. However, in this most recent presidential election we found that roughly 31 percent of voters were Millennials because they are aware of what was going on with social media on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

I think that the presidential electors this year were well aware of millenniums and how to get them involved through social media and the huge impact that it would help on the polls. It has become much easier for them to watch the lead up to the election wheater that be through the debates, which were live streamed through Twitter and not only only televisions where you pay a cable fee and also Twitter being able to post whatever you feel.

http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2016/08/social-media-election-role

 

Tis the season Starbucks anyone?

It’s not Halloween anymore and we all know what that means. The holidays are in full effect with the Thanksgiving turkey, the countdown to Christmas movies, and most importantly the famous Starbucks cup that holds your coffee novelty inside. Every year Starbucks seems to get slammed with some type of bad reputation for their holiday cup and how it has a negative effect on some people or cultures.

Last years reputation:

Starbucks released their holiday cups last year on November 1st and the controversy started days after it was released. Within 5 days the red cup had become one of the top stories in the country and had been shared by more than 500,000 people. The controversy last year was that the cup was all red and had no snowflakes, stars, or snowmen and was considered to have nothing to do with Christmas. Instead it became a huge theory for Starbucks customers that the all red cup related to the christian belief that their was a war on Christmas and how the red related to Jesus’s blood.

This years reputation:

It is campaign season and tension is high with less than two weeks before the Presidential election. Starbucks has just announced their new campaign which is their “Green Cup” that is meant to symbolize unity with the election coming up. Even though Starbucks still has not announced if this will be their 2016 Holiday cup it has customers worried and confused. Originally the cup was designed to resemble hundreds of different diverse people embracing one continuous line, but yet again has people feeling offended by the green color.Will people ever be happy with the Holiday Starbucks cup?  What will your thoughts be on Starbucks new holiday cup this season?

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/starbucks-new-unity-cup-draws-fire-ahead-election-n676521

http://www.vox.com/2015/11/10/9707034/starbucks-red-cup-controversy

 

Is Instagram the new Snapchat?

What is the first thing you think of when you hear the word “Snapchat”? To me I think of taking pictures, what filters I can use, and lastly how important your stories are that all your friends can see. Stories on Snapchat can show anything about your life that you take a picture of and are available for your friends and user to see for only 24 hours. Recently, Instagram has introduced the same idea of Snapchats stories on the IG homepage and has people very annoyed and confused. Developer and founder of Instagram, Kevin Systrom wouldn’t disagree with people because yes they are taking the same idea that Snapchat has, but instead putting a different spin on it. This “different spin” is what allows people to post pictures and videos on Instagram that aren’t worth actually posting and putting on your profile.

How do the stories on Instagram work and why is it necessary?

According to Instagram, the stories just like Snapchat last 24 hours long and can be a maximum of secound picture or video, can see who has viewed your stories, can save your stories before or after posting, and lastly allowing all your followers to see your stories and posts. Personally, when I saw this new update I was more annoyed than anything and confused because why do two perfectly separate and successful sites try to combine forces? Across the board this new update has people in a 50/50 position and don’t feel the need to post stories on their IG because that what Snapchat is for. Everyone knows Instagram has evolved into into a game where everyone seeks to win the most Likes and validation. Just like everything, after a long period of time something gets old so Instagram decided to come up with a new innovative.

So what are your feelings on Snapchat on Instagram? Will it help out instagram’s popularity or hurt Snapchats reputation?

Website used:

https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/02/instagram-stories/

Cyber Bullying linked to teen depression

“Cyberbullying is Bullying. Hiding behind a pretty screen, doesn’t make it less hateful, written words have power.” –

Cyber bullying has always been an issue ever since online media has come out, but over the last few years it has becoming a much bigger issue among teens and has begun to link to depression among many young adults. In extreme cases and many studies over the course of the last few years, a high number of suicides have been linked to young adults who have been bullied online or over social media.

Social Media effects:

Social Media. The place where you think you post pictures of you and your friends or tweet about a party that your best friend is having next week when in reality it is the platform for common bullying now. It has become so popular among teenagers because they are linked to social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter. Teenagers think that social media bullying is different from regular face to face bullying when in reality it hurts someone even more because of the impact that it has on someone and the fact that it is posted everywhere and anyone can see it. This is greatly linked to cyber bullying and even more among the younger generations because social media is highly common with people who age.

Depression effect:

Cyber bullying and depression go hand in hand and has been shown in many studies that teenagers with social media accounts are more likely to become depressed then young adults who have no social media accounts based of FOMO, fear of missing out and this fake “lifestyle” that everyone is living online. Think about it, how many times have you been out in public and seen teenagers looking at their phones saying that they wish they looked like this person or lived a life similar to theirs? Personally, I have said this myself and have seen it numerous times and has all of our minds twisted because in reality none of it is true. If you ever see this online or is happening to one of your friends make sure you put a stop to it because in the end you could possibly be saving a life. Save a Life.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/23/cyberbullying-depression_n_7644934.html

“I was bullied quite a lot when I was growing up in my Peking Opera School. I allowed myself to be bullied because I was scared and didn’t know how to defend myself. I was bullied until I prevented a new student from being bullied. By standing up for him, I learned to stand up for myself.”

Iphone 7… Yeah or Nah?

Apple has officially released their new iPhone 7 that has people talking a lot both good and bad. But do you know why? NO headphone jack. How are you supposed to use the AUX cord and jam with your friends in the car or listening to music while working out? Apple is used to getting criticized for many of their new releases, especially because they are always the first to come out with the next most bold thing. With the new iPhone 7, this is the first time that Apple as a company has ever recieved this much hate off of a new product.

So the real question is… Why did Apple take the headphone jack away? Lots of Apple customers are wondering the same thing. Some users are very unhappy with this new change because they are very unsure how the wireless headphones will work because the regular headphone jack had worked just fine in the past. Another reason that users are annoyed with this is because bluetooth headphones are yet one other thing that is going to have to be charged. One way that Apple is trying to help keep the regular headphone jack user is by using a “dongle” that is designed to be plugged into the charger section of the phone, except it is going to cost users an extra $29 dollars, which is making people very upset. The picture below is an example of what the dongle will look like for iPhone 7 users and how it connects with regular headphones.

Personally I think that this is an exciting time for Apple and people should be excited about this new big change that is about to happen in society. Society as a whole is changing to more wireless technology and Apple is just one other company that is making that switch. People should be more adjustable to change and the fact that Apple is always a growing and changing as a company for the better.