May 16th, 2012 by Jerelyn —
Perhaps one of the most important parts of Twitter is the hashtag. It’s not necessarily the 140 characters available per tweet that gets a message out; it is the “adding of your voice to the general discussion” through the hashtag that makes the impact, according to this article by SocialMediaToday.
At the same time that hashtags are the means for entering a larger conversation, they also “narrow down your audience” which allows people who are truly interested in the same topics to exchange ideas. The beauty and pure genius of the hashtag lies in the way its complete simplicity allows for a transfer of ideas and thoughts. Through Twitter’s categorization of tweets with the same hashtags, true engagement around an idea or a product is solicited.
As a result, it is no wonder that businesses, non-profits and politicians constantly use Twitter as a means of spreading their word. By asking followers to tweet using a specific hashtag, companies, businesses, celebrities, and politicians create conversations based around their messaging. It’s a win win situation. Followers speak their mind and conversation and buzz is created around a central theme.
Now I don’t know if this is just my generation (remember I am a teen), or just the people I follow on Twitter, but most people I know do not use hashtags in the “normal sense” as explained by SocialMediaToday.com. My generation doesn’t try to get in on the conversations or add their voice to the mix. We don’t look at what is trending and tweet about it, or repeat other people’s hashtags. Instead, we tweet but then use our hashtags to add emphasis to our tweet (kind of like a pumped up adjective):
It’s still uncertain whether we do this to blatantly ignore the way Twitter works, or to show that a social media platform based around conversation in fact has no rules or the rules can be broken and new rules created. If that’s the case then… #ohwell #yolo #breakingtherules #oops
Image via BUILDITZ.com
You should follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
February 8th, 2012 by Jerelyn —
I am lucky. On December 15th, amid anxious high school seniors awaiting decisions from multiple colleges, I got into Yale, my first choice. Of course, following that night, there was a flurry of all things Yale. Scrutinize the “Admitted Students” website, “Like” Yale University on Facebook, find my Yale group for the Class of 2016 on Facebook, buy a sweatshirt and water bottle at their school store, make my way off of Cloud 9 at some point (or never).
Yale on Facebook is great. Every once in a while, an update from Yale appears on my newsfeed. Varying from discussing the amount of snow Yale got, to the Yale Center for British Art, to sustainability at Yale, an economic professor’s view on the Eurozone crisis, thoughts for the New Year, ‘Happy Birthday’ wishes to icons such as Edith Wharton and Mozart and even types of food featured in Yale dining halls. Every time I see an update from Yale, I am amazed a little bit more about the school that I’ll be attending in the fall.
In this age of social media, I, as a rising college freshman, no longer have to wait to meet my fellow classmates at orientation which way back when was the day before classes started. Now, for most colleges, efforts are made to encourage connections online before school starts. So, thankfully, the Yale Class of 2016 Facebook group exists. We discuss things such as ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’, ‘Favorite Disney movies,’ ‘How crucial are naps to your high school survival?,’ the State of the Union, Republican candidates vs. Obama, discussing who’s done something stupid in front of their friends and received the “You got into Yale?” response, the Giants, voting for the first time, the perks of senioritis and our love for Yale in general.
Because of this group I get to see how exceptional my fellow classmates are, and I get a little more excited every day for when we’ll all finally be attending Yale together both online (I am sure we will still chat in our group after school begins) and offline when classes actually do begin! Can’t wait.
Image via Business Insider
December 7th, 2011 by Jerelyn —
According to AllFacebook—the unofficial guide to Facebook—teenage behavior on Facebook has become increasingly, and disturbingly, more antisocial. New studies by the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project report concerning effects of Facebook usage by young teenagers such as friendships ending, face to face confrontations at school, problems with parents, physical fights and bullying. Possibly the most disturbing of all is how nine out of ten teenagers have observed cruelty on social networks, or treated others that way themselves. Regardless of the age limit for a Facebook account, it has also been noticed that children thirteen and younger have been creating accounts with reported ages much, much older than their actual ages. This is to get past the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and the age limit that Facebook has set in accordance with the Act…with or without their parents’ permission.
Personally, I couldn’t disagree more that Facebook has made teenagers more antisocial. Instead, Facebook (and most social networks) fosters social interactions by acting as a medium for communication. It is easier to talk with long distance family and friends, easier to coordinate events, even easier to make friends. Personally, Facebook allowed me to connect with cousins I haven’t seen in a while, even those I’ve never met! I get to see what college is like for them, talk to them if I want to, and although it’s from a distance, I’m so thankful that Facebook allows me to have this connection at all! Facebook is part of how we interact socially now, and there is no going back to the days of our grandparents when social lives were strictly face to face. While I do not condone the negative behavior and cruelty that occurs on Facebook, it is not a result of the actual social network, but of the behavior and lessons taught to the children by their parents and environment. For younger kids on Facebook, parents should act more responsibly in teaching them proper online etiquette. In addition, an age limit for any social network is probably futile. In an age ruled by technology and with a generation that has grown up on iPads, iPhones, Facebook and Twitter, limitations on how we communicate and interact through social networks is pointless.
Facebook is making the world more social, not any less so.
August 31st, 2011 by Jerelyn —
Thank god for my cellphone. I might not have a complicated data plan, or a Blackberry or an iPhone, but texting works and it’s important to me. It’s nice to have some contact with the outside world, trust me. For me, it’s a way to stay in touch with my friends, especially during the long summer months when everyone decides to drop off the face of the planet. I mostly use my phone for texting because talking on the phone has gone out of fashion, at least for my generation. Let’s be honest, I really don’t have a conversation with anyone on the phone unless they’re over 40. It’s just a plain old hassle, and every time I pick up the phone and someone talks nonstop for thirty minutes, I flinch and think this is why texting is so much more convenient!
You could say that texting is a teenage epidemic. According to my driving instructor, it’s so extreme that teenagers argue they can text and drive because they are so good at typing quickly that they don’t have to take their eyes off the road. I mean, yeah I love texting, but please, that is such bad logic… I don’t text on the road, but I text to coordinate with my parents, coordinate with friends, and admittedly, to gossip with friends over what crazy things happened over the weekend. Once I was texting in the halls at school and a psycho teacher ran up to me and blared “Texting alert, texting alert, texting alert!” right into my ear…needless to say, I don’t text during school, or at least not within view of that teacher. While looking for some stats on teen texting, I found a 2010 survey by The Nielsen Company which found the average teenager (13 to 17 years old) sends or receives 3,339 texts per month which is something more than 100 per day or about one every six minutes in a 10 hour day … that’s a whole lot of interpersonal networking!!
Photo via Michael Smith’s Principal’s Page Blog
You should follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
August 10th, 2011 by Jerelyn —
For over ten years, I grew up side by side with Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley. I remember the first time I picked up Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, a fresh birthday present, and promptly got lost in the wizarding world. Every book holds a place of honor in my book case, much loved and well-worn since I haven’t put any of the books down since. And like so many other fans, I pretended that the owl carrying my acceptance letter from Hogwarts was merely a couple of years late.
It’s why sitting in a darkening movie theater with my best friends, awaiting the start of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2”, was such a terribly sad moment. It was truly the end of an era. With the publication of the last book, Harry Potter fans were in denial, hoping that really JK Rowling was holding out on us, and there were more books on the way. But the last movie was a final goodbye to characters that had become friends, and places like Hogwarts that had become home. Unsurprisingly, I found myself tearing up multiple times throughout the movie. Also unsurprisingly, I don’t want to say goodbye to Harry Potter.
And so I find myself looking for Harry Potter blogs where the author reminisces about how great it is to be a fan, analyzes the books or weeps about how it’s all come to an end. I find myself watching countless YouTube videos about the ten year journey Harry Potter has made. It’s become addicting, I swear. I’ve even signed up for Pottermore, the mysterious Harry Potter website that JK Rowling created to reel in her fans a little more (like she needs to). I didn’t need to turn to social media when the books were being published, because they were more than enough. But now that the last book has been published and the last movie has been revealed, I find myself looking for Harry Potter anywhere on the Internet, blogs or YouTube, to keep that connection going. And so I’ve become a participant, because I’m in agreement with the billions of other fans…it would be heartbreak to really let go of Harry Potter.
Image via greatnewmovies.com
You should follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
June 22nd, 2011 by Jerelyn —
Story of my life: Oh I’ll just go on Facebook for five minutes. An hour later: still there. I’m frequently distracted from my homework as I creep on my friends’ pictures and profiles, and sometimes connect with old friends and family I haven’t seen with a while. Not to mention the fact that I’m constantly lured back to Facebook by the group my AP Language and Composition class has created with our teacher for class discussion, changes in assignments and posting homework. It’s safe to say that, as a teenager, Facebook is the largest mode of communication. Practically everyone I know has a Facebook profile, and if they don’t, they’re out of the loop.
While I mostly use Facebook for social purposes, I’ll occasionally connect to a brand or like a page. Because I don’t like unnecessary clutter on my newsfeed, I really only connect to the brands that I know and love outside of Facebook. For example, Gossip Girl, and America’s Next Top Model are examples of two brands that I’ve connected to. I am a religious Gossip Girl watcher. No matter what is going on, even if I haven’t finished my homework, I will watch the show, and the fact that their Facebook page is so active makes it even better!!!! For the nights when I am busy, and can’t watch the show, GG posts a link where you can watch the episode for free! Constant updates and pictures prior to episodes make me excited to watch (not that I wasn’t already!). Honestly, I don’t actually visit the pages of any brands on Facebook. If an update shows up on my newsfeed, then I’ll look, but if it doesn’t, then there are probably zero chances that I’ll go look at what the brand is doing on their page. The brands that are relatively inactive on Facebook are ones that I will probably disconnect from later on, since the connection hasn’t been worth it.
Image via Gossip Girl Facebook Page
But trust me, the brands that invest time in promoting themselves on Facebook (where probably a large majority of teenagers spend their time), win in the end. They’re the brands I’ll stick to and support even more, just like Gossip Girl!!
