Haley Harris

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3069421/Women-flood-social-media-plus-size-selfies-online-campaign-celebrate-curves-spread-positivity.html

A huge frenzy has spread across twitter to spread the word about loving your body for women of all sizes. The frenzy started after one company posted an ad for a protein drink of a young women, incredibly in shape, posing in a yellow bikini asking customers if their body was 'beach ready?' This sparked controversy immediately and even got responses from famous plus size supermodel Ashley Graham. Ashley, and many other women started posting pictures of themselves sharing the love they have for their own unique body. This is a great example of how social media can be used for good, raising awareness about self-love and promoting a healthy life-style for women of all sizes, and not just 'supermodel thin.'

http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/03/follow-plants-hackathon/

 This article talks about a new social media platform, FollowPlants, which was developed by 15 year olds from New Jersey. The purpose of the site is to post tweets... from plants. The tweets relate to things such as the plant needing water and the fact that it is going to be sunny. The tweets are generated from equipment that is placed near the plants and translates readings from the plants into tweets. I think this is really neat because it shows the future of social media and how it can be used effectively!

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/01/living/feat-happiness-social-media/index.html

 This CNN article questions whether social media can make you happy or not. In the article, they discuss findings around young girls that suggests that their increased social media use lead to more negative feelings, rather than those who put down their smart phones and opted to use social media a little less. Contrarily, social media can be a mood booster when it comes to what the article says is 'building supportive relationships'.' All in all, 'social media is what you make of it.'

http://mashable.com/2015/04/30/facebook-donation-nepal/

 This article is a great example of how social media can be used to do a lot of good in the world. Following the horrific earthquake in Nepal, Facebook launched a "Donate Now" button at the top of news feeds which allows users to donate to the relief effort for the thousands of affected people. In addition to this, both Facebook and Google have launched features to allow persons in this area top identify themselves as 'safe' on their profile or to post about missing family and friends.

http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2013/jun/11/professional-reputation-social-media-tips

 This article talks to the way in which we represent ourselves online when we are acting in a professional manner. Our world is moving towards an interdependency between the professional workplace and social media and we must know how to appropriately intertwine ourselves between the two. I especially like this article's Twitter discussion. It references mistakes made by big companies when social media representatives did not think before the tweeted, in which they received backlash from inappropriate tweets that publicized. Even how we conduct ourselves on our own personal sites can come back to haunt us.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanwestwood/2015/03/05/hit-like-if-you-agree-with-social-media-in-the-workplace/3/

 This Forbes article discusses the use of social media in the workplace. It highlights the many benefits for businesses and entrepreneurs, some of which include increasing the span of people you reach by utilizing sites other than the original business site, being able to find new talent for the company, and it even improves the interaction amongst employees within the company by offering a platform to post company-wide updates.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/30/tech/social-media/weirdest-apps-2014/index.html

 This CNN article highlights app ideas that come out all the time, and which ones are just plain weird. I think this article is important because as social media expands, people are coming up with new ideas everyday for apps that help us accomplish things in a simpler or more efficient way. But where do we draw the line? Some of the strangest ones from this article include an app to locate strangers in your area who want to give you a hug and an app that allows friends to tap into your lock screen and leave you handwritten messages.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/2015/04/29/rockets-fire-social-media-manager-after-distasteful-tweet/26601091/

http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/social-networking-websites

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/245589

 This article I can especially relate to, as I work with an older generation at my current job. This article highlights the skepticism around social media but older generations and aims to bust biases in order to get everyone on the same page as to its usefulness. They use the example of someone having an issue with an airline, they tweeted about it, and within minutes, their tweet was retweeted and they were in contact with customer service from the airline trying to fix the issue. This article addresses other examples of ways in which social media was used well, and ultimately proves its relevance in a professional world.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/244764

This social media article talks about the importance of profile pictures on LinkedIn. This article is really relevant for all of us as young professionals entering the workforce because we live in a world that is strongly social media based. LinkedIn was created as a platform to help us with finding jobs and connecting with other professionals, and as we know, first impressions are extremely important. This article highlights what appropriate and inappropriate profile pictures look like, helping you to decide before hitting that "upload" button.

I really liked both articles and how their tone addressed how tweets can help businesses. In the Times article, one part stuck out to me which stated that guessing which tweets will be retweeted the most in easier than creating a tweet that will be retweeted the most. This is especially important in the business world because you want to know that what you post on your social media account is reaching the farthest audience, hence retweets upon retweets. The Scientific Guide article then highlighted which tweets do get the most attention, with tweets containing promotions and discounts as number one. All of this information is relative and important to businesses and marketing departments because in order to promote your brand, you must know which avenue will make you the most successful.

The readings this week are very important for us professional writing students as we grow and learn in a world that is so predominately dependent on social media, both in a social setting as well as in a professional setting. The first article, which highlights the troubles of Stacey Snyder after she posted a picture of herself dressed as a pirate holding a red cup with a caption indicating she was drunk, is an excellent example of how something that may seem quite harmless, especially when you think you are just sharing it with your "friends," can actually be something potentially life ruining. Due to one silly mistake made by Stacey, she was unable to practice teaching, something she had spent so much time studying and learning. As a result of instances such as Stacey's, ThinkUp has been featured in the New York Times as a tool that you can use to track your social media presence, and hopefully, make changes where necessary. Ultimately, as our generation, and generations after us, adopt social media more and more into our professional lives, programs such as this will help to prevent the number of people falling victim to social media and its ability to spread like wildfire.

Want to be a CIA spy? Be careful on Facebook. http://money.cnn.com/2015/03/13/technology/security/cia-facebook-rules/index.html

This article talks about the importance social media plays when applying for a job or if you are currently in then hiring process, especially for the  CIA. People who were applying to be in the CIA made mistakes such as posting about their interview, tagging pictures of other agents at parties, or liking the CIA Facebook page, which for the CIA was a huge no no. As a result, people experienced jobs being revoked as a result of their ‘harmless’ social media interactions, or so they thought. I think this is important for us because no matter what job we seek, we must be conscious of what we post on social media and how that reflects on us. 

“Our culture wants to both multiply its media and to erase all traces of mediation: ideally, it wants to erase its media in the very act of multiplying them." The way that media works in our culture today is to give the user a 'real-life' experience. This quote exemplifies this by describing the experience the user wishes to have: a realistic one. More and more, our culture is trying to blur the lines between what is perceived and what is reality. The author discusses the flight simulator video game. This made me think of my own experience at amusement parks, such as Busch Gardens, where designers have come up with 4D rides to give the customer the sensation that they are no longer on a ride, but actually riding on the back of a horse, or jumping off the side of a cliff into the water. Visuals, sounds, as well as physical movements are all utilized.