#udengl413

Crowdfunding has become increasingly popular in recent years due to sites like Kickstarter.com. But since the creation of the “Donate” button on Facebook, it’s users have donated more than $15 million dollars to relief efforts in Nepal. It is important to note that this statistic does not reflect general engagement such as “likes”, but actual donations made to their partnering organization, International Medical Corps (IMC). Many think that Facebook users are more likely to like or share content rather than actually donate to a cause, so this is an amazing feat.

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.