Blog Assignment

I can safely say I am not a blog person. I am a Facebook, MSNBC, Yahoo person, but definitely not a blog person. However, I am finding in this class that I have room in my unwavering and seemingly concrete lifestyle for change. I was not a Twitter person a few weeks ago. These days I check Twitter daily. Perhaps there is some hope for my anti-blogging nature as well.

There are two blogs that caught my eye for various reasons. The first is the AdFreak blog which I deemed to be quite good. I must have pulled up seven blogs which I scanned then discarded. AdFreak made me double take, a rare thing for someone who has grown up with internet and therefore does not shock easily. I literally thought to myself, what the hell is this? The first image I saw is what looked like an American Apparel ad with a woman who was not at all like their typical model choice. I read more closely and learned it was a spoof intended to illuminate the difficulties that people with disabilities suffer through daily. I scrolled down further and saw a sofabed centaur. I was officially hooked. Their unusual material works in such a powerful way that things like rhetoric, webpage design, and other blog characteristics seem unimportant. This was easily my favorite blog that I encountered.

The second blog that I felt stood out from the rest was PR-Squared but this was not because it was a success. I felt that PR-Squared left much to be desired from a blog. Firstly, the layout was atrocious. It read more like a website than a blog. The writer’s overindulgence in the bold and italic features made it difficult to follow, and more importantly more difficult to find the most important parts of information. I also felt the pictures used did nothing to enhance the layout; they just made it seem more cramped and wedged in between the writing. The general layout of this blog made it severely difficult to comprehend and gather information. Secondly, what information I did take in I did not find personally useful. Overall it felt like a lot of time and energy wasted for a minimally valuable outcome.

This was my first delve into the world of blogging. While I have been proven wrong in the past about Twitter which I now use daily, I feel my hesitations about joining the blogging world will not be overcome. This was probably my first and last jaunt into this social media.


AdFreak: http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/

PR-Squared: http://www.pr-squared.com/

Twitter Assignment

Before this class I had absolutely no involvement in the “Twitterverse”. In fact, I had very negative opinions about Twitter and its effects on my generation. As a whole we have been accused of being a narcissistic age group that is close-minded about the world around us. Indeed, I felt Twitter was the very pinnacle of this. What does it say about our generation’s character that we need to let the world know what we had for lunch? What does it say about us that we need the instant gratification of letting the world know how we are feeling at any point of time? In short, I felt Twitter was everything wrong with America today.
I can honestly say I do understand Twitter now and how it can be used successfully for businesses and celebrities to further their agendas. A music artist I followed told his fans to meet at a specific location on a specific day if they wanted to be in his new music video. He is building a relationship with his fans which would help his stalling career. Time magazine told me about the volcanic eruption that is still having an effect on Europe today. It has been valuable in keeping up with current issues. Twitter is an easy way for me to keep up with the world around me, in both academic and the social realms. In this way Twitter’s use as a social media site is extremely successful and seems useful to me.
However, my views on average people using Twitter to promote their average lives are unchanged. I did not seek out my friends on Twitter and I have no desire to do so in the future. I will keep up with them on Facebook, but if I want to hear how their day went I will call them on the phone and talk to them personally. I found most of my classmate’s Tweets very tedious with their shallow meanings and grammatical or spelling errors. I found myself getting frustrated very easily because yes, I know you are walking to class and it’s beautiful outside because I too am walking to class and I can see for myself it is, in fact, beautiful outside.
I also had some problems coming up with the minimum seven Tweets for the assignment. Just as I do not want to hear what my classmates are doing, I do not want them to know what I am doing. I am a very private person that does not talk about feelings or emotions so I was intimidated and anxious about Tweeting.
Overall, I believe I will continue to use Twitter. However, there must be some changes made before I commit to this social media. I am going to “unfollow” a majority of the people I am following now. I plan on following only business and celebrities that I have invested interest in. Also, I will probably not contribute too many Tweets of my own in the future.

Test

I dislike blogging. test.