Facebook Can Save Lives

You are probably wondering by the title, how it is possible for Facebook to save lives. I would have thought the same thing before reading this article from AOL News. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/11/lisa-and-chris-miller-fac_n_2104710.html?1352662357&icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl3%7Csec3_lnk1%26pLid%3D233231

The article was from the Huffington Post and was about how two people met on a Facebook game called Farm Town. Throughout their interaction, they got to know each other pretty well. Eventually, the one women, Lisa, found out that her Farm Town partner had a daughter who needed a kidney transplant. After learning this, Lisa became devoted to helping the daughter find the kidney. Long story short, Lisa's husband was a match and donated his kidney to the girl . I thought this was an amazing story. In reality how many people would donate their organs to a complete stranger? Because of Facebook, people are letting others into their close friend groups without even meeting them. Lisa felt like she had to help a friend. 

After reading this article, I found another one related to this topic. 

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2012/05/facebook-coo-sheryl-sandberg-our-dream-is-to-save-lives/\

This article was about how Facebook will add a new feature to the website about being an organ donor. The purpose of this article was to inform people of the many different capabilities of the social media site to solve social problems around the world. We are just beginning to discover the benefits that come from Facebook. It will be interesting to see how and if other problems will be solved using other types of social media in the future. 

Election Day

Happy Election Day! I hope everyone had the opportunity to cast their vote to make a difference today. After coming home from voting, I read an interesting article related to the election and social media. No it is not about political ads. Instead it was a video taken by a voter which showed a malfunctioning voting machine in Pennsylvania  When the voter went to select Obama, the machine automatically chose Romney. 

Seeing this computer error, the voter called over a volunteer and was provided no explanation or help. So the voter decided to take a video using his smart phone and upload it to Reddit.com. On the site, it got a lot of interest and soon the story spread to news channels like CNN. This is just another example of how fast information can spread with our technology like smart phones and the internet. 

No one knows if the machine was just malfunctioning or if it was hacked. The good thing is that the machine was removed so no false votes could be cast. I would be interested to know what time this person went to vote. If it was later in the day, the machine could have registered an incorrect number of votes for Romney. Who knows if this is happening in other places around the country with other candidates. This is just another example of voter fraud.

Here are two articles that talk about the situation. The first article is the one that I read first from AOL news. The second is one I found that has more information about what happened at the polling place.

http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/06/watch-voting-machine-change-obama-votes-to-romney-votes/?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl3%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D230773

http://www.opednews.com/articles/2012-Voting-Machines-Caugh-by-Meryl-Ann-Butler-121106-290.html

Hurricane Sandy

I got the text class was canceled around 5 pm yesterday when I was about to start my tutoring session. Ever since I received the text, I have been preparing for the storm and checking all my social media outlets to see the storm's status. One outlet I have been checking is the PPL page on Facebook. Since everyone is talking about the possibility the power is going to be out for days, I liked the Facebook page to stay informed. So far I have been able to access an outage map and learn what to do in an outage. 

Another outlet I have been using is Twitter. Since we talked about people reporting about the earthquake in China using Twitter, I thought it would be a good way to check the hurricane. So far, I found a good link on the site that posts major updates from the storm. For example, I learned about the NYSE closing and the suspension of all NYC public transit on this site. There were also tweets sent from the hurricane itself which was a bit ridiculous in my opinion. One tweet from the hurricane was "IF UR HAVING WEATHER PROBLEMS I FEEL BAD FOR YOU SON I GOT 99MPH WINDS AND IMA GIVE YOU SOME. #nyc #Sandy"

As I write this post I am watching the weather channel and checking for any changes in the storm. Stay safe everyone! 

Presidential Debate Number 2

This was the first presidential debate that I watched the entire time. Usually I will just turn it on for a few minutes then switch to something else. The debate on Tuesday was the last thing I expected from two presidential candidates. Since it was a town hall debate, the candidates were able to walk around the stage and take questions from the audience. Because of this, it was easy to watch body language.

To start, it was apparent that both candidates were confident. Both walked in onto the stage and had a standard handshake. Since they are trained public speakers, they did not appear nervous or unprepared. The debate continued with exchange of questions and answers. Just as expected, the candidates provided long drawn out explanations of their plans to save the economy and how they will create jobs. As an undecided voter, the debate did not help me make a decision.

One part of the debate that was really interesting related to body language was when the candidates started arguing pretty intensely. They started circling each other and at the point I thought they were going to hit each other. It was clear they were trying to out due each other and get the last word in. Romney looked frustrated during portions of the debate because he always had to interject his opinion when Obama was talking or clear up a previous topic.

Overall, I feel the debate did not really discuss the issues. It was clear that both candidates were not entirely truthful. The body language displayed was the pretty much what was expected from two trained public speakers however there were heated moments. The whole point of the debate seemed to be what candidate responded better and was the most defensive. In my opinion, there was not a winner. 

Big Bird Makes His Way Into Politics

After getting home from tonight's night class, I went to my computer to check email, Facebook, etc. Since I have AOL News set to my homepage, I couldn't help but notice an article entitled "Angry birds on Sesame Street want Obama to take down PBS ad". Since we just finished the class talking about Big Bird and Romney's campaign, I felt the need to read the article.

The article talked about how the Sesame Street Workshop wants the video taken down because it does not support any political party or participate in endorsements. Obama responded by staying that he will review the concerns. The end of the article makes a good point by saying America deserves more from their president.


Personally, I'm not really leaning toward any particular candidate in this election. At first I thought this was a prank ad created by some random person. Then I realized Obama actually endorsed the ad. I think this is a bit immature and unrelated to the campaign He should be making videos that focus on the issues, not ones to make fun of Romney. I understand making videos to counter the issues Romney supports, but this takes it too far.



Here's the article if you want to read more about it!

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/10/09/obama-campaign-deploys-big-bird-in-new-ad/?cmpid=prn_aol&icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl1%7Csec3_lnk3%26pLid%3D217845

Pinterest

So the general theme of this class for me is to try new things related to social media. First I entered the blogging world, then came a twitter account, and now I have officially signed up on Pinterest. I have been hearing all sorts of positive things about this website and I did not really know what it was. I figured this was a great time to start one and branch out into the Pinterest world.

At first glance it seems pretty cool. There are so many different ideas for any topic you can imagine. While going through the homepage, I was trying to figure out what my first pin would be. After some searching, I decided on a cute Halloween arts and crafts project that can be made with an old 6 pack holder, 6 bottles, and Halloween candy. I can see why this website can get addicting. The only question I have to my fellow Pinterest users is do I get instructions how to make these things that pop up or is it just the picture? For example I saw a pumpkin bread pin that looked awesome and wouldn't mind trying to make it. 

At this point any tips or recommendations on how to use this site would be awesome! I know there are great things that are posted and I want to learn how to fully access them.

"Why Youth Heart Myspace"

This week's articles focused on popular social media sites. The one I chose was about Myspace. Looking back, Myspace was my very first step into the world of social media. I remember creating my account in 9th grade after field hockey season so I could stay in touch with fellow players on the team (I went to Hazleton Area so it was kinda hard to see people since there were around 800 kids in each grade). This article brought me back to the joys and unhappiness that was Myspace. 

One of my personal joys the article brought up was the use of comments. I remember how excited I used to get when someone left me a comment. When birthdays came around I remember hoping to have my secret crush give me the generic "happy birthday" remark. (Looking back it was little pathetic but we were all the same way so admit it) Along with the pros of Myspace came the cons. My biggest problem with the site was the top 8. Since I was a bit of a quiet girl back in the day, I always struggled with who would be in my top 8. For some reason the people you put in the top 8 defined who you were and the friend group you associated with. Thinking about using Myspace, it really was a place to work out identity like the article suggested. Everyone posted pictures trying out new looks and styles waiting for comments to approve the decisions they made. It was a method of self validation.

I will always associate Myspace with early high school. I thought joining Facebook senior year of high school marked my entry into the adult mature world. When I think about some of the things I posted and comments I wrote, I just laugh and thank God I don't care about what others think as much as I did. I think it's weird that our generation can physically go back in time and revisit our old selves in Myspace and Facebook. It's easy to tell how much time has passed and how much you have changed.

Overall, this article highlighted the different features of Myspace and why teens flock to it. I personally did not like the style article but it served it's purpose.