New Social Media Tools

I’m a creature of habit, and that even applies to the social media sites I use. Typically, I bounce back and forth between Facebook and Pinterest, so I decided to step out of my comfort zone and try something completely new. Reddit was the first app that popped into my head to try.

Up until now, I had heard of Reddit, but its name was the extent of my knowledge on it. According to the site’s FAQ page, “reddit is a source for what's new and popular on the web,” and through a voting system, readers can determine the quality of content, “what’s good and what’s junk” (2013). This voting system is what propels a submission to the top spot and keeps the reddit page constantly changing.

What I really liked about the Reddit site is that it encourages users to just be good people, not to post just for the sake of posting or to gain attention, but rather to share ideas and respond to other users by voting on their content.

There isn't really anything complicated about the app, which makes it really easy to use. There is a row of different categories on the top of the home page to choose from, so readers who are looking for just funny links to read can click on, "funny," (see how this works?). Content can also be created and shared with ease as long as the user has an account.

Reddit is a great app for people who have time to kill or enjoy reading articles and looking at jpegs and gifs.

Now, there are plenty of media users out there who would much rather play a video game versus scrolling through hundreds of links. I, on the other hand, am not much of a gamer, but I reminded myself I was trying to break out of my comfort zone, so I started scrolling through the App Store on my iPad.

To my amazement, I found Risk, which is one of my favorite, although very time consuming, board games. So, although it's not technically a video game, I was still interested in playing the classic game in a newer format. Suffice it to say, I'm addicted. The dice roll can be fast-forwarded, so the player isn't stuck waiting for each die to be matched up. You can also skip over the computer's turn and just see the end result. So, a game of Risk that normally would take eight hours to play with just one person can be completed in under half an hour on the iPad. My life is forever changed!

These two apps are unique in their own way and will appeal to different audiences. Again, Reddit is for those who don't mind scrolling and reading through a ton of links and who are interested in sharing content. Games on any platform, however, will attract a much more specific audience. I took the easy way out by playing a digital version of a classic board game I loved growing up, but there are certainly more interactive video games that require users to tilt, swipe, and practically stand on their head's just the same. What's pretty cool is that playing video games can have a wide range of benefits from improved vision to better decision making (Spector, 2013). Ultimately, audience appeal will boil down to those who prefer to be more hands-on and interactive than those who do not.

References

Reddit. (2013). "Frequently asked questions." Reddit. Retrieved on October 30, 2013 from http://www.reddit.com/wiki/faq.

Spector, D. (2013). "11 ways playing video games makes you smarter and healthier." Business Insider. Retrieved on October 30, 2013 from http://business.financialpost.com/2013/09/14/11-ways-playing-video-games-makes-you-smarter-and-healthier/. 

Credibility of WWW Resources

The article that I chose to evaluate for this week’s assignment relating to credibile sources was “Olivia Culpo, Miss Universe, Could Face 2 Years In Jail For Taj Mahal Photo Shoot,” from The Huffington Post.

First and foremost, The Huffington Post is described as a news aggregator and a blog. The definition of an aggregator is a “Web-based or installed application that [collects] frequently updated content from various Internet sources and consolidates it in one place for viewing” (Dictionary.com). Based on that definition alone, readers should be critical about what they read because it isn’t necessarily coming from the original source.

Next, bi-line given about HuffPost writer’ Cavan Sieczkowski is not terribly enlightening. According to HuffPost Sieczkowski, “is an Associate Trends Editor with the Traffic and Trends section…she is a graduate of Fairfield University, where she majored in Communication” (The Huffington Post, 2013). So, she’s qualified to write, but is she qualified to write about what she’s writing about? There is room for speculation since the “Traffic and Trends section” isn’t clearly defined anywhere on the site, and there is no indication whether or not she has anything peer-reviewed in her portfolio. Doubtful.

Based on the remaining Criteria to Evaluate the Credibility of WWW Resources, the article is iffy in terms of credibility. Although the HuffPost has several links to emails to get in touch with a variety of departments, there is no link for just general questions to confirm the validity of a post. The article is current and the links it references are also current. Sieczkowski shows no signs of bias. It’s actually a bit difficult to discern any sort of writer’s voice from her.

Finally, the article has no sort of works cited page to verify the information she provided, other than the other links that were cited throughout the work.

Overall, The Huffington Post is not a source I would use when researching for a term paper. Like Wikipedia, it’s great for cursory information to gain a sense of direction of where continued research should lead, but not a great academic source on it’s own.

Works Citied

Aggregator. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved October 13, 2013, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/aggregator

Sieczkowski, C. (2013). “Olivia Culpo, Miss Universe, Could Face 2 Years In Jail For Taj Mahal Photo Shoot.” The Huffington Post. Retrieved October 13, 2013, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/11/olivia-culpo-miss-universe-taj-mahal-_n_4083919.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular.

Knowing What I Know

“How do I know what I know?”

Well, I know that I know a lot of stuff. After all, I’m working on my Master’s degree. So, I can’t be that dim of a bulb, right? My education spans the last 19 years, which is by far the longest amount of time I’ve committed to anything, other than existing. The long and short of it is I know what I know because people have told me what I know. People whom I’ve viewed superior to me in experience and knowledge taught me everything I’ve learned so far from using sheetrock mud to calculating probability. Outside of my formal education, I know most of what I know about pop culture, trends, and current events through the social media I use, like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

There wasn’t a whole lot going on on my feeds this dreary Sunday morning. A few friends were running in 5Ks, there was the occasional motivational quote or picture to get to the gym even with it being Sunday, and the government is in a partial shut down, so the tweeting interns were probably sent home without pay untill further notice and left the Democratic and Republicans to their own devices. However, there was one voice this morning that was louder than all the rest, and that was simply because the person it was attached to was pissed. Naturally, Facebook became their soapbox.  

This person had bought a fridge from a supposedly reputible appliance retailer—Sears—only a few months ago and woke up this morning to find that it had crapped out over night. A less than helpful call to customer service revealed it would be 10 days before service would arrive because well, there just wasn’t a high demand for a service tech in their area. Apparently, nobody else bought their fridge from Sears.

Scrolling to the end of the post, there were already several comments about poor customer service from Sears and similar experiences with other appliances from the retailer:

“We bought a matching front-loading washer/dryer in red from Sears. They delievered a red dryer and a white washer!”

 “I will never buy appliances from Sears again. Three of the four appliances I bought from Sears have had problems.”

Other users said that it took similar wait times, (10 days), or longer to get a service tech out to their homes to try and repair an appliance.

Normally, I would take what I read on social media sites with a grain of salt, but social media is known for being a sounding board for consumers. What friends and other users write and post on Facebook and other social media sites influences other friends’ and users’ purchasing decisions. A bad review from anyone on Facebook can spread like wildfire; case and point. So, let it be known that I will not be making any major appliance purchases from Sears either.