Social Media 6

Recently Garrett high school in Indiana has taken discipline to a new level, that level being taking disciplinary actions based on what a student posts on a social media network. This high school has expelled a senior for swearing on his Twitter account during what seemed to be after school hours. The tweet that got Austin Carroll kicked out of high school with just about three months of school remaining went as follows,"F*** is one of those F****** words you can F****** put anywhere in a F****** sentence and it still F****** makes sense.” The school claims the student used a school owned computer to post the tweet and kicked him out. The former high school senior, Austin Carroll was interviewed by Indian's News Center and said this, "If my account is on my own personal account, I don’t think the school or anybody should be looking at it. Because it’s my own personal stuff and it’s none of their business”.  The school's principal claims that their computers system tracks every tweet a student sends when they log into Twitter using the schools computers. Also that if he tweeted the comments posted above from a computer at his home and logged onto a computer at school again the system would retrieve all of his tweets no matter when it was sent from. Some may argue that this students first amendments were violated while others will side with the schools actions. I feel that schools should not be allowed to take a persons social life and punish them for it regardless if it the tweet was posted on school computer or not.

Social Media 5

Today I am going to write about how my generation, today's teens, are all "wired up". In this article about social media, http://www.livescience.com/15433-facebook-social-media-effects-teens.html, teens are described as being constantly connected to the internet whether it is Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, or texting. Teens today are always connected to the internet in one way or another. The author of this article claims that a new scientific study has shown there are psychological effects of constant face booking. According to the article the psychological effects are both good and bad. The bad effects that Facebook start to have on teens are the signs of narcissistic tendencies. A positive effect that Facebook would start to give  someone would be the opportunity to begin to socialize. Particularly those people who are not comfortable socializing in public or who are just shy. It is a why for people to connect with other in what seems like a safe environment to them. Another negative impact social networking sites such as Facebook presents to teens would have to be the decline in academic performance which may become prevalent. This also can be a positive effect on teens if used properly because some teens work well when given the opportunity to connect to the internet. It can be a way for them to get engaged with their academics. There are many ways to combat the negative effect of social networking sites. This article suggests parents reward their kids with whats called a "tech break" and allow them to surf the web after completing a substantial amount of work.

Social Media 4

I am going to write about this article that I found about the National Basketball Association which I found interesting http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/24/idUS140846563820120224. It discusses how social media has affected the NBA through its lockout shortened season. Since the beginning of 2011 the NBA has received the most social media discussion of any other sport. As of late that trend seems to be continuing with the recent emergence of Jeremy Lin of the New York Knicks otherwise known as “Linsanity”. Social media sites have been a buzz since the arrival of the NBA’s newest poster boy. Lin’s name was mentioned on Twitter about 2.6 million times within a week. Facebook has seen a plethora of Jeremy Lin posts, comments, pages and or photos. Lin is also responsible for the increase in MSG’s ratings as of late. If it was not for people spreading the latest news of the NBA on social networking sites I doubt the NBA’s merchandise sales would be up 30 percent like it has. This article argues that a Lebron James has much more of an impact in the social media world be cause he is a superstar of the NBA rather than a superstar in the NFL because the NBA’s fans are more attuned to the social sphere. In closing, social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter can be used for a greater purpose when used in the right hands. The NBA used it to capitalize on the unexpected rise to fame of Jeremy Lin.

Social Media 3

I read an article about Facebook and the effect it has on today's advertisement world. The article that I read can be found here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/01/business/media/facebook-paves-way-for-huge-growth-in-advertising.html?_r=1&ref=socialnetworking. The article explains how Facebook is about to under go some drastic changes. Facebook has hundreds of millions of people who log in and out of the site every day. The change that is going to be made is the amount of advertisements you will see on the website. There are positives and negative to the increase of advertisements on Facebook. People maybe turned off to the fact that they now have to sort their way through twice as many advertisement as before. As for those who are getting the opportunity to advertise what they have to offer on Facebook this is a great chance for them to reach a new audience. People who have never heard of the many companies and or products that will be on display on Facebook now have a chance to learn about these companies without having to leave their seat. This can be easy money for the companies that are being allowed to advertise on Facebook. There is also the positive side for Facebook because it would make a whole lot more money. Facebook made of 3.7 billion dollars last year and the majority of that money came from advertisements. There is not an abundance of advertisements on Facebook so if Facebook were to capitalize on this the will be seeing a whole lot more than 3.7 billion dollars.