24 Hours Without Social Media

On Thursday I went almost 24 hours without using any source of social media. I allowed some necessities such as checking my e-mail for school purposes or taking phone calls in case it was important. It turns out that it wasn't as hard to stay away from social media as I thought it would be, but it was a lot harder to stay away from my phone than I originally thought. I don't tend to check my Facebook that often unless I believe that something will be waiting for me upon logging in. The only other social media I really use on a consistent basis is LinkedIn which I will only check every few days anyway. Putting my phone down and leaving it was a lot trickier than I imagined it to be. Knowing that somebody might be trying to talk to me and not being able to respond to them was a weird feeling. It really made me feel like I was a kid again before I had a cell phone. The only time I would talk to my friends then was when they called me. Now it is just so much easier to text and get almost instant feedback from that person. Only accepting calls though was a bit of a nice feeling. It made me use actual face to face communication more which was wonderful. I think I may start to slowly ween myself off of texting so much and either make more personal phone calls or talk face to face if possible.

Tracking Non-Face-to-Face Communication

On Tuesday I decided to keep track of how often I use would use a source of communication that was not face-to-face. I included using my phone, checking e-mail, or using social media in this tally. Keeping track of my phone usage was a bit tricky because I use it for a variety of activities so I broke that into three different categories: checking my phone, communication, and other uses. In checking my phone I marked down any time I would randomly check my phone whether it be to see the time or to see if I had missed any texts or anything like that. Communication consisted of any time I was aware that I had just received a text, call, or e-mail. The other use category was any time that I would use my phone for something else, such as Googling something or using any of my apps. I only checked my e-mail/social media accounts a total of eight times throughout the day. This did not surprise me because the only social media sites I really use are Facebook and LinkedIn and I do not often check them without knowing that I'll have a notification waiting for me. The thing that really surprised me was how often I would randomly check my phone. I checked it 15 times throughout the day. I figured that I was awake 16 hours, but six of those hours were spent either at work or in class where I could not use my phone. This works out to me checking my phone every 40 minutes. I think this is way to often to be worried about people that could be talking to me rather than actually going outside and talking to real people versus a screen.

Sherry Turkle Interview

I loved the video that the interview began with. It would be a great challenge to find a group of people in public in which one of them was not on their phone for some reason. The story from her class in which the students told her that they were basically addicted to their phones was pretty interesting. I know people that I would say are addicted to their phones, but I would only mean that in a joking fashion, not that they literally craved the thought of who might be reaching out to them. The varying magazine covers really hit how the times have changed. Families would spend their time together at gatherings and now even though they are still together at these gatherings, they are truly spending it with the people in their phones rather than those surrounding them. The Facebook advertisement really stuck out to me also. The girl was getting excited about seeing what her friends were doing on her Facebook feed. I personally don't go through my feed very often. Honestly, I don't really care who's going shopping or who just caught up on all of the Walking Dead episodes. It would be nice to have an old-fashioned conversation with somebody every now and then.

The Bombing of Social Media

http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/woman-s-boston-marathon-bombing-costume--what-it-says-about-everyone-205502002.html

This story has been flying around the internet lately. The young lady in the article dressed as a survivor from the Boston Marathon Bombings that happened earlier this year and is receiving havoc for it. Yes, she was dumb. Yes, she was classless. However, she did not deserve what she received. I would be willing to say that she acted without thinking at all. I'm sure that if she would have sat and thought about it she would not have posted that picture on Twitter or would not have even dressed up like that at all. This isn't even the whole story. The part that really disgusts me is all of the hatred that she received. Death threats to both her and her parents were a huge part of this along with sending racy photos around the internet. The people that did this did think about what they were doing and still decided that it was a good idea. They clearly had to do their homework to find these pictures of her, her telephone number and address to send her the threats, and her parents contact information as well. In what world is it acceptable to send death threats for an occurrence like this let alone any occurrence at all? Not one that I want to live in.

Trip to Morbark

This was a very interesting trip. It was the first time I had taken a tour of a factory and I had no idea that there was a factory this large this close to Mount Pleasant. We started it off with a quick presentation followed by the tour. It was very interesting seeing all of the different machines that they manufacture. One of the aspects that I found particularly interesting was the way they communicated that they needed to make orders because supplies were low. They basically had a board on which to hang a slip that was matched up with all of their major raw materials. The example we saw only had about 5-10 different materials, but I wonder how that system would work with a higher quantity. During the presentation they showed how a more efficient procurement process helped them cut a lot of costs. I think this could be a big area for social media to come in. Not only could it be a smoother way to communicate with their suppliers, but also for the entire CMMA as a whole to share these little tips and tricks with each other.