Month: October 2013
COMM 303 – Video Games
This post is a little difficult for me to write because quite honestly, I really do not like video games. I have never been a fan and quite honestly do not see the point because I view them as a waste of time. I grew up around video games, my brother has been playing them since around kindergarten and still continues to play them today. My sister also caught the video game bug and absolutely loves them as well. As the middle child between 2 gamers, why was I not interested?
There are many different types of video games; Playstation, Xbox, and GameCube just to name a few. There are various types of games that can be purchased in addition to buying the system itself. The most popular games I have experienced seem to be the violent, killing games such as Halo or Call of Duty. There are so many things that are wrong with violent video games. For one, these games are putting ideas into young boys heads that it is okay to be violent and killing people, even though it is just a game. Secondly, these games are expensive. Why would a parent or anyone for that matter want to pay a lot of money for one game? Thirdly, I believe these games are such a waste of time. I don’t understand how someone can play a pointless game for hours and waste so much time. Many people absolutely love video games, but I think they are nothing but bad.
COMM 460- Guest Speaker Nick Stover
Hey guys!
I hope everyone had a great week and is ready for a fun, relaxing weekend! This week in COMM 460 we discussed the relation between sports and social media, and we had Nick Stover visit and share his personal experiences with us. Nick definitely knows a thing or two about sports and social media. He currently holds a position as the Director of Social Media and Engagement for the University of Louisville Athletic Program. He has been working in this position for about a year and a half, and he said it has been quite an experience, especially with the football team winning the Sugar Bowl and the Men’s basketball team winning a national championship. Its been quite a year for Cardinal Athletics, and Nick has gotten to experience and share it with fans over social media.
This may sound like all fun and games, but Nick actually has a pretty tough job and it has taken him awhile to get to where he is now. While Nick was in undergrad at Miami of Ohio, he balanced playing soccer, classes, and at least 2 internships at a time. After graduating, Nick earned his masters from the University of Tennessee before moving to Louisville.
Nick then obtained a Ph.D the University of Louisville in Educational Leadership and Organizational Development with a Specialization in Sport Administration. During this time, he worked as a General Manager for Louisville Lightening until getting offered a position at the University of Louisville.
Nick said that overall the University of Louisville has over 20,000 active users across it’s social media platforms. Louisville is also the only NCAA institution with a weekly content schedule across all 20 varsity sports programs.
As director of social media for athletics, it is Nick’s job to maintain these accounts. I must say, it appears he is doing a great job! You can check out his Twitter at @ULFlyingCard. Thanks for reading!
COMM 303 – First Experiences With Internet
There is not a single point in time when I recall using a computer for the first time, or the internet. However, I do remember my early experiences using both throughout my childhood and onto my teen and young adult years.
My earliest memory of using the internet involved a extremely popular trend when I was in grade school (around 4th grade) called IM or instant messaging. I grew up in a rather sheltered household and my parents basically had to approve anything I could do on the internet. I have a brother and sister who are close to my age, and we all had to share our basement computer until we received our own in high school. While using the basement computer, many websites were blocked and we were each allotted a certain amount each night, and the computer would log out when your time was finished. It was rough. After finally given the ok for a screen name, my Dad allowed me to go on and IM my friends through AOL (American Online), just as long as I did not go into any chat rooms. Like I said, I had some pretty strict parents.
Another one of my earlier memories was the joy (sarcasm) of having dial-up. What. A. Pain. The problem with dial- up is that we only had one phone line, so if someone called our house and someone was on the computer, the computer would shut you out of the internet. Another thing I do not miss about dial up was SLOW it was and how long it took to get on the internet. I can still hear the beeping like it was yesterday.
Keep in mind that I was pretty young when we had dial-up, and this was before the time of iTunes and YouTube. One of my favorite things to do on the internet would be to go to my favorite music artists website and listen to music. I can still remember the frustration I experienced while waiting for a video to load, and then it would stop and keep buffering. I remember going over to a friends house who had high speed internet when I was younger and how jealous I was when I realized how fast her internet was.
The internet has come a long way since then, and I am forever grateful.
COMM 460- Social Media Monitoring
Companies would not be successful without their customers, plain and simple. Obviously companies start up with a product, but it is up to the customers keep those companies in business and stay interested in purchasing the products. This leads to a very important point, in return companies need to listen to what their customers are saying about their products. What do they like, what do they not like? These are all important questions brands must keep in mind.
In todays world, there are so many message boards and rating websites where customers can review products and discuss their opinions.
Socialmediamonitoring.com had a great list of various monitoring tools, many of which we have discussed in class. Bottlenose, Klout, HootSuite, and Topsy were all mentioned, and ranked very highly for companies. Personally, I think my favorite and most effective social media marketing tool would have to be HootSuite. I love that it connects with Twitter and how easily you can filter through what people are talking about. For example, I love Twitter, and usually when I am trying a product and like it, I’ll tweet about it. i.e. “OMG I am in love with Starbucks #PumpkinSpiceLatte.” From that tweet (and the thousands like it around this time of year), Starbucks can search their product Twitter through HootSuite and see all the positive and negative feedback about their Pumpkin Spice Latte. From these customer opinions, Starbucks can then determine if they need to tweak their recipe, or keep it as it is.
The key to a successful brand is knowing what your customers want. It is important to keep their voices heard, after all, they are keeping you in business.
Thank you so much for reading and have a great weekend!
COMM 303 – The Terrifying Truth of Technology
While reading Daniel Wilson’s article, I caught myself nodding and agreeing with pretty much all of the statements that he made about older generations and technology. We live in such a electronically advanced world right now, which is great, but sometimes it can be more difficult for the older generations to adapt. Wilson claims that as we get older, our adaptation process slows down tremendously.
From personal experience as a kid born in the 90s, I can remember how much technology has changed over the years. I took a computer class in grade school and thought it was the hardest thing ever. Now I know how to use a computer in any way I please. I was able to adapt. My Mom on the other hand (who is a housewife and doesn’t work), had a little more difficulty learning how to use computers. To this day she still has questions about typing things, which is fine because at least she is trying to adapt to it. However, my 87 year old grandmother who is several technology generations behind, received an iPad for Christmas last year. She was interested in it at first and tried to understand it, she even made a Facebook! But as Wilson perfectly describes in his article, my Grandma then started to experience assimilation and got tired to trying to figure out the iPad.
As I see how my parents are starting to slowly turn away new technologies, it does freak me out a little bit. Will this be me too? I certainly hope not, but from what I’ve seen from my experiences is that Wilson is right and older people lose interest in new gadgets. I agree with everything he says about assimilation and adaptation. Younger generations like myself will certainly try and adapt and learn a technology, just as I did with computers. However many older people will experience assimilation when they try to adapt to a new technology and then get tired of it, just like my Grandma did with her iPad. Obviously if you really want to learn something new and stick with it, you learn it. I think though that assimilation is just the natural process that occurs if your intense desire to learn goes away.
maggiemayfield 