A Life Long Lesson in a Semester

Media class? This should be easy because I use media everyday therefore I know everything already. 

WRONG. Heads up! You probably do not know as much as you think you know about the media. The media is so much more than google, pages that google recommends, YouTube, and social media. Although those are a form of media, do you really think that is what one learns about in a media class? It may be in a few years because that is what our world is beginning to evolve around, but for now.. it is not.

One may question, how does she know this?

I am a current college student as Missouri State University and since my time here, I have taken two courses on media. My favorite one was Media 130 taught by Professor Adam Wagner. This is not the ordinary college courses where you go sit in a lecture for fifty to seventy-five minutes every other day. This is a hands on class where the students are able to get involved one on one and are able to express their opinion without being judged. Everything discussed below is what I have learned in just a semester of being in this course.

Mind changing!

The biggest aspect that one will learn and can take away from this class is the different perspectives that everyone see’s daily on the internet. I can not thank my professor enough for steadily going over this day after day. Although it may annoying to some people to hear the same information over and over again, it will stick with them. Learning that other people’s perspectives and train of thought is not to say one is wrong, it is to show that other people can also be right. Listening to the podcast below will help one receive a more in-depth understanding of what I am saying:

It is everywhere.

Internet. It is a way of life now. Everyone carries it in their pocket, in their purse, or in the  back pocket. When one gets home, it is there, too. It is the place where people express their opinions, and sometimes they do it without even noticing. It is where high school and college students receive their answers to receive their diploma. Although anything can be found on the internet, who knew that one could get lost for hours from watching viral videos after viral videos or reading blog after blog.

YouTube.. I mean, viral videos.

To start out, do you even know what a viral video is?

Try this.. A viral video is a video that has received over one million views.

Now, you are thinking that making a video go viral is easy. Again, WRONG. During the Media 130 courses, I worked with a group of students in attempt to make one. It is very difficult and time-consuming. The creators and editors want to make sure that every piece of information in the video is perfect. A viral video can consist of anything. It can be hysterical, scary, depressing, a trail for a movie coming out soon, or even just a music video.

Here is three quick steps that I learned throughout the course for making a viral video:

1. Make it WAY in advance of the date you want it to go viral.

2.  Be open-minded to what relates to the public and what they enjoy watching.

3. Make the content easy to understand.

Those are just three quick general steps to make any genre of video. Realize that there is more to be put into consideration if you are wanting to make a viral video, but the rest is up to you on what kind of video you want to make and to get the task completed.

“Blogs are so long and educational.”

When people hear of the word “blog” they immediately begin to think that are going to be reading about something similar to what they would in class. Actually, blogs are totally different. They can be long or short, funny or serious, or anything in-between. When entering this class, I thought reading a blog was a waste of my time, which is why I probably only read a couple.

When I was told I had to actually publish blogs throughout this semester, I thought my life was over. I became terrified and wanted to ball up in my bed in cry. Of course, I could not do that if I wanted to finish the class with an A so I dragged myself out of bed a couple of hours before it was due, found my computer, and sat down to completely my very first blog. I hated it.

I continued to play attention in class and the biggest aspect I learned was do not write it like an academic paper. You want the blog to be eye-catching. The blogger tries to engage the audience with pictures, colors, length, and eye-catching aspects that a viewer can just scroll down and find the part that they want to read about.

My favorite aspect about blogs that I did not know was it is free to express your own opinion. Blog’s are all over the internet. Anyone can post one about anything they chose to. This is where other people’s perspectives, that I was talking about earlier, come into play. Everyone has their own thoughts, but how someone interprets and react to other people’s thoughts is on them.

The biggest pain.. ever. 

Have you ever listened to someone talk on the internet without every seeing their face? This is called a podcast. I have learned that podcast are a huge pain in the butt. Although, some people do enjoy making them. I personally do not ike making podcast because for the simple fact, I hate listening to my own voice. It sounds so different then when I am talking to someone else. I also do not enjoy podcast because I like seeing the person’s expression on their face. I feel like this shows exactly how the one publishing it, wants the viewer to interpret it.

On the other hand, with podcast there is very little reading. Listening to someone speak is so much easier than reading words after words on this long page.

“I should not have to write like I am in school.”

No, you should not have to write like it is an academic paper, but the information you publish should be spelled correctly, organized well, and resentenced in a clean manner. The more accurate one is throughout their blog, podcast, or video, the more reliable they become. After a few post of being reliable, one may start to become very creditable. This will help whatever one published gain more views, likes, and comments.

Online content is very very important to establish correctly. After a while, no one wants to read a blog, listen to a podcast, or watch a video if several words are spelled wrong or many words are mispronounced. It just becomes annoying to view. So next time you decide to publish content, proofread several times before you publish it. This way people want to come back to your site and continue to read your new published content.

Our generations favorite.. social media. 

Social media is something that has been adapted into our culture with the newer generations. With social media being a huge part in today’s society, everything can be shared through them. Scrolling through Facebook, we all see a post that someone has shared saying “Top 14” reasons or a music video shared. Seeing all these shares is what makes a video goes viral or what makes a blog have hundreds of comments.

Before publishing, figure out way days you have the most friends on the social media site that you are going to share it on. Also, share it during a time frame when the family is sitting at home relaxing. They will then show it to each other which then can be passed on through more people. Keep that in mind because it will help you content spread quicker.

Give it a shot!

Now that you have been overloaded with a quick preview of what I have learned throughout the course of a semester, take these ideas and go publish your own. I know that for a fact I will continue working on creating entertaining video’s and blogs for anyone to read. It is all in your hands now, go for it!

How to Study for Finals

Finals season is HERE, and I couldn’t be more depressed about it. Most of my finals are comprehensive, and for those of you who don’t know, comprehensive means you’re screwed.

What do you do when you have to remember what you were told inJanuary???

Well, I don’t pretend to know, but I do have a few ideas.

Viral Video’s … Round Two

Before I began, I just want to point out that I redid this blog because I was unsatisfied with the original blog. On the bright side, you were presented with three more funny viral video’s.

There is two types of people in the world. One’s who pee their pants from being scared by someone and one’s who pee their pants because they are laughing so hard from scaring others.

To start out, watch until you see someone actually pee their pants from being scared to death.

Honestly, who would not be scared if a clown looking face randomly appeared their computer screen?

This video could have gone viral for so many different reasons. One of the biggest aspects to help this video reach one million views is this video is really short. It can be watch in a short time manner as a quick break from doing some type of work. With the video being short, it does not lose the viewer’s attention so they will want to watch it in the beginning and finish watching it.

In the first half of the video, it was the same prank for several different people and they all reacted a different way. It is easy for the viewer to compare the point of the video. On the other hand, the second half of the video was full of pranks that people attempt in a daily lifestyle. This can give the viewer different ideas for how they can go and simply scare someone they enjoy to mess with. This becomes beneficial when you get viewers who find a video commercial for different reasons.

Although it can be helpful to have two different halves of the video, it can also hurt the video. It should have been one way or the other. A viewer will expect the second half to be the same as the first half, but in the end the viewer becomes disappointed.

---

Now moving on to another prank video that has the same concept, but could have gone viral for different reasons than video number one.

The obvious reason on what helped this video go viral is that the videos were previously aired on ABC. With all these videos being aired on national television people have seen them before. This helps one viewer who has seen the videos before, tell another viewer that there is a YouTube video of all the different pranks that were aired on television. When one person tells someone, the cycle continues.

What also helped the video go viral is that the pranks where all on different age groups. This is beneficial because viewers learn types of pranks that they are able to pull on others, but the prank needs to be for the right age group. Again it is a short video. It shows a couple of second clips from all the different pranks keeping the viewer’s attention and making them want to keep watching.

There is not much to complain about with this video besides the quality. The bad quality is not the video editors fault because all the videos come from television. Other than that, there is not much to complain about.

---

This video is unlike the first two and takes a little spin on comedy prank videos.

Lets start with what helped this video go viral. Everyone loves list whether it is a top 10, top 7, or top 22. In this case, the video was a top 10 countdown. Viewers love to see list or watch list because it has a type of organization so remembering the main points is easier and the video gets better as the list gets closer to the final video.

On the opposite side of the two first video’s, this video is a bit longer than what people want to usually watch. It is a video that will require viewers to have more than just a minute. This could cause viewers to become distracted and lose interest in the video.

All three of these videos give viewers great ideas on how to pull funny pranks on family and friends to make them pee their pants. The video’s keep the viewer’s attention span long enough to make them laugh so hard that they begin crying. Making a viral video can be a tough task, but these video editors know exactly what it takes to get the job done.

Stirring the Pot

What verifies America as the most indecisive country? Marijuana being illegal in twenty-seven states and legal in twenty-three states plus D.C. for other countries it is all or nothing, but as for America it depends on where you live.

Granted in other countries it may not be legal for medical purposes, but it was one overall decision that affected everyone.

---

Everyone already has their opinion on if marijuana should be legal or not. Some people say yes and others say no. As for myself, I believe marijuana should be legal.

Why do I say this? To start out, if marijuana will help those in need while still having rules on it for those not in need then go for it. There is nothing harmful there. There can be other rules and laws to make sure boundaries are not over stepped. There is both a positive and negative effect when marijuana becomes legal, but I see the positive effects  (as I stated in my podcast) doing more good than the negative effects doing harm.

Instead of trying to get people to agree with my opinion, I am going to provide reasons on why marijuana should be legal for medical reason and why it should stay illegal.

Some people say it is going to make for a lazy generation, but others do not believe so. Marijuana can make for a lazy generation because people will be more worried about using it to help decrease their stress from work and every day life causing them to get too high to actual return to work and their every day life. On the other hand, marijuana will not cause a lazy generation because to afford it people will have to go to work to receive their money for it.

The legalization of marijuana will cause a big circle in the work force. People will go to work when they need their money but when they have enough saved up for plenty of weed and other couple of needs (food, gas, and rent). Once there is enough saved up, they will become too high off of the drug to actually go to work and if they go to work they will be unable to complete their duties. What do you think about marijuana effecting the work force?

Before making your final decision, watch this video where people point out marijuana’s “negative effects” without realizing there are also positive outcomes.

Now that you have heard about some reasons why marijuana should be legal, some reasons why marijuana should be illegal, and read my opinion it is up to you to decide your final stand point. 2016 will be here with the ballets waiting on your input before you know it.

For more about the legalization of marijuana, check out the following websites that I used throughout my podcast:

http://www.thestreet.com/video/13094073/pot-nation-8-more-states-look-to-legalize-marijuana.html

http://www.rawstory.com/exclusives/amanda/legalizing_marijuana_violent_crime_731.htm

7 Harmful Side Effects Pot Legalization Has Caused in Colorado

The New Netflix World

The year 2009 was life changing for people all over the world. It was the year when people when people were able to start making life changing decisions in fifteen seconds. How is that possible one may ask? Netflix.

Just from listening to people talk from friends to strangers in stores, there has been a notice that Netflix is taking over. It is not only taking over people’s life, but it is taking over television too.

The statement from the article, http://fortune.com/2014/05/07/can-netflix-kill-cable-tv-if-its-part-of-it/ written on May 7, 2014 explains just how much Netflix is taking over television. “On Tuesday, Netflix announced that it had struck a deal with the seventh-largest cable operator in the U.S., Suddenlink, to put its streaming service on cable boxes for the cable operator’s 1.2 million customers.” 

Netflix is not taking over television because they bought the cable companies out, but because thousands of people have let Netflix take over their life. It has caused procrastination in people, it takes up space on people’s phone, tablets, and computers, and it’s unhealthy.

Procrastination has been apart of everyone’s life at some point, but it hit hard when people could pay eight dollars a month to watch series upon series of shows. For college students, Netflix causes procrastination with homework. Even besides school, one wants to watch “just one more episode” before completing their task.

With one Netflix account begin able to properly run on six different devices, Netflix is downloaded on phones, tablets, computers, and smart TV’s. That still leaves room for friend’s to share one account and splitting the price. Why would one not want to spilt an eight dollar price to watch millions of different series of shows?

Netflix is becoming very unhealthy for millions of people. What happened to going outside and playing outside with friends? Now friends get together to watch a whole Netflix show in one day. Along with watching a whole series of shows in one day comes many many snacks and sodas. Those snacks and soda’s add up quickly because one’s mind wants to do something else with watching a series of shows.

Netflix is definitely a miracle for anyone and everyone all over the world. If one cannot afford cable television, Netflix is the way to go. It is affordable for almost anyone and has series of shows so no one has to wait for the next series to come out on DVD. Netflix saves money, but it can be a very bad thing. It can become a very bad habit for anyone. It is your decision. Spend your time wisely.

TARZAN & TRACTORS

Springfield, Missouri: home of the first and largest Bass Pro Shop in the United States. Anyone who knows anything about the outdoors knows this place has all the must haves. So naturally, when asked to go on an experience as a group, we decided to take a trip to the wild side. Yup, we went to Bass Pro.

It was a sunny and slightly chilly day when we started off on our adventure. Sam drove us to Bass Pro, while the rest of us jammed out to the Tarzan soundtrack. When we arrived at our destination (thankfully without getting lost) Inti mentioned that she had never been here before. Oh this was really about to be an adventure…

Inside we were immediately perplexed by the beauty and amount of animals (dead and alive) surrounding us. One of the first things we noticed was the smell of food. Can you guess what happened next? Each of us quickly filled our stomachs with smoothies and a treat.

Finally working our way around the store, we met some new friends.

After a trip under the sea, we found ourselves looking at big boats we knew we couldn’t afford. It was here that Inti quickly got distracted by some four-wheelers and said, “Ooooh I want a tractor!”

Uh Inti, that’s not a tractor…

Strolling through the store, we stumbled upon something we couldn’t really explain. Towering over us was a brass Buck larger than any animal we had seen before. Thankfully it was created 7 times larger than it’s actual size!

For a while, we took a look at some of the history of Bass Pro and read about animals they had preserved around the store.

There was still a huge part of the store we had to visit: the clothing section (Inti’s favorite). They had clothes from all ages in cool camouflage colors and this was where we found some pretty cool hats (pictured above). Not only did we find hats, but we also found toys! Megan decided to live dangerously for a moment on a children’s four-wheeler.

We toured the rest store and found ourselves looking at camping equipment one minute, and $34,999 shotguns the next. We actually thought about testing our aim at the shooting range, but then we realized we had to bring our own guns. We were a little disappointed!

On our final lap of the store we stopped to say goodbye to the cuddly looking alligators. They were as tired as we were!

 

As we purchased our awesome hats and headed back to campus, we knew we had been on a real adventure in the great Outdoor World.

Below is a video describing the different apps we used on this adventure, and how well they worked:

A Positive Spin on Millennials in the Working Field

What first comes to your mind when you think of the Millennial generation? Lazy, electronic adapted, one’s that jump from job to job?

No matter what you think about Millennials, there is two sides to every story.

Of course, bosses have to adjust to the new type of generation. It is like adjusting to the different type of people in the world: hands on people, listeners, writers, visuals. It all jus depends on the way one likes to work.

Then, there is the other side of the story. Bosses can adjust to the way Millennials work. They are the ones who are steadily joining more and more of the workforce. Change can always be good.

---

So, how do Millennials affect social working?

Social working is a profession that works a lot with children, families, and groups to try to improve their life and their over all well-being. This is a job that requires a lot of group projects, research, and working together with others.

“They work better in groups.” With this being said in an article about the generation shift by Brad Kane, Millennials that work in the social working field have a better chance of expanding and opening up new ideas of how to solve some personal problems within families. Working in groups is beneficial because more than two brains can come together to figure out a better solution.

Millennials are very tech savvy. Almost every job, because of millennials, has adapted to using apps, computers, smartphones, or some type of electronic. This has developed from the new generation’s people being able to widely spread this action. “If you want to communicate with Millennials, then you have to adopt the tech tools they are currently using.” Millennial social workers use tons of tech equipment to do research and learn about their patients. The equipment helps the gropus develop more ideas and then they are able to put other group ideas together with theirs. This leads to more options to help solving cases.

Along with being tech savvy, Millennials are good at multi-tasking. This is very much beneficial for social workers because they deal with kids while paying attention and taking notes on whatever their objective is. It also keeps their brain up and running to help them stay on the right track to complete their task.

“They are accustomed to connecting with broad swaths of society.” Being a social worker, one has to be able to connect with any and every type of race, culture, sex, and different type of people. This is all of society. A social worker never knows what kind of person is going to come through their doors next and ask for help.

---

Are Millennials still lazy? Is being attached to the internet such a bad thing in the work force? 

Now what comes to your mind when you think of the Millennial generation?

The Three Hour Miracle

Week in and week out, it was the same thing over and over again. This is always a story that is told in my family and it is the saddest story that one has ever told. Every time that I tell the story I tell it from my perspective which is exactly what I plan to do again.

---

It started out as a simple headache, but that one headache turned into multiple headaches. Those multiple headaches turned into billions of doctor visits and then those billions of doctor visits turned into hundreds of different scans and test.

My brother, Hunter, was only two years old and he could ever say was, “My head hurt.” He knew his alphabet, he could count to twenty, and he knew much more than most toddlers but one day that all came to halt. He all of a sudden struggled to sing the alphabet and could not remember how to count.

Once Hunter could not sing the alphabet, the doctor visits began. We went from doctor to doctor and the only thing that the doctors could figure out was that something was wrong. None of the doctors could figure out what was exactly wrong.

 (Just one scan that was done on Hunters head.)

Test and scans continued to be ran on Hunter, day after day, month after month. Eventually these months turned into a year. My mom and Hunter’s dad were more than fed up. I sat there and watched my mom stress over if the doctors would ever find what was wrong with Hunter until one day when a doctor off work walked by.

A doctor that was off work, had come up to the hospital to get something out of her office that she left. Hunter was in the middle of an MRI and the doctor just happened to walk by the room with the screen, looked over, and noticed something. She quickly entered the wrong and pushed the other doctor out of the way. My mom noticed that a random doctor ran into the room so she jumped up and ran in behind her.

All that anyone around could hear was “HOW COULD YOU NOT HAVE NOTICED THAT?!”

and then my mom would yell, “WHAT IS WRONG?!”

The doctor finished the MRI and explained to my mom that Hunter had Chiari Malformation which is where one’s brain grows into their spine.

This causes many seizures to occur which then creates learning barriers. This explains why he was unable to sing the alphabet and count.

Once the MRI was finished, the unexpected doctor sat my mom down and explained what was going to happen next. Hunter was going to have to go through brain surgery and it was going to have to be done in the next two weeks because if not he could start to develop brain damage that can lead to deaths. That same afternoon, brain surgery was scheduled for a week later.

A week slowly went by. No one in the family knew what to expect. We showed up at the hospital the day of the surgery. Everyone in the family was snippy because the baby in the family was about to go to have some of his brain shaved off and anything could go wrong.

Then it was time to put Hunter asleep and roll him back into the surgery room.

We sat…

We sat some more..

We continued to sit for three hours..

Three hours later, Hunter was out of surgery.

We all finally knew that Hunter was in ICU and okay, but he continued to sleep for another seven hours. Honestly, that was the scariest part for me because anything could still go wrong and he was out of surgery.

Seven hours later he woke up, he was able to eat and drink, and he was still able to tell us his name. It was a big relief. My whole family was finally stressed free and could breathe. Of course he was all wrapped up in chords and very drugged up. It was not the Hunter I was use to. After knowing he was awake and being able to talk to him, I went home for sleep.

The next morning I got up and went back to the hospital to see him again. This time I was able to see his scar. I do not have a picture of his exact scar, but I was able to find one that was very similar.

It was a scary view, but when Hunter saw what the back of his head looked like, he started to make commentary comments about it. It was in that moment that I knew I had my brother back. Ever since then he has been a growing little comedian.

He just had his eighth birthday about a week ago and he is my pride and joy. I would not trade that little guy for anything in this world.

If you are wanting to know a little more about Hunter’s background before and after the surgery, I put together a short clip for you to listen to!

Hard Core Critiquing

Blogging is open for anyone. If you want to start your own page or if you want to create a corporate page, you can inform anyone on any type of information. If someone wants to find a blog on a specific topic, it can be done with a little bit of research. I wanted to compare two blogs that were similar to one another, so that is exactly what I did with some help from friends.

As you can see, blogging can be done in many different ways and styles. If you want to become a blogger, it is up to you to decide how you want your page to look and what people you want to engage. Which ever you do, make it interesting for your viewers.

Players Cannot Catch a Hint

The National Football League is a very crucial workplace for many, many people. Although it is a workplace, it is a major form of entertainment and the people receiving the entertainment have the biggest impact on how the athletes perform on the field.

It started out by keeping track of the best players on Saturday’s during college football. After keeping up with players statistics during college football, people start paying attention to how the succeed…. or fail…. in the professional league on Sunday’s, Monday night’s, and Thursday nights.

With everyone having their own opinion on  who is their favorite player, everyone also has their own opinion on who the most aggravating players while they are the on the field.

---

But which NFL “superstars” have the most aggravating performances?

10. Anyone who plays for the Oakland Raiders. 

Honestly, who are the Raiders? No one knows about them beside their fans. It is annoying randomly hearing about a team and it is even more annoying watching their struggle level expand.

9. Peyton Hillis

Being from Arkansas, it is frustrating watching a Hog do so well and even be on the cover of Madden 2012 then when he makes it into the NFL, he plays like he does not know what is going on. He started out strong, but he fell back. He is slowly being forgotten because he does not want to step his game back up.

8. Phillip Rivers

If someone was to ask Rivers if he makes any mistakes, his answer would be “no”, but in all reality, he makes too many mistakes. After a wobble over thrown pass, he will look at his receivers like it was their fault they were unable to jump and catch a ball that was thrown across the field. No Rivers, you make mistakes too and you need to own up to them.

7. Johnny Manziel.. or should I say “Johnny Football”

“Where is Manziel?”

“Probably skipping some football camp that he thinks he is “‘too good for.'”

“Just check his status complaining about his football career. That will tell you his location.”

There is a conversation to sum up why Manziel is so annoying. He thinks he is the best thing ever when he is out on the football field, but really he is just good attention seeker.

Just a tip for Manziel: There is no need to indicate money ever time you make a pass for a touchdown. The paycheck is not based on how much you make.

6. Travis Fredrick

A kindergarten class pays more attention to their teacher than Fedrick does to when the play is being called. It is so frustrating watching a center snap the ball before their quarterback is ready. Fedrick is the center for Tony Romo, and as if Romo does not struggle enough, Fedrick tends to snap the ball early causing several lost yards for the down. It is an every game play.. well, more like an every quarter play.

5. Eli Manning

Eli Manning is so difficult to work with at time. With the New York Giants being my favorite NFL team, I want Eli to do better than his brother Peyton Manning and at this point the only thing Eli is doing better with is sticking with the same team. Eli is a wonderful passer. Correction: Eli is a wonderful passer when he gets the ball to his receiver.

4. Tom Brady

If any one could hold a boulder next to Brady’s head and compare them in size, they would be the exact same. The old Brady use to smile when a good play would happen, but this new Brady does not know how to smile when him or his team does something fabulous. Why? Because he knows that he is good and one of the best.

3. Tony Romo

Main reason.. “America’s team quarterback.” There is no one in the NFL right now that makes me want to bang my head into a wall more. He is the definition of struggle. To be a professional quarterback, one has to do well under pressure and quickly. Unlike Romo who is under pressure with four receivers open and decides to run straight up the middle where the whole defensive line is clearly standing.

2. Tim Tebow

Tim Tebow. Where does one even begin? Discussing the frustration level of Tebow playing football is its own topic, but there has not ever been a player to cause me to get so aggressive during a conversation. He aggravates everything out of me. Tebow thought he was an outstanding player with all his “snicky” moves, but can the moves be considered snicky when he plays a horrible defensive? A quarterback should have the ability to run and pass. Tebow has the ability of coming up with some random “fancy” last minute idea. He is a wonderful person off the field, but on the field he is the most aggravating, frustrating, tension building player I have ever laid eyes on.

1. Aaron Murray

Murray is fresh out of college with only one year of NFL experience, so why is he the most aggravating player? Simple, because he is my all time favorite player and I get a little bent out of shape when my favorite player messes up. They are supposed to be the best and to watch a pass be over thrown or to watch him run up the middle is so heartbreaking.

---

Football in general is a very frustrating topic. It does not help when the players add to the tension. If you are a serious football lover, like myself, then you will definitely understand why the countless arguments, money betting, and team wear is all worth it. With all of this being so serious, the players could at least help the viewers arguments and betting by making their performance not so frustrating to watch.