Reflection

I have mixed feelings about this class. It was way different than other classes I have experienced. I think the hardest thing for me was only meeting one night a week. It was very difficult for me to sometimes stay on top of things when we only met once a week (IF THAT) so that was frustrating for me personally. I also didn’t really know what to expect when taking this class and even now that its coming to an end I’m still a little unsure. I will hopefully never have to tweet again. The only reason I had an account was for this class and I just personally find it very useless. I am sure that will change as time goes on and well see if I will need it in my future job path, and if I do, I at least am familiar with it now. The only assignments done in class that I feel would benefit me in my future line of work would be the facebook fan page. I actually am apart of HDSA, who I did my page for and I really would hope to have it lead to future employment. I kind of wish we would have created a website. I remember us making some sort of online web thing, but now that I’m thinking about it, I don’t remember ever turning it in or what we did with it after that. My favorite assignment again would be the facebook fanpage because it was something close to home for me and I was able to do something that I was passionate about and actually USE it in the real world. Like the majority of classmates, I really enjoyed Kelly Ambrose’s blog. I feel we agreed on almost everything and it was entertaining, she really added personality into it.

Below are some links to my pages
o Blog:
o Facebook:
o PSA: Unavailable
o Youtube:

A New Crime For Xbox Live: Witness Tampering

Kotaku
When I saw this headline, I immediately wanted to check it out because it freaked me out. Apparently sexual predators would use Xbox Live as a means to stalk their prey and threaten the rare school shooting threat made over the Xbox 360 online network. Sadly this doesnt surprise me one bit. How sick can people get? Not only that but I guess now they are tampering with a witnesses.

According to a report from the New Haven Register, Anthony Hayward of Hamden, Connecticut was arrested on charges of "tampering with a witness, intimidating a witness and two counts of second-degree harassment," all based on messages sent via Xbox Live. Those messages include "I wouldn't laugh 2 much U a dead man walking" and "Rats die slow."

The above was taken from the Kotaku article which were acutal threats made to a material witness in a case against Hayward. According to the report, Hayward turned himself into the police but has not posted bail yet on his latest gun and drug possession charges.

This kind of stuff just really upsets me and makes me feel a little weary on what I do online, or anything for that matter.

Comet Branding

Tonight we had the pleasant joy and presence of Sarah Meaney from Comet Branding. Comet Branding is a company that writes blogs and other social media type things for other companies. It isn’t your normal company though, its very small consisting I believe of only 5 employees! Here is a little bit more information of what they do. Her overall presentation was informing us of better ways to write for social media and what the facts are and ways to fix it. Many people who read online compared to print media arnt as focused and tend to do more skimming than anything, I think its safe to say we can all relate to that. Starting at a computer screen is much harder then a newspaper. Here is where less is truly better. People are more likely to stay focused with less text and bigger texts and things that are eye catching and keep things simple! People don’t want to try and guess or figure out what they are reading; it should be fast and easy. I found her static to be very interesting about that only 1/5 of content is read by online articles.

I found her presentation very interesting and helpful and she put things in a whole different perspective from a different standpoint. Lets face it, things are turning more and more to online and social media and we need to learn to deal with it and find ways that can work to our advantage. Another helpful tip I found was that its so important to highlight key points to keep readers on the page. Its harder to keep readers engaged in online reading especially when you have to compete with all the ads and other distractions all on the same page, that and we tend to “scan” more then actually “read”.

I strongly suggest checking out her page if you haven’t already, its actually really informational and very neat and a great example of a simple yet complex website to keep your attention.