CS 371 Fall 2018 Social Media and Social Life

Instagram is a great outlet to share active lifestyles with the world. There are multiple feeds that I really enjoy but one in particular that really stands out and speaks to me is Mona Kohn’s Instagram and personal blog. Mona is a young woman who is heavily involved in track and field. She posts about her training, races, travelling moments, healthy recipes and many other things within her healthy and active lifestyle. I believe that Instagram is an extremely effective way to share your life and accomplishments for the world to see. I am also a competitive track and cross country runner and am extremely inspired by the things she posts. Here is an example of something that Mona has posted on her Instagram and personal blog: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bnilm-Pl0tQ/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=ftj15y2260mb    Here, she discusses what her workout has consisted of today. Explaining she woke up at 7:30 for weight training followed by a 10km run and then cool down...

A social media platform represents an entire Internet universe where users are free to post any type of video ranging from video blogs, product review videos, clothing haul videos, comedic videos, and more. An example of a social media universe is YouTube, one of my favourite websites that is home to virtually any type of video imaginable. This website allows users to create and share videos on any topic imaginable with friends, family, and anyone in the world. YouTube is a website where I am able to keep up with the lives of influencers (ex. YouTube star Jenna Marbles), follow new music from artists that I admire (ex. Beyoncé), and keep up with newly released products that interest me (ex. Jeffree Star’s makeup channel). This website allows me to stay social and interact within this Internet universe as I am able to like, comment, and subscribe to users’ channels. An example of my favourite YouTube channel that represents how this social media universe provides ...

A form of social media/website that I use quite frequently would be Youtube.  About a year ago I made Youtube account and from then on I have posted videos and viewed all sorts of videos such as vegan cooking shows or reviews on a pair of lululemon leggings that I would like to purchase.  The idea behind Youtube has always intrigued me, there are no directors or producers and such, it is just one person with a camera and their thoughts and ideas that they want to share with the world, with no one to interfere or cloud their judgements on the content they want to produce.  Right now my favorite thing to watch on youtube would be when people make videos which show what their favorite things are right now that have to do with the season of fall. I am obsessed with the fall season and seeing all these new fall items/ ideas makes me get even more excited to enjoy the season.  You can click HERE , which will bring you to the “main” or most “popular” fall favorite videos o...

When asked to discuss a social media platform that we like and interact with often the first one that came to mind is YouTube. I visit YouTube at least once a day to catch up on my favourite creators content or just to see the newest music videos premier. YouTube to me is the ultimate social media platform because you are able to interact with people who have millions of followers and people who have hundreds of followers. You are able to comment, like, subscribe and share and find a sense of community that is lacking in other social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The most attractive feature about YouTube though in my opinion is that there is content for everyone. Whether you are trying to find out news about your favourite celebrity or figure out how to parboil a chicken YouTube is the place to go. Currently I am just a consumer of YouTube and do not post my own content nor do I think that I ever will.  https://www.youtube.com 

Being that I am such an active social media user, it’s hard to settle on only one aspect of the social media universe; however, the one platform I enjoy using every day is YouTube. One of the most popular categories on YouTube “People and Blogs” showcases the newest version of the blog – vlogs; this is where I spend the majority of my time. “Vlogging” consists of people filming their everyday lives, hobbies, and/or interests which they then share on their channels for their subscribers to consume. One of my favourite vloggers is the ACE Family. ACE stands for Austin, Catherine and Elle, and like their channel name suggests they are a family. I started watching them over two years ago when they had their daughter Elle. At this time, they had less than a million subscribers. Over the past couple years, their following has grown incredibly and they now have 11 million subscribers. The reason I like watching them so much compared to other vloggers is because they always ...

Hi everyone, A social media media app/website that I use often is Instagram. While it is safe to assume, that like many of my peers, we have similar responses. As I say this because Instagram has exponentially taken off since its introductory stages. It's significant method of entertainment and recreational use has benefitted its users in a way that has not been demonstrated before. While this app can not only be informative toward our social interests; these being local businesses, celebrities, and other entertainment resources. It can also be a form of social interaction with our immediate circle of friends and peers that we not interact with on a regular basis. This app creates the illusion of intimacy with the separation of distance and physical presence. what I mean is that we be be in great lengths of distance between one another but still feel as if we are connected and in the 'know'. As the term 'know' is loosely used here in reference to this distance tha...

Instagram is a great social media platform that can be used for infinite reasons. Whether it is used for sharing family pictures, running a business or just posting a selfie of a beautiful view. It can give users the goals they wish to obtain. The main purpose is to share pictures and provide content for the peers that follow you and same goes for your followers. Instagram expands into several other purposes where we can see that it promotes and markets services and products of corporations and brands. Several companies of the Fortune 500 established an Instagram account of their own to increase attention and popularity of their brand and associations. They used this app to obtain more sales through advertisements that target a specific demographic of Instagram users. Not only does the app allow large companies to expand, it can allow start-up companies to increase their clientele. https://www.instagram.com/ustylewaterloo/?hl=en : This link is an Instagram account I worked over ...

Personally, I find that Instagram can be an outstanding tool for connecting with friends and family on a day to day basis. Giving its users the opportunity to explore with their peers and those they might not ever be able to contact in a face to face setting. Users are able to share images and videos for those to see whoever they are available to scroll through this social media platform. Instagram allows for large consumption of information form multiple angles of people and multiple opinions on varieties of topics. One way of "staying in the loop" with society is by following popular Instagram accounts and popular/current celebrities that post current gossip for followers to read and learn about. It can be a very good way to be connected. however, the reason that i enjoy Instagram is because of the videos that are available, which can often be rather entertaining to watch. The amazing thing about this platform is its ability to be transformed in a Business opportunity rathe...

Cooking has always been a significant part of my life. My grandmother taught me to cook from a young age, and I occasionally chose to cook dinner for my family on weeknights in high school. Eventually my love for it faded into my first couple years of university into nothing very significant. However, my interest was sparked once again when I went vegan about a year and a half ago. By eliminating animal by-products altogether when cooking, I had to re-learn how to cook when excluding these items.                           YouTube was there to help me when I was re-learning an old craft executed in a new way. I chose to use the medium of YouTube because I enjoy the totality of the transmission of information.  YouTube presents a blend of visual, auditory, and written steps, meaning if I look away, I can listen, or if I get distracted I can refer to...

Hello everyone, For my first blog post I wanted discuss one of my favourite apps at the moment, VSCO. This app is similar to Instagram where it is a platform to share and edit your pictures and videos.   However, what makes VSCO more unique is the fact that likes, and followers are not visible to others. I find that this takes away the competitive nature that Instagram creates by having all likes and followers visible to others. People feel less judged on VSCO and therefore feel more comfortable to post pictures that truly represent who they are and their personal interests.     As an individual who is very familiar with both Instagram and VSCO, I feel as if I can be more open with who I am on VSCO (more so than Instagram). Therefore, VSCO allows my online identity and my real-life identity to better align with my true personality. This way I can post the content that better depicts who I am without feeling pressure to post content that would generate the most likes. ...

Hello everyone! I thought for my first blog post I would share with you a podcast I have been loving recently called Don’t Blame Me by social media influencer Meghan Rienks. Her weekly podcasts only make up a fraction of her success, where she spends most of her time dedicated to her YouTube channel and her acting career. Her podcast was created to embrace inner confidence within a critiquing society. Many of these podcasts are filmed and posted directly to her YouTube channel, where anonymous callers are able to ask their most personal and vulnerable questions without being judged. Her advice is raw and honest while Meghan incorporates her own struggles and personal experiences on camera, shattering the perfect image she is known and expected to hold up to on her various social media platforms. I was immediately attracted to her podcast as it was a new way for her to connect with her viewers and subscribers beyond her crazy lifestyle videos. She connects he...