I choose to look into Alice Hoffman's perspective on writing. I do find myself agreeing with her story, and her interpretation of writing and writers. She says they are writers at the core, and write to find meaning in the world. Good or bad, the writer inside of her had to come out-- and do what it does best--write, imagine, create. While I see that as a truth for all writers that I have ever met in my life, I found myself in awe at her personal strength and honesty.
She gave an amazing portrayal of any person during a time of crisis by offering up stores of her closest family members all stricken with the same illness. One became a grandmother, while another became a researcher-- I found this part extremely inspirational. That at our hardest and most defeated times we become who we truly are. When we are stressed, and pushed to limits we never would have imagined both emotional and physical we become a stronger version of ourselves.
In relation to social media, my thinking has changed a bit-- that stories like Alice's are how a lot of bloggers and social media writers consider their writing-- something to find purpose in to world. Not just to post mundane events like many outsiders believe, but rather input some creativity and honesty into the world.
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Saturday, August 17, 2013
Module 9: Multimedia Tools
How does multimedia enhance our messaging?
Multimedia tools give us the opportunity to make our messages interactable. Providing a message is pretty simple in today's social media focused society. There are numerous sites that give individuals the opportunity to put thoughts out into the web. What makes those thoughts any different from some other blog, tweet, Facebook post, or site? Online writers must harness any chance to keep readership, and keep them engaged with the message of the publisher. Multimedia tools allow writers in online communities to make their messages visually appealing, easy to engage with and often times they are considered interactable for the audience. Having a reader push a button to watch a video, or create blog that is visually appealing and unique is part of the process to set one page out in a sea of messages.
What are the better multimedia tools?
iMovie, and Garage Band are some of the greatest tools out there. The summer camp I worked at for three years taught video to the kids using iMovie, and they could create commercials and short films with ease, and the finished product was very high in quality. My pals from college have a radio show and they use Garage Band to generate their podcasts. From their experience, they have never had a glitch and they said that it is one of the easiest tools to use online.
Multimedia tools give us the opportunity to make our messages interactable. Providing a message is pretty simple in today's social media focused society. There are numerous sites that give individuals the opportunity to put thoughts out into the web. What makes those thoughts any different from some other blog, tweet, Facebook post, or site? Online writers must harness any chance to keep readership, and keep them engaged with the message of the publisher. Multimedia tools allow writers in online communities to make their messages visually appealing, easy to engage with and often times they are considered interactable for the audience. Having a reader push a button to watch a video, or create blog that is visually appealing and unique is part of the process to set one page out in a sea of messages.
What are the better multimedia tools?
iMovie, and Garage Band are some of the greatest tools out there. The summer camp I worked at for three years taught video to the kids using iMovie, and they could create commercials and short films with ease, and the finished product was very high in quality. My pals from college have a radio show and they use Garage Band to generate their podcasts. From their experience, they have never had a glitch and they said that it is one of the easiest tools to use online.
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Module 8: Best Practices and paleOMG!
On your blog analyze a blog you think demonstrated "best practices". Make sure you include a link to that blog on your blog.
What exactly are "Best Practices"?
I think that the best practices when blogging are the following:
Consistent to theme
Commitment to readers
Conscious of audience
Providing thoughtful work
No plagarism
The one blog that I consistently read (beyond my own) is paleOMG (paleomg.com). The Blogger is Julie Bauer, and she is a Paleo-diet food blogger. I feel that she follows all of the practice above, staying true to the food blog theme while also blogging about her life and the impact Paleo has on her lifestyle. The first part is the consistency to the theme, while the tidbits about her life make her approach reader friendly. She is also very conscious of her audience-- she knows that children will probably not visit her blog, which means she swears etc (I never found swearing offensive in the first place, but I know some do.) She picks her recipes and stories carefully to pair together, and will be thorough with her recipes and outcomes of dishes. Lastly, when she put a spin on a recipe, she will give full credit to those the original recipe came from. Bauer is a stand-up blogger with a fascinating life and a good following.
What exactly are "Best Practices"?
I think that the best practices when blogging are the following:
Consistent to theme
Commitment to readers
Conscious of audience
Providing thoughtful work
No plagarism
The one blog that I consistently read (beyond my own) is paleOMG (paleomg.com). The Blogger is Julie Bauer, and she is a Paleo-diet food blogger. I feel that she follows all of the practice above, staying true to the food blog theme while also blogging about her life and the impact Paleo has on her lifestyle. The first part is the consistency to the theme, while the tidbits about her life make her approach reader friendly. She is also very conscious of her audience-- she knows that children will probably not visit her blog, which means she swears etc (I never found swearing offensive in the first place, but I know some do.) She picks her recipes and stories carefully to pair together, and will be thorough with her recipes and outcomes of dishes. Lastly, when she put a spin on a recipe, she will give full credit to those the original recipe came from. Bauer is a stand-up blogger with a fascinating life and a good following.
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Module 7: Paterno Press Release
Create a press release for Joe Paterno’s death.
Joe Paterno passed away January 22nd, 2012. A recent controversial figure, Paterno was a father, a coach and memorable man in the sports world. Paterno, affectionately nicknamed JoePa passed at the age of 85 from complications with lung cancer. Not only leaving behind his loving wife and five children, Paterno is leaving behind a complicated legacy with Penn State that will change the sports world long beyond the foreseeable future. Despite the charges brought against JoePa, Penn State mourns the loss of this incredible coach that impacted collegiate sports for decades coaching there for almost 50 years. During his tenure at Penn State he championed the football field for the Nittany Lions in addition to promoting academic and athletic cohesion. The loss of Paterno is a difficult one for thousands as recent scandal can greatly impact his legacy; but today JoePa is a loving father, husband and coach who completed his long life fighting for education and athleticism.
Craft an accompanying Facebook post.
Penn State and family mourns the loss of father, coach,and memorable figure as Joe Paterno passed away yesterday. Read more here (link to press release above).
Joe Paterno passed away January 22nd, 2012. A recent controversial figure, Paterno was a father, a coach and memorable man in the sports world. Paterno, affectionately nicknamed JoePa passed at the age of 85 from complications with lung cancer. Not only leaving behind his loving wife and five children, Paterno is leaving behind a complicated legacy with Penn State that will change the sports world long beyond the foreseeable future. Despite the charges brought against JoePa, Penn State mourns the loss of this incredible coach that impacted collegiate sports for decades coaching there for almost 50 years. During his tenure at Penn State he championed the football field for the Nittany Lions in addition to promoting academic and athletic cohesion. The loss of Paterno is a difficult one for thousands as recent scandal can greatly impact his legacy; but today JoePa is a loving father, husband and coach who completed his long life fighting for education and athleticism.
Craft an accompanying Facebook post.
Penn State and family mourns the loss of father, coach,and memorable figure as Joe Paterno passed away yesterday. Read more here (link to press release above).
Module 6: Social Media Tools
1. Come up with a group/company or non-profit you wish to represent.
I work with a couple close friends, and a couple far-away connections on a "combo-blog" as we call it. Raddish Beats is a place where each of the authors has a focus, but the blog allows them all to post together. While I write about the health and lifestyle, my friend Jesse write about sports, our friend Matt write about Rap music, and others write about TV, music and city life. This is a rare experiment for a blog, where usually a person searching for their interests must find one blog for each of the above listed categories. Raddish Beats attempts to put as many topics of interest in front of as many viewers as possible. If they like what they read--they might stick around and read something they didn't plan on reading.
If readers find themselves liking one author or another, they can sort the posts by author and by topic-- creating a hub of searchable content in one page-- as opposed to the entire internet.
2. Come up with an target audience for that organization.
Our target audience is not only the general public, but the general public who gets most of their information from blogs. I think it is fair to say that we are reaching out to a demographic interested in entertainment-- be it in their personal lives (lifestyle activities, diets, health, consumerism) or outside (music, movies, concerts, sports) they can engage at any level they wish-- but most of it is entertainment based.
3. Come up with a message for that audience.
Our message is at the baseline, come to our blog and read some interesting things about entertainment and engage directly with the bloggers. We want readership to be aware of our blog as it is just starting up-- and encourage its use outside of our friend group.
4&5) Pick three Social Media Tools and explain their effectiveness.
Raddish Beats utilizes Twitter primarily right now, as a place to post our blog links to the Twittersphere-- it is a good way to get word out quickly about a new post. Right now they are auto linked and every time we post, a tweet is sent out to our followers. This is an effective way to increase readership, link to those our stories are about, and create a more cohesive package for our readership.
I think that as we continue to grow we should use Instagram--particularly for the folks blogging about city life, diets, lifestyle activities etc. Those genres within the blog would get the most use out of snap shot photos to supplement their posts. Instagram is great at showing what we do and images will boost readership and interest for readers.
I am not sure if there is another social media platform we would use, because our whole blog is hosted on a social media platform, WordPress. I would consider that the third social media tool we use.
Facebook-- as a group we have talked about Facebook as an option to expand on our posts etc-- and we have come to this conclusion-- Facebook would take away viewership. Meaning that if we linked everything on Facebook readers could get thumbnails and summaries without even visiting our blog. We lose in that situation, almost Facebook likes to spam folks who join groups or like them. We decided against it.
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Module 3: Sources Under Fire
Sources are the best indication that written work is thoroughly researched and fully backed by evidence. However, the roots of these source must be analyzed to ensure that the information provided is as free as possible from political or monetary benefit. For example, if I state that chocolate is healthy for everyone, but I work for Willy Wonka, that would be an investment that prevents me from presenting unfiltered information. Understanding my position at Willy Wonka, a reader can interpret my findings as self-beneficial and can decide for themselves if they agree with my statement. Understanding the sources, and where their loyalties lie is very important in understanding the facts presented to us on a daily basis. We as readers, become hyper aware of the connections sources have to the topic at hand.
Article:
Venezuela Offers Asylum to Snowden
By WILLIAM NEUMAN and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
Published: July 5, 2013
THE NEW YORK TIMES ONLINE
Sources:
Wikileaks Twitter account
María Eugenia Díaz contributed reporting from Caracas, Venezuela.Daniel Ortega, the president of NicaraguaPresident Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela
Evaluation:
1. Is there any evidence that the author of the Web information has some authority in the field about which she or he is providing information? What are the author's qualifications, credentials and connections to the subject?
Yes, all of these sources have some authority in the field of the matter-- they are leaders and contributors to the news first hand-- while WikiLeaks is known for presenting information that is confidential and oftentimes not pleasing to the government. Usually Wikileaks is known for presenting unbiased information.
2. With what organization or institution is the author associated? Is there a link to the sponsoring organization, a contact number and/or address or e-mail contact? A link to an association does not necessarily mean that the organization approved the content.
The New York Times. There could be a link between them and the recent stories with Snowden and their dedication to presenting the news in a fair and balanced way, but no I do not see any direct correlation.
3. Does the author have publications in peer reviewed (scholarly and professional) publications, on the Web or in hard copy? (If an author does not have peer reviewed articles published, this does not mean that she or he does not have credible information, only that there has been no professional "test" of the author's authority on that subject.)
Yes, every article in a newspaper is peer reviewed.
4. Are there clues that the author/s are biased? For example, is he/she selling or promoting a product? Is the author taking a personal stand on a social/political issue or is the author being objective ? Bias is not necessarily "bad," but the connections should be clear.
It does not appears that the author is demonstrating bias-- however, they are a citizen of one of the countries involved in the article which makes her maybe more credible, but also invested in the issue.
5. Is the Web information current? If there are a number of out-of-date links that do not work or old news, what does this say about the credibility of the information?This is a highly current article. Says that this news was recent and generally has active information sources.
6. Does the information have a complete list of works cited, which reference credible, authoritative sources? If the information is not backed up with sources, what is the author's relationship to the subject to be able to give an "expert" opinion?
There was no work cited at all within this article, these names/sources were pulled directly form the text itself. As it is spoken word from President of other nations.
7. Can the subject you are researching be fully covered with WWW sources or should print sources provide balance? Much scholarly research is still only available in traditional print form. It is safe to assume that if you have limited background in a topic and have a limited amount of time to do your research, you may not be able to get the most representative material on the subject. So be wary of making unsupportable conclusions based on a narrow range of sources.
This one can be fully researched with WWW sources, as it is highly current.
8. On what kind of Web site does the information appear? The site can give you clues about the credibility of the source.
A newspaper site-- which actually gives the article more stance as it is backed by a news institution.
Impact:
These sources, as leaders in their respective countries and the impact of the website that hosts this article being a news source contributes to my belief that this is an accurate telling of the current Snowden situation. We are constantly evaluating the things we see and read, and taking the time to process this information is highly beneficial to reading works outside of the text alone.
-Abbey
Article:
By WILLIAM NEUMAN and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
Published: July 5, 2013
Sources:
Wikileaks Twitter account
María Eugenia Díaz contributed reporting from Caracas, Venezuela.Daniel Ortega, the president of NicaraguaPresident Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela
Evaluation:
1. Is there any evidence that the author of the Web information has some authority in the field about which she or he is providing information? What are the author's qualifications, credentials and connections to the subject?
Yes, all of these sources have some authority in the field of the matter-- they are leaders and contributors to the news first hand-- while WikiLeaks is known for presenting information that is confidential and oftentimes not pleasing to the government. Usually Wikileaks is known for presenting unbiased information.
2. With what organization or institution is the author associated? Is there a link to the sponsoring organization, a contact number and/or address or e-mail contact? A link to an association does not necessarily mean that the organization approved the content.
The New York Times. There could be a link between them and the recent stories with Snowden and their dedication to presenting the news in a fair and balanced way, but no I do not see any direct correlation.
3. Does the author have publications in peer reviewed (scholarly and professional) publications, on the Web or in hard copy? (If an author does not have peer reviewed articles published, this does not mean that she or he does not have credible information, only that there has been no professional "test" of the author's authority on that subject.)
Yes, every article in a newspaper is peer reviewed.
4. Are there clues that the author/s are biased? For example, is he/she selling or promoting a product? Is the author taking a personal stand on a social/political issue or is the author being objective ? Bias is not necessarily "bad," but the connections should be clear.
It does not appears that the author is demonstrating bias-- however, they are a citizen of one of the countries involved in the article which makes her maybe more credible, but also invested in the issue.
5. Is the Web information current? If there are a number of out-of-date links that do not work or old news, what does this say about the credibility of the information?This is a highly current article. Says that this news was recent and generally has active information sources.
6. Does the information have a complete list of works cited, which reference credible, authoritative sources? If the information is not backed up with sources, what is the author's relationship to the subject to be able to give an "expert" opinion?
There was no work cited at all within this article, these names/sources were pulled directly form the text itself. As it is spoken word from President of other nations.
7. Can the subject you are researching be fully covered with WWW sources or should print sources provide balance? Much scholarly research is still only available in traditional print form. It is safe to assume that if you have limited background in a topic and have a limited amount of time to do your research, you may not be able to get the most representative material on the subject. So be wary of making unsupportable conclusions based on a narrow range of sources.
This one can be fully researched with WWW sources, as it is highly current.
8. On what kind of Web site does the information appear? The site can give you clues about the credibility of the source.
A newspaper site-- which actually gives the article more stance as it is backed by a news institution.
Impact:
These sources, as leaders in their respective countries and the impact of the website that hosts this article being a news source contributes to my belief that this is an accurate telling of the current Snowden situation. We are constantly evaluating the things we see and read, and taking the time to process this information is highly beneficial to reading works outside of the text alone.
-Abbey
Friday, June 28, 2013
Module 2: I know what I know!
How do I know what I know? Truth is, I don't. I am making the same assumptions as others and placing my trust in certain news sources, and hoping they are correct. In the book Blur by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, they mention the dichotomy of faith versus fact, but I think that faith influences fact. The facts I choose to believe are facts, and those in which I get from people and sources I trust, which means that the facts are based purely on faith. It doesn't matter where I read that information, could be a blog, work, or on television-- if I trust the person I will generally think that they are speaking the most factual story they know. If I have any reason to doubt them, or if the story piques my interest I will look deeper for more information.
Take what I learned today-- that Ex-Patriots tight-end is not only being tried for the murder of semi-pro footballer Odin Lloyd, but also a double homicide that occurred in Boston last year. Apparently he drove up behind two people at a red light, he was driving an SUV with Rhode Island license plates, and shot them both. Now I got this information from a couple Twitter accounts, from the Boston Globe, CNN, ESPN and the Onion Sports Network all on Twitter-- they were all released around the same time, even though the Onion was a satirical network. The facts stayed about the same, that he was already arrested for the murder of Lloyd, but also being connected to this other murder in Boston last year. What is interesting, was that the Patriots are doing a Hernandez jersey trade-back for any new jersey in their ProShop. This act makes me think that these connections have had such a negative impact on the name of Hernandez that they not only released him from their roster, but also are trying to assist the community in trying to release him as well. I believe that these accounts are true-- that he was arrested for all three murders because I received my info from multiple sources-- even though they were all on Twitter! While Twitter gives me the headlines and basic facts-- the 5 Ws, and an H as described by Kovach and Rosentiel-- where does social media play a role in providing credible information?
Where do social media sites fit into the journey for truth? I find it difficult to find a complete answer-- does 140-160 characters limit the facts? or make them even more important? I can't help but think that Twitter does more to spur my interest in current events around the world. where I will see a snip-it of a news story-- just the headline even--I will be interested to search for more information through other news sites. Sometimes I will open ten sites all about the topic at hand and read everything. But at the same time Twitter does not do everything-- if I don't look beyond Twitter I will not get the full story, I will only get the facts that are deemed "tweetable".
This is where social media plays a role-- it is only important in conjunction with other news information.
-Abbey
Take what I learned today-- that Ex-Patriots tight-end is not only being tried for the murder of semi-pro footballer Odin Lloyd, but also a double homicide that occurred in Boston last year. Apparently he drove up behind two people at a red light, he was driving an SUV with Rhode Island license plates, and shot them both. Now I got this information from a couple Twitter accounts, from the Boston Globe, CNN, ESPN and the Onion Sports Network all on Twitter-- they were all released around the same time, even though the Onion was a satirical network. The facts stayed about the same, that he was already arrested for the murder of Lloyd, but also being connected to this other murder in Boston last year. What is interesting, was that the Patriots are doing a Hernandez jersey trade-back for any new jersey in their ProShop. This act makes me think that these connections have had such a negative impact on the name of Hernandez that they not only released him from their roster, but also are trying to assist the community in trying to release him as well. I believe that these accounts are true-- that he was arrested for all three murders because I received my info from multiple sources-- even though they were all on Twitter! While Twitter gives me the headlines and basic facts-- the 5 Ws, and an H as described by Kovach and Rosentiel-- where does social media play a role in providing credible information?
Where do social media sites fit into the journey for truth? I find it difficult to find a complete answer-- does 140-160 characters limit the facts? or make them even more important? I can't help but think that Twitter does more to spur my interest in current events around the world. where I will see a snip-it of a news story-- just the headline even--I will be interested to search for more information through other news sites. Sometimes I will open ten sites all about the topic at hand and read everything. But at the same time Twitter does not do everything-- if I don't look beyond Twitter I will not get the full story, I will only get the facts that are deemed "tweetable".
This is where social media plays a role-- it is only important in conjunction with other news information.
-Abbey
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Module 1: Let's talk about new media
What forms of new media do you use daily?
Blogs:I am currently involved with three blogs, one personal blog, one Music news blog, and one blog without a focus-- kind of an anti-blog.
Micro-blogs: Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and other social media outlets are forms of micro-blogs I use most of these daily to keep up with friends and family and tell them about where I am and what I am doing.
Forums: Nearly all websites that are currently in existence has a comment section, which makes it a forum for readers to post thoughts creating an instantaneous feedback loop between readers and producers. This is the backbone of new media-- the ability for dialogue and adaptation continuously.
Cell phone: the reason I put cell phone into this category of new media is for a few reasons. 1) Every action on a current cell phone is instantaneous, calls, texts, pictures etc. 2) A majority of cell phones currently have "smart" capabilities which make it a mini computer.
Instant Messenger/email: In my career I have to use a Office Communicator to discuss work/hold meetings with peers in other states, regions and countries. These communicators are a form of new media as they provide a simple and instant way of communicating with others.
How has new social media influenced your perspective of events?
On a shallow level-- these forms of new media make me hyper aware of events in the world-- I can access anything at anytime and I am updated on every event even if I didn't read on it, or hear about it, through a news source or viable contributor myself. I can scroll through Facebook or Twitter and get a glance of the world's happenings.
On a more severe level-- these forms of new media have also changed how I interact with learning about events and how long I stay dedicated to them. First, it can make me lazy- where I know that I don't need to read news sites daily as I can generally find out local and global news by reading my Twitter feed. Second, social media has influenced my attention span-- meaning news stories change rapidly and I will only pay attention as long as it is in the current media outlets I use. Lastly, social media outlets make certain news worthy stories never on my radar. I have created lists of people, politicians, regions etc to follow to get my news, which means that other information doesn't enter my scope unless I find information from another individual who has different values and interests than me.
Are these positive or negative influences?
Depends on how you spin it-- I think all of these influences are both positive and negative-- first I know that I am not lazy and will read the news but I don't have to everyday because others do it for me. I find it hard to believe that this is all negative--hell, how did people learn about events pre-wide spread old media? They found out from friends and family, people they trusted in their everyday lives. I am doing the same thing with who I follow on Twitter!
I do think that my attention span changing is the biggest negative influence-- only that I am finding it harder to put together events in a larger picture scenario-- this comes later from discussions with friends and family. However, I have noticed that my attention span is more invested for that short period of time. For example, I was in NYC when Hurricane/Tropical Storm/Crazy weather hit. I was stuck in my apartment complex with zero transportation for 2 weeks straight-- no classes, no employment, no money, running out of groceries. But I was lucky that my electricity and access to cable/internet only went down for 20 hours. Which means that I was able to focus on the happenings and could find out where charger pop-ups, food donation and shelters were located throughout that time. I wasn't the only one hyper focused on these events of course, but events like this take all of my attention until there is some resolution. Same with any other news that I encounter.
That brings me to the last influence-- I think this is neither positive nor negative-- we've been censoring the information we receive forever. This is not new, we are just doing it in more ways and with way more control. No longer is it turning off the TV or changing the channel-- now it is blocking those channels altogether. But that information finds ways of getting through always, so it really isnt creating any harm in my understanding of others' opinions.
Blogs:I am currently involved with three blogs, one personal blog, one Music news blog, and one blog without a focus-- kind of an anti-blog.
Micro-blogs: Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and other social media outlets are forms of micro-blogs I use most of these daily to keep up with friends and family and tell them about where I am and what I am doing.
Forums: Nearly all websites that are currently in existence has a comment section, which makes it a forum for readers to post thoughts creating an instantaneous feedback loop between readers and producers. This is the backbone of new media-- the ability for dialogue and adaptation continuously.
Cell phone: the reason I put cell phone into this category of new media is for a few reasons. 1) Every action on a current cell phone is instantaneous, calls, texts, pictures etc. 2) A majority of cell phones currently have "smart" capabilities which make it a mini computer.
Instant Messenger/email: In my career I have to use a Office Communicator to discuss work/hold meetings with peers in other states, regions and countries. These communicators are a form of new media as they provide a simple and instant way of communicating with others.
How has new social media influenced your perspective of events?
On a shallow level-- these forms of new media make me hyper aware of events in the world-- I can access anything at anytime and I am updated on every event even if I didn't read on it, or hear about it, through a news source or viable contributor myself. I can scroll through Facebook or Twitter and get a glance of the world's happenings.
On a more severe level-- these forms of new media have also changed how I interact with learning about events and how long I stay dedicated to them. First, it can make me lazy- where I know that I don't need to read news sites daily as I can generally find out local and global news by reading my Twitter feed. Second, social media has influenced my attention span-- meaning news stories change rapidly and I will only pay attention as long as it is in the current media outlets I use. Lastly, social media outlets make certain news worthy stories never on my radar. I have created lists of people, politicians, regions etc to follow to get my news, which means that other information doesn't enter my scope unless I find information from another individual who has different values and interests than me.
Are these positive or negative influences?
Depends on how you spin it-- I think all of these influences are both positive and negative-- first I know that I am not lazy and will read the news but I don't have to everyday because others do it for me. I find it hard to believe that this is all negative--hell, how did people learn about events pre-wide spread old media? They found out from friends and family, people they trusted in their everyday lives. I am doing the same thing with who I follow on Twitter!
I do think that my attention span changing is the biggest negative influence-- only that I am finding it harder to put together events in a larger picture scenario-- this comes later from discussions with friends and family. However, I have noticed that my attention span is more invested for that short period of time. For example, I was in NYC when Hurricane/Tropical Storm/Crazy weather hit. I was stuck in my apartment complex with zero transportation for 2 weeks straight-- no classes, no employment, no money, running out of groceries. But I was lucky that my electricity and access to cable/internet only went down for 20 hours. Which means that I was able to focus on the happenings and could find out where charger pop-ups, food donation and shelters were located throughout that time. I wasn't the only one hyper focused on these events of course, but events like this take all of my attention until there is some resolution. Same with any other news that I encounter.
That brings me to the last influence-- I think this is neither positive nor negative-- we've been censoring the information we receive forever. This is not new, we are just doing it in more ways and with way more control. No longer is it turning off the TV or changing the channel-- now it is blocking those channels altogether. But that information finds ways of getting through always, so it really isnt creating any harm in my understanding of others' opinions.
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