#PitchesAreBack: A Very Biased Review

If any of you are like me, you were dying to see Pitch Perfect 2.  I was so excited about it that I found a theater that was showing it on the Thursday before its release date. I’m quite dedicated to my Pitches.

The big question though is was it any good?  Sequels are notorious for being contrived and predictable, so would our Barden Bellas succumb to that fate?

I would have to say no.  They did an outstanding job.  Without giving anything away, the music was spot on and the choreography in check.  The comedic relief was great (as always).  Remember that iconic puke scene in the first movie? Well there isn’t one in the second, but there were a few other heart stopping moments.

However, I will say that you might end up cheering for the bad guys.  Das Sound Machine is awesome.  Those beautiful German specimen sure know how to rock that a Capella stage.

Here’s where I took some issues with the movie: The Treblemakers were nowhere in sight!  Although both Benji and Jesse had significant parts in the plot, the group made minimal appearances.  As a dedicated Barden fan I would have liked to have seen both the Treblemakers and Bellas perform, and maybe even performed together!

Alas, I didn’t get everything that I wanted out of the movie but it will definitely be a movie that I watch multiple times and quote frequently.  Some people will say that it wasn’t as good as the first one, but it was a great movie for Pitches around the world.  Just as watching Pitch Perfect brought my friends and I together every NYE, PP2 will do the same.

A TIDAL Wave is Approaching! Or is it?

Some of you may know that Jay-Z recently released his own version of a music streaming site called Tidal.  It has been met with mixed reviews, so let’s go over the facts:

·         TIDAL is an artist owned site meaning that the artists get the profit rather than the record companies.

o   “TIDAL pays the highest percentage of royalties to artists, songwriters and producers of any music streaming service.”

·         TIDAL has high-fidelity sound.

o   “High-fidelity sound is music files that have not been compressed down.  TIDAL relies on FLAC, a more robust, more realistic streaming format than the compressed format other services use or that you will find in our $9.99 tier.

·         TIDAL does not offer a free option like Spotify or Pandora does.

o   There are two tiers: $9.99 and $19.99.

·         TIDAL is still new.

o   Jay-Z pledges that this is just the beginning and any ‘mistakes’ that have been made just means they are still learning.

So where does this leave us? As a Free Spotify listener, I can tell you right now that I don’t want to pay for the music I listen while doing homework.  However, maybe I should start paying.  Spotify pays the record companies a significantly low amount that the artist usually doesn’t see.  As someone who claims to be creative, I’d want to see the return that I worked so hard for. With Spotify and other streaming services that is not the case.

For some students paying $10 or $20 is out of the question.  However, I encourage people to think about paying. You would want to be paid for the hard work that you did too, right?

**All information was taken directly from TIDAL**

Maximum Sharing Capacity Reached

Everyone has seen a political rant or comment on social media.  There is always that one friend who feels the need to blast their opinion in a sometimes lengthy Facebook post.  Usually this friend is stuck to one side of the spectrum or the other.  The worst is when the identified ‘friend’ blasts untrue facts and consequently convinces others of an untrue fact.

I am not one who chooses to blast my opinion on social media.  No, this does not make me better than individuals who do post an opinion, it is simply my decision.  I decided to use my social media sites as educational platforms instead of opinion based.

I choose post unbiased information like where to find voting areas or a great article that outlines the political candidates’ ideals.  People rarely watch the debates or keep up with the news anymore so by posting this type of information it is more likely to reach people above anything else.

I believe that by providing sound information to individuals on social media they are more likely mobilize, and DO something (like vote for a change).   Social media brings people together and allows for ideas to be shared, so in that aspect I think that social media is great for the political sphere.

However, as I mentioned earlier, people spread bad information.  Perhaps they saw the article on a satirical site and took it as the truth.  Whatever it is, it is hurting the people who believe it.  Most people can tell if something is true or not but while scrolling through the newsfeed, the individual isn’t always paying close attention.

Overall, be careful what you post.  Do your research and don’t tear down other people’s opinions just because it isn’t yours.  Make social media an advantage to you, not a disadvantage.

Gossip or Cyberbullying?

With social media more prevalent in our lives today, than any other time, we need to be aware of what kind of affects it has on the youngest users of our generation.  I will give you three scenarios and you decide if it qualifies as gossip or cyberbullying.

First though, you need to know the definition of cyberbullying. "Cyberbullying is bullying that takes place using electronic technology. Electronic technology includes devices and equipment such as cell phones, computers, and tablets as well as communication tools including social media sites, text messages, chat, and websites."

1.  Becky heard from another classmate that Jenny's parents are getting a divorce because Jenny's dad cheated on her mom.  Becky tells a group of people she considers close friends and makes them swear that they won't tell anyone else.  As it turns out, they each tell someone else and now the rumor is flying around the school.


2.  Brian likes to play a popular online game everyday after school.  Brian isn't great at the game but he enjoys it.  One day he is playing as a team with four other online gamers.  Brian doesn't know the individuals but this is the nature of the game.  Brian made a mistake and cost the team the game win.  The individuals start calling Brian names and use racial slurs at him in the chat window.  They say things like, "You are the worst person on the face of the planet. Go kill yourself." Brian leaves the game but it seems like he was blackballed and every time he wants to play a game the other teammates gang up on him.


3.  After two girls get into a fight at school a video of it is posted online anonymously.  The video circulates throughout the area and soon people who don't even know the individuals are commenting on the video.  They make inferences about race, body image, and sexual identity.  One of the girls flags the video but it gets posted under a new username and the taunts continue.

Answers:
1. Gossip
2. Cyberbullying
3. Cyberbullying

For more information about cyberbullying and what you can do to prevent it check out this website.

In the comments tell us what YOU do to help prevent cyberbullying.

Mother's Day Love Should be Everyday

If you checked in on your social media pages yesterday then you know there was a lot of momma love in the air.  I saw so many posts about how mothers have shaped their children into what they are  and these touching posts almost brought a tear to my eye, but I pose a question: Why can't we give our mothers this sort of credit everyday? Why aren't people posting about their parents more if they really 'shaped' them into the person they are?

Although I am not a parent myself, I can imagine how much work, time, and energy it takes to raise a child.  So in the spirit of celebrating our parents I challenge you to post your favorite memories of your parents or life lessons they have taught you in the comments.  Once you've done that take to social media and post it there too.

Spread the love everyday instead of once a year.  Help your parents without them having to ask and most importantly, listen to what they have to say.  They've made it this far in life so they must be doing something right.

Use the #ThankYouMom and #ThankYouDad (don't forget other special relatives too) to tag your post.  The idea of this is to spread the love and maybe a little wisdom to your friends and family members.

Thank your parents everyday, they've done a lot for you and should be rewarded for it.

Checking in with Social Media

After the horrific earthquake that took over 2000 lives in Nepal, many loved ones have gone missing or have been displaced.  Family members have been frantically trying to get in touch with people in the area and some have been met with silence.

However, in October 2014 Facebook rolled out a new feature called Safety Check.  It allows people in disaster areas to check in and say “I'm safe” or "I'm not in the area" they can also indicate the other people they are with are safe.

Google deployed its own version before Facebook called Person Finder.  It is a part of Google’s charitable division and has lacked the success that Google desires.

Both of these features have importance that goes without saying, however, these features don’t address the fact that many people in the affected areas don’t have a digital connection or they lost their electronic devices in the devastation.

I think that social media sites will figure out ways to help people who don’t have connectivity, whether they have hotspot locations or perhaps they will work with the Red Cross to enable some sort of internet station. 

Until then, this feature is available to all the victims with service and it has been encouraged to post for others who don’t have service. 

Social Media + Political Election = Positive?

In 2008 and 2012 we saw how President Obama used social media to his advantage with both of his campaigns.  Now two years later we are seeing how social media is affecting the U.K. election.
According to an article by Dhara Ranasinghe of CNBC, the U.K. population of social media users has grown tremendously since their last election and now the two leading political parties are trying to capitalize on this growth.

The conservative group, known as the Tories, is using Facebook quite heavily. They have spent “$150,035 a month on Facebook.” This can include advertisements, boosting posts, and targeting certain consumers.

The liberal group, known as the Labour Party, prefers to use Twitter as their main route of information. They lead the pack with Twitter followers.
The question I pose is this: Is it a positive response when people are using social media to get all their political information or not?

I’m on the fence about this.  On one hand, social media is a great way to connect to the younger generation and spread the political party’s message. It can be used to get a conversation going and interact with other individuals, which can be great.

On the other hand, information can be misconstrued on the internet.  People could mistake a fake account for a real one and suddenly all the information this consumer has obtained is wrong.  Additionally, advertisements are looking more and more like journalistic articles so the consumer has to be aware of what they are reading.

My advice is to be careful. DO YOUR RESEARCH.  Just by following a political party on Twitter does not make you an expert.  So yes, social media can be a great tool to communicate with the masses but always keep an eye out and don’t believe everything you read.

I am Addicted to Google

After laying out how many people use Google on a daily, even hourly, basis it is amazing that we haven’t been fully taken over by Google.  I’ll be the first one to say that I am addicted to Google and use it constantly. 

Here’s a confession for all you other bloggers: I have a Google search bar on the home screen of my phone. So is Google taking over our lives? Probably.

I use it to look up the most mundane of topics like “whatcelebrity is dating who” and “how many ounces are in a cup.”  I also use it to get me to other sites when I can’t remember the exact URL, all I have to do is put the title of the site in the search bar and BINGO I can find exactly what I am looking for.

Just this past week my grandpa, a 70 year old man who loves the radio and television but is very skeptical of the internet, asked me if I used “the Google” and he told me how amazed he was by how much information you can get from it.  However, as I said, he is very unsure of the internet and it mostly has to do with safety and privacy.

He is worried about credit card fraud, catfishing, and he was also surprised and upset to see how much information you can get off of someone just by googling their name.  He did admit that it could be very useful (like when he was looking up tractor prices) he is much more cautious than any other millennial that I know.

Overall, I do believe that today’s generation is addicted to the internet in general.  We have slacked off on memorizing material and learning hands on activities because if we ever needed to know something we could look it up and/or watch a video about.

As for privacy, I don’t consider this world private anymore.  Maybe it is because I’ve been desensitized and it doesn’t bother me (which speaks louder than anything else) or because businesses and organizations request so much information from you that it feels normal. 

Having little to no privacy has become the norm.

Convergence Circle

As a society we are seeing convergence everywhere.  In both technology itself and the way that people interact with technology.  Being a student of Convergent Media, I have a grasp on how empowering it can be to consumers to participate in the media.

The first reason why convergence can be powerful for consumers is that companies are starting to listen.  By tweeting or commenting about an issue or problem with a product or service companies are now responding to the consumer.  They ask questions like: Why are you unhappy with said product/service? What can we do to make said product/service better?

Sometimes the customer service representative will even offer a coupon or they say we will take your suggestion into consideration.  This is all possible because of the convergence of technology.  Consumers can buy things online, review it on the company’s website, tweet about it, talk about it on Facebook, and then the circle returns when customer service representatives respond to the review, tweet, or Facebook post.

So the question remains, do consumers have the power to change a company’s mind? I believe the answer is yes.

The second reason is that it can bring consumers together.  People are able to communicate with each other having never met and be living on two different continents.  What usually brings them together is a piece of media like a TV show, or movie, or book. 

Together these consumers find a piece of common ground to talk about over social media or fan sites.  The great thing that comes from these conversations is creative and collaborative work.

In fact, I have a friend who was recently recognized for developing a computer game with another college student whom he met online.  They shared a love of zombies and decided they would collaboratively work to come up with their own unique game.  The game has brought success and is paying off tuition bills for both of the students. 

By having media convergence intertwined in our everyday lives it brings individuals closer and makes the world a little smaller whether it is between consumers or consumers and businesses. 

Blog Interview Reaction

As I was reading the interview done on Rebecca’s Pocket blog about Megan Reardon, I couldn’t help but wonder if her blog was even still around.  Reardon didn’t seem to want to keep up with the technology changes that were taking place and I believe that by doing this she was hurting her blog.

Reardon had disabled the comment section on her blog which has now eliminated interactivity between her and readers, which is what new media is all about. Of course I understand that some commenters are rude and “combative” but some can offer insightful information and actually teach the blogger something. 

Another thing that I found worrying is that Reardon hardly ever edits her work.  Now, I understand that if you are writing a quick blog you might make a spelling mistake or two. Nonetheless, when you are getting 4,000 viewers a day I think you should take an extra 5 minutes to make sure you didn’t confuse your with you’re.

One positive thought I had about what Reardon does with her blog is to make it personal about what she is interested in. She kept it like a craft journal and just a way to keep track of future projects and ideas she had come across and that’s how she incorporated hyperlinks into her blog.  I also liked that she would post the final version of what she made so that viewers get a visual of the real world application of the project.

However, she doesn’t let the audience in on any other aspects of her life.  She even said it herself: “The site has no sense of the person who writes it.”  Not that she needs to divulge in the details of her life, but the blog should have an essence of the person who writes it.  I feel like that may be the most important thing, next to interactivity, to have a successful and interesting blog.

Lastly, at the beginning I wondered if this blog was even still around and it is! The reason for that is because it evolved.  She made it more personal, but still keeps it as a “link journal.”  I do wonder how many visitors she gets in 2015 especially with the popularity of Pinterest. Another thing that I noticed is that Reardon also enabled comments again and is currently involved in all types of social media which can only help her get more views.