Social Media Policy

LORENZO’S MEDIA POLICY

1. Connecting: Introduce yourself and tell me why you want to connect

Just tell me who you are and I will get to know you

2. Follow, add, friend: Limits

If your a friend of my friends, then I trust your character enough to where I would like to get to know you. Other than that, if I’ve never met you, introduce yourself first

3. Privacy, boundaries and safety: None

I will keep a personal level of privacy from everyone, but you are free to express any feelings that you want. Some things need to get off your chest, but relationship and personal details should be left out.

4. Signal to noise: KEEP IT DOWN

Keep status updates to a minimum if you can. I like to stay in touch with my friends, but I don’t want to know what you are doing ALL the time.

5. Personal data and sharing: Feel free

I like to hear other peoples opinions and ideas, so please speak your mind.

6. My networking needs and uses: Social

I only use Facebook and it is strictly social. I don’t like to talk business online and like to have a relaxed enviroment.

Podcasts

I had never listened to a podcast before this assignment, but now I feel like I’ve been missing out on a great thing. Podcasts are a series of digital media files that are released episodically. Some podcasts are updated every month, while others such as ESPN Daily Radio, are posted on a daily basis. Podcasts can be watched online from a computer, but where I find the value, is the ability to subscribe to a podcast through Itunes and have your Ipod update each time a new episode is released.

http://podcast.com/episode/54855991/798/

This a link to ESPN Daily Radio, which I now listen to on a regular basis. Each episode is about an hour long and gives various opinions on sports news. The NFL draft recently took place and the podcast had several experts weigh in their thoughts on who made the right picks, who didn’t, and the most surprising trades. I never watch past the 3rd round of the draft so this gave me a good summary of what all I missed and how things will look in the NFL next season.

I have my Ipod subscribed to about 3 different podcasts right now, but I am very interested in finding new ones. I don’t get to watch very much television these days, but podcasts are great alternatives to help keep me in touch with what is going on in the world around me. Podcasts are a great digital media tool and something that I predict will grow a lot in the next few years.

Digital Dirt

With the expanding access to the internet, social networking sites and personal blogs have become notorious for collecting “digital dirt” on the users.  This new “digital dirt” often consists of pictures, videos, and even status updates that are created and displayed without taking into account the possible consequences of inappropriate content posted on the internet. Many employers and government agencies will search extensively on the internet to collect digital dirt from job applicants.

Many young people choose to express themselves through various online mediums, but never take into account who all has access to what they put out and how long something could follow them. I personally know of 2 people who have lost opportunities at good jobs because of digital dirt that they left behind from middle school. The influence of digital dirt over other peoples’ impressions of you will only grow over the years. The best way to prevent this is to keep social networking sites and personal websites clean.

You can still express yourself online, but it is always safer to present yourself in a professional way. It is also a good idea to know who can access your information and to keep personal information, personal. Your friends on facebook are not necessarily your friends in real life and many people forget that. As hard as this seems for some people to understand, personal matters are meant to be discussed, in person. Any information that is put out onto the web will stay there forever. Most people just hope that no one will ever look for it, but the internet is getting dirtier everyday.

Campus Event: Jabbawakeez

Recently the Jabbawakeez dance crew performed live at Georgia Southern. I didn’t know much about them other than that they won the first season of America’s Best Dance Crew on MTV. I had some friends who wanted to go watch them and the tickets were only five dollars, so they convinced me to buy a ticket and check it out. After seeing what it was all about, I must say that it was five dollars well spent.

I’m not really a big fan of dancing, but the Jabbawakeez were fun to watch. I was very surprised at how many people actually bought tickets to watch some dancing. I didn’t make sense to me at first, but I just didn’t realize how big they had actually gotten until one of my friends showed me some music videos and commercials that they’ve been featured  in with some pretty big name athletes.  Before the show  From what other people there told me,  the Jabbawakeez are the face dance crews all across the world.

I personally think that the show would have been a lot better if they had a live singer or rapper that they could dance to instead of a speaker system blaring random mixes. Still, if I had a chance now I would definitely go and see other dance crews if they are all as exciting as the Jabbawakeez were to watch. It was definitely a great show for dance fans and non-fans alike. I don’t think that this event was advertised near well enough, but I’m glad that i can be one of the few who didn’t miss out.

One Week of Twitter

Before staring this assignment I had heard all about twitter and constantly saw advertisements, but I didn’t really have any interest in exploring it any further. I am glad that I got to experience Twitter for myself, but even after this assignment I probably won’t use it too much. However, I do can understand why people like it and how it is a great networking tool. It’s simple, easy to use, and can be very informative. You can follow your favorite bands, actors, comedians, or whatever sport your interested in and stay up to date on them. There are none of the distractions that you would find on other social networking sites, like Myspace and Facebook. It’s easy to log on and see what all your friends have been up, without having to see movie trailers and advertisements flashing everywhere. I actually didn’t mind using Twitter, but I really don’t any family or friends who use it at all. The chat feature on Facebook is definitely what puts it above other networks in my opinion, so that will keep me around for the time. After seeing how larger Twitter has actually grown and how simple it still is, I may end up turning back to it before too long. I do feel like my lack of friends who use Twitter does kind of ruin my experience of it, but I tried looking at with an open-mind. I’ll be interested to see how Twitter grows over the next few years.

Blog Review: Legalize It

This blog talks about the announcement of a new legislation that is targeted on the legalization of marijuana in California. The main points that this legislation would like to enforce are that marijuana is the states largest cash crop and yet it remains untaxed and illegal. This new legislation has an estimated increase in $1 billion dollars per year for the state. While I myself am not a major advocate either way, I do believe that if marijuana was legalized not only would it be profitable to the state, but a large portion of the crime that illegal drug trafficking brings would cease. I do believe marijuana can be a “gate-way drug”, but only because it is classified as an illegal substance along with other harder, more addictive substances such as cocaine and heroin. What this legislation seeks to accomplish is to put marijuana the same level as alcohol and tobacco products, which are considered by many to be far more deadly vices. This legislation is only the first step in a process that has been a long time coming, and with the current financial situation that our country is in, it may be the right one. The largest argument against this new legislation is that the black market has too much influence over marijuana distribution and sale. It would be too easy for private sellers to avoid being taxed and too difficult for the IRS to track every tax dodger. In order for the legalization of marijuana to succeed, there would have to be an efficient way changing the sale of product to a more tobacco-like standard.

Blog Review: 10 Most Wanted Rap Albums of 2010

This blog was created as a list of the top ten most anticipated rap albums of 2010. I enjoy listening to rap music in my free time, so I try to stay current on new artists and new songs. However, usually unless a statement is made by the record label themselves, any announcements of new projects or release dates is only speculation made my the media or artist for the purpose of keeping people’s attention. This blog found on About.com talks about the top ten most anticipated upcoming albums, who will be featured on each record, and the expected release date, if any. For the most part, I do agree with the order of the list which places Lupe Fiasco’s upcoming album titled Lasers as the most anticipated. Joined in the list by Kanye West’s Good A– Job, Eminem’s Relapse 2, and Drake’s debut album Thank Me Later, 2010 is looking to be an amazing year in hip-hop, despite the absence of great artists such as Lil’ Wayne and T.I who will be serving jail time through the year. The blog also lists Dr. Dre’s final album titled Detox as an honorable mention, which was a little surprising but understandable. It fits as an honorable mention because there is no release date set, and the super producer’s final rap record has already been pushed back about 2 years. Regardless, this year looks to be a welcome improvement over 2009 which suffered from very few quality rap cds. As a fan of lyrical rap and true hip-hop, I look forward to what 2010 has to offer.