Social media summaries

H Group ITA Workshop

Summaries/Social Media

1. Social Media and the falling institution of Marriage

The article revolves around two studies done in the U.S. on the effect of social media on marriage and increasing rate of divorce and infidelity. The study is called “Social network sites, marriage well-being, and divorce: Survey and state-level evidence from the United States” and was published in Computers in Human Behavior. According to the study the amount of Facebook usage has a direct effect on a person’s married life and can significantly predict divorce rate. The study was conducted by the researchers of Boston University and Pontifical Catholic University of Chile’s School of Communication. The first study was an analysis of marriage and divorce rate from 43 states of the United States during 2008-2010, which was compared with Facebook penetration during the same period. There was a 20% increase in the number of Facebook users and a 2.1% increase in the divorce rates in these states during this period. Another study conducted by University of Austin’s researchers included 1,160 married couples between the age of 18 to 39, which was a mixed group of users and non-users of social media. They were asked to take a survey which revolved around their happiness in a relationship, sex life, if they had or thought of engaging in extra-marital sex or thought of getting a divorce. The results were kept confidential. Of the people who didn’t use social media 11.4% were happy with their marriage. On the other hand 32% of the social media users were about to get a divorce and about 16% were planning on leaving their partners.

In my opinion it’s not the fault of social media that people are growing apart. It is the people who are unable to prioritize between their social media life and real life. They are happy with the number of likes to their Facebook profile picture than they should be with their spouse coming home early on a Friday evening. They are too busy to look up from their ‘Chats’ and are missing on the charms of the life partner they chose. We need to prioritize and give more importance to 3 Dimensional people roaming around us than to the increasing number of ‘Friends’.

Reference

Sass, Eric. (2014, July 7). Social Media Linked to Infidelity and Divorce. Social Media and Marketing Daily: The Social Graf (Connecting through Chaos). http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/229441/social-media-linked-to-infidelity-divorce.html

(Patil)

2. Two Universities tell us how they’re using social media

This article explains how two prominent universities have used social media positively by building up their presence in virtual communities. The author has interviewed two representatives and briefed the readers on important findings. The representatives interviewed were Aaron Jaco, the digital media specialist with the Office of Marketing and Communications of Drake University, and Megan Troppito at the University Marketing and Communications, Loyola University.

Drake University: Their approach is to build relationships in a community to strengthen the reputation and image of school.  For this, they build wide networks across its departments, facilities, and student organizations; it oversees the school’s presence in all platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Tumblr) whilst abiding by all legal and best practice guidelines relating to social media (such as copyright laws, student privacy laws, etc.).

From a survey done for the incoming students in Fall 2013, they have found that their social media presence has helped one fifth of the students to make their enrollment decision. Students also use social media to gather information on admission, to meet more students, to find roommates, etc.

Loyola University, Chicago: Loyola uses social media to maintain transparency and maintain policies for use of social media at the university. They use Twitter for attending to student matters such as admission issues and for sharing and engaging in the Loyola community; Facebook for promoting campus events and sharing student profiles and YouTube and Flickr for producing professional visual content. The response from students for recruitments and events posted on social media has always been at a higher rate than previous years.

The author concludes the articles by saying that the approaches of using social media presence in their broader marketing and communication programs can be made a common best practice for any business.

My Opinion:

The article would be very comprehensive if it had presented information on both positive and negative aspects of social media presence in the university system.

Reference

Washenko, A. (2013, October 31). 2 Universities Tell Us How They’re Using Social Media, Sproutsocial Insights, Retrieved from http://sproutsocial.com/insights/universities-social-media on July 25, 2014.

(Chamila Kalpani Dissanayake)

3. Summary of Infographic: Impact of Social Media in Education by Jake New

This article basically describes the uses of social media in education, for example, inrecruitment, safety instructions and communication with students.

Also it shows the results from a survey with 8000 faculty participants, and the main point is that more than a half of the respondents state that SM “creates a better learning environment," while the other part says that is more distracting than helpful.

In my opinion I think we are on a starting point on realizing what social media have already done to all of our lives, in both personal and academic contexts, and I also think that social media are becoming a major tool in the classrooms so at one point eventually everybody is going to use them.

Retrieved on July 29, 2014, from http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/infographic-impact-social-media-education/

(Victor)

4. Summary

In this article, the writer talks about six different ways parents can adapt to for keeping a safe check on their children while they navigate social media as suggested by Christine Wilson, who is a founder and CEO of MtoM Consulting. The first and the foremost thing to do is to create an account on Facebook or any other platform for the children yourself, and then to have high privacy settings. These two steps will maintain a secure check and balance. It’s equally important to check the friends kids are making on Facebook, as the writer suggests that it's good for the parents to make their kids have common friends so it’s easier to keep them on the safe side while using social media, and most importantly not let them get too much used to it, which could increase the indirect interaction over real life ones. She also suggests that parents use all sorts of social media that their kids are using and be a part of it, irrespective of their likes or dislikes. Obviously when they will be on a particular social media, they’ll be able to monitor the activities more and have more interaction with their children. This will ultimately make the parents know and learn more about the pros and cons of the social media and will be able to make kids have secure use of social media.

Reference:

Joyce, Amy. (2014, July 16). “6 Tips to keep your kids safe on social media.” Washington Post.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/parenting/wp/2014/07/16/6-tips-to-keep-your-kids-safe-on-social-media/

(Hira Farooq)

5. The World Cup's Top Moments on Social Media

The 2014 FIFA World Cup has extremely influenced the social media, not just by providing plenty of wonderful matches. Impressive moments during Brazil 2014 have been witnessed and diffused rapidly through social media by many football fans from all over the world. Interestingly, FIFA.com demonstrates some top famous moments which have been widely spread on social media platforms. Overall, there are over 600 million tweets sent during the World Cup period and more than 600,000 tweets per minute which were sent after Germany was announced to be the 2014 World Cup champion. A new Twitter record was created when Brazil was defeated by Germany with the score of 1-7 as nearly 30 million tweets were posted during the match. Another interesting moment is that Balotelli, an Italian soccer forward, requested a cheeky kiss from the UK Queen in Twitter if he helped the England team win the group matches. Additionally, Facebook is another platform for football fans to have a close interaction with the events during the World Cup. Almost three billion comments including likes and posts have been generated by more than 350 million people through this kind of social media. Some notable moments are also highly welcomed in Facebook, such as Tim Howard, the American goalkeeper, gained great praises from the worldwide football fans due to his excellent performance by making 16 saves versus Belgium. When it comes to the Final, more than 280 million interactions have been posted via Facebook by over 80 million people, breaking the records in the history of sports moments on social media.

Reference

FIFA.com (2014). The World Cup's top social moments. From http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/y=2014/m=7/news=the-world-cup-s-top-social-moments-2406128.html

(Fuda Ning)

6. Social Media and its Effect on Student’s Writing

In this article, the author talks about the effects of social media and how it impacts students in their writing.  A large percentage of students use social media on a day to day basis. Hence, this has led to an increase in usage of text lingo which in turn affects a student’s capability to write effectively. This also prevents a student from being able to shift from an informal language of speech to a formal language when required to do so. They tend to be careless and misspell words and make a lot of grammatical errors. Nowadays, the use of abbreviations while conversing with another person has increased to such a level that few of these abbreviations and text lingos have even been included in the dictionary.  The author points out an experiment conducted by an English professor, Terry Thaxton, who said that sometimes students are unable to recollect a face to face conversation and rely on social media (phones, chat messages) to remember the conversation. This diminishes their thought processing and written communication skills. Another study showed that the quality of writing has gone down considerably, taking into fact that this generation has been more verbal compared to the previous generations. Employers who are on the lookout for an employee prefer to have someone who communicates well and is competent rather than a thoughtless person who would spoil the company’s reputation on social media. The author also discusses the positive impacts behind social media on writing. It helps students understand the different groups of people and opinions they have. They could also get immediate feedback on articles and essays which will help improve their writing skills. To conclude, the author feels that although there might be a positive side to social media on writing, students should know the balance between social media acronyms and real writing. (Twaritha Vijay)

7. “Seven ways teachers use social media in the classroom”

                  The article, written by Jess Fee on August 18, 2013, can be found on the web site Mashable with the following link http://mashable.com/2013/08/18/social-media-teachers/. The main point of author’s discussion is to expose the ways of successful usage of social media and encourage teachers to incorporate social media as very effective tools. Based on different examples, seven major methods were summarized for teachers in help to effectively work with their students. They are:

-                    Encourage students to share work socially.

-                    Use a hashtag to facilitate guest speaker discussions.

-                    Require students to keep a blog.

-                    Require original expert sources.

-                    Use Google Hangouts.

-                    Create a social classroom on Edmodo.

-                    Hold a class in Second Life.

The author believes that knowing these tips may help teachers to be more successful with their students.

Fee, J. (2013, August 18). 7 Ways Teachers Use Social Media in the Classroom. Retrieved July 29, 2014, from Mashable.: http://mashable.com/2013/08/18/social-media-teachers/

(Natalia)

8. How professors are using Facebook to teach

The author suggests that perhaps professors should think about computers and Facebook in the classroom not as a problem, but as of another way to teach. One of the examples the author brings is that students are more likely to ask questions after they interact with the professor online, especially shy students. But the teaching capacity of Facebook may be overestimated because students prefer using Facebook for their personal needs rather than for “formal learning”, though it helps sharing the information about classes.

The reason teaching with social media is still a rarity, according to the author, is that both students and lecturers are “conscious of their digital footprint” (Prescott, 2014). 

Prescott, J. (July 10 2014). How professors are using Facebook to teach. Bolton, UK: The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/07/10/how-professors-are-using-facebook-to-teach/

(Alexandra)

9. Emerging technologies enhance nursing education

The authors mention a pilot project which attempts to investigate whether it is possible to educate nurses in a junior or community college setting. The school uses emerging technologies, such as social networks, to benefit nursing students. Instructors post lecture videos prior to each lecture so that students may come to class fully prepared with questions. Students interact with each other and the teacher via Facebook discussions, and Facebook chats are embedded in the course, so students can view old chats from previous years. Interactions within the physical classroom as well as those on Facebook “create a bond” between classmates (Barra, 2014).

Bararra, J. M. (2014, July 8). Emerging technologies enhance nursing education. Ogdon, Utah. http://www.standard.net/Guest-Commentary/2014/07/09/Emerging-technologies-enhance-nursing-education.html

(Alexandra)

10. Article Resume: Indonesia’s Surprising Love Affair With Social Media                 

                  The usage of social media in Indonesia, moreover in its largest city, Jakarta, has become surprisingly booming, despite the fact that only quarter of the population have access to the Internet. Jakarta is included as one of the cities with the top five social media markets in the world, and Indonesia is a Twitter-literate nation at this moment. If we look more closely we will see that its rapidly growing archipelago is the key to the social media development. Another key that can explain this phenomenon are the easy access to the Smartphone and undeniably, the real traffic congestion and working hours are times where people are wondering about being in another place.

                  Within this development, there are a couple advantages born from the social media usage; first is the diversity in news. Unlike in the past, media has it leash taken away, and major news companies have redirected their resources to Twitter and Facebook, which means that if you publish something in social media it will get around faster. The second advantage is that social media usage is boosting business in Indonesia; a company's publicity depends on its popularity in the social media. It is seen as a gauge of how much Indonesian customers interact and relate with their favorite brand; one way advertising is not working anymore for business. The third advantage is about 'Talking Democracy'; the third advantage will explain how Indonesians finally found a way to be interested in politics. The latest presidential election depended heavily on the social media; politicians, including the president-elect of 2014 (who also won the Jakarta gubernatorial election), use social media as campaign media to target young people, middle class and the educated.

Reference

Lake, Rebecca. (2014, February 24). Indonesia’s Surprising Love Affair With Social Media. Retrieved from http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/features/indonesias-surprising-love-affair-with-social-media/

(Eva)

11. Summary of the article “Teens use social media to build school spirit”, by Amanda Lewis, in The Des Moines Register:

This article deals with a new phenomenon: social media and its utility for high schools students and especially for the dynamism of their school. In The Des Moines Register, Amanda Lewis introduces the idea that social networks are the new technologies to spread out information faster. That is a reason teachers of Journalism often agree with the use of social media in class. She also conveys the idea that social media encourages high school students, studying Journalism, to promote some events organized in their own institution and pushes them to get more involved in the community of their school. One of the best examples is sport events held by high schools for which journalist students post on Twitter or Tumblr for instance, the two main highlights of the article. Thus, Amanda Lewis provides a lot of examples from Des Moines Public Schools in order to show us how students use either Facebook, You Tube, Twitter, blogs or Tumblr to gather an important community around their school (students, teachers, parents and alumni). However some rules have to be broken by the teachers: students are allowed to use their phones in class, or they can publish on Twitter - under the supervision of a teacher - whatever they feel or think. A lot of students in Des Moines high schools try to be followed as many times as possible. It is not only a matter of how to change the classes of Journalism, it is also a phenomenon in which students are involved in the success and the pride of their high school. The power of these new means of communication is a precious resource to gather a lot of people in one place. Social media can be seen as an open window on the school: the more students talk about it - either on Facebook or Twitter, via a blog or Tumblr - the better the school can expend its name. In a word, the use of social media empowers as well as enriches the school experience. To conclude, according to the author, using social media in high school seems to bring a triple advantage: to create a dynamic setting into the class, to involve students in the school life and finally to generate a good promotion for the educational institutions.

Bibliography:

Lewis, A. (2014, June 26). Teens use social media to build school spirit. The Des Moines Register. Retrieved on July 25, 2014 from http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/local/des-moines/2014/06/27/east-high-journalism-socil-media/11392071/

(Emilie)

12. Social Media and Education - Summary

How will the digital revolution change the way teachers teach?

This article analyzes the effects that the social media have in students’ education. The author mentions that social media and especially Facebook have already changed the world of education. It is also claimed that the education field will become even more intimate through the use of social media. This means that students will have the chance to obtain a more positive and practical relationship with their teachers, they will be inspired and their motivation will be enhanced. Even though this move towards the digital world can be characterized as “scary”, it will result in optimistic changes within institutes of education.

Martin, J.K. (2013). “How will the digital revolution change the way teachers teach”, Uversity Connections Matter. Available:  http://www.uversity.com/blog/how-will-the-digital-revolution-change-the-way-teachers-teach/    [29/07/2014]

(Antonia)

13. The YouTube effect affects Music Education

This article explains how one of the social media sources such as YouTube has had an impact in how music students interact in today’s music world. It explains how mass production allows art to be accessible to the masses. This is an advantage for all of us since we are able to experience art. Since the digital revolution, the masses have been able to view or listen to digitalized artwork from a drive and on the internet, making it even easier for the consumption of art.

In the past, aural and performing arts such as the oratorio, symphony, and sacred mass had to be performed live. That media was eventually recorded by sound recorders and heard through phonograph cylinders, tapes, compact discs and even through ITunes now. Research has shown that the phonograph was the first technology that drastically changed the way people consume, create, and distribute music. The phonograph was a widespread mechanism that allowed for the recording and playback of music. This was called the “phonograph effect”. The emergence of the digital era and the invention of the internet brought about a new phonograph effect. This article explains how gradual media and technological change over the past hundred years has resulted in what is considered to be the post-performance world. It notes that recording and face-to-face live performance accounts for only a small percentage of one’s musical experience. The ideas of music, musician, and audience have been changed. It also encourages educators to continue to hold live performance in high regard; however, because of the transformation and availability of resources, educators should teach students about media and technologies that aid in the creating and consumption of music.

I believe YouTube can be a powerful and helpful resource for a musician if it is well used. One can expand one's repertoire by listening to new songs, symphonies, operas, and even watch the live broadcast of a master class. I have personally benefited from this since I have been able to watch online master classes from the celebrated and amazing American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato and this is something I would not be able to do in real life because these type of events only take place in very influential schools such as Julliard. Another way I have benefited from it is through networking, I have been able to meet different musicians from all over the world and I have even been able to advertise myself as an opera singer through sharing my own singing videos. On the other hand, there is also a negative use of YouTube. For example I have met opera singers that learned entire roles by just watching the opera on YouTube several times, yet they still get paid the same amount of money to perform a role.  In my opinion these musicians are demeaning our craft. This is a very unethical way to make use of this resource, since musicians should be able and willing to learn an opera role by reading the music score and practicing. I believe social media like YouTube are great resources, especially in the music field, just as long as they are given an ethical use by the musician.

Citation

Macintyre Latta, Margaret, and Christine Marme Thompson. "The Youtube Effect." . International Journal of Education & the Arts, 8 July 2011. Web. 28 July 2014. <http://www.ijea.org/v12n6/v12n6.pdf>.

(Jessica Rosas)

14. How professors are using Facebook to teach

Students use social media in classes and teachers are frustrated in a competition with tablets and laptops to get students' attention. But the article states that Facebook has educational potential and teachers should consider it as a tool to teach or communicate with students to make announcements, bring up discussions and share resources. Even a research study in South Africa found out that lecturers consider Facebook a more convenient way to contact students. Students also felt that in this way they can approach their teachers much more easily. The article clarifies that Facebook is a good platform for informal learning. Students can support each other through networking in this medium to get information about university life, same as other networks that foster communication and any sort of collaboration between classmates. Meanwhile, the study highlights the importance of the professional use of these social media to prevent any kind of sacking. The writer explains that there are more teachers that have desire to use social media for educational intentions, and the teachers that experience this practice found it more useful, while this practice is still rare. At the end, the writer encourages the use of these media for learning purposes and engaging a more interactive collaboration between students and teachers.

(Saman)

15. The World Cup through the eyes of Social Media

According to this article, Germany finally came out as the champions for the 2014 World Cup after being able to score a goal against Argentina in extra time. The German squad could also be considered the true winner in the realm of social media after their annihilation of the hometown squad became the most tweeted sporting event in history. One interesting research result from the knockout stages of the World Cup showed that while watching penalty shootouts, fans displayed a specific pattern of tweeting. This pattern was then analyzed in contrast with other forms of television, such as reality shows and dramas. The World Cup also showed how football has been getting the attention of Americans and Australians. In spite of their national teams getting eliminated, video streaming records were set in the U.S. and Australia, and generic twitter World Cup hashtags were led by Americans, followed in a  distant second by Brazilians. The World Cup was not exempt from the standard comic relief and sarcasm found in social media outlets with pictures and videos becoming viral in a matter of minutes. In Europe, where football is one of the most popular sports, World Cup fever was also in full swing, as evidenced by various forms of World Cup branding, even from countries that didn’t qualify, such as posters, tarpaulins, and all the forms of decorations that one can imagine.

Woodford, D., & Prowd, K. (2014, July 15). The World Cup that was: A look back through social media. The Conversation. Retrieved July 25, 2014, from http://theconversation.com/the-world-cup-that-was-a-look-back-through-social-media-27706

(Miguel Gavino)

16. The summary of an article

The guide to Using Social Media for Marketing

If one has a small business to run, one should use social media marketing, which can help to look for new customers and brings remarkable success to the business.

Social media marketing is the Internet marketing that involves social media. A social media campaign needs to have your business goals set first. This could help you to find out the percent of your revenue.

There are several points that can help you to use social media for your business. Create a variety of content and use a brand image that people could easily recognize. It is also useful to link your original content to other articles as well. Other advice: track your competitors. This can help you to know all the news and provide valuable information in the sphere of your business.

Each social media platform has its own specifics. Facebook is famous for its visual component. Google+ has an advantage of circles and Pinterest’s image content is perfect for retail business. Twitter could be very useful for posting discounts, news and specials that your business has and YouTube is number one place for creating video.

Using social media for marketing is very helpful for gaining more customers for your business and having a better understanding of your target audience.

Reference

Kim, Larry. (2012, May 8). The guide to Using Social Media for Marketing.  Wordstream, Web, Retrieved 28 July 2014. <http://www.wordstream.com/social-media-marketing>.

(Masha)

17. Check Out That Selfie: How to Use Social Media in the Classroom

Summary
Many teachers believe social media could benefit students but there could be certain issues regarding using social media. So in a survey in Phoenix College of Education about 47 percent said social media could be beneficial and about 4 out of 5 use social media for personal use. But about 80 percent believe it is difficult to separate their private and professional lives.

Kathy Cook, the university's director for educational technology, has mixed reactions and says it's popular but uncharted territory and certain rules need to be followed when social media is used. So she suggests that there should be proper training for teachers There are doubts about whether it could be grounds for termination. There are examples where people were fired for posting controversial photos or posts.

Eighty percent teachers who use social media personally said that they face problems when parents and students try to interact with them online and very few of the teachers use social media in class. Hence greater emphasis needs to be placed on which social media are suitable for educating students and which are not. Certain web tools like YouTube, podcasts or laptops and tablets are still preferred over social media websites.

According to Cook, social media like Twitter can help students improve on concise writing especially when they post or repost about classroom activities, or using hashtags to follow certain topics, or receive feedback in a classroom blog from other professionals. She also says that it could be helpful to connect with experts who can address the classroom via Skype, giving a broader and global outlook to students.

Overall Cook stressed on both the need to be updated about the technological developments in academics.

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/01/17/check-out-that-selfie-how-to-use-social-media-in-the-classroom

(Belinda)