Final Draft of Facebook: A Web Platform to Reach the Masses

After taking into consideration both James' and Hannah's critiques, I made a few minor changes to my final paper. Overall, my feedback told me that my points were well-defined and supported, and the paper was wrapped up nicely at the end. I experimented with the suggested changes and agreed with what James and Hannah had said. Here is the final draft:

Facebook : A Web Platform to Reach the Masses

From the start, I was enthusiastic about creating my own piece of digital media to promote Greek life at Michigan Tech. While there are many promotional materials available, I feel that they lack the perspective of leaders in the Greek community. For many non-Greek students, Greek life is a social tool and not much else, and I wanted to create something that would display the leadership aspects it has to offer. I created a Prezi presentation to outline the organization of an average Greek organization, including positions and their duties; I also interviewed a few organization leaders for firsthand accounts of their experiences. The next step in my process was to distribute my presentation, making it available for anyone who wants to learn about leadership opportunities in Greek life. I chose Facebook as my medium, as it is a very widely used social network by students at Tech, and the most effective way to reach a large number of my audience.

                According to geniusrecruiter.com, over 90% of college students use Facebook. It is a simple way for them to stay connected to friends and family and for advertisers of all kinds to reach them. Millions of products have pages that can be “liked,” and it is difficult to find a public university without its own Facebook page to recruit potential students and answer their questions (geniusrecruiter.com). Facebook itself defines Web 2.0 according to guidelines set by Danah Boyd: it is democratized, stimulating, and provides homophily and power. Anyone can create a Facebook account and use it to post status updates, “like,” and “share” other updates or posts. Facebook allows us to be friends with only those people we are interested in; any posts or profiles we do not find stimulating, we are free to block from our newsfeed. Homophily, or the limitation of diverse perspectives, occurs because we are generally only connected to the profiles of people like ourselves who share similar views. The capability of “liking” and “sharing” photos or posts gives us the power to control the popularity of other Facebook users (Streams of Content, Limited Attention: The Flow of Information through Social Media).

                In addition to meeting these criteria, Facebook can be defined as a web platform. It is an open space where anyone can post any number of thoughts, opinions, or informational pieces, and the potential for reaching an audience is nearly limitless. From the Web 2.0 visual (oreilly.com), it is an attitude rather than a technology, and user behavior is entirely emergent. Facebook in no way guides its users or tells them what to think or feel; it is simply a canvas on which they may express themselves as well as gain access to new information and meet other users. In fact, Facebook’s own mission statement is “to make the world more open and connected.” (facebook.com) Facebook achieves this through suggesting friends, the ability to create groups, and several other means. Users have access to millions of profiles, pages, and groups and the ability to join or follow those that interest them.

                As a participant in the vast world of Facebook myself, I could not think of a better place to share my “Leaders in Letters” presentation. In the words of Sarah Stoolmiller, “It’s intimidating to approach someone and ask about Greek life when you don’t know them. Facebook is a great tool to share information with potential new members without scaring them off initially. Whether they are actively pursuing Greek life or simply looking to learn more, Facebook gives them whatever level of interactivity they desire.” Facebook is already a commonly used medium for promoting individual Greek organizations and recruiting new members; my intention is to inform on behalf of Greek life as a whole. My hope is that members of all Greek houses will share my presentation, helping to spread my message to as large an audience as possible. 

Major Assignment 4 Draft

Facebook : A Web Platform to Reach the Masses

From the start, I was enthusiastic about creating my own piece of digital media to promote Greek life at Michigan Tech. While there are many promotional materials available, I feel that they lack the perspective of leaders in the Greek community. For many non-Greek students, Greek life is a social tool and not much else, and I wanted to create something that would display the leadership aspects it has to offer. I created a Prezi presentation to outline the organization of an average Greek organization, including positions and their duties; I also interviewed a few organization leaders for firsthand accounts of their experiences. The next step in my process was to distribute my presentation, making it available for anyone who wants to learn about leadership opportunities in Greek life. I chose Facebook as my medium, as it is a very widely used social network by students at Tech, and the most effective way to reach a large number of my audience.

                According to geniusrecruiter.com, over 90% of college students use Facebook. It is a simple way for them to stay connected to friends and family and for advertisers of all kinds to reach them. Millions of products have pages that can be “liked,” and it is difficult to find a public university without its own Facebook page to recruit potential students and answer their questions (geniusrecruiter.com). Facebook itself defines Web 2.0 according to guidelines set by Danah Boyd: it is democratized, stimulating, and provides homophily and power. Anyone can create a Facebook account and use it to post status updates, “like,” and “share” other updates or posts. Facebook allows us to be friends with only those people we are interested in; any posts or profiles we do not find stimulating, we are free to block from our newsfeed. Homophily, or the limitation of diverse perspectives, occurs because we are generally only connected to the profiles of people like ourselves who share similar views. The capability of “liking” and “sharing” photos or posts gives us the power to control the popularity of other Facebook users (Streams of Content, Limited Attention: The Flow of Information through Social Media).

                In addition to meeting these criteria, Facebook can be defined as a web platform. It is an open space where anyone can post any number of thoughts, opinions, or informational pieces, and the potential for reaching an audience is nearly limitless. From the Web 2.0 visual (oreilly.com), it is an attitude rather than a technology, and user behavior is entirely emergent. Facebook in no way guides its users or tells them what to think or feel; it is simply a canvas on which they may express themselves as well as gain access to new information and meet other users. In fact, Facebook’s own mission statement is “to make the world more open and connected.” (facebook.com) Facebook achieves this through suggesting friends, the ability to create groups, and several other means. Users have access to millions of profiles, pages, and groups and the ability to join or follow those that interest them.

                As a participant in the vast world of Facebook myself, I could not think of a better place to share my “Leaders in Letters” presentation. In the words of Sarah Stoolmiller, “It’s intimidating to approach someone and ask about Greek life when you don’t know them. Facebook is a great tool to share information with potential new members without scaring them off initially. Whether they are actively pursuing Greek life or simply looking to learn more, Facebook gives them whatever level of interactivity they desire.” Facebook is already a commonly used medium for promoting individual Greek organizations and recruiting new members; my intention is to inform on behalf of Greek life as a whole. My hope is that members of all Greek houses will share my presentation, helping to spread my message to as large an audience as possible. 

Thoughts on Gaming

These two articles, "Dream Machines," and "Art Form for the Digital Age," focus on games, their development, and why they are really a positive force in society. To summarize both articles, games are becoming increasingly creative and user driven; they provide users with  a place to learn new skills and find others like themselves. Today's generation has had access to games since birth; they encourage computer use and teach children to use these technological skills in a way that varies from the structured, standardized format found in schools. "Dream Machines" focused on the digital home games provide users with; they are personalized by the user, allowing him or her to create the world they want to be in, as a character they'd want to be. "Art Form for the Digital Age" focused on the rising popularity of games, and the lack of respect they get in the industry. Because games don't always evoke the same emotions or ideas that traditional art does, it should have its own category in the art world, for it allows users all the self expression in the world. Both articles were strongly advocating games; they stated reasons games are a positive impact on a  gamer's life, and tried to disprove stereotypes that they are violent, a waste of time, and childish.
While I am inclined to agree that there is a great deal of art in games, I am not so sure I agree that games are really such a positive thing. The worlds created within games, not to mention the characters, are extremely well thought-out and in many cases awe-inspiring. There is no doubt in my mind that the people behind these creations are artists, and they should be recognized as much as any Hollywood director. However, not being a gamer myself, I feel that I don't relate to the positive side of gaming as presented within these articles. I've seen games used as a huge waste of time, especially among my college friends who you can be sure have more productive things to be doing. It also prevents them from trying to be social and meet people in the real world; like children, they live within this gaming space. I'm not trying to slam games, as I know a lot of people get a lot of enjoyment out of them; I'm just stating my opinion that I don't think the beauty and creativity found in games outweighs the consequences of losing that time and energy that is spent gaming. In the same way, I spend a great deal of time on Facebook, Pinterest, and other popular sites that are a waste of time. I actually feel that my interactions on these sites hinder my social abilities in the real world; I feel that gaming has a similar effect. Overall, while I understand both authors' points, I simply don't give games the  same high rating these authors do.

Web 2.0

     This series of articles was all about "Web 2.0," from what it is really defined as, to its true potential in today's society. As someone who has grown up with internet access and all it entails, I found it really interesting to see Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 compared, as in the (http://oreilly.com/pub/a/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html) O'Reilly article. Some of the main differences given were different programs that we use today, blogging versus diaries and daily opinion columns, and the power of hyperlinking. Here I'll also pull from the (http://www.danah.org/papers/talks/Web2Expo.html) "Streams of Content" article, as it also discussed the use of hyperlinking as well as personal blogs. As both articles stated, there have always been opportunities for individuals to speak their opinions to the public. However, blogging is a much more advanced way of sharing opinions and information on any given subject. A blogger may post on any given subject, and then may go further to add hyperlinks to other similar pages, strengthening the original article by backing it up with proven facts, examples of the topic, or simply other articles written with similar opinions. These links also allow bloggers to easily give credit to original authors, which is a fairly controversial topic. As stated in the "Streams of Content" article, recognizing the original creator of any given content is something that is not always done online, but adding links within a blog or site is an easy way to do it.
      One of the main points I got out of this series of articles is simply that Web 2.0 has created a great deviation from the original "producer-consumer" model for spreading information. The "Streams of Content" article gave the best example of this by referencing the nostalgic image of the family gathering around the TV at night to watch the same news channel everyone else was watching, receiving the same information at the same time. Web 2.0 has basically reversed this system, as we access news when we want it, and we access what we want to see or hear, or in other words what interests us personally. The Henry Jenkins article also addresses this idea, by stating that as we the consumers spend all our time on Facebook and Twitter, and that is where we get a great deal of our news, it becomes more clear that people no longer receive information by sitting around a television together or reading a newspaper, and this needs to be addressed by management. The overall idea here is that Web 2.0 has put us, the consumers, in charge of what is news, who gets the spotlight, and how we as viewers will receive it.