Reggie's First Week at Lehigh

Having a dog at Lehigh is well.... interesting. Last week one of my roommates randomly decided that she wanted to get a dog for our house. A few glasses of wine later, my roommates and I were searching the web for puppies for sale in the Lehigh Valley making up hypothetical situations of what we would do once we had a dog in our possession. Having a dog at home, I knew how much of a responsibility it would be to take care of a dog at college especially since we are all so busy and on such different schedules. Never in a million years did I think we would ACTUALLY get a dog but the next morning my roommates were still so hot on the idea, they returned with a puppy by 11am the next morning.

BUT Reggie is not just any puppy, he is in my opinion one of the cutest puppies I have ever laid my eyes on. He is celebrity status at Lehigh right now. Reggie is all over Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. My roommates and I will walking him outside and random people will come up to us and ask if this is Reggie and ask to play with him. He has had so many visitors in the last week it's unreal. Let's just say everyone who meets him is obsessed for obvious reasons.

Reggie is a mix between a poodle and a beagle but somehow looks like neither of them (he looks more like a chocolate lab!). He is currently 4.8 pounds and will grow to be 15 pounds by the time he is fully grown. Reggie pees everywhere in the house, and loves to bite anything he can get a hold of including socks, shoes, feet, etc. but somehow its hard to stay mad at him for very long. His training is a slow process but we are trying our best to be stern and serious but loving and affectionate parents at the same time ;) Reggie has the brightest blue eyes and his left eye is a little lazy but that just makes him even cuter. Despite our frustration and sometimes lack of patience dealing with his mishaps, we still love him unconditionally. Here is a picture of the little guy!

Whats Trending in #ENT 195

After reading through our classes posts on who they follow on Twitter, it was very evident that many of my classmates had similar Twitter interests and followed many of the same sources. Many students expressed their interest in following the Presidential Campaign especially since many of us are first time voters and want to be fully informed before we cast our votes this November. Twitter has evolved into such an effective tool for following the election and Twitter is even taking it a larger role in election. I just discovered that Twitter has unveiled its "Political Index in August in an attempt to compare sentiment about President Obama and Mitt Romney to the overall mood of the massive micro-blogging universe which I found really innovative and exciting! 

After reading Julia Pierce's post about following the Wall Street Journal I realized that I also don't read many of the tweets posted by news sources unless something instantly grabs my attention and pops out at me. I usually just scroll past these posts but I realized what's the point of following the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times if I'm not actually reading them? Isn't the point of following sources is to actually read  their posts? I need to make a decision to actually start reading their posts or unfollow them in order to manage my Twitter account more effectively!

                                    

Who I am Following on Twitter

So for my private Twitter account I am primarily following my friends from home, friends from Lehigh, a few news sources such as the NY Times and the Wall Street Journal, celebrities, my two favorite sports teams (the JETS and METS) and non-profit organizations from my hometown that inform me of what's happening around town while I'm gone and upcoming events to look out for.

As for my new public Twitter that I made for this class, I recently just added a lot of new people and organizations to follow. I was never too passionate about politics but Twitter has definitely made me more aware of what is going on with the election. I am following both presidential candidates (not that it is probably even them tweeting anyways) but just by reading some of their tweets I have a better grasp of the progress of their campaigns and in which direction they are headed. I also just started following a couple local politicians in my area that will also help me be more informed of what is happening while I am away at school.

Just recently I added a couple of local non-profits and businesses in the Lehigh Valley as well as Lehigh led programs as requested by our professor. I am actually really happy she asked us to start following these organizations because I already feel more connected and part of the community just by following and reading their tweets. Like most Lehigh students, we are consumed and trapped in the "Lehigh Bubble" and don't really leave to explore what our community has to offer. Yes the weekly trip to Wegmans,or shopping at the Promenade or the mall, or going out to dinner on the North side of town but there are a thousand of other things to do in the Lehigh Valley that I am now aware of through Twitter. No the Lehigh Valley may not be New York, but there is so much to explore-that is if you are willing to engage yourself and expand your Lehigh network outside of the university! Through Twitter I found farms to go apple picking, haunted houses to test out, upcoming concerts in the area, festivals to attend and so much more to try out!!! Can't wait to test it out and blog about my experiences in the upcoming weeks!

The New Tools of Storytelling

While the rain was pouring down this afternoon, I found myself attending a presentation given by Dan Gillmor, the Director of the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship at Arizona State University on "The New Tools of Storytelling". As an Accounting major it is not very often I find myself attending a journalism presentation so it was definitely a nice change of pace for a rainy Tuesday afternoon. 

As Dan was well into his presentation, he asked the audience a rhetorical question- "Are all bloggers journalist?" That was an easy question for me to answer in my head...NO WAY! Since creating my blog for this class I have "published" 3 posts but in no way shape or form would I ever consider myself a  real journalist. But if we all can create buzz or media through blogging, posting Youtube videos, etc. who are the "real" journalists and more importantly what is journalism? Dan described  that there is no clear cut answer. You do not need to be a professional to write about news worthy events but in fact you just need to be at the right place at the right time and have your IPhone on you to capture the moment. So maybe one day I will be able to consider myself a journalist if I have my IPhone ready to go... can't wait to find out!

One of the most interesting things I took away from Dan's presentation this afternoon was how digital tools have evolved with new technologies. He showed us an example from the Summer Olympics to demonstrate his point of how data is more understandable when visualized. Personally I was amazed at what  saw! Check it out to see how far Usain Bolt’s 9.63 Olympic record is ahead of every Olympic medalist whose ever competed in the event.

That's it for tonight! Stay dry!

Class Blogs Feedback

 I LOVED reading through everyone’s blogs! Since we are still at the beginning of the semester and still getting to know one another, I definitely got to know everyone a little bit better by looking at everyone’s blogs and reading through their posts. It was obvious some of my classmates have a lot of experience blogging but it seems that a majority of our class have just started blogging for this class…this means I am not alone! While I am still learning, I was able to get some good ideas to enhance my blog and show off my personality through my blog's presentation.

After reading through our classes’ thoughts on Twitter vs Facebook, it seemed that a majority of our class agreed that they used Facebook to stay connected for personal reasons and used Twitter as a news source and to keep up to date on what is happening in the world. I personally liked how Robin expressed her usage of Twitter and I definitely use Twiter in a similar fashion. She explained her use of Twitter as “…merely documenting funny things that my friends do or say, I have come to rely on Twitter to follow key people and organizations in society that hold a large influence over their “followers”. So it seems that I am more or less not contributing to the network, but reaping the benefits of the contributors.”  I thought she summed it up perfectly but I am definitely going to try to improving my "tweeting" skills this semester!

I truly look forward to reading #ENT195 blogs throughout the semester! It is definitely new to me but I hope to make a lot of progress and be a blogging expert by the end of the semester!  

Facebook vs Twitter

Facebook vs Twitter- Who Will Win?

It is pretty safe to say, Facebook has changed drastically since most college aged kids first created their Facebook accounts. For myself included, the reason I first made an account back in junior high was because all my friends started using it and I didn’t want to feel left out by not joining in on the fun. Seven years later, and Facebook is a completely different ball game. Even just glancing at Facebook’s evolution is nauseating to look at How Facebook Has Changed and Evolved Over The Years | Infographic. Little changes such as the ability to crop or tag a profile picture in 2008, or the addition of the “Like” button in 2009 to the Timeline profile introduced in 2011. If we were to compare the first edition of Facebook to its current page, there would most likely be more disparities than similarities between the two.

Personally, one of my dislikes/biases against Facebook is the judging that comes along with the tool. There has been countless times that I’ve made inaccurate assumptions about people that turned out to be so false based off something I saw on their Facebook page. Yes it is tempting to “creep” on strangers but I would rather make my own judgments about others than have Facebook do it for me. Overall I believe Facebook has facilitated our generation to jump to conclusions based on a small snapshot displayed on an individuals Facebook page. 

As I was reading these articles on Facebook led me to ponder an interesting thought- Where would we be today  if Mark Zuckerberg never created Facebook? Would our culture rely more on face to face interactions instead of communicating over the internet? Yes Facebook has allowed us to reconnect and stay in contact with our network but has the quality of these relationships taken a toll? Instead of picking up the phone to see how an old friend is doing, one can just check out his or her Facebook page to see what he or she has been up to. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing- it can definitely be a time saver in a day and age when every minute counts but do the benefits of social media outweigh the cost of diminishing human interaction?

Personally, Twitter has been a great way to stay up to date with the breaking news. By just reading a tweet of 140 characters you can get the jist of what’s happening without having to read the full article in order to stay connected to the world. Especially during the Olympics I was constantly on Twitter to keep myself updated without actually having to watch the games. Twitter exploded during the Olympics with over 3.5 million tweets during the opening weekend. The article, Welcome to the Twitter Olympics described Twitter as the Olympics’ “cocktail hour “ where both athletes and couch dwellers could connect about the games. I personally follow various news organizations such as the Wall Street Journal and the NY Times, in addition to my friends, celebrities, sports teams, and random people my friends have recommended I follow. One of the most interesting aspects of Twitter I have found is unlike Facebook, which is a two way street and if someone friends you, you automatically become friends while Twitter doesn’t work in a similar fashion. If you request to follow someone on Twitter doesn’t mean they are going to request to follow you back.