Social Media

I only have a Facebook account and used to have a personal blog account before. Blog for me is an ideal platform to share thoughts on issues in a very constructive manner. Their simple setup and interactive comment features made them to become a reliable source of information and opinion that people can rely on.

Facebook Pages on the other hand, serve as a point of reference that people can look upon when they have interest about certain topics or individuals. By liking the page, people will get updated information, discussion and activity about the subject.

I always heard good things about Twitter which made me wonder about the same good things about it. I previously saw Twitter as a growing place where the most trending issues are being discussed there despite the complicated interface that I thought it would be. However, when I first started using Twitter, I was impressed over the simple yet engaging interface that it had to offer.

I managed to follow Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) and Ban of High Fructose Corn Syrup on Twitter, Blogs and Facebook Pages. After getting along with them for two days, I have to say that I love how both groups are making use of Twitter and Facebook pages to promote their agendas by throwing out facts, questions, pictures and videos so that other users will be informed about particular issues and activities that are being held on.

For example, in ODA’s recent activity on Operation Evergreen, it shows how ODA has made use of Twitter and Facebook Page to let the public know specifically how the activity was conducted and who were directly involved. In this case, they uploaded pictures of middle schools students working with ODA staffs, The Ohio Christmast Tree Association and FedEx on their Facebook Page and posted a tweet about this. The only complaint that I have is the unwelcoming construction of their blog designs which are supposed to be as lively as possible despite their helpful information to encourage public participation in creative thinking.

I personally use Facebook to keep in touch with my family and friends in Malaysia. Its recent feature that enabled video chatting has made everything gets closer and easier to me. As a dietitian in the making, I have always been thinking to start blogging about health and diets as an application in learning. I have no doubt that the social networking sites are the most effective outreach platform that every organization especially the nonprofits should make use of.

Twitter, Blogs and Facebook Pages – the marking phenomenon in this century that will remain to have a place in my daily lives. They made living easy and informative. They have been used by number of organizations to gain partnership, funds and supports. So, thanks to the founders for these remarkable inventions!

Audience

Audience plays an important role in shaping my writing style. It influences my writing persona in term of specificity, solidity and formality. If my paper is aimed at people of similar interest as mine, it is easier to influence them with a less formal and humorous tone while remaining thoughtful in telling specific goals and messages. If my paper is aimed at public audience, then it could be anyone out of any interests and ages. This is when I have to be more careful in projecting my writing style. It has to sound convincing without ignoring the fact that the audience has initially had their own stand or belief on certain issues. It is the hardest part that drives me to think out of the box to come out with wise arguments. Audience also guides me along in writing a well-defined paper. It is an important matter to me to know that the audiences enjoy reading my writings. It is a plus pleasure if the audience could reach out to my center of arguments and swayed their mind upon reading my paper. Whether the audiences agree or disagree with my viewpoints, the most important thing for me is to get their response.

I guess my ideal audience for my common place essay would be the majority of college students as well as teaching instructors. I was writing as if I represent my college friends in voicing out the dilemma of a boring lecture.

I see more similarities between the group projects and the blog. I love getting immediate comments from the audience so that I could have a fresh mind to improve my writings and sometimes, argue. I think getting feedbacks from the audience is necessary for it broadens my way of thinking and it prepares me better to be judged by others. Blog is a fun medium to write. Yes, getting comments could drastically change the ethos of the blog but it is how learning supposed to be. It invites two-ways of communication which I think is important aspect to understand issues better. After participating in all the class assignments, I am now tending towards the idea of public writing because it’s kind of better adjusting my mode of writing to be more specific and convincing. By noticing the existence of audience, I am keen to write a well-thought-out paper and at the same time carefully putting out my statements to fit in with my audiences expectations appropriately.

How I Came to Change My Mind About Fashion

I have no doubt that I love fashion so much; I love how it reflects our personality in part while increasing the self-confidence. But too often, I came across thinking the opposite way; fashion enslaves people as it is becoming more unrealistic. I switched my mind due to direct observations on public surroundings and media portrayals.

Isn't it true that fashion matters so much to us? It has incredible power in making some people feel superior to others. Those who dress according to the latest trend will enjoy greater attention than those who are not. This eventually led to a bias assumption made by people to judge others from the outside rather than inside. Fashion ultimately sets a gap in our society by subtly rank people into several types of cliques. Unwittingly, it drives some people to follow the crowd by all means possible to avoid falling into the inferior category. If we blindly accept all the unnecessary fashion theories from head to toe, we will continuously not feeling satisfied with what we have had previously due to the power of fashion’s revolution.

I found these points to be relevant as I come reading other internet users' blogs. Blogs have become a tool to show off one's fashion styles and desires. It tells how some people getting so eager to have new clothings and branded stuffs while showing off their new tops, bottoms, bags-almost everything. I also feel that fashion controls our decision making. People tend to get attracted to new styles as advertised in magazine and television, without taking their body image and purchasing power into consideration beforehand. The up to date fashions are tend to be weird and unrealistically expensive which caused people to waste money on the stuff that they will never wear. It was truly happened to me when I regretted buying branded stuffs after a while, when the happiness is gone. A friend of mine also ended up feeling the same once he purchased a pair of super expensive shoes from Gucci. He argues how fashion can be bad based on his experience to run a business and deals with people from varying backgrounds. He convinced me how some people tend to hide their personalities behind great fashion styles in order to get a partnership in business projects. Those people usually aren't really the right persons to hold a share; they don't really own much to invest on those projects.

So, why don’t we remain flexible in choosing moderate fashion without being enslaved by its cruel power? I feel that we should not have to fear the power of fashion upon judging ones’ status nor should we feel embarrassed by what the people around us are wearing. That is why I think fashion is bad. Now, I favor people to be themselves, style in their own affordable ways and most important not to judge a book by its cover.

1# Potential Primary Sources

First Primary Source: The Beatles Abbey Road vs The Simpsons Abbey Road

Abbey Road was the last album by The Beatles to be recorded in 1969 but not the last album to be released. The album photograph, taken by Ian Macmillan, has since become one of the most famous and influential album cover in the history. This iconic cover shows the Beatles walk across the zebra crossing on Abbey Road in a single line with some significant symbols, including the bare-footed Paul McCartney who was out of step with the other three and the presence of VW Beetle car that is used as a pictograph.

In November 2002, Rolling Stone Magazine released a parody magazine cover under the headline 'The Simpsons Make Rock History'. Here is how The Beatles iconic album cover gets recreated with a little help from The Simpsons. In this case, Abbey Road serves as comedic reference to give special impacts to the audience by totally shifting the human characters to the cartoon characters. Even though the original idea is kept the same, however the character change and the vibrant color usage in this version has drawn different response and perception from the audiences.Implicitly, this cover version has broadened the audience scope ranging from elderly stage to even the younger ones. Importantly, the historical value from the original version has faded away due to humorous effect that belongs to The Simpsons characters.

Second Primary Source : Super Mario Bross vs Mario Rescues Princess

Mario is a famous retro video game character that was created by Shigoru Miyamoto. Super Mario Bross is the name of its video game series. It was developed by Nintendo back in 1985. The game objective is to win challenges throughout the Mushroom Kingdom, survive the monster Browser's force and save Princess Peach.

Have you ever watched the Family Guy animated TV series? It was founded by Seth McFarlane whom has been known to poke fun at Super Mario Bross Games in his official website called McFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy. He used different approaches to represent the plot lines of the story. The parody called Super Mario Rescues Princess was aired on February 2010. It uses exaggerated details by compiling quarrel parts between Mario and Princess Peach over kissing issue, while by the end of the story, the princess got eaten by the monster Browser. The story contradicts the original game version with the implementation of adult theme, thus narrowing down the audience scope to adult solely.The primary idea has totally changed from an interactive video playing games to a slot of cartoon comedy. The other noticeable distinctions include their body figure and sound composition where the animated characters seem fatter and verbal.

Super Mario Bross Video Games

Mario Rescues Princess