Forget the Haters & Do What You Love

         Unfortunately in today’s society, children, teens, and adults are at a high risk for obesity. Not only is being overweight terrible for your health, but it also brings constant ridicule from others; especially through social media. Within the last week, 400-pound high school running back, Tony Picard, was faced with cyberbullying through Facebook. As soon as ESPN’s SportNation posted a photo of Picard, there was a substantial amount of ridicule from the public. There were comments such as, “It's funny because he's fat," and "There must be a Twinkie in the end zone.”

  Instead of lashing out at his critics, the high school senior decided to be the bigger person, and respond to the cruel comments. On his Facebook page he posted:

 “To the people trying to put me down it don't bother me I could care less about all the negative comments I'm just doing what my coach asked me to do so that's why I'm running the ball, and laying nose guard...yeah I'm fat but o well I'm doing what I can....I'm doing what I love and that's playing football..”

                Since Picard posted his thoughts on his Facebook page, he’s gotten a whopping 2,300 likes, and received roughly 150 positive replies.

                Success story? I think so. Picard is not only sticking up for himself, but he's ultimately sticking up for others that get bullied on a day to day basis. Overall, Picard can be viewed as a role-model.

Sweetgreen Promotes a Healthy Lifestyle With a Creative Touch

Sweetgreen was founded in 2007 by three sons from entrepreneurial families. These students from Georgetown University in Washington D.C. wanted to create a healthy place to eat in the area. Nicolas Jammet, Nathaniel Ru and Jonathan Neman wrote a business plan, rented out a small tavern and started selling salads with locally grown ingredients from farmer's markets. 

Their presence on Instagram has really showcased how useful social media can be as a marketing tool. Everyone knows that vegetables are colorful, and what better way to show these beautiful colored salads than to post them on Sweetgreen's Instagram page @sweetgreen.

When Sweetgreen was first kick-starting they struggled with their second store. This gave the founders the opportunity to take a gamble and try something innovative. They played loud music outside the store and it eventually let to a block party of 500 people. They used this chance to hang out samples and educate the people on living healthy lives. That first block party later transformed into an annual Sweetlife Festival. Sweetgreen had finally established a brand and continued to use every chance they could to gain recognition. 

Sweetgreen was becoming more of a lifestyle and a brand that was dedicated to connecting passion with purpose and a zest for life. Social media has continued to play a large role in showcasing everything that Sweetgreen represents. They currently have 12,000 Twitter followers, 11,000 Instagram followers and nearly 20,000 likes on Facebook. The social team that runs the social media share pictures of the salads, also known as "food porn," beats from new music and artists, yoga and exercise tips, and cool projects from other sustainable brands.

Author of the article, "How One Company Built a Brand to Make You Crave Salad," Tracey Wallace, says, "The goal isn't necessarily to sell salads during the lunch rush, but inspiring them to live a life of passion and healthfulness, in which salads hopefully play a role."

To read this article: How One Company Built a Brand to Make You Crave Salad

Google Books

Traditional books have changed drastically over the years. Whether is it was printed on woodblock or on a set of pages of printed-paper that is bonded together, it has been in a physical form. With the invention of e-books, it typically comes in the form of a book electronically which you can easily access via Internet through any digital media as a cell phone, computer but more commonly an e-reader. An e-readers primary is similar to a tablet but in the sense that its primary purpose of use is to fill it with digital copies of books and store how many as the device allows it. Books and E-books come in all different types of and both of the different types of technology fits a vast audience and can offer features the benefit multiple generations.

The 8 year long battle over Google books has come to an end. It was ruled that when Google scans in an author’s book for it to be used electronically on a mobile device, it is not copyright infringement. This decision raises other questions that people may have about the copyright laws that are implemented. It has cost Google over 3 billion dollars with this long ordeal and I’m pretty sure they are satisfied to have this over and done with.

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BatKid Saves The Day!!!!!

A Day In The Life Of The Worlds Favorite Super Hero BatKid !!!

  The make a wish foundation has made 5 year old Miles dream come true. This Friday saw a 5 year old boy dress up as batman and save Gotham city. Thousands of people came out to support this 5 year old boy who has leukemia. The street blocks were closed for four hours while he fought the ridler and saved a damsel in distress.
 What made this story more compelling is the amount of social media attention that brought the world to fall in love with this kid. There was  406,960 tweets on Friday with the #batkid and the #SFBatkid hashtag. Some of the tweets came from outside the US; Batkid was discussed in a 117 countries. There was 21,683 Instagram and Twitter photos posted with the #SFbatkid hashtag and the photos were viewed at least 120,439,533 times.
  This Goes to show what the power of social media can do, it took the story of this sweet kid and branded him a hero. Hopefully one day Miles can look back at this event and remember that the whole world once talked about him. Hopefully he has become an inspiration and hero for other children battling leukemia.

How "Doctor Who" Remains Unspoiled in the Current Social Media World

"Doctor Who" is one of the United Kingdom's longest running  television programs in history, with over 50 years of existence under its belt.  The story focuses on the title character, who is able to regenerate into different bodies with different personalities.  When the body is changed for the Doctor, obviously the actors change as well.  These are highly anticipated television events, with comparisons being made to the anticipation of royal weddings that come around every generation or so.  Even the next Doctor, who hasn't even debuted yet, played by Peter Capaldi, is receiving a lot of media attention around the globe.  But, how does the show maintain a level of surprise for the viewer in this day and age of the spread of information globally through social media spoilers?

The show's highly awaited 50th anniversary episode has got fans on the edge of their seats with the expectations of a regeneration.  This was revealed through an online mini-episode which depicts every living actor that ever portrayed the Doctor.  Fans were kept in the dark about this, until showrunner Steven Moffat revealed the 5-minute scene to hype the upcoming episode. 

Moffat mislead fans through comments made by former Doctor, Paul McGann, who hasn't starred in the show since 1996, stating that he would not appear in the milestone episode.  During the online clip, McGann is seen transforming into another former Doctor, played by John Hurt.  Moffat is delighted to be throwing the fans "curve-balls" in this social media age of "spoiler alerts."  With leadership like this, perhaps this is a reason why the show has sustained for over half a century.

The 50th anniversary episode will be a "movie length special" that will also be simulcasted worldwide and shown in theaters in 3-D.  It will be a couple years until the episode's release, so it will be interesting to see what efforts Moffat takes to generate more interest, and at the same time, keep the surprises to a minimal.

The Measures We Take for More Likes and Followers on Instagram

The "InstLike" Scam

The Instagram Scam That Tricked Over 100,000 Users Into Giving Away Their Passwords

...well, that's Instagram worthy.

The Android app, InstLike, promised free Likes and followers to Instagram users was another effective scam that over 100,000 Instagram users fell for and became No. 22 under most downloaded "utility" apps and No. 571 app overall.

After downloading the free application, users were asked to share their usernames and passwords, turning them into willing participants of a giant scam. The app developers promised at the login screen that, "We don't steal your account," leaving the user feeling safe as if they could trust the application. Once starting the application, InstLike began following random users and liked random photos with your account. The more people who downloaded the application, the more likes and followers the pool of scammed users would get. If you weren't satisfied with the results of the free version of the app, you could buy virtual coins to accrue more likes and followers. The application got more than just your password, but as well as your credit card information. 

The app was overlooked by Apple and Google for months. The first red flag was put up by the security firm Symantec who spotted the scam in late October. "People didn't realize that they were being duped into giving their login credentials to this app," Satnam Narang, the security researched at Symantec who found out InstLike.

Symantec warned Apple and Google after their discovery and was removed from Google Play and the App Store on October 25th and November 7th. Though, it was too late, tens and thousands of users had already downloaded the application.

This scam is just one representation of the extensive measures we are willing to take to receive more likes and followers on Instagram. Instagram is the power of popularity among social media network. It has become a social standard to receive more than 60 likes on a photo. If you do not receive that many, then lengths will be taken from as far as posting photos of illegal drugs to posting nude photos. "It's just very interesting to see what length people will go in order to get likes on their photos," Narang added.

Even though the application has been removed from Google and Apple stores, the website, InstLike.com, is still in operation.

As George Carlin once said, "Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups."

                                                                            Chloe Smith

Veterans Day reaches Social Media

I don't think you could go anywhere on the internet today without seeing some sort of discussion pertaining to Veterans day. Across the nation citizens are commemorating our troops with ceremonies, parades, monumental dedications, and even posting "shout-outs" on social media sites such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. This just reinforces how important this day really is in our country. Below are a series of tweet posts that celebrities have shared. Khloe Kardashian and Si from Duck Dynasty sincerely tweeted to our troops who have passed and those alive. People look up to celebrities, and they serve as great tools for popularizing memorable days in our nations history.





 



Just like Twitter, Instagram is a great place to display imagery pertaining to an important day/ event. Twitter is more word based, but Instagram is solely for the image. Images are very powerful, and sometimes can speak louder than words.


 



Veterans Day is never forgotten, and by having social media sites like Twitter and Instagram it is almost impossible to ever let the day slip your mind. Society has become technologically dependent in the past decade, making it hard for people to ever forget about important events. Celebrities use Twitter and Instagram to trend any sort of topic to the social world in a professional fashion using hash tags etc. They want publicity for themselves and in this they want publicity for an important day.



For more info:
http://hollywoodlife.com/2013/11/11/duck-dynasty-khloe-kardashian-celebs-tweet-veterans-day/

The View couldn't hire my favorite Host of all time

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/29/hoda-kotb-the-view_n_3669796.html

The ABC show The View is one of the most popular shows around and has been on the network since 1997. This View is one of the first shows that held a panel full of women from all different backgrounds, ages and race. These women all come together and talk about their political and social views on the show. They also have lots of entertainers and political leaders that they interview in front of the studio audience. The View has employed some of our favorite’s faces of all times such as Star Jones, Lisa Ling and Rosie O’Donnell but lately there have been more changes. This show isn’t afraid of changes because over the last 5-7 years they have brought more interesting people to host the show. We have seen these ladies go through their most talked about cat fights and arguments over topics over the years. Recently they added to the panel was Jenny McCarthy, which brought a nice tone to the show. ABC tried hiring my favorite host from the Today show on NBC Hoda Kotb. She could have contributed the sweetest personality that The View has seen so far. She’s really fun, opinionated, and stylish host that would have brought a new vibe to the show. It would have been nice to learn her opinion on the topics that is frequently talked about on the show. Hoda decided to sign another contract at her home network NBC and continue to work and drink wine with her partner in crime. I just love her.

Google Is Helping In The Relief For Typhoon Haiyan

The super typhoon Haiyan destroyed villages and towns across central Philippines this past week. Google reacted by launching several crisis tools for those who were affected. Typhoon Haiyan claimed 10,000 lives in one city and more than 600,000 more in other areas.

One of Google's tools included a person finder which helped people search for the status of a person that was affected by the disaster. This tool lets users click on, "I'm looking for someone," and insert a name. They can also use this tool if they have information about someone and insert their data.

This is a great way that Google has taken the lead in efforts to help those affected by disasters. By creating this tool, Google has found a way to let people find one another and also help in the efforts by giving information that they think can be helpful.

They have also made this tool available for mobile phones. Google also launched a relief map for areas that were affected. This provides updates on shelters, command centers and communications posts. The map can be embedded on any site and is a helpful tool for any site that is focusing on recovery from national disasters.


Read this article: Google Sets Up Person Finder and Relief Map for Typhoon Haiyan

Job Searching Through Social Media: It's All About Being Professional

          Take a good look at your Twitter profile. Is it private or public? Is your profile picture professional, or are you chugging a bottle of Merlot? Are you tweeting about information that is relevant to your future career, or are you tweeting about how much you drank the night before? These are all questions that you need to ask yourself when job searching. Nowadays, employers are strongly utilizing social media platforms to scope out their future employees. However, will your profile make the cut?

                Steinfield goes into detail about what employers are specifically looking for in an employee, based off of their social media profiles. First and foremost, always make sure that you have an appropriate profile picture on all of your social media platforms. Yes ladies, that means no “duck-face” poses! It has been proven that recruiters are “turned off” when they do not see an “appropriate headshot.” Another biggie is to make sure you’re posting about information that actually matters. For instance, if you’re looking to go into the sports field, you will most likely be posting the latest information about sport teams. Recruiters are interested in your trends, and how you interact with others by using social media.

                Another aspect employers are looking for in their future employees is a thorough Linkedin page. Linkedin is a huge networking site, and should be used whether or not you’re a college student or professional. The amount of connections that you can have on Linkedin is incredible, and you must take full advantage of the opportunity. Not to mention, it’s free! Facebook and Twitter are also not just places to post pictures and videos, but they too are just as important for professional networking. Make sure you’re always following powerful leaders on Twitter that pertain to your field of interest; you never know what could happen. Although, once again, you need to make sure you take the proper privacy precautions if you do not want professionals to see certain photos or posts.

                So remember, the next time you’re about to post a picture/video of yourself “twerking” on the wall with you friends, make sure you remember who your publics are. You never know what professional could be watching. Be smart with everything you do on social media.

Boston Marathon Victim for Halloween

  What's worse? The costume or the feedback.

What Happens When You Dress As A Boston Marathon Victim And Post It On Twitter?

 

When there are two extremes on social media, does one cancel the other out? If someone posts something appalling and others react negatively, harassing the user, which act is worse?

Alicia Ann Lunch, a 22-year-old from Michigan, dressed up as a Boston Marathon bombing victim for Halloween and took a picture of herself at work with her outfit then shared the picture on social media sites, including Twitter and Instagram. The feedback was nothing but degrading. Yes, the first thing you would think is what is going through this girls mind thinking that dressing up as a victim of a tragedy would be a great costume idea. It makes me wonder if she thought there were too many "Miley Cyrus'" on Halloween and she ran out of ideas.

Feedback from other social media participants all over the world have tracked Alicia down due to a posting of her drivers license, exposing personal and contact information, and harassed her and her parents. Cyber bullying is a major problem in today's culture due to the lack of responsible networking use among the younger aged population. This is a prime example of this social "epidemic." The rage against Alicia spun out of control promoting her to delete all of her social media accounts, destroying her online presence for potential careers, and was fired from her job, all from a bad choice being circulated around the Internet. She received death threats, as well as her parents. Alicia told Buzz Feed, “I’ve had voice mails where they want to slit my throat and they want to hang me and tear off my face,” she said. “I’m just like, I don’t even know how to respond to this right now.” Defending herself, she states that other people on Twitter had dressed up as Boston Marathon victims and she received such backlash because she was a women. “Honestly, it’s the Day of the Dead,” she says. “I wasn’t a dead person, I wasn’t being disrespectful. I was a survivor of a marathon. And it’s not like I was walking around with a fake leg or my arm torn off or something like that.”

The interesting point about this story is that other social media users feel the need to patrol the ethical grounds of postings and why do people feel as if they are the ultimate decider on a moral code? That is because social media allows you the power to channel your life, popularity, and personality, leaving you the feeling of a control on social media. The question is who is the worse person? Those threatening to cut her throat, hang her, and rape her, or the person who made a bad costume decision that had gone viral around the Internet? Yes, the costume was disrespectful to the situation, but right now, the girl's life at risk because of social media postings. This girl is in high risk of suicide due to cyber bullying. 

Alicia is a 22-year-old girl who's life is just beginning and now her life will never be the same and with the power of social media, those who threatened her life will never give up because death threats are buttons on a computer and by one click they are sent.There is no paper copy.

View Article

                                                                                                        Chloe Smith

Twitter Updates

          As usual, the ever changing social media platform Twitter has done some updates again. It used to be that you had to click on the picture on twitter to actually see it. Now, the picture automatically shows up in your news fee ultimately making the social media platform more like its largest competitor, Facebook.  This is making twitter more appealing to a more vast audience making it similar to its competitor. This decision that twitter has made is one that I agree with. Twitter is known for a text-based platform. It is important to adapt to changes so that there is a consistent advancement and updating of technological advances. This is also taking a step to make people spend more time on twitter because it will take longer for the feed to load because there is more information for it to be processed.

          On Twitter, @kkjordan tweeted “In the past 20 mins, I've had a bare ass, a penis and shirtless Burt Reynolds on a bearskin rug show up on my TL. Web client is now useless”. Twitter does give an option to turn this feature off through the setting on either the application on your mobile device or on the actual settings within the browser. “In short, Twitter just solved two problems that weren't actually problems. A massive repair effort is underway on something that, for hundreds of millions of people, wasn't broken.” This update was provided with no explanation which is why some people are in an uproar. Even though there wasn’t necessarily anything wrong with the how the picture and videos, updates are much appreciated once they are explained.

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Petition To Ban Online Porn

                                     For More: http://on.mash.to/1aAwA31

 
   The U.K.’S Prime Minister David Cameron has successfully accomplished a way where people can “ opt-in to watch porn on the internet. This plan is expected to be put in motion by late 2014, the plan requires that all new broadband accounts be automatically equipped with family-friendly filters. Access to pornography will be available to people who specifically request it. Inspired by Prime Minister David Cameron, a man in the United States that goes by the initials M.G has started a petition for the same to be done here.

  “We are asking for greater protection and responsibility from Internet Service providers and our country. We are asking that people who are interested in porn should have to seek it and choose it. They should have to "Opt In" for it by making arrangements to receive it with their Internet Service Provider.” says M.G, the petitions author.

    The Prime Minister’s opt - in plan is to police “poisonous” online pornography. The main reason for this plan is to prevent child pornography and extreme images that depict brutality against women. Some people aren’t happy about this, one person from the U.K offered a “better” plan for the Prime Minister suggesting that he should create a filter that automatically blocks nonporongraphic material.

  The U.S. “opt-in” petition has received 4,330 signatures, this is no where near the 100,000 required for the petition to be sent to the White House for consideration.

　

　

YouTube Awards Show Catering to Music Videos

 
On Sunday, YouTube will launch the premiere of their new awards show, the YouTube Music Awards.  The show will bring a new level of interactivity with fans that has been unprecedented before.  While fans have been involved in the voting process through social media before, with such shows as the MTV Video Music Awards and the People's Choice Awards, this show will take things a step closer to viewer control, as the viewers are responsible for the nominees as well.  With statistics being used from video views, Likes, comments and channel subscriptions; the winners will be decided by share counts for the artist's nomination video on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.

The show will also break new ground in being completely aired on YouTube, rather than the traditional television outlets for most awards shows.  It will be truly be a show "for the Internet, influenced by the Internet, and aired on the Internet."  The show is said to have an authentic YouTube video feel of being "messy" and "raw".  There will be musical artists in attendance performing their hits live, as "live music videos" are created during the performances.  Artists set to appear include Eminem, Lady Gaga, and Arcade Fire. 

Since the inception of YouTube and the decline of a presence on MTV, music videos have found a new re-invigoration on the internet video sharing community.  Famed music video director, Spike Jones, serves as director of the awards ceremony, as well as the "live music video" director.  The show will be hosted by musician Reggie Watts and actor Jason Schwartzman and takes place at New York City's Pier 36.  The show is scheduled to commence with a live stream via YouTube at 6pm on Sunday evening.