Project update for Katie C.

I’m using today’s blog post as a way to update my professor on my project.  There was not a space on Moodle to upload a document for our final presentation project update, instead of emailing a document to you, Katie, I utilized my blog.

Where is my project to date:

As of Feb 15 at 11:34 PM I deactivated my Facebook account.  At first I was not very good at updating. I had finals and readings on top of a hectic work schedule and got behind.  I knew I was slowly becoming a blogging failure when I looked at my list of items I wanted to blog about and it was  half a page long with no checkmarks to show the blog was wrote on the topic. This realization that I might be a blogging failure quickly changed my ways.  I now blog daily and have taught myself to post pictures to my blog. Next step is to learn how to import pictures so they are oriented properly on the page. I also am getting more hits with each post. I am tracking where these views come from and will report on this in my final presentation.

Next steps:

I will continue to blog. I am actually learning a lot about how to successfully put my blog “out there.” I am learning this by reading blogs by professional writers and social media experts.   I will also look to find answers on the following questions:

• With Facebook being such a big piece of people’s lives today, will I be considered anti-social for stepping away from it? (no answer on this yet)
• Will people even notice I’m gone? (no answer on this yet)
• What will I miss out on socially? Professionally? (no answer on this yet)
• Is it harder to resist Facebook because it is so readily available in our world (ads, companies, etc all utilize Facebook.) YES! More complete answer in final presentation
• In the end, what will this tell me about the influence of social media on our lives? Is just this one piece influential or is there more to it? Many ideas on this, but still need to organize and come up with what I feel is the appropriate answer.

Changes to the blog

I have changed the settings to this blog. If you comment, I want to know who you are. I want to be able to interact with you.  When you comment anonymously, I can't do that.  Moving forward, I will require you to show who you are when you post. Thank you for understanding!

How to change a negative into a positive

Last Friday I received an email from a good friend inquiring about how I set up my blog. I gave him the quick 30 second overview and he told me he was thinking of starting a blog to chronicle what he was going through now that he quit smoking.  I thought using the Blogger platform for something like this was an awesome idea.  I know the past few months have been hard for him, but taking the time to share what he is going through might help him through this and it might help someone else who is trying to quit smoking. 

Social media sites and blogs are sometimes thought of as a way for corporations to get their "propaganda" out to the world or as a place for individuals to create social spaces and social circles to keep in touch with those in their life.  In this case, my friend is using this medium to share his struggles with the world.  He is taking advantage of the tools in front of him to make it through these (sometimes) difficult times- and I could not be prouder of him. I see how quitting smoking has at times made him moody and sick, but now he has an outlet to share with the world on what he is going through. 

This blog is very transparent and raw. It shows what he has experienced and how he is dealing. It also shows the ugly truth that it is not always easy to quit smoking.  He is taking this negative experience and turning it into a positive experience by sharing this with those around him and not keeping it bottles up inside.  If you get a chance, check his blog out:

Yazzlebeef.blogspot.com

Wow!

I did not know Bruce Willis had a music career!  My opinion...Don Johnson had a better voice and looked better in white pants and a pink shirt! (Google Don and learn about Miami Vice if you are too young to understand!)

FRIDAY!!

Its Friday.  I just realized I have no idea what anyone is doing tonight.  Early morning on Friday as I eat my omelet, I usually scrolll my Facebook feed to see what everyone is doing.  Today there was none of that. OK, I did review my twitter feed, but that doesn't count because no one post plans there.

The plan, unless someone goes old school and calls me or sends me a text, will gladly leave me at home organizing for my move next week.

This leaves me to wonder...if e-vite is still popular or have Facebook invites taken over the world?

1 week Facebook free!

It has been one week since I posted.  I would say this is a blogging fail.  I made it a week without logging into Facebook, but work and school kept me busy and I failed at posting to my blog.  It's no excuse, since I do have the app on my phone to enable me to blog on the go.  This weeks goal is to blog daily.

A quick recap of what I have learned over the past week...

Friday at happy hour I had a weird moment when I looked around and saw people where being social and hanging out with each other, but a good majority had their phones in hand reading Facebook.  To me this was odd. Here people are out being social with their friends, but yet they wanted to be on their Facebook site.  I know Facebook is a place for individuals to be social and interact with their "friends", but was it necessary to be social on Facebook and social in person with your friends all at once???   This also lead me to ask if I did the same thing when I was out. The answer I gave myself was an outstanding "YES."  At least I can admit my short comings.

One thing that was great about Facebook was the access to all  the news organizations I love that where in my feed. I always could jump on my feed and see local news, NPR, NYTimes, CNN, and the others I followed and get a quick update on world happenings.  Being a news junky, I was LOST without my feed, but I found a work around! I began following all my favorites on twitter. Now I have access to all the news I need, when I need it. I will give props to Twitter because I like the ability to click links and go. I often was annoyed with Facebook when I had to allow access to my contact info to read an article.  Most of the time I would not read the article because I did not want to share my personal info with the news agency. 

I also have done a lot more reading of posts by social media bloggers, writers, organization, etc over the last week thanks to Twitter. I actually have learned a lot. Over the next couple days I will share my ideas and thoughts here with what I have been reading.

Social Spaces

When a friend is sick, I like to send get well wishes on FB. I cant do that now.  My work around was using words w friends messenger to tell my friend I was thinking of her.  Its kind of frustrating because it seems to miss that personal connection that you can create in facebook. On the same token, maybe the personal connection is there,  but in a different social space that Im not used to using. Something to ponder.

Day One

My morning ritual is hit the snooze button a million times, check email, and check Facebook- all before I even leave the bed.  Cutting out Facebook is an additional 5-10 minutes of sleep I realized. Major score.

At work I pick up my phone to read updates through out the day and sometimes can lose 15 minutes. Today I was super productive, focused, and got a lot accomplished with very little distraction. Major score because I'm off tomorrow and needed my desk clear.

Usually I turn to FB to complain when I receive crappy service when I'm out.  This might turn into my forum to vent. I roll up to my nail salon in the Waterfront at 530. I was told 15 minutes - fine. 45 minutes later I was still  sitting and waiting. I swear when the owner isn't here, service absolutely stinks. I was livid when a woman came in for the same services and was taken right back and im still waiting. The young girl at the counter was clueless I was still waiting. REALLY? The manicurist figured it out and is fixing the situation.  I must say this leg massage is making life better.

Today I missed FB the most when I was stuck in traffic and couldn't find any info on why the Squirrel Hill tunnels closed during rush hour. I know my feed would have told me what was going on. :(

It's official

I took mobile Facebook off my phone around 6 and deactivated my regular account 30 seconds ago.

I can make it until March 15!

Life without Facebook?

What would life be like without Facebook? I don't even want to think about it.  OK, realistically I know life would go on as it did before, but how will I keep up with all those in my life???????? *sigh*

Let me take a few steps back and explain why I am thinking about Life without Facebook...

I am taking a class on Mass Communication and have a project to present. I pretty much have free reign on what way I want to go with the project. Seeing that I want to spend a good part of my future researching social media and how it impacts our lives and how we can leverage these tools to our benefit, I figured I should do something that relates to that. After throwing a couple ideas around, I stumbled upon an article that discusses how Facebook is addictive like alcohol, cigarettes, and sex. SAY WHAT? (Yes, you read that right.)  I was intrigued enough by this idea that it made me look at my actions and admit I might have a Facebook problem (not as bad as some, but still a problem...) Then I began to think how I can turn this into a project...

My plan is to take myself off of Facebook for 30 days. During these 30 looooonnnnggg days I will use this blog to write about my experience.  This will be my space to put my thoughts and ideas down so I can report out to my class in early April on my experience.  In the coming days I will remove myself from Facebook and remove the app from my phone. At that point my only contact to the outside world will be through channels other than Facebook. If you are my friend reading this, please email me at gmail 'cause I won't be answering anything at Facebook.  I know I will miss out on the events that are going on, but I can think about at least three ways my life will improve without Facebook.

Some may ask why don't I remove myself from all social media sites? I would, but I can't because there are aspects of my classwork that require the use of social media tools to complete assignments.   Seeing that I don't want to fail out of my program, I am starting out seeing what life will be like without Facebook and then will see where this goes. 

My next post will be on the day I remove myself from Facebook.  Until then, happy Facebooking to everyone!