Final Post & Reflection

This semester in Digital Writing for Social Action, we have covered a number of topics that have helped me to expand my story writing skills, blog writing and organization, analyzing publications and stories, and so much more. I have been lucky enough to learn a lot more about the online media industry and advertising industry through my research for blog posts, which has been a great experience as well. We also had a few lessons in class that have really stuck with me in particular throughout the semester. One of the lessons was a Ted Talk about how the internet and social media is impacting the minds and social lives of young kids in elementary, middle, and high school. This one particularly fascinated me because it ties into what I spoke a lot about in my blog posts, which is how “Web 2.0” is having a major impact on the lives of people who use it for social and entertainment purposes. A lot of what I chose to talk about in my blog posts this semester were similar to these topics with blog posts like “Screens and Self Esteem” where I talk about how the world of online influencers, there are “beauty influencers” who’s followings are mostly on platforms like TikTok and Instagram, where they show off outfits, makeup looks, and gym posts with edited photos that create an unrealistic representation for young adults to strive to achieve. Another one of my favorite blog posts that I wrote this year is one where I talk about the use of online media for the personal gain of companies and organizations was titled “The Deceitful World of Influencer Marketing on Social Media”. This post was meant to emphasize how there are companies out there right now preying on the youth around the world and the fact that they are very impressionable to get influencers to promote their products that they know the young followers will buy every time.

I am very glad that I have had the opportunity in this class to be able to explore more about a topic which had been interesting to me for a long time, and fully dive into the topic head first and have the opportunity to talk about a new area on it every week. Our class discussions and my own personal research have introduced me to what is now referred to as “Web 2.0” as I mentioned earlier. This refers to what we recognize the internet to be now in comparison to 20 years ago, before the formation of online social media platforms. With the introduction of these social media platforms, they have fully shifted the way we talk, see, and interact with one another on a daily basis. I, along with a large portion of people in the world, would not know what to do if we didn’t have our phones suddenly. Communication would instantly become more difficult, as we would have to meet with someone in person or write them a letter to get in touch. This emphasizes the reliance that we have on each of our phones and how they have been developed in a way to keep us locked into them and to rely on them as much as possible. The entire world is available at our fingertips with phones now, considering you literally do not have to leave the house at all if you don’t want to. Food, groceries, first aid supplies, or anything else you can imagine can all be accessed through our devices, which I imagine would have been pretty mind-blowing twenty to thirty years ago.

During this semester, I have learned a lot through our course topics as well. We were able to go over a number of different areas of online writing, fact checking strategies, and other important aspects of online life like echo chambers and ways in which we can improve our own digital literacy. One of the main things that stood out to me throughout this semester was the concept of the attention economy that we are living in now. The attention economy refers to the fact that to make sales and to get attention for your brand, you must be able to grab the attention of the people you are advertising to be able to make sales in broad terms. Over the last 10–20 years, user generated content has taken over the internet in a way that most social media users are consuming the content so rapidly and companies have shifted to trying to purchase this attention from these influencers. They have started to use this attention as a way to sell their products to the younger audience as I mentioned earlier. These companies and corporations know very well that when they have a popular influencer promoting for them, they can attract their prime demographic which consists of a young audience around the ages of 12–18 which is the impressionable demographic they are looking for. They are able to advertise to them in ways that the users don’t fully understand what’s being advertised, and sometimes aren’t able to tell when they are being advertised to which can be harmful to these young adults. There is a celebrity involved in music named DJ Khaled, who in recent years, has been known to promote vaping products like vaporizers, Juuls, and other nicotine and THC products. While to him this is just a simple brand deal where he will make money on his end for promoting the products, he doesn’t seem to realize the large portion of his audience that are children and shouldn’t be shown ads that have anything to do with nicotine, THC, or vaping products. This is one of many examples where influencers have promoted products where they don’t consider the influence that they have or the damage that they can cause to their young audiences. This has come as an impact to the new shift we have seen through the internet. Since the influx of online media, these companies have been taking what some might consider an unethical advantage of it, but there are no laws in place at the moment to prevent this type of predatory advertising. This is what makes the media landscape we are all experiencing right now on the internet such a dangerous one.

While I did enjoy doing my research on the different areas of influencer media and different forms of online marketing, there were weeks when I chose to write about a few other topics that I found interesting like the blog post I did about podcasting or the one post I made about fishing tips that I’ve learned over the years. In the podcasting blog I titled “My Experience with Podcasting”, I took some time to talk about the podcasting class I took, where I learned about different types of ads that can be made during podcasts, like prerolls, midrolls, and postrolls, which mainly refer to when the ad plays throughout the podcast. Also about different strategies for keeping listeners locked in with things like segments that are repeated every time the podcast is recorded, or things like bringing on a guest so that there are more people to bounce ideas and conversation off of. With the fishing podcast, I spent some time putting together some of my favorite fishing tips that I have learned over the years so that I could help others who may be struggling to catch fish. One of the tips I talk about in this blog is how it is important to pay attention to bass behavior, especially depending on the season. Fish can be very particular about if they are going to bite or not, depending on what time of year it is. If it’s colder outside, the bite can be a bit slower since they aren’t as active going into, during, or coming out of the winter. I am very thankful that I have had this opportunity throughout the semester to explore and share different areas of my interests through my blog posts this semester, and I may continue to keep writing on this blog past my time in this class.

I am very appreciative of this course and Dr. Richard for helping me learn a lot more about the internet that I have been using my whole life. From things like the SIFT method, the declining amount of truth and honesty online, echo chambers, and one of the most valuable skills in my opinion that we learned this semester, pitching to a publication and opening the dialogue to get my work put in an online publication. These valuable skills are skills that I’m going to carry with me for a long time and I am very appreciative of Dr. Richard for helping me to learn these strategies that will be useful to me in business and in my day to day life. This semester has turned me into a better writer throughout and I would suggest the course to anyone looking to do the same thing.