This Post Does Not Contain Rick Astley

In the last few classes, a new word has been introduced to many people: trolling. The definition that we were given in class was that a troll is basically someone who is a part of social media but does not outwardly use it, preferring to watch instead of participate. Now, when I heard this definition, this was my main reaction: 

Inconceivable!

As someone who admittedly spends a lot of time on the Internet, trolling means something fairly different to me. To borrow a definition from Urban Dictionary: 

Trolling is trying to get a rise out of someone. Forcing them to respond to you, either through wise-crackery, posting incorrect information, asking blatantly stupid questions, or other foolishness. However, trolling statements are never true or are ever meant to be construed as such. Nearly all trolled statements are meant to be funny to some people, so it does have some social/entertainment value.

(Wikipedia also has a fairly good definition of trolling.) The definition that we had been presented in class is something I would apply more to the word "lurking," where the only use you get out of the Internet is watching but not contributing. Lurking can be really good - in fact, lurking on a website such as Reddit, which is a social news website, is very helpful because it's a good way to learn how to be a part of the community before jumping in.

Trolling, on the other hand, is not something that people should really do. It's a good joke on occasion, sure, around friends or people that you know will understand what you mean. In fact, this is probably my favorite example of trolling. But it can certainly go too far, and often it does. Trolls set out to frustrate people, to wind them up, and people who don't realize that they're getting trolled and think they are trying to reason with an impossibly unreasonable person will ultimately probably get angry, which is what the troll wanted in the first place. 

So: Lurking? Good, especially in a new community. Trolling? Not nice.

One more thing on the topic of trolling: the infamous "troll face." Often, this face appears after a troll has revealed themselves as such. This face is basically another way of say "Ha! Got you!" It's part of a much larger set of memes online, though this is arguably the most common one. So if you see this face, you should know that you've been had.

Neener-neener.

So just be careful about what you read on the Internet, because here pranking isn't just for April Fools' Day (though the Internet on April Fools' Day is a glorious place). And I wouldn't advise saying that "oh yeah, I've just been trolling the Internet" unless you mean that you just spent your time baiting people.

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Listening to: Red by Taylor Swift
Exams/Papers So Far: 3/3
Last Movie Watched: 21 Jump Street

Don't Be Afraid of Social Media

In reading Organizations Don't Tweet, People Do (or at least the first half of it), I've come to realize that there are a few simple themes that simply keep repeating:

1. Yeah, the Internet is new - it's cool, don't be afraid to use it
2. Sure, some people are still scared, but teach them and they'll see
3. Don't be afraid to develop your voice and get your voice out there
4. It's a time for learning but don't be afraid to learn
5. Be careful about what you say - use your voice but exercise it carefully

There's a lot more in the book than just that, but those are some things that I've been prominently noticing. Because this is a time where social media is pretty freaking important, and to ignore it would actually be a shame. But just using it isn't everything, it's also important to learn how to use it properly so not only you can create a voice for yourself (point 3!) but also be able to use your voice to spread information to other people. 

I like a lot of what the author, Euan Semple, says throughout the novel. There are certainly a lot of good ideas at hand here, learning how to be yourself on the Internet while also propagating ideas for organizations and just larger ideas at large in general. There's still a lot to learn in terms of how people interact online, and that'll keep changing as more and more people start learning and social media keeps expanding. 

I'm excited to keep reading this book - while I've been a personal consumer of a lot of this media for (what I would consider) a while now, I'm excited to learn about it from not a consumer but more of a producer's point of view.

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Listening to: what sounds like somebody hacking up a lung
Exams/Papers So Far: 2/2
Last Movie Watched: Spirited Away

Twitter for Others

It was interesting reading other people's views on what their Twitter feeds are like. No two Twitter feeds are ever going to be exactly the same, unless of course two people follow the exact same people on Twitter with no differences (and that would never happen unless it happened on purpose, which would be weird).

Of course, the big common mix is following friends from back home and following news sources. One interesting point though that Julia made was that even though we may follow a lot of variety, there are plenty of tweets that we don't really pay attention to. Yeah, there are some celebrities that sometimes I just don't care about at a certain moment, and a lot of articles that I get linked to I don't feel like reading. But at the same time without following those accounts at all I wouldn't see anything at all, and sometimes those articles are worth reading and knowing random updates about a celebrities life can be interesting.

I think it's all about the balance of Twitter - as someone else said (I can't remember who, sorry!) after following a certain amount of people, there's a point in which you have to decide: do you spend your life constantly checking up on Twitter, or do you just accept the fact that there are tweets that you will miss? I used to be the kind of a person where I would spend at least an hour a day going through all of the tweets that I had missed (long before I had a smartphone), but I just can't handle that anymore and so I accept that yes, there will be things on Twitter that I'll miss, but there are lots of good things on Twitter that I still see. Twitter is what you make of it.
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Listening to: Live While We're Young by One Direction
Exams/Papers So Far: 1/2
Last Movie Watched: Cabin in the Woods

My Twitter Feed

That is a screenshot of what my Twitter feed looks like at this exact second (though I apologize for the small size - bigger sizes don't seem to fit on my blog. It's a decent representation - you've got your Lehigh news, webseries, two "news" sites (one for fan news and one that's fake news), celebrities, and companies that I'm a fan of. I'd say it's a decently accurate representation of my Twitter feed normally.

Of course, that's not everyone I follow on Twitter. In reality, a decent chuck of the people that I follow are people that I (sort of) know in real life - mainly friends that I've met at conferences, and this my way of keeping up to date with them because the only time I ever see them in person is at said conferences. There's also a large amount of Youtubers and online content creators ("online celebrities") from the online community I mentioned in my last blog post. A few Lehigh sources, because it's a good way to see what's going on on campus, a few general news sources just to keep myself up to date (though honestly, if there is some kind of breaking news I'll just check the trending topics for the quickest news link, if I don't just try Google), and organizations/companies that I'm a fan of.

I think that I have a really interesting mix on my Twitter feed, at least for me. Besides following online content creators, I also follow a decent number of young adult authors. This mix is great for me because not only am I fan of these peoples work, but these are also the two fields that I want to go into: young adult writing and social media. (Not necessarily together, but the former cannot be done without the latter anymore anyway.) Twitter helps me keep up with the publishing industry and the social media industry, and I feel like I am a part of the constantly changing Internet. It's the perfect way for me to learn all about what I want to keep doing with the rest of my life.

I'm still constantly changing my Twitter feed - some people (like Dominic Monaghan) tweet entirely way too often for me to care, and there are always new people and organizations to find and follow. I love being a part of this constantly expanding worldview, and Twitter has definitely been an awesome tool for me these last few years.

--
Listening to: Into The Sunshine by Julia Nunes
Exams/Papers So Far: 1/2
Last Movie Watched: Spirited Away

I Love Online Communities

I'm going to try and prevent this from getting too long, because I can honestly talk about online communities for hours. There is an absolute beauty in online communities that can be a little hard to see from the outside, but when you're a part of one it can be the best feeling in the world. I became a part of one (or two, sort of - there's a lot of overlap. I can count myself as part of either one community or about twenty. It depends how specific you feel like getting) at the beginning of high school, so I did what I count as the most important part of my growing up with it. Or something like that. [Note: This is potentially about to get very nerdy. I apologize in advance.]

I See What You Mean

While I have my own opinions on Facebook and Twitter, it is always interesting to get someone else's perspective and to see how other people use the same sites I do in different ways. There were certainly a lot of common opinions - using Facebook to share pictures and to talk to your friends, while using Twitter for the news. One point that I really liked was made by Julia, where she pointed out that Twitter prevents her from getting completely stuck in the campus bubble that I know I get trapped in when back on campus. With Facebook, it's entirely possible to just be trapped in a continuous loop of a college campus, while Twitter can bring you back into the real world.

I think all of us have a lot to learn about the worlds of Facebook and Twitter. Sure, everyone has different levels of experience with the sites, and some are way ahead of others, but it is definitely going to be a group learning experience throughout this semester. I know I'm very comfortable with using these sites for myself, but I'm definitely still hesitant for running a page for some larger organization. I've been slowly getting practice (though not with either Twitter or Facebook, but Tumblr) of running a page for an organization, and I know I can't wait to keep learning more about this emerging industry. 

The Ultimate Social Media Clash

If there are two social media networks that people in this world know, it's Facebook and Twitter. So of course there are people that are constantly comparing the two against each other - which is entirely acceptable, of course, and yeah I have some opinions of my own. I've been on Facebook since October of '07 and Twitter since January of '09, so I can tell you that I at least have some experience with both sites as a consumer. I've had the opportunity to watch both sides grow in terms of business to customer relations - a few years ago, it would've been weird to be so actively marketed against on Facebook, but now none of us blink an eye. Ads are everywhere, and we just can't help it. (Use adblock all you want, but all it'll do is minimize the outward spam.)

I really like both sites, though for different reasons. I can't tell you why I initially joined Twitter - I don't remember - but I do know that a few months after I joined Twitter a lot of people in the online community that I was a part of joined it too. And suddenly participating went from being one of thousands of viewers on Youtube to being able to interact more directly with these people. It brought them down to an even level, instead of placing them on a pedestal. And yes, as the sites have gained more popularity and numbers of followers have grown, it's been a little harder to connect to people again, but at the same time it isn't. Companies have been able to connect to their customers even more know, and it's great. (Sure, I may never be able to talk to Ashton Kutcher even though he doesn't have more followers than anyone in the world anymore, but that's not the point.) The amount of direct customer interaction is... nice. It's really nice to be able to know that there's a person sitting on the other side of the Internet and they're meant just to talk to you. I do feel like customer interaction can be better/more direct on Twitter than it is on Facebook, though it does depend on the company. Twitter you can talk directly to the company, while on Facebook I feel like your comment will just get lost in a sea of other comments.

I do use both sites to connect with my friends, especially friends that I've met at conferences or haven't seen since high school. But I can tell you that while my interactions with my high school friends are mostly on Facebook (out of the two sites I'm discussing here), my interactions with my online friends are mostly on Twitter. And I know that I'm a hundred times more inclined to use Twitter to ramble about whatever I happen to be doing at the moment than being that person that posts a Facebook status every few hours (or even more often). The online world has been adapting to Twitter much better, and with our world so quickly growing into something that can't exist without the Internet, I think it's important to adapt to the way of life online. Facebook is great, but Twitter is better (at least for this).

How to Forget About a Blog... or, Settling into a New Routine

How many people can say that they've started to keep a diary or something similar, gotten three pages in, and then completely forgot about it? I know I'm definitely guilty of doing that many times, not only with diaries but also with blogs and such. But I've been getting better! Over the last eight months I've successfully kept a journal (that I write in every night, give or take a few days). What's the trick? All I had to do to get myself to write in my journal every night was to settle into the routine of it, and now the only time I can go to bed without doing it is if I'm so tired I actually can't think straight.

So I promise not to abandon this blog like I have many before it - I just have to settle into a routine. Over the last few weeks of the summer, between coming home and going back to school, creating a new routine for a short period of time was hard. But now that I'm back at school, I just need to set myself a time once a week where I'll sit down and tell myself "this is blog writing time." Settling into a routine is good for other things besides blog writing. I'm not a morning person, but I've been getting up at 7:30 every morning just because it makes things easier (even though my earliest class is at 9:20). That way I have time to pull myself out of bed, enjoy breakfast, and get ready for my day. On days when I have a later class, I've been going to the gym. All I had to do was find the time in my schedule to do it and stick to it.

Of course, settling into a new routine takes time. Though I've been good about it for the last four days, I still wouldn't call it something that I can do regularly. Honestly, I've never really been a morning person, and if you had told me to get up every morning at 7:30 last semester I would've laughed (and promptly gone back to sleep). But now I'm not rushing to get ready for class, and even though yes, I have to go to bed earlier, it's nice to have my mornings mapped out. And maybe by October this schedule will be second nature. (The only thing that Google was useful for in telling me about how long it takes for a habit to form is that no one knows really knows how long it takes. Thanks.)

Sure, there's something wonderful about being spontaneous, but that's what the weekends are for.

Being Displaced

What's one easy way for me to tell that I'm growing older? I actually get homesick now.

Ever since I was born, (with the exception, for the most part, of the summer after I graduated from high school) I have not spent a single summer at home. Every summer from the age of seven until I was seventeen, I have gone to at least one summer camp, if not two. The other parts of the summer were spent either travelling or at the home my grandparents would rent for the summer in the Poconos. I was home maybe for two weeks after school let out and two weeks before school started again.

And you know what? I loved it. I loved not being home for the summer - sure, as I grew older, I was upset about not seeing my friends, but I grew used to it and accepted that I would spend the summer away while they all got to stay home and enjoy each other's company without the pressure of schoolwork. I loved being able to do and learn new things at summer camp, see new places, go swimming, and not be stuck in a house in the suburbs with absolutely nothing to do. At least I could be stuck with nothing to do in the Poconos, where there was a lake. I needed time away from the suburbs so that by the time summer was finally over, I didn't mind being there so much.

But now that I've gone off to college, I don't live at home for ten straight months. And while at college I have enough to keep me busy that I don't often miss home, spending the majority of my summer an ocean away hits a little hard sometimes. I wouldn't trade my experiences studying abroad for the summer for the world, but sometimes it hits me that I miss home. I miss my friends that I left behind, I miss my dog, and I miss not having to worry about the fact that everything is slightly more expensive since it's in Euros. I even feel a little displaced, because I don't really have a permanent home right now, especially since my parents have moved. I have my parents' house and my dorm room, but my parents' house is no longer the house I grew up in and my dorm room is only stable for a school year, before I move out again.

I'll admit I think too much about my life objectively, where I'm living and how it pertains to how I feel at the current moment, but it was nice being a kid. Being so glad to be out of the house for two months and not missing a single moment of it. Now I kind of wish I had a stable home that I knew I would be coming back to. I guess now that I'm growing up I just have to make my own home.

Living Abroad

For the last six weeks, I have been living in Galway, Ireland. It's an absolutely amazing experience to live in a different country - to experience the different culture, traditions, music, and languages. But at the same time there's something really plain about the whole situation. Yes, it's not America, and in some way the differences are obvious, but in a lot of ways after a while it doesn't even matter anymore. Whether I was living in Galway or New York City or any other city, there's something inherently similar about all of these places after a while.

It may be the process of settling into a routine. Sure, on the weekends my friends and I will go sightseeing or to the museum, and experience the local pubs. We'll go do touristy things, and it's a lot of fun. But during the week, life is a little more routine. We go to class, we go to our internships, we work, come home, make dinner, and work some more or just relax at home. It's the kind of routine I could have no matter where I'd be studying. Sure, it's not like that every night, but a lot of the times it just isn't feasible to go to a pub or stay out too long when you have a 9 am class the next morning.

There's nothing wrong with settling into a routine - it's comforting, predictable. But it's not exciting, and some days I feel like I should be out in the city, doing something reckless and unpredictable, even though I would definitely regret it come morning. I would not pass up the experience of living abroad for the world, but living in a city is not quite the same as if I had found myself in the middle of rural Ireland, having to help farm every day and being truly disconnected from the world. The best way to experience new things is to jump completely out of your comfort zone, but that's so difficult to do that it's easier to have a more passive exploration, with some comforts that never really change. 

Let me take another shot at this...

In an effort to spread myself as far and wide across the Internet as possible (because why not?), I'm taking another shot at having a normal, proper blog. One not alternating text with random quotes and images, as my Tumblr does, but just a straight up text-based blog (for the most part), just with my thoughts.

What will I write here? I'm not sure yet. Considering that I write several times a day (between various social networks and private journals), I'm not sure how copious this'll be. But I sincerely hope that you'll find this entertaining and decide to stick around, maybe take a chance with what I've got to say.

Also, intro posts are always annoying to write. You're here! Hello! I hope you stick around, but I completely understand if you don't. I'm in a million other places as well, so I'm sure we'll meet on the web in one way or another. Thanks for reading!