At the beginning of this semester, I didn’t know what to expect from this FYO course. Honestly, I chose this course because all my other ones I wanted to get into were closed. Reflecting back on the semester, I’m glad I ended up taking this course. This course made me consider my media usage, reflect on how much I used media, taught me the different types of media there are and gave me an understanding of the effect media has on my future career.  Media includes a range of things like reading a textbook to getting on Facebook. Before this course, I didn’t realize how much media I used in my daily life because I didn’t consider taking notes in class, or reading a textbook as media. I would just think of media as things that are technologically based, for instance, social media. The thing I will take away from the course is, media is so prevalent in our lives that it can influence your future career.

As a Human Development and Family Sciences major, wanting to pursue a career in Nursing, I haven’t ever thought about how nurses use media. When researching, I found two websites, http://everynurse.org/nurses-using-social-media/, and https://www.ncsbn.org/Social_Media.pdf, that outline how nurses should and should not be using media in their career field.

Nurses can utilize social media by promoting the profession to educate the public. Blogging, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Discussion Groups and RSS Feeds are all social media outlets that allow nurses to educate the public on their profession. Blogging is a way for nurses to become experts on their career by reading input from other bloggers in their career field and expressing their own feelings on their profession. Twitter and Facebook are quick and easy ways for maintaining communication with people. For example, if someone has an emergency question a nurse can quickly respond to help the person in need or if someone has a question about some medicine a nurse can quickly respond. YouTube is a way for the public to better understand the healthcare and their medical needs. Discussion Groups and RSS Feeds are a way for nurses to connect with other nurses to provide support and encouragement to other healthcare professionals. I didn’t realize before that nurses use these social media devices to help educate the public in their career field.

Nurses must be extremely careful when using social media to not violate the laws regarding patient confidentiality and privacy. The website, https://www.ncsbn.org/Social_Media.pdf, briefly explains patient confidentiality and privacy and the consequences when violating the laws. Nurses should only be sharing patient information with the patient and their family and with other health care professions. Nurses shouldn’t use social media to complain about or comment on the health of patients, post photos of patients, rant about place of employment, blow off work related steam or use offensive language. When a nurse complains about a patient that could damage their own character. If a nurse were to complain about their place of employment that would give their place of employment a bad reputation. When using social media, you should always maintain professionalism. Inappropriate use of media can cause the nurse to face disciplinary action by BON (Board of Nursing), which can include reprimand or sanction, fines, or temporary or permanent loss of licensure. Some uses of media can violate the state and federal laws of patient confidentiality and privacy. A way to prevent any nurse from any of the previous consequences would be to not post about a patient on social media or about their place of employment.

Nurses use social media every day to improve their knowledge in their career field and to help educate the public. They must be extremely careful in their profession because violating one law through social media can cause your whole career to be gone. Nursing is a field that uses social media to encourage and support colleagues, and help and educate the public.

After further analyzing my use of media it really shocked me. I haven’t really ever thought of myself as having an addiction to media but after analyzing and putting the information I recorded into a bar graph has me questioning if I’m addicted or not. Like I said in my last post, I’ve never really thought of reading a textbook, taking some notes off a PowerPoint, and doing examples in class as a form of media. I’ve just always thought of media as technology based actions that we take on every day.

After further analyzing my weekday media usage, I realized that during the week on the days I have class I used media the most. Thursday is one of my busiest days and I chose that day because it was the busiest just to see how it would go. I have 3 classes that day and use some form of media in all 3 which has me constantly using media all day. Media forms I used, ranged from checking my email, using eLC to look at grades and so on, reading out of a textbook, taking notes in class, watching videos in class, and checking up on social media. I used lots of media on that day and every day but didn’t realize how much I used till doing this assignment.

After further analyzing my weekend media usage, I realized that when I’m busy with things that don’t involve school work that I don’t use media much. On that Saturday, I went to the football game in Kentucky with my family, so I was just hanging with them. I tried not to be on my phone much because I wanted to spend time with my family. Media I did use included, watching football games on the t.v. and just checking up on my social media every now and then. When I’m bust or with my family I tend to stay off my phone to take in what’s going on around me.

This assignment made me realize I use more media than I think I do. Before this assignment, I just thought using media meant, using social media sites on your phone, watching Netflix, listening to music, just watching tv, or using your computer for email or something. I use more media when I’m doing school work than I do any other time.  I’m constantly using media in my day to day life and not even realizing it.

After logging my media use, I realized that I just use Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram when I’m bored. I logged Thursday and Saturday which are two days that were completely different for me. Thursday’s are always long for me because I have 3 classes. Saturday, I went to the football game in Kentucky. So the two days I chose to log were a lot different from each other.

Thursday I had 3 classes, Government, Psychology, and Math. I’m so rushed in the mornings because I’m not really a morning person and don’t have time to check my social media accounts so I usually check them once I get to class. During class, I used my email, and eLC. In government, my professor uses a PowerPoint to lecture from. I took my notes the night before so that in class I can follow along and pay attention to what the professor was saying. I used my laptop in class to follow along on the PowerPoint. I had also during that time accessed Excel to calculate a grade for a class. In Psychology, I took notes by hand on the lecture. We watched several videos in class that were related to the lecture. We also used this website called menti.com to do like a polling thing that had a few questions on it. On Thursday, I also read some of a chapter out of my government book and listened to my music while reading.  In Math, I had already taken the notes for class. While in class, I listened to lecture and did the examples in my notes throughout class. Throughout the day, I periodically checked my Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook. It would only be for a few minutes or when I was bored.

Saturday was a lot different than Thursday. It was a busy day so I wasn’t really on social media that much. I checked my accounts when I got up to see what went on and see if I had any notifications. My parents had the T.V. on in the hotel room while I was getting ready. We tailgated with some of our friends and while doing that I checked social media a lot because I was bored majority of that time. While tailgating, we watched some football games on T.V. While at the game, I couldn’t access my social media accounts because there wasn’t any service in the stadium so I tried to post pictures to Snapchat but nothing would load. There were videos and music played while at the game.

From logging my media usage, it really shocked me. I realized that when I’m busy I try not to check my social media. I normally check it when I’m bored. Before this assignment, I guess I didn’t realize that things like, taking notes in class, reading out of a textbook, watching videos or listening to music was really consider media. So really, I’m constantly using media but didn’t realize it till now.

Each article presented strategies to audit your personal brand, some in the same way but some had different strategies. I thought it was very interesting that they all said go type your name in Google and see what pops up. I did that and the first three things that popped up were my Facebook page, my Vine account, and a Prezi presentation that I once created in high school. I then clicked on images and none of the images were of me, they were all of Simone Biles, the U.S. Olympic Gymnast.

Referring to the article, “A Painless Way to Do a Personal Social Media Audit,” the author asked “Do you collect social media and networking accounts?” I had to stop and think because there are some accounts that I have that I haven’t used in a very long time. They are just sitting around and nothing is happening on them because I don’t use them. Going back to the Google search and my Vine account popping up, I can’t tell you the last time I got on Vine which means I could probably delete it. I guess Twitter could be one that I don’t keep up with either because I rarely get on it. On Twitter there is just too much going on and people are always tweeting so I’m never up to date. Skype is something else I have an account for and haven’t used it in years, don’t even think I know my account information anymore. Pinterest, I don’t usually get on it unless I’m really bored or need like a cute idea for something.

I’m very careful with what I post on social media. I know that there’s someone always watching the account or looking at it. I don’t want people to think differently of me because of what I post on social media so I don’t give them a reason to. The impressions someone would get about me from my social media account would be that, I love kids, have a passion to serve and go on mission trips, love my family, and love the Georgia Bulldogs. I don’t have anything to hide on my social media accounts. I don’t think I need to make changes but I could possibly delete my Vine account because I will most likely never use it again. I would say my social media is accurate about my life.

After reading this article, I’ve become aware of the negative effects social media has on our daily lives. Social media has negative effects even if you don’t think so.

Social media has negative effects on us in some aspect even if you don’t think so. You may not get as many likes on Instagram and it could make you feel like you aren’t good enough. You may not get enough retweets that could make you feel like you are socially inadequate. On Snapchat, you are more likely to see more inappropriate posts because they are on there for a such a short period of time. Social media leads to bullying which can really cause negative effects on someone.

Social media can easily drag you down by making you think you aren’t good enough, you aren’t pretty enough, and you aren’t social enough. It leads to eating disorders because social media platforms are promoting a body image they seem is acceptable when in God’s eyes you are wonderfully made. Snapchat is not my most used social media platform. I don’t use it to snap my friends, I just use it to post to my story. “Snapstreaks” can show favoritism towards your friends. It can show unhealthy relationship with friends. Snapchat can make one feel like they are being left out when seeing a story or something.

Social media hinders people from spending time with others in person. People now a days tend to build relationships through social media rather than actually spending time together. Social media has lots of negative effects on people and sometimes we don’t even realize it.

I decided to interview my Godfather for this assignment. I knew that coming into the interview he didn’t really use social media in the way that I do. My Godfather, Scott, is a Technology Executive who runs a consulting firm filled with computer engineers, but immediately pointed out to me that he doesn’t have a Facebook account. Instead he relies greatly on a social media platform that I have never even heard of called “Linked In.”

Scott pointed out that he was able to use LinkedIn every day in his work in several ways. In preparing for meetings, he will often “connect” with the people he is meeting with or simply search their profiles to understand more about their background, and the background of the company that he is meeting with. He also pointed out that if there are particular skills that he is looking to recruit, he can find those online and reach out to people in the Atlanta-metro area. Scott noted that he is relatively protective of his list of connections, and only chooses to accept invitations from people with whom he has a personal relationship, but other than that was not too concerned with security. LinkedIn also allows him to join professional groups, and select favorite content that he says are “curated for his own professional interest.”

I’ve never used LinkedIn like my godfather uses it in his everyday life. I do find that I use Facebook very often. I feel like I check that the most because my friends on there come from everywhere so I like to keep in contact with them and see how they are doing on a daily basis.

A funny note to this interview is that as we were talking, his wife (Rhonda) pointed out that in fact he does have access to Facebook, and has been known to “stalk” her account at least once per week.

During the interview, I learned several differences in how I use social media and how my godfather does…

It’s rare in this day and age to see someone who doesn’t use social media. I know kids who are under 10 that use social media which absolutely blows my mind. I’ve always been one to have all the social media sites. I’m a nosy person and like to know what is going in. I use social media to keep up with everyone I know, especially if I don’t see them all the time.

The first social media that I got was Facebook, I don’t really remember when that was though. After a while though, I stopped using it, I guess because it wasn’t cool at that point in time and then I started using it again a few years ago. I feel like I use Facebook more than I use any other type of social media. I occasionally get on snapchat just to see what people are doing and sometimes I post stuff but it’s mostly when I’m at an event or something. I used to get on Twitter all the time but now I don’t ever get on it. There’s so much to look at on Twitter, that’s too much for me. Instagram is something I do try to keep up with because people are always posting on there. I guess I post often on Instagram but I’m not excessive about it. I don’t ever post two pictures in one day that drives me crazy. I just mainly use social media to keep up with people that I don’t see every day.

I think some people still use social media as a form of communicating but some don’t. Some people use it to see how many “streaks,” “likes,” “retweets,” and “followers” they can get on their form of social media. I’ve seen people who have used it and to me it comes across as fake and I know it is fake because I know that person. People are portrayed differently on social media than they are in real life.

Media Ecology is the study of media as environments. During this day and time media plays a huge role in our everyday lives. The media ecology of my high school differs a little from the media ecology here at UGA. A few of my teachers in high school didn’t care if we used our phones in class but others took it very seriously. My high school didn’t really have a need for us to use laptops in the classroom unless there was a paper or project or something that we would use our laptops for. But other than that we just took handwritten notes at my high school.

The “tech” guy at my high school was crazy. Our administration were completely against cell phone use in the classroom and they were serious about it. Towards the end of my senior year they blocked Facebook, if you were using the school Wi-Fi, which you had to because otherwise you couldn’t access anything because there was no service in the building. One day, I was sitting in class and I heard this noise coming from the hallway that sounded like a metal detector. I figured out that our “tech” guy was walking up and down the hallway using his cell phone to see if there were cell phones being used in the classroom. And if cell phones were being used the sound went off. My high school took cell phone use very seriously.

Teaching strategies at my high school and here at UGA are similar. In high school, most of my teachers taught using a PowerPoint. Here at UGA, all of my professors teach using a PowerPoint and some make it accessible through eLC for studying purposes before and after class. Which I believe I learn better that way anyway. All of my professors at UGA allow students to use their laptops in class. At my high school it wasn’t allowed in most classes. Forms of communication differed a little in high school than they do in college but there was a similar thing used.  In high school, I had several teachers who used the Remind1o1 app to send out like assignment, and test reminders. That app was only a one-way communication system though, as a student I couldn’t respond. At my high school, we did have a thing we used called Renweb, where we could access assignment due dates, tests, and our grades. This is similar to eLC. At UGA, professors use eLC to communicate with us on assignments, email and tests. The media ecology in some way differ for me from high school to college on the subject of laptop usage and phone usage in the classroom but other than that they are similar.

Before coming to college, I didn’t really use email that much. I would just much rather text and call than email someone. But now that’s the way I communicate with my professors. I don’t think that emails will ever become a legacy media because it is used as a professional way to communicate through a business, school system, universities and much more.

Emailing a professor is way more professional than sending them a text. Students today, like to communicate through texting, Facebook, Twitter and other things that are informal and are personal ways of communication. I think universities are so email-crazy because it’s a formal way of communication. I think they haven’t embraced things the that students like to use to communicate to others because those are informal personal ways of communication and it would be weird, to me personally to text a professor. Since students don’t use email that often I feel like some people may not approach an email in a formal/professional way and would just approach it like they are communicating to a friend through texting or Facebook. That could then offend or come across rude the professor and he may not even want to respond to your email.

At first when I got to college, I didn’t really know email etiquette and I would have to ask people to read my emails to make sure it didn’t come across wrong or I wasn’t going to offend the professor or the person I was emailing. After reading the article, I realized that I wasn’t putting the “Element #4,” the author was talking about to make the professor feel like he does have some life outside of being a professor. Starting the email off with something like, “I hope you are having a great weekend!” to me sounds like you care for the professor/class. So now I will implement that  into my emails. Since I have this resource for email etiquette, I will most likely refer to it from now on.

How to Email Your Professor (without being annoying)**

Every semester, I see the tweets and Facebook posts. My professor friends, they are annoyed. Their students do not know how to write emails, they say. What they really mean is that their students…