Growing up I have always been fascinated by the business world and specifically the free market economical concept. I would often times trade specific items during lunch in elementary school, and try to sell sports equipment online in middle school. As I matured into high school, I began to have entrepreneurial endeavors. I was not old enough to have my own job, or official business, but I was old enough to do some unofficial business. I saved up money in 9th grade, and bought a power washer to begin a power washing business. My simple business plan consisted of having my dad drive me around in his truck with the power washer in the back. I formulated flyers, that I stuck in everyone’s mailboxes in mine and surrounding neighborhoods. I also sent out mass text messages to neighbors offering my service. This method was widely successful.  After a few years of doing this, my business expanded, and I was washing a driveway just about every day. Who knew I would have been using media to expand a brand in my high school days. Running this miniature mock business combined with a love for exploring has inspired me to declare International Business as my major.

After doing some research on media branding and social media efficiency in the International Business world, I discovered that social media is essential in the business world, regardless of the size or expansion of a business. This site was useful in my discoveries: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/role-social-media-international-branding-68363.html

Businesses around the globe in today’s age can communicate with potential customers with the click of a mouse or the tap of a finger via the internet and social media. Platforms such as Instagram, Google, and LinkedIn allow business to expand their brands in ways never known before. They can cross all sorts of cultural barriers with these mediums. Culture is much less evident on the internet and through media. Language barriers can also be bridged. Technology often allows words to be automatically translated, which in turn widens the scope of a potential social media campaign for a business. In terms of small business, they often times begin on a domestic level. This allows the business model to mature and grow before it takes on the tenure of an International plan. Social Media trends and tendencies are located, and the business has a more well rounded plan of how to tackle their target market.

Overall, social media can be used for a vast array of reasons by a wide spread of people. This ranges from aspiring kids looking to make money, all the way to International corporations looking for profit. This fact will only accelerate as the world modernizes and relies more and more on media to stimulate economies.

Through this social media audit, I could instantly see the trends and issues with my social media usage. I visually see the amount of class time and study time that I had wasted. It was most apparent on Friday. I woke up and instantly was on my phone, an obvious bad habit. I would lay in bed on my phone for a while and then go to shower. This immediately starts off my day in a negative manner and is a form of habitual procrastination. I can see that I spent almost 1/3 of my time in class on Friday browsing through my phone for various forms of social media. I certainly did not gain anything from this action; I only lost some notes and words of my professors. Throughout the day, I wasted more time by watching Netflix instead of being productive and studying. Throughout the day I was just generally on my phone and paying attention to media more than I realized. When I went to the gym I was listening to Spotify the entire time, while not entirely distracting, it certainly isn’t healthy. After this I procrastinated more homework late into the night by being on my phone and playing Xbox. This prompted me to turn off my phone and I actually got work done efficiently.

Saturday, I woke up at 1 and was instantly on my phone. I was essentially trying to catch up on the events that I missed in the Social Media realm the night before and that morning. This, I have classified as a form of FOMO, where I actually felt like reading or seeing something on Social Media could make me feel better about missing it in real time. I moved on to play Tennis during the day and was not on my phone or engaging in media very much. Afterwords I played Xbox with some friends, which counts as a form of media. That night at dinner I noticed me and all of my friends I was eating with constantly were checking our phones instead of actually having a good conversation. Then we watched the UGA football game and all were at various points on our phones texting or sending snapchats. The game was a form of media as well. I noticed that this was hours on end of being associated with a form of media. Then that night I spent some time texting while hanging with friends and before bed. Overall a lot of social media usage this day.

Using the double line graph, I was easily able to see the similarities between my social media usage on a Friday and on a Saturday. This was very surprising to me. Even though I woke up much later on the Saturday, the chart still shows how similar the trajectories were of my usage. The trend for both was a lot of social media in the morning, followed by a slight down tick. In the afternoon before dinner I found myself engaged in many other forms of media such as Xbox and Spotify. During and after dinner my usage declined somewhat, but not to ideal levels by any means. Then at night while hanging with friends, or trying to get homework done, I noticed that my overall media usage was enormous. I realized just how much genuine time I had missed out on by being obsessed with social media. Before bed I also noticed the trend of being on my phone instead of trying to fall asleep. Overall, these two days opened my eyes to how much time I waste by being engaged in Social Media.

This prompted me to make a change. On this past Tuesday I turned my phone off and left it in my bookbag. I was instantly so much more productive in class than when my phone was on. I was more socially inclined in between classes and also motivated to get homework done. I hardly procrastinated either. Of course, when I turned it back on at night, I was instantly trying to relive the day. This opened my eyes to how much of a temptation our phones actually are. Perhaps in the future I will be able to be more conscious of my social media habits as a result of this audit.

This media probe brought about some unexpected realizations about my media habits, specifically on social media. I logged usage on Friday the 4th and Saturday the 5th.

My Friday’s are rather uneventful days, as I only have one class beginning at 10:10. I wake up around 9 and browse through all of my social media(Snapchat, text, Bleacher Report, News, Groupme, Instagram). All of this is out of procrastination of the day and my lack of energy to get out of bed. While showering I listened to music through spotify as I usually do. On the way to class I am texting and listening to music. During class I occasionally check messages and emails as my class is a lecture class and being on my phone is not noticeably bad. However, this particular econ class prohibits the use of computers. This forces me to take notes with pen and paper which is not foreign to me. After class I went back to my rooms and actually took a 4 hour nap. Dazed and confused when I awoke, I checked just about every form of social media. I noticed that I wasn’t actually interested or even procrastinating anything, but I was actually curious and almost nervous to see if I had missed out on something in the electronic world while asleep. I move on with the day and Facetime my mom. After, I go to the gym and use spotify to listen to music. In between working out I noticed that I was browsing through instagram and responding to snapchats instead of actually being productive and working out. After the gym I ate dinner by myself and watched netflix. I went back to the dorm and did some homework and actually had to shut my phone off because I was getting nothing done. This lasted until 3 AM when I finally looked at messages before bed.

On Saturday I woke up at 2 PM very confused. Again, “Fear of Missing Out” set in and I habitually checked all forms of social media. I felt like I had to relive the part of the night that I had had my phone shut off for, as well as the entire morning. I scrolled through Instagram, snapstories, checked sports scores on Bleacher Report as well as read Fox News. I seriously felt as if I needed to be updated on my friends past 20 hours. I then went on to listen to spotify in the shower. After that I went and played Tennis with some friends and during breaks I responded to texts. After this, I went and showered and played some Xbox with minimal media exposure besides Xbox, the intended activity. Next I went to dinner with some friends and noticed my tendencies(as well as my friends) to check their phones mid conversation which definitely hindered the flow of communication.  After dinner, we watched the UGA game on TV, as well as streamed various other games on our laptops simultaneously. I was responding to texts and snapchats throughout the duration of this as well. After the game, I went to a party of which most people were taking pictures, sending snapchats, or responding to texts. I found myself doing the latter two. My night was still fun but the fact that I had my phone with me at all sort of tempered the amount of fun I could possibly have; it was always being interrupted. Before bed, as a procrastination attempt for sleep I watched Netflix. At 3 AM Creswell actually had a fire alarm go off, so I ended up snapchatting that as well along with many other students.

Overall I noticed that most of my media and social media activities were not intended. I never experience some special sort of joy or satisfaction out of the interaction. This has become a sort of habitually unnatural phenomenon in my life and seemingly in others as well. I constantly am looking at my phone not out of enjoyment but habit or need. The fact that I can actually feel like I was missing out on something when I sleep for a long period of time or shut my phone off somewhat defines this generations dependency on social Media. No matter what we are doing or have just been doing, we will always be interacting with some form of media.

Although the post guidelines preferred our political candidates not be discussed, I interpreted that as just staying away from Donald or Hillary. I am going to talk about a presidential candidate that most people have not even heard of and surely do not know what he looks like. This man is Evan McMullin. The article in the directions was all about image as a form of self-branding for a candidate. One stout difference today is the effect of social media on a campaign. While the major news broadcasts highlight the main two candidates, McMullin is flying under the radar as a conservative independent candidate.  He has spent many years as an undercover CIA field officer in the middle east fighting terrorism. This man has been trained at the highest level to not be seen, to not allow others to know his image, yet he is running for an office in which public appearance is almost everything. While this stark difference in self branding would seem to be detrimental to a political campaign, McMullin is seeking to join an exclusive group of third party candidates who have won a state in a presidential election. He is currently a top of the polls in Utah, his home state, in early voting. This sudden unheard of surge in backing possibly comes from the very difference in public appearance that McMullin possesses. When voters here a general story about an honorable and respected CIA officer they are more likely to think highly of the candidate simply because there is not very much public information available about him. In a time and age when voters get more and more info about their candidates, perhaps a candidate who is rather unknown can be surprisingly appealing. Obviously Evan McMullin has a very near to impossible shot at becoming our next president(although there are some scenarios that make this possible if no candidate reaches 270 electoral college votes), he is potentially clearing space for other less well-known independent candidates to cause a ruckus in the two-party electoral system of the United States.

I can remember googling my name in the past and getting the same results as I did for this audit. These results consisted mainly of information and pictures of Warren Spahn- one of the greatest baseball pitchers of all time. Also a blogger from Portland, Oregon appears occasionally. Now this can be a good thing and a bad thing. From this audit’s point of view and a  practical standpoint it is probably a negative aspect. It is hard for other people to find me online which could very well translate to the business world and potential employers as well. This is because I do not have a Twitter account nor a LinkedIn Profile. The fact that I am related to Warren Spahn also affects this. The pros consist of me being able to be very unfiltered on social media. I am always private and only accept certain people to be friends or followers which allows for a truer representation of self than most people can portray on social media.

Most other people searching for my name on social media or google would probably be somewhat stumped as to my existence. On Instagram’s search bar someone could find my name if they knew who they were looking for exactly. Same goes for Facebook. But on other sites such as Snapchat, Bleacher Report, and Google + this is not the case. I keep these accounts under various usernames to prevent others from seeing my thoughts on these personal forms of social media. If I cared for others to see or hear all of my thoughts I would just tell them directly. I personally do not see the point in allowing anyone with unrestricted access to view your own social media accounts and posts without your knowing. As far as employers go, I will be creating a LinkedIn profile as well as some other future social media accounts to brand myself to the business world. At this point in time I do not feel the need to do this. I would say my lack of social media existence when searching my name is very representative of my social media brand. I am relatively disengaged from this realm, but for those who search hard enough and are close enough to me, I allow them to interact with my social media accounts.  There are no real changes that I wish to implement into my social media accounts except the introduction of a LinkedIn profile and potentially more diversity in my Instagram postings.

I do believe that everyone has a “personal brand” in terms social media, but it is not as important or accurate as the authors of these articles makes it seem to be. First of all, anyone can say whatever they want about themselves or others on social media, and the only thing we have as consumers to judge the truthfulness of said social media, is based upon our own knowledge or the  popularity of the account or post. This leaves a large amount of uncertainty when it comes to dependability in social media. A smart social media user will be very cautious when viewing the content produced for social media because they never know what they can and cannot believe. For me, my “personal brand” is one of a male college student who likes to be adventurous and have fun, but doesn’t care to electronically let others know about my experiences. This brand is very vague and can be applied to thousands of other people. This is another reason why I disagree with the importance of working on your “personal brand”; because each brand is not unique. The large emphasis on a personal brand that is so doctored and general seems to be counter-intuitive to the overall goal of social media itself; express ones self and connect with others online for various reasons.  The whole idea is not weird, but rather very exaggerated on importance.

This article awakened in me a realization of the scams that media companies are forcing on its users.  Our attention spans are limited in a sense way, in which we are unable to remain focused on a task when we are presented with our phones. Also this article essentially epitomizes this class as a whole; the various reasons for us to be mindful of our media habits. I personally have felt manipulated many times on websites by click bait. This first happened on facebook, when endless ads would trick me into following an empty deal. Ironically enough, the article discusses how facebook was the only media company to reply to independent inquiries about consumer attention schemes. They explained how they had gone after various ad agencies over unfair click bate on their platform. The interesting part is how Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn declined to comment. I predict this is because they fully know that they are taking advantage of their customers attention spans.  Apps are being consistently infused with addictive qualities that are made to attract users to certain features. For example, whenever you are tagged in a picture or receive a follow request, the red lining is specifically chosen to garner our attention away from whatever we were previously doing.  This is also elicited by the formats and platforms that social media is presented to us on. They are extremely easy for us to get hooked on. I absolutely do not believe that people would pay a premium for so called “organic” apps. If their usage was tracked they would be shocked and upset at their habits, and nobody wants to be saddened.

I decided to interview my roommate about his social media habits and preferences. We both have similar morals and beliefs so I was curious to see how this translated to the world of media.

My roommate Kyle and I are both very down to Earth people, who also enjoy engaging in personal relationships based on real interaction rather than relationships based upon media interaction. Kyle uses social media daily, typically in between classes to pass the time. This is similar to my trends of social media, but different than the social norm. Interestingly, he only uses snapchat; meaning no twitter, Instagram, Facebook, vine, or bleacher report. I asked him why he doesn’t use these forms of social media and the response I got was rather intriguing. He told me that these apps were not merely social media, they embodied comparative media. This meaning that Instagram and Facebook have the hidden influence of making the user compare their lives to their friends and followers. Both me and Kyle agree that comparison is a negative and unhealthy style of living, and that by avoiding these forms of media, it helps to minimize comparison. Kyle also told me that those types of media will not benefit him in any practical way and will only distract him.

He told me that he likes snapchat for a few reasons. One being it is a way for him to communicate with friends in a very informal manner. He said that he can keep in touch with old and new friends experiences much easier through it. This allows him to be constantly relate able to them in real life conversation. Another aspect that he enjoys about snapchat is the humorous side of it; snapstories provide him with comical relief throughout the day.  The only thing that he doesn’t like about snapchat is that sometimes he feels obligated to keep up with streaks, or to post a snapstory at a fun event just for social recognition.

Kyle knows 100% of his friends on snapchat in real life which suggests he is very selective when adding friends. He would be potentially concerned about authoritative figures being on his snapchat friends list, because as he stated, he has “no filter” on snapchat. Kyle also outlined how is overall social media useage has been on a downward trend over the years. He used to be a regular user of iFunny and Facebook years ago, but realized that those just wasted his productive and free times.

Overall, Kyle and I have similar opinions regarding social media; It is very excessive and potentially harmful, but it can be worthwhile if used in limited capacities. He just takes his social media interaction one step past mine, and only uses snapchat. This however is very very different from the trajectory of today’s society. In America, a social media epidemic is practically occurring, with kids in elementary school beginning to discover the world of social media. Kyle and I see more to life than that.

For me, email is absolutely not a legacy medium. I would receive emails almost hourly, seriously hourly from random businesses and specifically colleges. I actually have over 11,000 unread emails(I don’t delete them for fun now). Both of my parents are regularly using their email accounts in the workday, constantly checking messages and reading mail. Many companies create work accounts for employees to email through, so the company emails are all on a single server. This has transitioned to the college world even more. UGA has given each student a school email account that is run through Microsoft. This account is so all-inclusive, that a current student would practically not be able to pass classes or sign up for anything without the account being used. Emails are sent everyday reminding us students of upcoming events and deadlines. Everything from football tickets to volunteer service runs through the email system here. Another aspect to the UGA email, is that it is the primary source of communication between a student and professor. If a student needs clarification regarding something discussed in class, or a question about office hours, he or she can be most helped by sending the professor an email through the UGA account. This transitions into the article about emails sent to professors from students being unprofessional or useless. Certainly there are some students who lack formal communication skills through media, but that does not represent the majority of college students. These are rare blips in a vastly intelligent pool of college students who are able to construct a professional email worthy of being sent to a professor. This stems from the fact that students at UGA specifically are being more and more acclimated to the technological world, that email skills are being acquired along the way.

Media comes and goes, its a trend that is impossible to be broken. Some forms come and go much quicker than others. Some stick for a long time, such as Facebook, as it’s audience has been broadened over the years. The form of legacy media I would like to talk about today is the app known as iFunny. Now while this media is still around today, it is a shell of its former self. Back in the 2000’s iFunny had captured the young person’s mind, including my own. This momentary rise and fall of media is known as Residual Media. The app was a social platform for connecting people to other people through humorous pictures. This app practically invented the meme; a picture with bold writing captioning the image on top. It was particularly popular when the ipod touch was at its peak. This was mainly due to the ipod touch being the first handheld device other than a smart phone to have internet capabilities. Users could pass the time on their own Wifi scrolling through endless comical pictures to cheer them up. The app was popular from kids to young adults all the way to adults. The app had issues with consistency and producing new content. As times changed and the world continued to grow and evolve, iFunny could not keep pace. In the years since its peak, it has been overtaken by media such as Vine, Pinterest, and Reddit. Sooner rather than later, these will be overtaken by new apps and media that have yet to be created.