This semester I has been a journey, both educationally and personally. This semester has been a rough one in more ways than one. I had found myself spending more time online than with an actual person, I would spend hours zoned into my screen than talk to anyone outside of my dorm. Friends soon became fewer and fewer. ISYS6621 helped me breakout of this habit I had developed, and refocus myself, even if I did not make it in time to save my GPA.
To start,I wasn’t always someone who would spend hours of what is considered free time with my head and soul on the screen. I actually am a huge fan of books. I’ve read every Harry Potter and have created a new ritual of re-reading them all every few years in the summer. Movies are another cornerstone of my persona, going to the cinema on the release of the next big movie, from Avatar, Avengers and Furious 7. Dinning out, even when I can’t afford it and just spending time with my friends composed most of my free time. Then came the change. It was similar to popping popcorn, slowly and slowly then all at once.
Books I read were all online, movies were all streamed online, Facebook “friends” whenever I wanted to say “hi”. At this point food became an inconvenience and I settled for whatever was nearby. All of my free time became online time, then study time became online time, and sleep time became online time. The ability to be anyone behind a screen had an appeal like never before: 
Reasons the Internet is Great
My issue was one of cognitive surplus. I had replaced all of my time with something I saw as fascinating and all encompassing. It grew more difficult by the day to distinguish online activity from offline. The possibilities of having technology that would integrate social media into our normal day to day life seemed inevitable at this point. With the advent of wearable social media which can take health readings of the wearer (Apple Watch, Samsung Watch, other fitness bans) and selective advertisement based on search history I don’t think we’re far from a day where social media won’t be present. Imagine this, you’ve searched Coke or Gatorade on your browser sometime in the past, you’re walking in the city and your Apple Watch senses you’re thirsty from your health information, it beams a notification for the nearest vending of Coke or Gatorade before you know you’re thirsty.
Thinking back to January when the course began, social media was a vague term. I had experienced it before and used it most of my life without thinking of it. I couldn’t quite define it because of its large encompassing content. I still can’t define it but in the words of Supreme Justice Steward “I know it when I see it”.
The Failure
Many companies have tried to implement social media apart from email with the use of Twitter(primarily). And we’ve seen many downsides to this attempt. From Dominos Pizza receiving the rage of Iggy when her number was given out to US Airline’s automated response. Customers want a personalized or at least not copy&paste response for their issues. Companies also have to be mindful of the conversations they are getting into before beginning the dialogue. And by Californian law, companies are persons so it’s only fair to assume these messages can be translated to individuals.
The Success
Timing is everything. In the Super Bowl 47 when the power went out in the stadium, Oreo nailed it with their You Can Still Dunk in the Dark tweet. Oreos won the Super Bowl. Prior to this tweet, Oreo had built up a persona of being witty and humorous and their tweet followed with their message. Creating a brand identity in the Social Media realm and with a bit of luck/genius, there can be a major translation financially for your company.
The Productive
Social media can be a great source of production for any individual or company. With Facebook and Google being at the forefront of this venture. You can almost always reach someone via Facebook today. Google Docs has made group work easier, even when you cannot meet with your group. Sharing ideas, work and video has enabled work to be done wherever and whenever. Greater communication through hashtags and accessibility allow anyone to join the conversation and give their input. Brainstorming and crowdsourcing has become almost instant.
The Downside
Work can be done wherever and whenever, but it shouldn’t be. We tend to use these tools to do work at the last minute. We bring home work, rather than separating it from our downtime. As a result you can end up with over worked individuals who are drained. Hashtags allow ANYONE to join the conversation, and instant results don’t qualify as good result, with the high possibility of a misrepresentation of a population, the data must be filtered to prevent false causation/correlations.
End Notes: I haven’t quite gotten to a well balanced social media/life situation but I’ve move from solely consuming content to creating some. Here are a few images i’ve made.
cheongch 