Who is the Social Media Generation?

I have always believed my generation was the generation of social media. Over the summer I have come to realize that maybe that is not so.

I worked as a summer camp counselor at a day camp. The group I was with were ages nine to 13. They were the oldest group and some of them had social media accounts. I would always here them say things like "Hey bro, you see my photo on Instagram?" or "What is your username on snapchat?" My first reaction to when I heard this was that these kids are too young to have these accounts. I did not have a Facebook account until I was a freshman in high school. I know that was just a few years older than these kids but still. Most of the conversations among the kids were about social media sites. All of the social media sites. Some I never even heard of before this summer. This just shows that maybe we are not the social media generation but the one a few years below us.

The one downside to this. From what I saw during the camp is the kids do not have an idea of how to be creative or imaginative. Whenever free time came about, the kids were always saying they were bored and have nothing to do. I know that is how most children are at that age, but we had toys and games that were for their age level and there was an abundance of them. The kids would not play with the toys but just keep asking us counselors if they could bring in their tablets or phones.

Well the kids wishes were granted and we had two days during camp where they could bring in the devices. However the camp made it a fundraiser so the kids had to bring in two dollars so they could play with the devices for one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening. Well when those one hours came up, the kids would quickly grab their devices and go straight to social media sites. The building we were in did not have WiFi but the kids just used their data they had. During those hours there was not much talking but the once and awhile question of "What is your username so I can add you". It was crazy. When that hour was up though, the rest of the time was them complaining of there being nothing for them to do. They did not want to play camp games or just be kids.

I guess the only good thing you can say about this is that when these kids are older and are getting ready for the big world, they will know more about social media for companies than we ever did. So they could help out the future, but right now those kids need to be playing outside and being a kid!

Great Friends = Awesome Week

The second week of school is over here at ONU, and man was it a crazy week. From laughing till tears streaming down my face and creating memories that will last with me till the end of time.

Let's start off with the first funny thing which is having my boyfriend coming over and asking if he can get his truck keys out of my car. He accidentally left them in there when we went grocery shopping. When I asked why he was in such a hurry to get his keys he told me he needed something for his drill. With him being a construction management major he always has tools. Now me still being curious I asked what was he doing that he needed to use his drill. His reply, "Peeling a potato!" What!? So me being the curious person I am, I asked if I could come and he said sure. So we get the piece for his drill and head up to his room. I took a video and here is the outcome:

We were all laughing so hard. We were amazed that it worked. Do not worry we cleaned all the peels up. They went flying all over the room!


The next thing that made the week pretty crazy was my parents visit over the weekend. My mom was not able to help me move in and wanted to see my room and bring up anything I may have forgotten. It was nice seeing my parents. We ended up going to the Hancock County Fair. It was smaller than the Allen County Fair but just as fun. There was a different atmosphere too. We went into the animal barns this time. One of my friends that we went with used to show there so we went along to see if he ran into anyone he knew. My parents had fun because we do not go to the fair that much in the city. Seeing the animals also brought back memories for my parents of their childhoods. Me being an animal lover and a girl I was excited when I saw a few baby animals .

Look how tiny and cute they are! They were born
 just two days before coming to the fair.

Two baby goats (kids) sleeping in the food bucket.

Me holding and getting ready to shoot the 22 rifle. 

The last thing that made the second week crazy fun was Labor Day. We had no classes so my group of friends went to one of their family farm and got to hang out with their awesome family, go fishing and shoot some guns. My grandpa taught me how to shoot a gun when I was a freshman in high school. We shot a Winchester 62a 22 rifle and a Winchester 37 20 gauge shotgun. We shot at a target, some bottles filled with water and some random items we found in our rooms that we did not care about. It was so much fun. We were safe and had ear muffs and plugs, glasses, and made sure no one was in front of us when we were shooting. There was a thrill while shooting the guns and excitement when you hit the targets.

Me shooting the 20 gauge shotgun. The kick back was not bad and did not hurt my shoulder too much.

This is my boyfriend also shooting the shotgun. We both shot at water bottles filled with water.

I hope the rest of the year are weeks like this one. It would not have been such a great week without my awesome friends!

The Power of Real-Time

"An immensely powerful competitive advantage flows to organizations with people who understand the power of real-time information" (Page 35). This is a quote from David Meerman Scott's book, Real-Time Marketing & PR.


This statement I believe is very true even today. Companies that react right away to anything are always higher appreciated among its customers. It is the company when a story comes out and can do damage towards its image, they will do everything they can to fix its image. The company will have teams dedicated to looking all over social media and the web to see if any stories come out about it at any time. They will reply right away to any emails dealing with complaints and or questions. The company truly cares about its costumers, the public and its image.

Then there are the companies that do not follow the statement up above. These companies that will ignore the media and say "No comment". Just saying those two words can make the company look horrible and make it seem like it does not care. Once it gets out the company will not talk about the story that just came out about itself. People will start making their own comments about how bad the company is. These are the companies that do not understand the power of real-time. When things start to settle down, the company will then make its statement about the story. The company reacted too late.

Scott was correct when he wrote this quote. Understanding the power of real-time is an amazing advantage over other companies who do not.