A Return of a Social Media Site

Around my sophomore year of college a new social media came out and it was called Yik Yak. Basically is it a site very similar to Twitter with limited character count, but the twist is that is is completely anonymous. Also the 'yaks' (posts) are from people only in your area. No one knows who it is that wrote the post unless it is an inside joke between friends.

Well sophomore year every one was on that site. You would here people taking about a certain post and maybe them trying to figure out who wrote it. People said it was nice because it could be comforting to post stuff that may be bothering you or you have a secret you just cannot hold in anymore. I have seen many of those secret post when I first joined in and used the site.

Another interesting thing is that you can up-vote (thumbs up) or down-vote (thumbs down) a yak. If the yak got five down-votes, it was removed. So that means that if it was not exciting or something that was very negative and could offend people, it was removed. That was a safe choice for the company in my opinion.

Well towards the middle of second semester no one really used the site anymore. It was almost like it fell off the face of the Internet. 

Recently, I heard some people in my class talking about it again. So I thought it made a comeback which I thought was interesting. Usually when a social media site goes out, it goes out. It is like what happened to MySpace. I do not know anyone who still uses that site. Yik Yak some how beat the odds.

Well it did sort of in my opinion. I have noticed that most of the yaks are written by freshman. I know freshman are writing those yaks because it is mostly about wanting to know where all the parties are and most mentioned the freshman dorms. Classic things freshman talk.

Maybe its making a comeback or maybe as you get older you stop using it and the people younger than us are finding it to be the best new thing. 

Future for Social Media

There is a quote in the novel Share This in chapter 22 by Chad Hurley, CEO of Delicious and co-founder of YouTube, and he says, "Social media will be the main engine of discovery, giving us the ability to find the signal with in the noise. As people's networks and interactions expand, massive data sets will generate predictive models that will know what you want before you look for it" (Page 203).

I believe this is true. More and more everyday the future generations are becoming more dependent on social media and technology. These will be the people that will take companies further than we can because they probably know more about social medias out there than we do. They probably have tied all the different ones and no which ones will be good for companies and which ones are more for personal use.

Companies will also probably soon become more dependent on social media. That will be where they do more advertising and special promotions. Which in turn means that there will be less effort in advertising in magazines and on the television. This will just being back the probably that is still going on over newspapers. Companies will still use paper advertising, but will be less dependent on it.

People will also be creating more of their networks over social media instead of face-to-face meetings and having a drawer full of business cars. That could be a benefit in some cases but a down fall in other. Some downfalls are the typical ones that are being discussed since social media came about. Like eye contact and just knowing how to have conversations in general.

The future will be very interesting with the uprising of social media. I'm sure I will be  able to keep up.

Hiking

This weekend was a calm relaxing weekend that was much needed after midterm week. However most of my midterms got moved and will be taking them all this week. I was able to do some homework, but I am still having a hard time after the loss of my uncle. 

Well today me and my boyfriend went on a nice hike and found some really cool things and discovered something that has probably not been looked at by many people over a good time period. It was a beautiful day and since it is fall season the hike was wonderful. 

We went down this steep hill and found a river that was nice and relaxing. There was plenty of little frogs and toads hopping around and even some small minnows swimming in the river. Me and my boyfriend talked about bringing some lawn chairs with us next time and cast downstream and go fishing. That could be something fun after a stressful week of school. There was one interesting thing we did find at the river that we both did not know was in Ohio. We found giant clam or maybe muscle shells. I have never seen ones that big.

This one was bigger than my hand.

There were so many every where by the river. The tiny frogs were even using them as little things to sit in. 

By far though, the coolest thing we found was an old bridge. It was falling apart like crazy. The bridge is 87 years old. Now you are probably wondering how I knew how old it was. No there was no plaque telling us the story, the bridge told us. 

Me and my boyfriend were saying that no one probably knows it there besides the animal. From above it looks like one with the land. You do not know it is there till right at the edge and almost fall off. Under the bridge though it was clam and made some really nice photos. 

Those in my opinion are some pretty cool pictures. My boyfriend joked around saying the spot could be interesting for senior photos. 

The hike really calmed me down and was much needed. Its been a long time since my last hike. It was also such a lovely day and a perfect way to end a weekend.Well now its time for my midterms, papers and meetings. 

When is Thanksgiving Break again?