The Beginnings

                So this first week in PSYC390R (Psychology of Social Media) has been quite an interesting class. We have only had two classes, but take in mind that each one is 3 hours long! We are planning on studying everything about Social Media including its history (which I am particularly interested in). This first week seems to have been filled with a lot (and I mean A LOT) of technology information, which I have been rather hesitant as to point out that technology is not exactly social media, although it is definitely the foundation for it. We have watched several videos; including this old fella (don’t ask me why it has those Korean or random foreign-language subtitles) which taught us all about the evolution of the internet, from simple computer networking to international everything networks.

                While having been studying such topics, we also have been assigned (yes, an assignment) to use our facebooks often (especially with part of our homework being ON facebook), create a twitter account, and begin using an additional social media platform for a term project as well. Since I had not yet begun using instagram still, I decided to use it for my project. Needless to say, the first day I created my instagram account I had two friends text me within not even 6 hours of doing so: “You finally caved.” Their reactions were expected, as I knew they would be the first ones to say anything about it because they were the 2 who have always harassed me for not getting one earlier. My reasoning was that I didn’t want to have multiple social media platform, because I feel it is a burden to have to check them all individually all the time.

                We have also begun reading the course textbook, which is Everything is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder. The book is interesting in how it takes social media from a more scientific and psychological view (obviously), whereas I had never thought so much of these things before having enrolled myself in this course. We will come to see what happens in these next few weeks. I have a couple social experiments I am planning on performing within these next two weeks, but I cannot share them just yet due to probable interference with my statistics. But I will for sure let you all know just as soon as I do.

                Thanks for reading today! Remember to use social media to UPLIFT others!

New Social Media Project Proposal

Well, fellow bloggers.. To kick off this summer term, my psychology professor has asked that I start a blog! During this course (PSYC390R - Psychology of Social Media) we will be using new social media platforms and studying (obviously) the psychology behind it all! Pretty exciting, eh?! As for myself, I have never used instagram before. And seeing how every single one of my friends seems to gawk at the fact that I don't have one yet, I see this as a wonderful opportunity to finally begin instagraming! We'll see how it goes!

Here are a few of the preliminary assignment details:

New Social Media Project Proposal

Select a social media tool that you have not previously used. Your proposal should include:

1. The name of and link to the website of the new social media tool you will be using this term.
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/

2. Describe what you will have to do to sign up for and start using the new social media tool.
To sign up, I just log in using my facebook account (Thanks to Social-Media Platforming)

3. Why you chose this particular social media tool.
All of my friends use this platform, and try convincing me to use it too

4. Why you haven't used this tool previously.
I haven’t used it previously because I didn't want to have more social media platforms to check every day. Using multiple social-media platforms seems like a hassle to me

5. What you will be using this new social media tool for.
I will be using Instagram to post pictures of the few exciting things I have time to do while studying here at BYU-Hawaii

6. What you hope to gain from the experience of using this new social media tool.
I hope I like it. It’s pretty neat that Instagram can link to my facebook and upload photos directly to it without my having to post the same picture on both sites by myself. Seems very user-friendly. I hope to gain another perspective into social-media platforms (particularly a more visual one with Instagram) and how they are used. I will be looking for both the advantages and disadvantages of the platform during this term.