The Wendy's Company: Duality Online When I read this weeks prompt, my mind immediately flashed towards the food chain Wendy's. And no, it's not because I love their frosty, but because my mind travels back to 2017 when their account was trending on Twitter. If you don't remember, here's the rundown. Sometime in 2017, the Wendy's Twitter account went viral for posting replies "roasting" people who didn't like their food. It evolved over some time and ultimately ended with a series of responses to people asking to get roasted and even other food chain getting involved. Whether it was incidental or not, it created a lot of exposure for the company, and led to a lot of business from people who wanted to be involved in their online frenzy. This obviously contributes to their online personality, as it is still remembered by people to this day. However, when you view the way they are presented at a corporate level, they seem like an entirely different co...
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Digital Native, Digital Immigrants If you are apart of the Digital Native generation, then reading Prensky's research probably made you feel very validated. I know it did for me. I've talked about how I grew up in the age of technology previously, but I think it is interesting to elaborate more on the divide between my generation and the Digital Immigrants a bit more. Prensky clearly states that the divide is found in the struggle the Digital Immigrants face in teaching a generation that speaks an entirely different language. This goes beyond the "lols" and "omgs." Digital Natives quite frankly learn in entirely different manners. Reading long text or doing extensive research doesn't seem necessary when the answer is a Google Search away. Digital Natives also have been raised in an online world that has physically altered our attention spans. Microsoft found that since the year 2000 (the year when the mobile revolution surged) the average attention s...
Viewing Friendship Through Knapp's Lense Meet my roommate Jaaden: Jaaden and I became friends in high school and after reflecting on our friendship I recognized how many stages of the Knapp's Relationship Model we endured. Initiation: Jaaden and I actually met in middle school. She was a grade below me but we did all of the same sports and activities. We met as peers and were in a forced proximity which allowed us to introduce ourselves. Experimentation: Jaaden and I shared friends but were not close ourselves. Hanging out in group settings with our mutual friends allowed us to learn more about each others' personalities and values. Intensifying: My junior year of high school, Jaaden and I were put in the same hotel room for a week long basketball tournament. Here, we bonded through learning about each others' personal lives and practiced self disclosure. Through the span of the week, we became really acclimated to each others' company and our friendship became more...
Social Media: Friend or Foe? I often find myself wondering how different the world would be if social media was never invented. I haven't lived in a world where social media has not influenced some part of the culture we live in. In fact, MySpace, one of the first successful social media platforms, was invented in 2003- the same year I was born. I grew up with my baby pictures being posted on Facebook, rather than placed in photo albums. This brings up an interesting questions regarding the influence of social media platforms on sensitive topics such as mental health and self image. Nowadays, there are so many different social media platforms it is hard to keep count. We can consider the benefits and drawbacks of each, but first it is important to recognize the general audiences for these platforms. According to a survey taken in 2020 (chart below), the top three social media platforms used by teens are Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok. Why just consider teens? Teens are the most s...